Guy Wires

[inzeos]

Ended up picking up the following to assist with guy wiring this year;

Pambina ImpEx Items
       16 Stainless Steel Standard Thimble, 1/8"    @ $0.45 = $7.20
       16 Drop Forged Wire Rope Clip 1/8"    @ $0.35 = $5.60
       1 Wire Rope - Aircraft Cable 1/8", 7x19, 500 ft reel    @ $45.00 = $45.00
       64 Malleable Wire Rope Clip 1/8"    @ $0.12 = $7.68
       32 Zinc Plated Wire Rope Thimble, Standard Duty, 1/8"    @ $0.12 = $3.84
       4 Drop Forged Turnbuckle, Jaw/Eye, 1/2" x 6" Take-up    @ $5.75 = $23.00
       1 8" Wire Rope Cutter, ARM RC-8, Made in Japan    @ $24.90 = $24.90
       16 Zinc Plated Quick Link, 1/8"    @ $0.22 = $3.52

Sub-Total: $120.74
Shipping: $29.27 (UPS Ground)
Sales Tax: $0.00
Pambina ImpEx Total: $150.01

Rope Cutter tool was a last minute add; however, I've found certain tasks surely benefit from specific tools.  Hopefully this will be one of them.

Plan is to create 4 primary guy wires for the tree, which have everything in the guying system rated to take the burden of high winds and the strain that can cause.  Secondary guy wires will be use for 16 bundles of lights, which will take the weight off the strands and hopefully avoid stretching and the fatigue and damage that comes with that.

Going to create a wooden tree base out of some pressure treated dimensional lumber, which will have eye bolts in it to attach the strands to.

Probably over kill in all of this; however, I'd rather not see a tree come down for any of my shows especially considering the pain it would be to put back up with the large amount of snow we get here.

[bcstuff]

inzeos,
Just as an FYI the 1/8" quick links only have a working load limit of 220#s. I believe based on your list those are for your strings of lights.

Are you going to connect the thimble loop directly to the guy wire points on the tree and the turnbuckle eye?
If not you might need a quick or spring link of an appropriate size. (generally a size or two above your wire size).

Info for using wire rope clips:
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Key points: U bolt part of clip goes on dead end, tighten to recommend torque (its not much), and after applying load recheck torque.

Also, what are you using for you guy wire anchors?
Here is what I am using in case your interested:
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These will be inserted in the ground at the same angle as the guy wire. These anchors hold because of what dirt above them that holds them.

Here is an interesting article on guy anchors:
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OK enough rambling from me,
Brian

[inzeos]

Great resources Brian!  I had done a quick google search the other night and was not finding this type of information.

My general plan is that I'll have 4 primary guy wires, which this year at least will use products from christmaslightshow.com.  I'm using the guy wire collar set up for 1 1/4" stock along with the 3" anchor kits, which you drive into the ground.

The anchor kits come already with pre-made short lengths of guy wire with loops at the end.  My intention is to connect the end of the anchor wire and the end of my guy wire to a turn buckle, which will allow the guy wires to be tightened as needed.

Parts being used for the main guy system;

       16 Stainless Steel Standard Thimble, 1/8"    @ $0.45 = $7.20
       16 Drop Forged Wire Rope Clip 1/8"    @ $0.35 = $5.60
       1 Wire Rope - Aircraft Cable 1/8", 7x19, 500 ft reel    @ $45.00 = $45.00
       4 Drop Forged Turnbuckle, Jaw/Eye, 1/2" x 6" Take-up    @ $5.75 = $23.00
 
The other part of my plan was to create the strain relief system for the mega tree light strands.  Rough idea is to use the less expensive zinc and malleable components to create easily installable and removable cables, which would be strung from the tree topper to the light string space on the ground.  These strain relief cables will connect at the top using just the looped end of the thimble.  At the bottom another thimble will be installed and that thimble will be connected to a quick link.  The quick link will then be connected to eye bolts, which will be set into the light string spacer at the bottom.  No extra tension will be applied to the strain relief system besides that of the weight of the strain relief cable and the weight of the lights attached to it.

Parts being used for the strain relief;

       1 Wire Rope - Aircraft Cable 1/8", 7x19, 500 ft reel    @ $45.00 = $45.00
       64 Malleable Wire Rope Clip 1/8"    @ $0.12 = $7.68
       32 Zinc Plated Wire Rope Thimble, Standard Duty, 1/8"    @ $0.12 = $3.84
       16 Zinc Plated Quick Link, 1/8"    @ $0.22 = $3.52

Looks like from reading the article that I will probably need to order additional rope clips for both the guy wire system and probably the strain relief.

