The Tree Fort and the TV
William and I were riding home on the bus from school when we both noticed a very large projection TV sitting at the side of the road. It wasn’t far from where we lived and would be easy to get to. I knew by the look on William’s face he had a plan. As soon as the bus dropped us off at our stop, William ran for his house. I went into my house to let my mom know I was home from school and headed for William’s. I knew exactly where to go. I rounded the corner and saw William working on what I figured were his next set of plans by his workbench. I looked over his shoulder and saw a plan with the two of us wheeling the TV home with my dad’s new Kubota tractor. The artwork on the plan was some of the finest William had ever done.
William explained that large TVs like the one we saw would have wheels on the bottom. It would be extremely heavy and using my dad’s tractor would make the job a lot easier to bring it to his house. All I had to do was get the tractor and some rope. Then we’d head down the road and drag it home. The plan looked simple and harmless. Right?
My dad was still at work, so it’d be easy getting the tractor without my mom asking too many questions. William quickly scribbled down the second plan, folded it up and stuck it in his pocket before I could take a close look at it. We were in a hurry as we didn’t want someone else to get to the TV before us.
We headed over to my house and gathered up some rope to help pull the TV. I then ran out back to my dad’s shop and got his brand-new tractor that he had only had for a few weeks. I wasn’t too sure that we should use it, but William had assured me that nothing could possibly go wrong pulling the TV back to his garage. This time I agreed. What could go wrong? I wheeled the tractor up to the front of my house and William hopped on the back and we headed down the road. Luckily, there was a walking path that was paved, and it’d be rather easy bringing the TV back to his house by pulling it along the path.
We arrived at the TV and took a quick look to see if the screen had any cracks. It looked to be in excellent shape, so we tied the rope around it and headed to William’s to test it out to see if it actually worked. Everything was going surprisingly well. We pulled the TV right up to his garage and William hopped off the tractor and ran to his workbench. He opened up a drawer and pulled out an extension cord. He then plugged it into an outlet and brought the other end to the TV. William handed me the end of it and asked me to plug it in. I plugged it in and we located the buttons on the front to turn on the TV. With a push of the power button, the TV hummed and the screen flickered on. Unfortunately, there was a message stating that there was no input detected. The two of us stared at each other for a brief second until William turned and ran into his house. Within minutes William came back outside with his dad’s old Nintendo GameCube and plugged it into the back jacks on the TV. He then proceeded to plug the power into the extension cord and turned it on. Like magic, the familiar sign of the Nintendo screen lit up and we knew the TV was working. Just for fun, we decided to have a quick game of baseball on the Nintendo to make sure the TV would continue to work. It took about half an hour to finish the game and nothing glitched on the TV. Awesome!
My only question was what were we going to do with a huge projection TV? William gave me a huge smile and pulled his second plan out of his pocket. He quickly ran to his workbench and put it down for me to see. He had drawn a plan with the two of us pulling the giant TV up and into his tree fort using some ropes.
The plans were actually pretty cool. Now I know what you’re thinking. How would the two of us be able to pull a large projection TV up and into a tree fort?
Quite simple really. Pulleys! Our teacher had recently been teaching us all about pulleys in science class and how using more than one pulley would help make the job easier. The more pulleys we used, the less effort we’d have to exert to lift the TV. What a stroke of genius by William! My dad had a collection of old pulleys in his shop and they’d likely work just fine. We fired up the tractor and pulled the TV out back to the tree fort. It took only a few minutes for us to untie the TV and then we were on our way to my dad’s shop. I grabbed a handful of pulleys and threw them into an old milk crate, which would make it easier to carry them. We loaded them onto the back of the tractor and headed back to the tree fort. We parked right beside the TV since it would be easy to unload the pulleys there.
William’s job was to secure the rope in the tree fort, so he grabbed the rope and scurried up the ladder to find a location to tie it to. My job was to find the make and model number on the back of the TV so we could find out exactly how heavy it was. I took a picture of the back panel and ran back to William’s garage to look up the weight of the TV on my laptop. After a few minutes of searching, I found the weight to be 280 lbs or 127 kgs. Wow, it was a beast of a TV!
I reported back to William and let him know the weight of the TV. He crunched some numbers in his head and said three pulleys would do the trick. He then climbed back down and headed to his shop. I followed him and wondered how he would attach the pulleys to the tree fort. William made some changes to his second plan and then showed them to me with a smile.
In his estimation, using three pulleys and an anchor with the rope, it would give us a mechanical advantage of 4:1 and reduce the amount of force we’d have to pull on the rope to 70 lbs. (or roughly 32 kgs to please our teacher.) I was shocked to see that William had actually been paying attention in class.
William then began to search for some hooks that would allow us to attach the rope and pulleys to the header of the door frame in the tree fort and still support the weight of the TV. He found some super heavy-duty hooks and was happy with what he had found. I inspected them and felt they were quite adequate for the job. After a few more minutes of gathering some more tools, we were off to the tree fort to get things ready.
William drilled some pilot holes in the wood and then began screwing the hooks into the wood. He used a long screwdriver to help twist the hooks firmly into place. Like I’ve said before, we loved watching home renovation shows and felt that we knew what we were doing. Safety comes first!
It took us only about half an hour to get everything attached and ready to go. We were pumped! The two of us grabbed the rope and began lifting the TV up towards the tree fort. Things were going very well when we encountered our first problem. The rope wasn’t long enough, and the TV still had a fair way to travel. We lowered it back to the ground and got a rope that was much longer. It was at this point that the two of us remembered that Mr. Mousseau had said that adding more pulleys also increased the length of the rope you would need. So, back to the drawing board as we swapped out the shorter rope with a longer one. The two of us double checked our knots and began pulling the TV, for the second time, towards the door entrance of the fort. Just like magic we had the TV inches away from the opening. William then explained to me to listen VERY carefully. He was going to climb up and gently swing the TV so it would swing into the doorway and then roll on the floor of the fort. He would then use the shorter rope to pull the TV inside. My job was simple. Don’t let go of the rope!
The good thing was I weighed just enough to keep the TV in place because of the pulleys we were using. I could at least hold the rope by myself for a bit. Our teacher was right, science was awesome! William slowly let go of the rope and climbed up the ladder and disappeared into the tree fort. Suddenly, I saw the TV start to gently swing back and forth. As it was swinging, I soon found it more difficult to handle the rope and TV. I yelled for William to stop. I could hear William yelling as the TV began to swing even more. I SCREAMED at the top of my lungs for William to stop! Peeking his head out of doorway he looked down and gave me the ‘What do you want?’ look. William climbed down and told me that he needed me up in the tree fort. He figured that the rope could be tied to the back of the tractor, and then the two of us could swing the TV until it was far enough inside the tree fort for us to handle. I agreed, and we tied it to the trailer hitch on the tractor. The two of us then brought up the extra rope and started swinging the TV. It was working out perfectly! We just needed to swing it a bit harder. With all our might, we pushed the TV one LAST time. Then there was the sound we didn’t want to hear. (No, not Granny Grunt!) It was the sound of the rope snapping! It all happened so quickly. First, there was the snapping sound and then a deadening crunch!
The two of us slowly peered out the doorway of the tree fort and saw what would haunt me for years. The TV had landed right on top of my dad’s new tractor, crushing the hood and bending the steering wheel. It didn’t look good. Not at all. William looked at me and smiled. He said it was better the tractor than me. (I guess he was right about that one.)
By now, William’s mom had come out of the house and was standing beside the tractor looking at the mess. She told me it would be best to tell my dad and let him see it when he got home. I knew this was the right thing to do, however I thought I’d tell my mom first. William and I tried to get the damaged TV off the tractor. It was too heavy, so we left it as it was and I slowly headed home. It took me forever to get home as I stopped to look at anything that would prolong the inevitable. I finally made it home and headed inside to break the news to my mom. I was surprised that she wasn’t as upset as I thought she’d be. She mumbled something about a stupid tractor. I wasn’t quite sure what she was saying. However, she quickly reminded me that my dad would be home soon. I went and hid in my bedroom. Eventually, I heard his voice. I knew it wouldn’t be long until he found me. There was a knock on my door a few minutes later and my dad popped his head in and told me to come with him and see what had happened. By the time we got there, William’s dad had arrived home and wandered out to see what was going on. My dad’s face said it all as he just stared at the TV sitting on top of his new tractor. After an awkward moment of silence, William’s dad offered to help my dad remove the TV. It didn’t take them long to get it off the tractor and they set it off to the side. William then looked at my dad and asked if he thought the TV might still work. My dad and I both shook our heads and ignored William. Slowly, my dad climbed onto the seat of his tractor and started it up. I said goodbye to William and his dad and walked home on my own.
My dad struggled to steer the tractor, as the steering wheel was badly mangled from the TV. I watched through my kitchen window as he parked it in the shop out back and then sat on it for a while before he got off it. I knew it was best to lay low and out of his way.
Later that night, after my dad got off the phone with William’s dad, he explained our punishment. We were to pay for all the damages and help repair the tractor when the new parts arrived. On top of that, there was one final thing. Get this! William and I were to have no TV for two whole months. I smirked as my dad told me this. Well, it was pretty funny.