Ralph D Posted July 17, 2011 Share Posted July 17, 2011 I have 6, 30ft arches for my drive way. each year I have to wrap them with lights which takes forever and do the same at the end of the season which is really a killer and this year I'm really looking for ways to save me time. I'm possibility looking at having to do most of this year's display alone. Because they're so long I have no place to store them so if you have ever see the picture of my driveway and front retaining wall during the off-season I hide my driveway arches underneath the mulch between all my bushes and the driveway wall. I've been considering for a few years now making these driveway arches leaping arches, which I think would look fantastic, but the problem is, if I make these arches leaping arches, I will not be able to take the lights on and off like I always do. Has anybody invented a way to make a leaping arch that can be taken apart but still sturdy enough to Span 30 feet in length. even if I was just able to disconnect the arch say right in the middle that might help. But am looking for anybody's ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Posted July 17, 2011 Share Posted July 17, 2011 My arches are 18 feet long, but you could use the same idea for your arches.I use two 9 foot pieces of PVC and glue a male/female threaded coupler on the ends in the middle.Then I wrap each arch separately and leave about 2-3 feet of loose lights at the end where the couplers are.When it's time to assemble the display, I have a helper hold one arch while I hold the mating arch and screw them together. After they are joined, then I have concrete blocks with metal "prongs" sticking out at 45 degrees that I anchor the arch to in the driveway.Then I wrap the loose light string around the "joint" and use a tie wrap or two to anchor them in place and it makes a seamless arch. You could do the same thing with 3 pieces of 10' pvc. Just use two couplers.See my website for more details...http://www.belardolights.com/leaping_lights.htmlSince that was posted, I have re-wrapped all the arches with LED lights...Randy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph D Posted July 17, 2011 Author Share Posted July 17, 2011 Randy, so nice to hear from you it's been a long time. I hope all is well. what a great idea. Do you have any photos, close-ups before, and afters? .....I know now I'm pushing it. :smile:Thanks Pal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph D Posted July 17, 2011 Author Share Posted July 17, 2011 lol. sorry I replyed before i looked at your photos. wow, those are great. I wish I had your patients. Bravo my friend Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wirekat Posted July 17, 2011 Share Posted July 17, 2011 I have been toying with the idea of having large (huge) arches lining (spanning) my driveway. I would have to ban the UPS and FedEx trucks but I like the idea of having removable segments. Strings wrapped around a slightly larger pipe that slides over a smaller pipe that is the actual arch. Christmaslightshow.com sells a kit that uses 3" drain pipe but I'm thinking something smaller with maybe metal pipe as the backbone. I love the effects that I would be able to do. I still remember the old 70's TV show Time Tunnel, but I digress... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph D Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 Yeah I looked at darrals too, not sure which way i will end up going yet. I'm just so tired of taking the lights on and off of these arches each year, it takes a day alone to put these up and put the lights on. I've had 3 Mini arches over the past 4 years with no problems...lol now that i said it.... Even if i split them "the driveway arches "in half would be fine for me. im just concerned with the pressure on the conector on such a large spand. and if this works I can store them on a wall in my garge. what a time saver it would be....and to make them leeping....yeah I cant wait to try this out. also i decided to leave them leeping multi colored arches, so i think it will look awesome. Again Randy thanks for the photos on your site and your help. I'll have some time in August to work on them, once I have one finished I'll post pictures and some video footage to show everybody how it can out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emcee Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 I did three 40 foot long arches last year. (The UPS guy drove right under them). I banded minis under the 2 inch PVC conduit and then raised them with help from my two sons. At the end of the season, I broke them down into 10 foot sections. and stored on bicycle hooks on the garage wall. Worked good, but considering changing to CCBs 100 bulbs for each arch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph D Posted July 18, 2011 Author Share Posted July 18, 2011 wow that sounds great..... I would love to do my arches in ccb's,Im still not at the stage of ccr or ccb's yet, I do hope to one day. the ccb's would look rreally cool on my arches, that they would. :] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted July 18, 2011 Share Posted July 18, 2011 In this thread I described my 49' arch that crosses my driveway of about 30' wide. The 9th post in that thread shows a joint. The arch is composed of 5 10-foot sections of PVC conduit. I have enough slack in the lights so I can detach the sections and fold them. I then wrap the package with nylon twine and one person (me) can carry it to my shed. I have used it for 2 years so far.I have learned that it is better to tie-wrap a mega arch as opposed to wrapping it (which works better for smaller arches). If I wrapped this, it would take more lights than I would like to purchase and power, it would make it too heavy. This tie-wrap method results in most of the light facing the viewers. As you can see from the video, with 900 bulbs, it looks easily full enough from across the street.Here's the test in early October: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts