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my $50 mega tree


portcity_gt

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This obviously wont work for everyone but its something to consider.

I made the base with some shelving material i had laying around, its about 8' across and bolts in two halves.

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Bought a hook head, added a 4' pipe and welded a loop to the top.

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I have large oak trees so i ran a rope over a limb

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Attached the lights to the head and base then pulled it up.

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The mega is 16'plus a 4' snowflake but it could be as high as your tree limb lol.

I was going to build a conventional with a pole, but i was looking at $300 in supplies so i figured id try something different.

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Great idea till I thought about it a bit more. My concern would be the limb bouncing around with the wind. Not bad if it lowers. But wonder how many up bounces the wires can take till some start to stretch and snap the wires.

 

Course I am a worry wart and hopefully nothing will happen after all. Still it is a great idea for doing a mega tree on the cheap. What are you using to stake down the bottom?

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Well im debating on staking the base at all, that way if it does pull up too hard it will just lift it.

And to be extra safe, one could add rope or wire from the head to the base to take any strain off the lights.

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That's a good idea on the base.

Hey if it shifts a couple inches from the wind, not a big deal. Unless someone gets a tape measure out each night. :ph34r:

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Its currently experiencing heavy rain and decent wind,so far so good. I think i will add some rope from the hook head to the base tomorrow though just because the base will also have the weight of the controllers on it.

Edited by portcity_gt
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They were actually leftover from a some steps on a chevy truck i repaired. Pretty much all vehicles use them in some place though.

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The rain moved on, and its a beautiful 72 degrees.

I added some rope for "just in case" and im installing the controllers now.

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Everything is up and running ready to go live friday.

Im going to move the holdman start to the roof instead of the front of the house though, and id like to put up some candy cane spinners but i dont have enough zip cord.

All in all i dont think it looks bad for a first year.

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Ditto, looking real good for first year. The mega tree looks really good. I am sorry if I came off like a cold wet rag. Just one of those who try to help by pointing out a possible weak point. The idea is def one of those that come out of the blue but real neat.

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It is for sure lol, although i started buying hardware, researching, and building sequences this time last year.

I also did a last minute halloween show this year to get a feel for the Christmas show, halloween was 90% rgb though.

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I just used some of that same shelving angle to build a stand to move my north star from the front peak to the top of the roof. Hopefully it doesn't make a lightning rod.

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I noticed today on warm sunny days the tree limbs raise up to the sun, my mega was a foot off the ground all day today lol

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