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My wife has been mentioning that she'd love to give Slacklining a go for some time so as her Birthday is coming up I thought I'd buy her a Slackline.
I know very little about them but I'd went to set it up in our back garden. It's ample sized but we have no sizeable trees that I would be happy about using as an anchor points so given the variety of slackline options available what is best to go for and what make good/safe anchor points if you don't have trees to use?
Definitely not brick pillars!
You migh be a bit stuffed for the garden, they need quite a bit of tension, even before you start bouncing around on them. And some height, too if the stretch is long. Means quite a lot of leverage on the roots/foundations of your anchors. Have you got a park nearby you could set up in? Or a mates garden with more trees?
Definitely get one though, very hard, very frustrating, very addictive!
I was thinking of perhaps sinking two thick ( 8-9" diameter) 8 foot wooden posts, about 5 foot into concrete. I'm told that it's fine to have the line at around the 50cm height mark ?
That sound like it would probably do it! 2 x five foot deep holes, though! that's a flip lot of effort for something that's supposed to be a cheap, quick lark about type of thing.
I'd go and find some trees first, before getting into all that.
slacklining is all about a nice summers day, in the park/woods/campsite, some sturdy trees, some beers......and some mates who are actually skillful enough to do it!
what yak said. Not heavy groundwork!
I think you'd get away with 4" fence posts. I've seen people slack lining off quite small trees. Just need a good foundation to cope with the torque on the post.
I've just started a garden rejig and am planning to put some posts in for a slackline. I quickly realised my plan to use the 2 brick garden walls was not a good idea.
Revised plan is similar to OP but also fixing the posts to the walls for extra bracing. I wasnt sure on depth but dont fancy trying to get down 5ft!
Has anyone tried this who advise on depth to sink posts?
Wow 😯
Rather than taking the footing down, why not run it horizontal along the line of the slackline? Would probably only need toi be a foot deep to support the post. Use some reinforcing bar to strengthen.
slacklining is all about a nice summers day, in the park/woods/campsite, some sturdy trees, some beers......and some mates who are actually skillful enough to do it!
I agree but it'd be nice to just have the posts in the garden to set-up the slackline on a lazy Sunday afternoon, barbecue, few mates, few beers etc.
Rather than taking the footing down, why not run it horizontal along the line of the slackline? Would probably only need toi be a foot deep to support the post. Use some reinforcing bar to strengthen.
Good idea. Might opt for that.
This thread pricked my ears in terms of supporting the slackline, as a guide, post and rail fence posts should be put in at a depth of 0.6m - 0.7m in a hole with a width of approx 0.3m x 0.3m.
concrete should be filled up to at least half the depth of the hole and make sure it is tamped so there isnt any pockets within the concrete. any back fill should be as small as possible and rammed.
This is suitable for post and rail fences up to 1.3m high and able to cope with asscoaited wind loads etc, so may be suitable for this application. Would try to keep post heights as minimum as possible to reduce bending forces on the post.
One more note, reinforcing bar offers little in the way of increased concrete strength, it is mainly used to cope with bending forces experienced in concrete and to reduce cracking so won't really offer any benefit in this instance.
Good Luck!
I got some good advice on this thread:
In the end it transpired that two trees in our back garden were perfectly positioned to act as anchors.
We've got the slackline below. Last summer Ms Markie Jr loved running up and down it with someone holding one of her hands, this year she might go solo! It took about three weeks of snatched practice sessions before I could move on it.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/15m-FUNLINE-Gibbon-Slackline-Set/dp/B002SA46DM
It's great fun, I hope you can make it work for you!
few beers etc.
If you think a beer or two doesn't really affect you then have a few beers and try slacklining!
The good thing about slacklining is how quickly you improve. Regardless of how good you end up being everyones first impression is "WTF!!!!". After a few sessions though pretty much every one can take a few steps.