Wondering if I also need to pick up a torque wrench or if hand tightening would be feasible on these.

inzeos,
Just as an FYI the 1/8" quick links only have a working load limit of 220#s. I believe based on your list those are for your strings of lights.

Are you going to connect the thimble loop directly to the guy wire points on the tree and the turnbuckle eye?
If not you might need a quick or spring link of an appropriate size. (generally a size or two above your wire size).

Info for using wire rope clips:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
Key points: U bolt part of clip goes on dead end, tighten to recommend torque (its not much), and after applying load recheck torque.

Also, what are you using for you guy wire anchors?
Here is what I am using in case your interested:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
These will be inserted in the ground at the same angle as the guy wire. These anchors hold because of what dirt above them that holds them.

Here is an interesting article on guy anchors:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

OK enough rambling from me,
Brian

[jnealand]

For my guy wires in the past I have used racheting tie downs that I found at Northern Tool in a green color.  I have originally used some yellow ones that I owned, but they looked terrible.  Found the green ones and they looked great.  Last year when I made a slight taller tree I added guy wires to the top and still used my racheting tie downs connected at about the 3/4 up mark.  For in the ground I bought screw in anchors from Lowes.  I believe that you need to find a Lowes that is closer to a rural area than a city center to find them in stock.  There screw in anchors have fixed all problems I had in years past with stakes being pulled loose.

[inzeos]

For my guy wires in the past I have used racheting tie downs that I found at Northern Tool in a green color.  I have originally used some yellow ones that I owned, but they looked terrible.  Found the green ones and they looked great.  Last year when I made a slight taller tree I added guy wires to the top and still used my racheting tie downs connected at about the 3/4 up mark.  For in the ground I bought screw in anchors from Lowes.  I believe that you need to find a Lowes that is closer to a rural area than a city center to find them in stock.  There screw in anchors have fixed all problems I had in years past with stakes being pulled loose.

What did the anchors cost from Lowes?  Do you still have a part number for them?  I could see those being all sorts of useful.

[jnealand]

Don't remember the actual cost but I seem to recall that 4 anchors with tax was less than $20.  They are in the section with chain and rope, but again remember that I could only find them in a rural area lowes.  The two that were closest to me did not have them, but the one about 20mi away did.

[bcstuff]

Great resources Brian!  I had done a quick google search the other night and was not finding this type of information.

My general plan is that I'll have 4 primary guy wires, which this year at least will use products from christmaslightshow.com.  I'm using the guy wire collar set up for 1 1/4" stock along with the 3" anchor kits, which you drive into the ground.

The anchor kits come already with pre-made short lengths of guy wire with loops at the end.  My intention is to connect the end of the anchor wire and the end of my guy wire to a turn buckle, which will allow the guy wires to be tightened as needed.

Parts being used for the main guy system;

       16 Stainless Steel Standard Thimble, 1/8"    @ $0.45 = $7.20
       16 Drop Forged Wire Rope Clip 1/8"    @ $0.35 = $5.60
       1 Wire Rope - Aircraft Cable 1/8", 7x19, 500 ft reel    @ $45.00 = $45.00
       4 Drop Forged Turnbuckle, Jaw/Eye, 1/2" x 6" Take-up    @ $5.75 = $23.00
 
The other part of my plan was to create the strain relief system for the mega tree light strands.  Rough idea is to use the less expensive zinc and malleable components to create easily installable and removable cables, which would be strung from the tree topper to the light string space on the ground.  These strain relief cables will connect at the top using just the looped end of the thimble.  At the bottom another thimble will be installed and that thimble will be connected to a quick link.  The quick link will then be connected to eye bolts, which will be set into the light string spacer at the bottom.  No extra tension will be applied to the strain relief system besides that of the weight of the strain relief cable and the weight of the lights attached to it.

Parts being used for the strain relief;

       1 Wire Rope - Aircraft Cable 1/8", 7x19, 500 ft reel    @ $45.00 = $45.00
       64 Malleable Wire Rope Clip 1/8"    @ $0.12 = $7.68
       32 Zinc Plated Wire Rope Thimble, Standard Duty, 1/8"    @ $0.12 = $3.84
       16 Zinc Plated Quick Link, 1/8"    @ $0.22 = $3.52

Looks like from reading the article that I will probably need to order additional rope clips for both the guy wire system and probably the strain relief.

