This may be our Kids favorite Thing to Play with! And it was quite easy to Build.

Also all the Wood was completely recycled alongside some other Parts.

If you have some Trees in your Garden or a nearby Forest (except for the Starting Platform the System is portable) go build one!

Required Materials:

-Steel Rope along some Cable Clamps

-2 Ratchet Straps

-Wood

-Screws

-Some sort of Pulley

Required Tools:

-Saw

-Screwdriver

-Hamer

Step 1: Building the Start-Platform / Playhouse

The ideal Spot for the Zipline on our Property was found. So we relocated the existing Playhouse from the Kids to integrate it to the Platform of which the Kids start from.

Erecting the Platform is quite easy, start with the Footings. either you pour some with Concrete or use some Ground sleeves as shown in Picture 3. We used both Methods.

We first screwed the uprights to the Footings and then added some horizontal Pieces. We left everything longer as needed and cut where we thought looked right. We did not use a Tapemeassure or Level to get it perfect.

So do what looks good to you! :) The only thing really important are the diagonal Braces in all Directions as these make the whole Structure rigid.

All Wood we used for the Platform came from our 60 Year old Roof. The get the Floor around the Trees we screwed some Stretchers into Place as you can see on the Underside.

Some Guardrails finish off the Platform.

Step 2:

The Zipline Pulley is made out of 5mm thick rectangular-steel-tube and some Ball-bearing that hold on to the 9mm (way thicker than needed) metal string. Some leftover strap and a Metalpipe make an easy Handle. You can buy these Zipline Pullys but they are a little pricey. Maybe you can use the Rim of an old Wheelbarrow as a Pulley, be creative :) There is also the possibility to install a swing plate to sit on, instead of holding on the handle.

We attached the the straps for the zipline around two trees, because our trees were not strong enough. If you have big and strong trees, you can do it with only one. You need to have a longer metalstring, than the distance between your start and end point of the zipline. You make a double layer around your fixing point at the start and the end and secure it with cable clamps. To get the metal string as tense as possible,we tensoined it with the ratchet strap to it's (ratchet strap) Limit. Then secured the Zipline with another Strap to reset the first one before tightening it again until the String was tense enough.