drilling into trunk

Maugy

We have a saucer swing for our grandchildren (7 & 9 yrs) that was hung on a branch that recently broke off, totally dead. Although we have lots of very tall, old trees there is not one with a branch at the right height. We are thinking of drilling a 1-2 inch hole in the trunk and inserting a steel rod in it on which to hang the swing. The tree appears to be a maple. It is now about 75 ft tall. Can we do this w/o killing the tree?
Maugy in NJ

Maugy

Amended: it's a maple!

TreeSpecialist

While it won't kill the tree outright, it will cause significant decay.

You might want to set up a second pole (or post) 6 feet or so away from the maple and put a cross bar from the pole to a fork in the maple tree.

Let the cross bar rest in a low fork of the maple.

Attach the swing to the crossbar.

Your grandchildren will out grow the swing in a few years and then you'll be able to disassemble the swing without having done any long lasting damage to the maple.

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fosheezy

if the branches are out of reach you can just call an arborist to climb the tree and tie it off nice and high like. higher tie off = more pendulum swing = maximum awesomeness. while they're up there they could probably give you some advise on the strength and safety of the branch. dunno how much of thrill seekers your little ones are but you can never beat a cool swing!