Wondering if I also need to pick up a torque wrench or if hand tightening would be feasible on these.

Since you bought Forged Wire Rope Clips, according to the chart I referenced above you only need 2 clips per end.
Since you will have little tension on the mega tree light strand guys, you should be fine with the 2 malleable clips.

TO be accurate you should use a torque wrench, now that I said that, I will hand tighten mine to approximate the number of pounds.
A torque wrench reads the amount of force applied  at 1 foot from the point of rotation. For your 1/8 drop forged wire rope clips the reference scale says 4.5 ft lbs which is not much. So if you had a postal scale or fish scale and you measured 1 foot from the bolt and attached the scale to the wrench at that location when the scale reads 4.5 lbs that would be the proper torque.

Hope this helps

[bcstuff]

For my guy wires in the past I have used racheting tie downs that I found at Northern Tool in a green color.  I have originally used some yellow ones that I owned, but they looked terrible.  Found the green ones and they looked great.  Last year when I made a slight taller tree I added guy wires to the top and still used my racheting tie downs connected at about the 3/4 up mark.  For in the ground I bought screw in anchors from Lowes.  I believe that you need to find a Lowes that is closer to a rural area than a city center to find them in stock.  There screw in anchors have fixed all problems I had in years past with stakes being pulled loose.

Jim,
I would be concerned using some of the items in your picture.
First the working load limit of your clothes line is 35lbs.
Second weak point would be those closed S clips.
Third weak point would be your turnbuckles, I am not sure what rating something like that would have but I am sure it is not much.

Now if you are just using it for light strings and not as guy wires then you might be OK.

The load transferred to the guy is more since ratings are based at a 90 degree angle, you basically cut the load limit in half when it is at a 40 degree angle. Add in that wind gusts apply dynamic force to the guy and you can cut that rating in half again.
I will have to look to find it, but I had a chart that told you how much of a wind gust a certain size guy could handle at a certain angle.

Brian

[jnealand]

I will not be using any guy wires this year as I am within a half days work of completeing my JUMP Megatree pole (designed by Walter Monkman on PC).  My primary guying has always been the racheting straps which were not in the picture I posted.  I only used the guy wires once and that was to steady the top 4ft of my tree as the ratcheting straps were attached 4 ft below the top due to not being able to find longer straps that were not some bright flourescent color.  The only problems I have had over the years were with the stakes that I originally started with.  The screw ground anchors took care of all the stake problems.  The other issues I have had were to not make the pole out of heavy enough material.  That problem goes away with the JUMP pole and it is motorized to pull the lights up as well.  But it is a big dollar item (over $200) and not something you make overnight.  The older I get the more I like things like motorized light lifting.

[njKeever]

I just picked up 200' of black paracord from a military surplus store for $15, but you can get it cheaper online. 550lbs working load, we'll see how it works.

[taybrynn]

I've used the 1/8" aircraft cable and 4 guy wires on my megatree.  I bought the cable on ebay and the clamps online (hardware cheap online, expensive at local store, for me).

Check out the rebar section at home depot or lowes.  I used those 4' rods with holes in the top of them, always dirty new,  then just took heavy duty wire and
made attachment points by running the wire through the rods several times to form a strong 3-4 wire loop.  The attach guy wires
via. a turnbuckle (home depot, but probably not rated that hig) on each guy wire.  Its worked great so far.

[smartcontrols]

For my 20 foot mega trees, I use the dog run anchors from Lowes
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Probably the same thing Jnealand above is using. They have worked great for me. My Lowes in the city does “stock” them but they are frequently out. I have seen them there one week, go back the next week and they are all gone. I saw them there last week so I bought all 12 right then, so I guess, for everyone else, they are out again.

I also use the 1/8" aircraft cable I get on line.

-Jeff

[jnealand]

Dog run anchors typically only have a twisted steel bar that screws into the ground like a corkscrew versus earth anchors which have a metal plate that screws into the ground.  Earth anchors get a better grip on the soil and are very hard to pull out.  I have seen dog anchors wiggled and pulled right out.

[taybrynn]

In Colorado, with the clay soil ... those dog anchors are nearly impossible to use here.

Using rebar is nice, because its so easy to get back out when your done.  I just haven't figured out the best thing to use to clamp the rebar with.

On a side note, I found out that muffler clamps from an auto parts store work great on mega tree poles and are inexpensive and sold in various sizes.

[rimist]

What works best in Florida sand? No, my yard isn't l literally sand, but dig down a bit...

- Rimist

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