CTSC Zipline Tensioning Kit - Zipline Installation Kits for Backyard with Mini Ratchet with Winch, Cable Grip for 3/16" to 1/2" Lines & Protective Tree Sling - Ultimate Zip Lines Tensioner Gear

This is a great product that made installing our 90 foot zipline in the backyard a breeze. The instructions could be better but after playing with it a bit it was easy to figure out how to use. Any projects that involve kid safety however, I would still prefer clear instructions on. When adding tension to the zpiline, our tensioning kit wire got off the main wind up track and it was impossible to fix but customer service was great and replaced it for us without having to send in the broken one. Definitely take a little care to ensure as you wind up the wire on the tensioning kit, it is staying on the spool and not getting caught between the spool and the body of the tensioning kit. Other than this, great product and great support team.

Tensioning a line without this would be a real pain to do or impossible depending on the situation. For about $50 it's well worth it.My one complaint with the tool is that there is a slight gap between the wire reel and the side of the tool -if you aren't careful the pull wire tends to want to go into that crack and it WILL get caught and it's a pain to get it out (especially if you are up on a ladder) - to prevent if you want to just keep a hand on it and twist it however needed to stop the wire from getting into that crack.I recommend wrapping some bright duct tape around the ratchet tool - I dropped mine from a ladder into thick bush and lost 90 minutes (!) trying to find the darn thing - what a day.

I put up our zip line for the first time two years ago without this tool, and would have given up if it weren't for my kids looking forward to riding it. It was very frustrating. I take it down each winter just to make sure the trees don't absorb the line, and last year I went through the same frustration. Trying to get the line tight on your own is difficult to say the least.This year I found this tool and figured it can only help. And help it did. I was able to put up the line in less than half the time it took me without, and I've never had it as tight. It was so easy to use, I agreed to get a second zip line and installed that, too. This is money well spent - especially if you are installing zip lines by yourself.

Very difficult to get proper tension without a zipline tensioning tool.

Line got jammed around screw on first try and broke. Might as well just use a ratchet strap.

After reading helpful tips from others who have put up zip lines in their backyards, I decided to take a chance on this. It was a VERY helpful tool. I put up the zipline without any helpers! It took me a while to figure out how it works. It came with reasonably good instructions for the hard stuff, but the simple stuff like just getting the line to unroll proved a challenge. It also wasn't immediately apparent that the crank handle could be used to force the jaws tighter, but then I figured it out.

I set up the zip line by myself, and there is no way I could have gotten the line this tight without some type of a come-along. This worked out really well, and you can see in the photo how tight I was able to get the line.

This was a necessary tool to tighten the zipline cable. Tightening the slack out by just pulling the cable is very hard and needs multiple people. You have to be careful that zipline does not get caught in the turning wheels. If they had given better instructions on how to tighten using this tool - I would have given them five star. It took me 15-20 minutes of fumbling to figure out how to use it properly but once I did - it was just 10 minutes to tighten the cable.