usually with only a few children it is not a problem, but the people that design these play sets do not put enough diagonal bracing on them. With a lot of kids climbing on them it could do the parallelogram trick and collapse. this would be very dangerous for life and limb, I suggest adding a few diagonal boards like knee braces or a full diagonal from the lower corner up to the upper corner on each side.
what Petros said!
My tool-clueless ex s-i-l "built" a similar set years ago. I warned him about adding the diagonal bracing, but he naturally poo-pooed my suggestion, saying the manufacturer did not mention it.
After seeing kids on it and its movement...the next time they were out of town I came over with matching lumber and installed the bracing - plus lots of extra carriage bolts. If he ever noticed it, he said nothing.
Tom M.
T4WD augury?
"Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit." T.S. Eliot - "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
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we attend a small town church that got two of them donated, they were used but in fair condition. some volunteers assembled them and soon after over a dozen small children were climbing all over them. One had a swing set attached, the other a slide, both moved frighteningly when kids were playing or climbing on them. the only thing I think keeping one from collapsing was the slide. I went and bought some matching treated wood and plated screws and added some diagonals to all of them, more screws in all the critical joints, and put some collar ties on the swing set. Nice and solid now.
I am surprised the companies that make these have not been sued yet, it is entirely irresponsible to not realize this structure has no lateral stability. It is not a good visual I get should one of these devices collapse, still bolted together, with small children playing on it.
We did notice it was quite wobbly. I actually recall a segment in the "FAQ" of the instructions saying something tot he tune of
Q: The playset wobbles of moves freely.
A: The ground is not level and the set is improperly squared.
Seriously, that was their excuse.
I already had plans to reinforce several bits on it due to extreme cheapness. The seats on the "picnic table toybox" area are 3 slats of wood about 3/4inch thick each, about 2.5 inch wide, and at least 3~ feet long, they were looking like they'd break under the weight of a 2.5 year old... And this set is rated for 3 to 10?
what you illustrated is the knee brace. It will work just make sure you put enough bolts on it so it is strong enough. The knee brace has the most amount of stress on it as compared to a diagonal brace, but it will still be stronger than what you have now.
the diagonal brace is like the knee brace only it is longer, it runs from the lower corner to the opposite upper corner. It crosses over the center of the opening. the cross or "X" brace is a variation of the diagonal brace with them going both direretions, these are usually used only with cable or rod braces, since a lumber brace will take both tension and compression loads you do not need to cross brace with a lumber brace (cables clearly are only good for tension loads, so you need one going each way). Using cross braced lumber braces are unnecessary, just a single diagonal on each side of the structure is all you need.
make sure you put either knee braces or a diagonal brace on each side, including the ends (short dimension) and the sides (the long dimension). than it will be braces along all axis of the play set. Plan carefully so you can place them in such a way none of them interfere with the various play things that go with the play set.
