Building climbing wall for kids

[bigbearcountry]

I am building a climbing wall for my kids in the garage. The wall is going to be 10 feet high, lots of good information on the web on how to do it, so I'm feeling confident that I will be able to build. I recently watch the attached video and the kid climbing has a harness with some sort of weight assisted pulley system to help make it safe for her. Does anyone have any knowledge on how to build this? I've been searching the web and unable to find anything...thanks for your help!!!

 

[Kaizen]

oh man department of social services will be knocking. imo you should just have a simple climbing harness using a belay. Just like if you went climbing for real. That setup if fails could be really bad. imagine if the cable broke, the kid falls, and whatever that counterweight comes down on her head? besides teaching a kid to jump off a wall might not be a good idea.
there are devices I have seen at fair type walls that look like an extension cord holder. not sure where to get or if its cost effective.

 

[kd3pc]

too many liability issues to even suggest a solution...the only solution is to purchase a system from a reputable climbing products company...to leave a kid or kids with some tethered system is an accident waiting to happen...

kind of like a swimming pool - an adult needs to be on site and watching 100% of the time...and that is just for your kids, don't even think about letting the friends of the kids use it. No matter how much begging and whining they, or their parents do. Or documents they want to sign.

We had a grind rail in our yard when my son was young and in to skate boarding...the town made us dig it up...regs or fence it and lock it.

just too much risk for

 

[sublimate]

I say prepare them for the real world:

But seriously, do you mean something like this?
http://www.autobelay.com/

 

[nadogail]

Does the term "Attractive Nuisance" ring any bells?

 

[johnoutdoors]

I have worked at climbing gyms in the past. I started climbing 20+ years ago. I would never trust a counterbalance system. Real plywood with T nuts screwed to the 16" OC studs and an anchor through bolted to a header type of top plate wold be my minimum if it were my boys. The belay anchor is the biggest issue. You need to have a 4" OD to minimize rope shear (as per the rope manufacturers) and it has to be able to hold the force of the falling climber. That is a moving target based on how much the climber weighs, the amount of slack in the rope, and the dynamic factor (stretch) of the rope.

What about building a bouldering wall? It would be built with the path horizontal instead of vertical. you wouldn't have to worry about ropes or distance of fall. Imagine instead of an 8' wide, 12' high wall, a 4' high, 12' wide wall. The fall wouldn't risk serious injury and they could practice useful moves, still not needing much if any supervision.

 

[grandall4]

This was the wall of my last garage

 

[kesslerbmw]

His original thread from 2008 doesn't have the pictures showing up anymore, but you can see it in the background here. Pretty sweet setup.

http://www.tbssowners.com/forums/members-rides/25300-new-member-pictures.html

 

[expatriated]

I used to have one in my garage.

My ceiling went up about 12 feet. The wall was about 24 feet wide. I had it broken down to 3 sections. The first third just went straight vertical. The middle section went up 4 feet and then 45 degrees from there up to the 12 ft ceiling. The third part went from the floor 45 degrees up to the ceiling. Kids loved it.

The holds were the most expensive part. I bought all the hardware from fastenal in bulk. Way cheaper than the climbing suppliers.

I didn't have any type of belay or harness system. I used an old mattress on the floor for my daughter when she was real young.