How to hang a swing between two trees?

[Gagamama2]

Hey, grateful for any advice on this!

i would like to hang a magic carpet / Sky curve style swing for the kids on a line suspended between two trees. The trees in our garden don’t have branches that stick out far enough to hang on them. My son banged his head again today on the tree while on one of the swings so we need a different set up.

they are 11m apart and the line would be aprox 5m high.

does anyone know how to do this without damaging the tree and also without it breaking? I’ve seen tree straps online but they are only about 1m long. I’m not sure how to link them together across the remaining 9m gap?

it needs to take anything between 25kg - 100kg weight depending on how many kids are on it.

I’ve attached some pictures to show what I mean. Thanks!

pictures

That sounds incredibly unsafe! Buy a proper wooden frame for the swing.

Really? I’ve seen a lot of swings hung by suspended rope online. Just not sure what products are used. Or if they will weight bear 100kg.

woild prefer to not buy a wooden swing frame, because of cost, maintenance, mowing around it etc. my sons play football at the bottom of the garden and it would get in the way. but will do if the rope idea is a non starter

I think an 11m stretch would be difficult to breach. You would need a lot of tension on the rope/wire to prevent too much of a sag in the middle. The tension may be too much for both the rope and the two trees causing them to snap. I also don't know how you would tension it in the first place.
I agree - get a swing on a frame. You can strim the grass around the posts, and hook the swing out of the way if necessary.

11 metres is a long span. If you want the rope very tight then it's going to put a strain on the trees and require a strong tensioning device, or else it will sag. And the suspension point isn't equidistant between the two, so a sagging style of suspension is going to be difficult. I'd go for a separate frame...

ETA: You could build a strong (ie well braced) 'feature' arch - perhaps have climbing plants on it - and use that to support the swing when required. It will need to be very well build.

Don’t do it!

We had one between a couple of mature trees.

One of them just fell down one day. It had honey fungus. No visible signs, we had no idea. Thank goodness neither of the kids was on it at the time.

Ok, thanks for the replies! I’ll look into a frame :) lots around that are second hand at the moment. Can anyone recommend a good quality wooden one? We’ve had a couple before that were so rubbish. They were attached to wooden climbing frames though so maybe a stand alone one will be less rickety and taller. Kids are now 5, 7, and 9 but 9 yr old is height of an average 12 year old. Still is obsessed by swinging though so it needs to fit him for a while!

look at getting a standalone slide that is anchored into the ground. most of the ones for little kids just sit on the grass and can't take much weight.

if you can get it well anchored, it will be much stronger for an older child.

I once looked at building a swing for my garden out of scaffolding (modern industrial look) to be cheap but also give the height needed.

You could consider a Weltevree tree attachment to hang your swing from (max capacity is 100 kg).

UK stockist

I have no experience using one of these, but am considering buying one for a tree in my garden.