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I always wanted a ropetow in my yard, after hiking the park for the past 5 years I figured this year is a good time to do it. I saw that towpro offered a backyard system but the price tag is steep, so I decided to build my own. Everything can be bought at your local hardware store and small engine shop. There was a lot of trial and error so hopefully this saves you some time.
My neighbors love me.
DRIVETRAIN - I used an 18hp 420cc duroMax go cart motor that I found for $300, you will need a torque converter aswell, I bought a 40 series converter for 16-18hp, if you don’t use a heavy duty one you will blow through belts, this ran for $200.
the main drive shaft sits on a cage with bearing holders and an 8” #40 sprocket. It’s a 36” driveshaft with an 18x10 lawnmower wheel welded to the end. I found everything for $75
WHEEL HOUSE - the box I used is a reinforced 4x2.5 crate that I had, it sits on top of a pallet, but you can really use whatever you want, got this for free.
Finished with doors and a waterproof roof that also opens for access to the gas tank and any problems that occur.
TENSION PULLEYS - I have two 4” tractor wheels that are used for tensioners and to keep the rope centered, one of them uses the same type of driveshaft and bearing system that the drive wheel uses, but the other one needed to be lifted up higher, so I used the factory tractor hubs and welded it to a piece of angle iron, then attached it wherever it needed to be on the box.
TREE PULLEYS - I originally built these supports using wood, but the rope was surprisingly heavy, especially with the tension that it needs, I switched to a metal design, it’s the same design used for the second tension wheel, stock tractor hub welded to angle and screwed to a tree or a post, I used 4 of these for my setup. The nice thing about using the stock hubs is that they will be silent and not have any rattle.
RETURN WHEEL - my design for the return wheel isn’t done, I still need to put some bearings on it so that it’s quite. For this I used a 10” tractor wheel on a stand that I made, it gets tightened to a bottom post using a ratchet strap, this is the most important part for getting your rope to grip.
ROPE - I used 3/4 nylon 3 strand rope, you’ll need more than double your hill length, I used around 350’ of it. Splice it together and wrap the splice in hockey tape, splicing was surprisingly easy, there’s a bunch of videos on YouTube. Rope was $150
After all this you should be good to go, it’s super fast and strong, I’m guessing it’ll tow 2-3 people up at once, can slow it down for beginners or rip it at 25mph. In total this project cost me around $900 to complete, hope this helps anyone who wants to save some money and DIY it.
