Spring Swings Deluxe Fun Ride (Colors May Vary)

My primary motivation for writing this review is help someone else avoid making a mistake I did. A number of Amazon reviews (maybe 4 or 5) indicating that it was important to mount the high end of the cable higher than the instructions indicated, ~15'. Otherwise, the rider would stall out in the middle. I mounted my cable with the low end at 5' and the high end at 14' and the ride is way too fast. Something I hadn't considered (and I'll bet this was the wildcard) is the tension of the wire. Even at 15', if the cable is loose enough, I'm sure you'll stall out in the middle. I didn't have any trouble getting the cable quite tight and after trying it myself (160#) and with my 6-year-old son (45#) found it to be fast enough to be dangerous (my son crashed in the tree at the low end at a good clip).One other note on mounting this, which I'm sure contributed to my ability to get good tension on the cable: I'm putting this up on a tree house and I did a fair amount of research before I built the tree house. One thing I found mentioned was that a tree can handle a hole, even large hole, drilled through it much better than it can multiple holes or rope or cable wrapped around it (called girdling). I spent a few extra bucks for 16" drill bit  Vermont American 14430 Black Max Extra Long Black Oxide Spade Bit, 5/8-Inch by 16-Inch  and two 18" eye bolts Liberty Mountain 5/8 in Galvanized Nut Eye Bolt . After reading some of the complaints about trying to wrap the cable around the tree, I suspect this was easier (took me very little time). It has the added advantage of being able to tighten the nut on the eye bolt for adding tension to the cable if the turnbuckle runs out of adjustment.Regarding comments on the quality of the product: I was satisfied. The cable and cable clamps are more than adequate. The plastic housing the handle assembly does look "cheap," but after it's all put together, I was satisfied it would last a long time. There is a piece of galvanized pipe that slides into the two handles before the the two sides of the housing are screwed together and that is not going to fail. The four sheaves that the cable slides over look to be very good quality with ball ball bearings (stainless steel, I think). The light weight plastic housing probably makes this a little safer. The only piece that looked sketchy to me (and I'll keep a close eye on it) was the turnbuckle.Now I'm off to slow this thing down, either by lowering the top eye bolt (and I hate to drill a second hole) or adding some slack to the cable.

I set up this product between 2 trees in my heavily wooded backyard with the 70 foot cable. It has held up pretty good now for over a year with lots of kids on it. I think the limit says 225 lbs but I wouldn't have more than about a 100 lb kid on it just to be safe. A 225 lb kid would break the line or drag it down to the ground first LOL....The rollers and plastic of the grab handle are holding up good so I feel I got my money's worth. It took me only a couple of hours to set up and I advise to put the cable as high as is safe for kids to climb up a tree and get to it, 12-15 ft or so. Heavier kids will have their feet dragging the ground if you don't do this and that's not much fun. When it hits the stop at the end some younger kids can lose grip and fall at that point so have an adult or older kid be ready to catch them at the end. Keeps the kids occupied

Had to have a friend help me to set this up. Lots of small screws fell and got lost in the grass. The next time I had to tighten the screws I put an old sheet on the ground!Instead of using the wire around the tree (the tree was too big anyways for the wire) my landscaper friend said to use a big rope with a bowline so that it would not cut into the tree and kill it. This I did and hammered little blocks of wood to keep it up high enough.At the high end I built a little staircase with 3 precut stairs from Home Depot.At the low end I mounded up a big pile of mulch as a landing pad for those kids not used to the zipline so that if they fall they don't fall too far, and they land onto mulch instead of the roots of the tree. With young kids it's best to catch them at the end when they're first using it.My kids love it and are on it all the time.

My two, now-adult children enjoyed a similar zip line, and many wonderful memories, at their grandparents' house years ago. Now that we have two grandchildren of our own, we decided it was time to carry that tradition, and those memories, on to the next generation.I rigged the unit between two trees in our back yard, and added a seat below the handles, since the grand kids are only 5 and 2 years old right now. On their latest visit this summer, we spent almost every afternoon for a week riding the "space ride" between dips in the wading pool. We discovered the safety of the ride is directly proportionate to the adult supervision provided, and the accompanying fun, and resulting memories, were just as sweet as those our children enjoyed those many years ago.I am impressed by the quality of the product, the rugged construction (our daughter, our grand kids' mom, took a ride just for old time's sake), the provision of everything needed for the installation, and the clear instructions to guide the process.My single regret . . . is that our grand kids don't live just a little bit closer. But, they're already looking forward to their next trip to Texas, and their next opportunity to ride the "space ride."

I bought this for my mother's backyard for my niece (6). She desperately wanted one. The upshot is, EVERYONE loved it. Now everyone from my two-year-old daughter to six-grade tutoring students wait in line to take their turns at the zip line. I don't know how easy it is to install as my husband did it but it took only a few hours. As a matter of fact, we loved it so much that we installed one in our back yard for my daughter. And yes, my husband (who is not light) rides on it too.