Base and Pole?

V

VitoHGrind

New member
This year I'm upgrading my megatree from a 16- 50px @ 3" to 16 - 100px at 2" spacing. Previously I had a dead simple system consisting of a 6 ft top fence rail I would drive into the ground about 3 ft and just lifting another 10' fence rail up onto the remaining 3 ft, with topper and strands attached.

However, now we've moved and I have concerns. I don't know how winter will be here, how windy it gets, nor how doubling the amount of pixels will affect the stability the pole. Boscoyo recommends a single 20' top fence pole and a tiny base to prevent slipping, but I don't think I ever see anyone doing that. I know I should build and ASAP and probably a portable hole, but there's so much to do getting all new props build for the new house I'm trying to gauge my time. Anyone have any thoughts?
 
The stability of the pole shouldn’t be an issue if you are using guy wires. All that being said your other thoughts have merit. Finish up all the new props for the display first, then if there is enough time tackle the tree upgrade.


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I find that trying to tackle to many projects in this hobby actually takes away some of the fun and adds some more stress. Who needs to add additional stress to the equation. I would sit on the mega tree for a year and see how winter goes. Work on the other props and gets those where they are 100% completed and your are totally satisfied. Then and only then would I work on the mega tree. I think it is better to have a few things correctly built, problem free, and operational for this year than to have to many items in your show that may fail for a variety of reasons. Sounds like you have plenty to do with the new props for the house.

My mega tree was one of the last props I added. 30' tall, 180 degrees, an ASAP setup, my custom built hinged base plate set in 3' of concrete, built my own 24" aluminum top ring and a used trampoline base ring at the bottom of the tree to attach my Boscoyo strips. Probably way over engineered but you really want to consider your local potential worst case wind scenarios when considering these things.
 
Thanks for all of the responses. I wish I would have had the forethought to focus on the other elements first, but this was the upgrade that my wife requested so I prioritized it. I've already started pulling and re-pushing pixels in about half the strips, but I suppose I could stop and undo.

The question more was: if/when I do the upgrade, is the fence rail sufficiently strong enough to support it? I'd assume yes, but I'd hate to have it buckle on me. WRT other props, I really just meant the outlines. That will take a few weekends to get together, but should be done by October. Everything else is mostly set.
 
Just a precaution - Top Rail Fence has its place. With the smaller number of strips it probably worked just fine. Now that you are doubling the number, be careful of the amount of wind resistance that it will be receiving.

We built our first 5 trees out of 10 foot top rail. 4 guy wires each tree. Got a call about a week into the display run from the custodian stating that 3 of the "big trees" had fallen. The top rail bent about 2/3 of the way up for all of them. Witness said it was like a gust of wind pushed on the middle of the tree and then the trunk (his words) just gave way. All 4 of the guy wires were still attached to the tree and to the ground - but the tree was bent in half.

We use black pipe for those trees now.
 
This is precisely what I was concerned about. I think I'll hold on changing pixel density for now until I know I can dedicate time to switching to a sturdier pipe. Maybe I'll use the wooden base idea from above and save time there. Thanks for all of the help!
 
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