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Storm Protection


saxon

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I have been in plenty of storms but, never had a mega tree to worry about. Just short of taking it down, can anyone tell me what care they have done to prevent damage to a 24x25 pixel tree? I am not worried that it will blow away but rather beat itself to death. We are expecting a windy thunder storm in the next 2 days.

~Matt

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We have storms out here quite often. The nice thing about megatrees, there's lots of places for the wind to pass through it, therefore its not blocking the wind and causing it to get pushed over. Now I do use 4 tie wires of 1/16inch steel guide wire to screwed in stakes to hold it in place, along with a pole in the ground which the main pole sits over...it keeps the bottom from moving. I had a lightening strike last year that I discovered this year when I was putting one of them back up. One of the guide wires was burnt through and just barely hanging on. No clue why I didn't see that when I was putting it away last year.

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Let me add too...I also bag the controllers to help keep rain, ice and snow off of them, but keep in mind that I'm in a lot colder climate than most places in Calif.. Heat is the enemy of electronics so keep that in mind.

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I have been in plenty of storms but, never had a mega tree to worry about. Just short of taking it down, can anyone tell me what care they have done to prevent damage to a 24x25 pixel tree? I am not worried that it will blow away but rather beat itself to death. We are expecting a windy thunder storm in the next 2 days.

~Matt

Matt,

I am not running Thursday night because of this storm.  This will be the first time in 4 years of doing this that I have shuttered, so I feel for ya... If your tree is well built and braced with guy wires you should be find.  Mine is 20' tall and I have no plans to drop it.  I am going to stack some of my other props a bit better then normal though.. You may want to do the same.. Winds are expected to be bad..

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Please let me and others know how things work out after the storm passes...just curious but more information is better for all of us, just in case.

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plasmadrive, I'm also shutting down my show early tonight and going completely dark on Thursday.  I think I will even unplug all my controllers in case something goes flying.  They are expecting 80+ mph winds here.  Scary!

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I have a bunch of vinyl banners that I will be pulling off the street side as well. I doubt they would survive.  This morning I put guy wires on my large arches, put blocks under some of the controllers which sit on the ground.  I put stakes behind some of the lawn props.  I am pretty confident that my mini pixel trees will be ok. they are metal and have metal brackets screwed into 3/4" plywood with a conduit about 12" in the ground.  I know my big redwood Christmas tree lights will suffer greatly, but I will just have to get the bucket truck out and fix those Friday morning.  Nothing else I can do there..

 

I THINK I am ready. 

Edited by plasmadrive
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I plan on removing my wreath screen as it acts as a sail in the wind.  The pixel tree sticks are held in place by zip ties.  I think I'll use the concrete rebar steel ties instead.  :)

 

It'll hit you first in California.  Let me know how you fare...  Good luck everyone!

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great ideas. wind is already stating up a bit. I was thinking if I don't take it down maybe wrap in a spiral fashion with para cord. like said, not worried it blow over just whipping around too much. It is 11' 8" plus topper.

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We get 80+ mph winds around here also... I don't have a mega tree yet, but all of my power cables are in Large Pipe (Corrugated type @ home depot) as all my power runs under my deck. I did double box in plastic containers all Controllers and power supplies, yet still leave some air holes for the things to breath. So far this year weather has been cold, but not been heavy snow.

 

Kip

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The nice thing about megatrees, there's lots of places for the wind to pass through it, therefore its not blocking the wind and causing it to get pushed over.

 

You would be surprised how much wind is caught in mega trees.

It depends on height and how many strands.

30+ feet tall and 196 strands catches a lot of wind. 19,600 lights acts like a big sail.

If my metal ring isn't anchored down with rebar, the ring and strands shifts and dances around on windy days. I used sand bags a couple years ago and that blizzard we had slung the ring apart and strands everywhere.

 

And of course there has been pics and stories posted here of wind damage to mega trees in the past.

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We have been taking a lot of wind most of the night and continuing really hard now.  The bulk of the rain has not hit yet.  So far all my props are doing OK.  I am sure the string lights in the big redwoods are scrambled but if that is all I have to fix I am in good shape. 

 

I am a bit worried about a few of my palm trees but I think they will make it OK...

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Did you all survive? Display's survive? I heard one person's 50 foot megatree got trashed in the winds up in Oregon. Once whomever all picks up the pieces and etc...please advise the rest of us of how we might better protect our own displays.

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Storm shifted north a bit so it glanced me. Plasma is 79 miles north and he caught the tail end of the actual storm. So far I have one CCP controller not working. Worked for a few minutes now nothing, I hope it's moisture that I can dry out and reset. All my displays stayed in tack. Plasma will have better insight. There was alot of rain the laat 12 hours. Thanks for your concern dgrant.

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Almost 3" last night and 60-70 mph gusts.  Pixel tree was almost a goner...  63 mini trees knocked over(each one had 3 stakes in it), strobe lights full of water.  Got about half repaired and up.  My only recommendation is go overboard on anchors for mega tree.  I spent more money than I probably needed to on 46" anchors from American Earth Anchors for Mega Tree.  Each one is rated for close to 10,000 pounds pullout with my soil type.  It wasn't going anywhere, but the base and lights were all over the place.   Wind damage should be resolved in a few hours.  Then time to see what water damage is done...  Hopefully its going tonight.  

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Had hellish winds, but next to no rain because the Sierra's shadowed our whole valley.  Kinda bummed that we got no precipitation out of this huge storm.  :(  I took down my mega-wreath screen and everything else handled the wind perfectly.  The pixel tree was bolstered with 12 gauge  wire in the center section and that stopped all the conduit sticks from blowing around like crazy.  The base to the conduit sticks were concrete rebar tie-wrapped.  The whole pixel tree moved in harmonic patterns with the wind, but not out of control to the point of destruction.  Wireframes moved around a bit, but held. 

 

Put the screen back up and we are ready to rock tonight!

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I had one ELL go dead and one strange possible connection issue inside a control box.. Not sure how that would happen.. Lots of whipped around string lights in my big trees but other than that all was good. 

 

Get everything ready to go for tonight.

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