outdoor pullup bar

[James Neuman]

I've developed a habit of circling my house, in a vain attempt to locate a tree or structure which I could somehow use for pullups. Rather than keep up this act, I thought I'd ask you guys for suggestions.

The only tall item around my house is a basketball hoop, which I can't really envision using. I also don't have an area where a pullup bar could be mounted on the house itself.

Any ideas for a suitable workaround? Are there any commercial options for something that would remain outside all the time?

[Michael Houghton]

If you have room outside, get a 5 foot piece of pipe from home depot or lowes, and get 2 floor flanges. Connect these to a couple of 4x4s. Dig 2 feet down, put the posts in, and put cement around, fill with water. This worked for me, and mine is on the side yard. Doubles as a place to hang rings and a pull up bar.

[Matt Reiland]

I did the same thing as Michael....dig two holes, sink some 4x4's of whatever your desired height is, pour some concrete. Drill a hole through the top of the 4x4's that you can slip an iron pipe through and your good to go. I used a 1-1/4 inch pipe, 4x4x12's, and sunk them 3 feet. So the bar is 9 ft up, perfect for rings. I nailed some blocks to the 4x4's as steps to reach the bar for pull-ups.

[Stephen Foster]

I dug a couple of holes about 3-1/2 feet deep and filled about 6" of the bottoms with gravel for drainage. I picked up a couple of pressure treated 12' 4x4s and drilled a hole in each one just a little bit bigger than the galvanized pipe that I was using. I can't remember how long the pipe is and I'm not at home right now so I can't go measure it, but I think the holes are about 8' apart. I know it seems kinda wide, but I would like to get to the point where I can do an Iron Cross one day and wanted to have the room to do it. Maybe my setup isn't tall enough for that, I don't know, I'll cross that bridge when I get there. It is big enough that I can have two people on it at the same time though (if I need that to happen).

Anyhow, I put the 4x4s into the holes, slid the pipe in place and began to refill the holes one at a time with the dirt that I removed. The whole time I was filling the hole I was tamping/poking the dirt with a steel rod I had laying around in one of my barns and used a little bit of water to help get rid of air pockets. The dirt where I live has a VERY high clay content that gets rock hard so I didn't feel the need to use concrete. I also used a level to ensure the 4x4 doesn't lean in, out, left, or right.

After they were up, I realized most people will probably need a step of some kind to reach the bar, so I had to build a one. I used some pieces from a scrap piece of pressure treated 4x4 and drilled a couple of holes in them for a big hex-head screw and also drilled a countersink for the washer/spacer that would be between the hex head and the wood. I guesstimated an approximate height to step up onto, drilled matching holes (without the countersink) in the 4x4 posts, then screwed the whole thing together.

If I were to do it all over again, I would probably use 6x6s instead of 4x4s.

I also built a pair of parallel/dip bars using the same method described above, but with the addition of using a jig that I made to hold the bars the desired distance while I filled the holes and squared the posts.

The pipes do not slide side to side because there aren't any axial loads significant enough to move them. If you find otherwise, just screw a big washer over the hole, or screw a piece of wood over it.

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e1...PullSitDip.jpg

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e1...ullSitDip2.jpg

[James Neuman]

That setup looks very cool. Do you deliver?

Perhaps I should have mentioned the fact that I'm pretty inept at building anything that requires more than a couple of nails.

[Shane Upchurch]

not much too it man, if you use the floor mount design you just buy whatever length pipe you want and two floor mounts, each mount will need 4 screws.

Dig two holes 2-3ft deep. I mounted the floor mounts to the post, screwed the pipe in to place, lifted the unit and the post into their respective holes. Use scrap wood to hold the post in place when you know they are plumb in two directions, and fill the holes with the quickcrete. Add water, let sit, fill any remaining hole in with dirt. Dont use for 24-48 hours. Voila.

[Nate Marlar]

Originally Posted by Michael Houghton

If you have room outside, get a 5 foot piece of pipe from home depot or lowes, and get 2 floor flanges. Connect these to a couple of 4x4s. Dig 2 feet down, put the posts in, and put cement around, fill with water. This worked for me, and mine is on the side yard. Doubles as a place to hang rings and a pull up bar.

Yep, I did the same thing last summer. Worked like a charm.

Took about 2-3 hours. I made one bar extra high ~10' for rings and left one at ~7' or so for regular pull ups...

Post hole diggers are extremely helpful.....

[Nicholas Wheeler]

I may win an award for a thread revival here! HOWEVER, here's what I am hoping to find out, that I couldn't find easily online.

The outdoor pullup bar above, how do you prevent the bar from spinning? I'm just about to make something similar (more of a cube so multiple people can workout), but I can't figure out how to brace the pipe so it doesn't spin.

[Steve Jaeger]

Originally Posted by Nicholas Wheeler

I may win an award for a thread revival here! HOWEVER, here's what I am hoping to find out, that I couldn't find easily online.

The outdoor pullup bar above, how do you prevent the bar from spinning? I'm just about to make something similar (more of a cube so multiple people can workout), but I can't figure out how to brace the pipe so it doesn't spin.

Hi Nicholas,

If you do buy threaded pipe from the local hardware store with floor flanges like these [http://www.hardwarestore.com/galvani...e-602755.aspx] [wfs], then the pipe will not spin as both flanges spin on clockwise, thus working 'against' each other.

Obviously you will need to buy square posts rather than round poles to make mounting the flanges easier.

Hope that helps.

[Nicholas Wheeler]

Yeah, I'm getting either 4x4's or 4x6's - I had hoped to avoid using flanges if possible and resting the bar inside the beam, but I couldn't figure out how to keep it from spinning.