Hi folks,

Looking for some thoughts on a home rope climb and I am putting in place at my home. I am debating about a couple design options and thought I would post and see what you all think.

Design #1 - Single 6x6 (18 ft) beam, with 2 inch black steel pipe. A whole would be drilled through the pole and the pipe placed through it and a cap placed on the threads so as to not allow it to come back through.

Reservations - I have been told that the 2 inch pipe will bend at the insertion point into the pole.

Design #2 - Same 6x6 beam but this time with wood being used for the rope placement along with wood support.

Reservations - Weather may weaken wood over time causing cracking\breaking (See second pic)

*Now some would say "why not a two beam design?" Well, space really but I just really wanted a single upright design.

Here you go-

Here's how is looks as I see it, loaded with 350lbs which is probably pretty good as that's a service load not ultimate (meaning I let it take the overload factors and safety stuff we normally do in structures)
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the pipe is loaded to nearly 250% of it's capacity.
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Here it is again with a 3" pipe.  If you go that large I'd recommend you do something on the end to keep the post together better.
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My first suggestion is to use a mature tree if you have one.

My second would be to find a used piece of box beam, but that's because it's fairly easy to get around here, every farmer has some laying around, and there's a bunch of it at the scrap yards.

Cut a chunk of it off, weld it to a T shape, then bury the other end, something about the pole and the pipe set up seems a little scary to me, like it would break at exactly the wrong time and end up busting your ass.

After more than a decade of designing powerlines, it doesn't seem scary to me at all!  At least not from the chair...

The tricky part is getting it solidly in the ground.  Wood power poles are buried 10% of the length of the pole +2ft.  That seems... a little shallow for this.  The top ~2' are in the frost zone (is OP in a frost zone?  Not applicable if not) and is typically completely discounted from capacity.  Even if there isn't frost the top 12" are discounted.  But that's with a larger diameter pole that has more area to push against the soil.  If I were you I'd bolt together a few  6x6's around the part underground.  If angle iron is easy, that's what we use on power poles in weak soils, bolt a few 6x6x1/4" angle irons on the pole section that will be underground with the flats out so they take the lateral (sideways) load when your fat neighbor kid decides to use it as a swing.  A pair at the top and a pair at the bottom, then compact your fill really well.

@SCW -

Thanks for responding but I am surely NOT an architectural engineer so I am not entirely sure what I am looking at. Is that some kind of modeling application?

Anyways, can you bottom line it for me based on your experience?

@sitdwnandhngon

Ha ha, wish I could find a tree close to me in municipal San Diego. Sadly, the closest to me would be a few miles away and I think the park rangers might not approve.

Not too many farms around here either. Sadly, I am limited to what I can get at the local hardware store and further limited by my feeble construction skills.

That's a structural analysis software.  This is now the smallest project I've ever designed with it, lol.


Bottom line-

I'd do your second option, use a 4x4 arm sticking out and a couple of 2x4 knee braces on both side, like in your picture.

I think your problem will be when the pole moves in the ground, you don't have a large pole which means there isn't a lot of area to push against the soil, so instead of the soil holding it up, it will eventually just wobble around in the hole and make the hole bigger and bigger.  What you need is a larger area to push against the dirt-

Here's a couple of quick sketches-

In this first one you would buy some 6"x6"x.25" galvanized angle iron, cut it into lengths about 8-12" (longer is better) and bolt them to the sides of your post.  These act as wings to push against the soil and support the post.



In this second one you can essentially do the same thing, but if you don't have easy access to steel and a bunch of tools to work it, this uses wood.  Just buy some extra 6x6 timber and bolt it to the main post.

@SCW

Thanks!! I appreciate that greatly. Regarding the 6x6 beam movement in the ground...I do plan on burying it about 3 feet deep and pouring concrete around it. That should prevent any movement in the vertical beam.

Thanks again!

Just do this.

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Do what?  Live in Misery?

Nooooo thanks.  We had a tree here in the county once, years ago.  It died of exposure I think.  But at least the humidity is low, currently 16% (which actually feels a little muggy to me).

Can humidity get over 100% because I'm pretty sure that's how much we had yesterday.

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I have 2 4x4 with a 4x4 going across the top of them. Then you can do double rope.

Ha haha , not too many old growth trees here in SoCal. And we do have are far too short. Besides, my yard is rock and fake grass (turf) and a pool I want to fill in.