Searching for hanger idea when stringing lights in trees

[roknjohn]

Having a LOR Christmas display in a small town has the side effect of making everyone in town think you are some kind of decorating genius (or wacko).  The nearby bed and breakfast has asked my help in stringing up some clear C7/C9s for an upcoming wedding (Italian style).   Their property has some really nice live oaks that would serve well for this purpose.   I was hoping to be able to do most of the work with a pole and ladder (instead of getting a lift) - which brings me to the question.

 

What is the best was to fashion a hook that can be attached with a pole to a tree branch 10-20 feet off the ground?  The strands are 24' long and I think that I want to make 48' runs (perhaps with one point in the middle or so). 

Edited October 14, 2015 by roknjohn

[Mega Arch]

Nothing worse than stringing live trees.

Sorry.

My old house had 2 forty foot mature trees that I cut down my first year of LOR. Before that, I tried everything to run my energy sucking static C9 incandescents in them. Best luck was a simple "Y" shape. Raise pole higher than branch and slide down next to it. Kinda peel the light strand off. To get them back down, hire professional tree arbor to cut them down.

Congrats on the recognition and good luck.

[LarryDrumAZ]

When we did our show in Arizona, I removed the saw blade from my manual pole saw.  The looping cutter and blade bracket form a kind of V that I was able to set the strings (mini lights) in and elevate them into my trees.  My saw extended to 24 feet, which was twice as tall a our biggest tree.

[Kapkirk]

   My neighbor and I string light strands in about a dozen neighbors trees on our street, we have been using fishing line to pull the female end up into the tree and then plug in at the ground, we do about 12-15 strands per tree and it looks great.

 

   The process has been the safest we found because we never leave the ground, just use a sling shot to send a weight attached to the fishing line up over a branch and then pull the light strand up and attach the line to a nail in the tree, then when Xmas is over you just have to cut the line and let it down. The process was on U tube somewhere if you do a search. We use 50 lb fishing line .

 

Good luck and stay out of the tree if you can.

 

Keith

[roknjohn]

Thanks.  I may try that fishing line sling shot thing.

[Old Sarge]

borrow your neighbors drone...

[NJJohn]

Roknjohn

 

I have six trees on my property that range from 22’ to 26’ in height that I hang lights on every year.  When I started doing this, those trees were all about 10’ shorter and were much easier to light.  I always insist that the lights must go all the way to the top so I needed to come up with an inexpensive method because the wife hasn’t authorized the expenditure for a man lift yet.  I solved the problem with a MrLongArm pole and the green plastic hook head from my old 11’ red Christmas light hanger pole that everyone seems to use. MrLongArm is an 8’ long pole that will extend to 24’.  I purchased it at Home Depot for about $40 and considering the length, it is fairly light weight.  I unscrewed the green plastic hook head off my old Christmas light hanger pole and screwed it onto the MrLongArm pole (perfect fit).  I later bent an old coat hanger and taped it to the end of the green hook head extending the hook thus giving me better light holding capability when you are balancing them at 24’.  I’ve included a picture to show you what I mean.

 

It takes a little getting used to maneuvering a 24’ pole with lights hanging from it but it works and is a lot cheaper than renting a lift.  Hopefully what I said above makes sense.

 

Good Luck

John

 

[Roxxxtar]

I use a swimming pool vacuum pole. It is a telescoping pole and I put a hook in the end of it where the pool net/ vacuum would normally attach. Works great.

[OurMikeyRocks]

First, I started with a "painter's pole" that extends.  It has an attachment on the end for a variety of tools.  So I got a 6 foot aluminum tube that fits the pole and cut a notch so it would lock into the painter's pole.  On top of that I added the Christmas Light String Hanger Tool from Christmas Light Show.com.  I attached this to the aluminum tube by placing a short piece of dowel into the tube so it wouldn't crush and putting a 1/4x20 bolt through the tube.  The hanger tool goes onto the end of the bolt.

 

I hang holispheres in trees, but I think this will work for you as well.  Make your hooks out of brass welding rod.  It's easy to shape to fit whatever you are hanging and then just a big loop on the other end to go over the tree limb.  The magic here is when you are taking them down.  If you use the right diameter welding rod (nothing too heavy) then you can simply snag it (I snag the holisphere) and just pull.  The brass is soft enough to straighten out and down comes the holisphere (or whatever).

 

Works for me.

 

Mikey

[Mega Arch]

....Make your hooks out of brass welding rod.... If you use the right diameter welding rod (nothing too heavy) then you can simply snag it (I snag the holisphere) and just pull.  The brass is soft enough to straighten out and down comes the holisphere (or whatever)... Works for me... Mikey.

Sounds awesome. Brass rod would definitely be cheaper & faster than cutting the tree down.

[Bizywk]

• You could use a simple hook from Amazon.      Screws onto any standard push broom threaded pole.   I use a 26' collapsible pole.  Depending on your height, you can get 30+ feet.   It's very sturdy, lightweight, adjustable, and collapses to about 8' long for storage.  Most importantly, its mostly fiberglass so it doesn't appear to conduct electricity - Just in case.  
•  
• http://www.amazon.com/SCR-HK-CD-BIG-REACH-Pole-Hook-NEW/dp/B005LYMY2W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1453753231&sr=8-2&keywords=pole+hook      
•  
• http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=496340-1199-2324&langId=-1&storeId=10151&productId=4755038&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

 

Be safe and always stay away from overhead power lines.