DIY Backyard Rope Tow - FINISHED! 

Thanks for sharing your tow rope story! I also appreciate the lessons learned. I am thinking about building one in my backyard and your video has been very helpful!

If you want a faster lift and don’t mind a bit of noise… you can use a lawn tractor with the back end lifted up with the rope going around the back tire. It the goes to a wheel barrel at the bottom on the hill upside down with a come along to give it the tension. It works amazing and I have a big steep hill and still pulls 2 people up fast. Good luck 👍🏼

Great to see the tow up and running! Nothing good happens without hard work. Well done for keeping at it and coming up with the win 👍

I never stopped to give it a thought , but I must have spent weeks of my life just riding the rope while teaching at my local dry slope. It’s great for getting in the laps, hope you get it dialled :-)

My homie in Michigan fabricates sweet rails. We were just talking about this series. Very inspiring. You have a lot of grit!

You got it done, awesome!

Yooooo, finally working! Now you need a box and a kicker!

You're the man, sir!

Been waiting for this vid!

Great videos!

Yes sir time to learn rails

Design the rope tension on the bullwheel at the bottom of the hill. If you get nice threaded rod you can tighten the caster to the pole to get the desired tension (use two/three large nuts on the back end to keep it from undoing itself). Also maybe consider using a tree instead of a pole! Its already structurally sound. 😂 I’m considering making a system for spring/summer park laps. Your videos were a great help! It really gives me a good head-start.

Funny that you have to retension your rope so many times. we have a 260 foot lift line, so ~580 ft of rope. It's nylon 3 strand which grips really well to the bull wheel, doesn't freeze, and has never gotten tangled. We put it on once a year but never have to tension it. It's long spliced and we wrap it a few times around the bullwheel. With enough elbow grease we get it, sometimes we do a wrap and then wait a day to do another, so it can stretch out. Nice looking setup you have though!

I am making a rope tow and I know how frustrating this is. Good job

Dream and nice❤😮😊

Yeeeeah man!

You should build a jump

I had good luck adding garage door springs in series to the ratchet strap. This way I don't have to constantly adjust the tension. My lift uses 1200' of rope.

Awesome, you will get it sorted 👍🏻 , but lest you can do snowboarding in your backyard 😀👍🏽 I would have to spend alot of money to go to a ski mountain, but I have never done snowboarding lol just skateboarding and surfing,

4:47 I'm sorry, but I laughed. It's good to see the progress. Thank you.

How long is your rope tow?

We going to see more development this winter? It’s been invaluable data for the one I’m building. Share some more pain for us backyard engineers!

Splicing the rope might be better method of attaching sperate types to each other and it's a great skill to have anyways

Motor wise just a VFD and 1-2hp regular 3 phase 208V motor

Hmm if you were making a battery powered tow rope up a super steep snowy hill then you could make it not be a circular rope so it spools up like a winch. It would need a second smaller rope/winch to retract it down the hill (no tensioning would be nice). If it was a circular rope attached to a sled that reversed back down that would be interesting too. Both use about the same parts to build.

Long splice your rope, minimal diameter change and retains most of the strength.

Fusing, whipping, or splicing, would be weaving the rope ends together, and that may do you better long term. But it is summer, so, you do you man. Ah you mentioned splicing, definitely checkout whipping to keep your splices together longer.

Capstan

My 3rd try of building a ropetow is now finally working, but we have no snow😑

Chain saw winch💭💭💭

Great vid but Use a stronger motor that think barely pull u up

Splice the rope by weaving it into itself for about a foot

we could help make this faster and stronger with less tangle if you want