Eastern Jungle Gym Easy 1-2-3 A-Frame 2 Brackets for Swing Set with All Mounting Hardware, Green

Before I start my review, you should know a few things. First and foremost I did NOT receive this item for free or at a discount. Second, I am a 34 year old woman who has no experience building anything like a swing set before. I hadn't even used a ratchet before now. I am a biochemist eye disease researcher and mother of a 4 year old boy with autism. My son, like many kids with autism loves to swing. And when I say "loves" that is a major understatement. His birthday is coming up and I wanted to get him a swing set. We just moved into a new house. Our old house had great trees for swings and this house doesn't. However, nice swing sets are SO EXPENSIVE to buy, so I started looking into the possibility of building one. While I don't have much experience doing anything like this, I'm all about trying! That's when I stumbled upon these brackets and decided I could do it.I'm glad I saw the "kit" version instead of just buying two of the brackets themselves. It saved me a lot of time and trouble buying the right hardware as well. This kit comes with everything you need to assemble the A frame except the wood and tools. I ended up making a basic A frame with a 10' top beam and 10' legs (they recommend 8' legs but I wanted to have a larger swing arc). Here's what I needed to complete the project:- This kit (which comes with two brackets and 28 appropriately sized lag bolts and washers)- One 10 foot 4x6 beam (Home Depot) for the top (be sure to get pressure treated lumber so it will last and won't degrade in contact with the ground)- Four 10 foot 4x4 beams (Home Depot) for the legs (can be anywhere from 8 to 12 feet but I recommend going longer, especially if you plan to anchor the legs in concrete or bury them in the ground. I opted not to bury them but just get some screw in ground anchors.- A drill and drill bit smaller than the lag bolts to pre-drill the holes (already had). I don't know what size exactly I used but it was one that came standard with my drill.- 2 swings. I already had this Deluxe Platform Swing by HearthSong that I bought on Amazon last year and my son loves it. I hung it in our tree using the yellow swing ties that you see pictured - also bought on Amazon. I decided to use them since I already had them. I bought the half bucket swing on Amazon for this project from Swing Set Stuff.- Safe-Kidz heavy duty swing anchor kit (again, Amazon) which came with two anchors, two clips, a drill bit and 4 lag bolts and screws.- Two 80" lengths of zinc chain (Home Depot). I guessed at this amount before building the swing set but only ended up needing about 70" for the half bucket. It all depends on what type of swing you're hanging and the age of the children.- Two Quick Links (Home Depot) to connect the chain ends to the swing- Ratchet and appropriate size bit (again, one that came standard with my ratchet that I already had)With all of this stuff I was able to complete this swing ENTIRELY BY MYSELF in just a couple hours time and that includes the shopping and loading/unloading!! The brackets take all the guess work and careful measuring out of the equation for you. Just slide the wood into the bracket, pre-drill the holes for the lag bolts and ratchet them down and your A frame is finished! A note about inserting the beams into the brackets. Other reviewers mentioned tight squeezes and having to sand or lubricate the beams and then beat them in with a rubber mallet to get them to fit. I was prepared with my orbital sander, dish soap and rubber mallet to do whatever it took but none of that was needed! The beams I bought slid right in with no effort whatsoever. It literally could not have been easier. I guess it depends on where you get your wood, but if it's TRULY 4x4 and 4x6 they should slide in to these brackets NO PROBLEM without sanding or lubricating.Before I stood it up (I actually did need help with that part) I measured and installed the mounting hardware for the half bucket swing in the top beam. The manufacturers of the hardware suggest measuring at least 15" away from the nearest structural element of the swing set. I went a little further than that. They also recommend spacing the hardware wider than whatever swing they will be holding. For standard swings 16" should be fine. That's what I did. Once I stood it up I hung and adjusted the platform swing using my ladder and tested it out myself to be sure it was sturdy. Holy cow this thing isn't going ANYWHERE! Even without being anchored to the ground (which I will do anyway) I was able to swing pretty high laying on the platform without the A frame even wiggling a tiny bit under my 130lb weight!When my husband and son got home from their daddy day that afternoon they were both blown away that I had done it myself and my boy was ECSTATIC!! He LOVES his new swing set and I love how easy it was and that it saved me money! So here's the final price tag on the one I built if it helps:Wood - $100Bracket/hardware kit - $79Half bucket swing - $40Chain - $30Swing mounting hardware - $28I already had the platform swing and swing ties but they were $130 and $25 respectivelyThat was only $277 out of pocket and a few hours on a Saturday morning for me which is basically amazing. Total cost including the stuff I already had would put it at $432.For a swing set of this height and sturdiness you would be hard pressed to find something cheaper. Also, this would be very easy to add on to! I intend to add wood planks to the side of the A frame and build a climbing wall on one side and add a slide to the other! Plus I'm so proud of myself that I did this. I love sticking it to gender roles! I'm telling you, if I could do this, anyone could do this!I have nothing but the highest praise for these brackets and highly recommend them to anyone who thinks swing sets are too expensive or is contemplating building their own! One more free tip for you newbies like me: When working with pressure treated lumber, WEAR GLOVES!!!! Splinters from pressure treated wood are NASTY and will get infected really quickly so save yourself the pain and trouble and just wear gloves from the start. I really hope this helps someone else! Good luck and have fun building!

Ease of use:I saw some low stars and can understand why but with the comments I will tell you if you shave the corners of the 4x6 these brackets slid on pretty easily using a piece of 2x4 and a mallet. The 4x4 for the legs slid in with no issues. I recommend this product. The swing is very secure and stable. With just that little pre work on the 4x6 very simple and sturdy.

Took about 4 hours total, including mounting the swing hangers on the 4x6. Hardest part was driving the brackets into the ends of the treated 4x6, which I bought at Lowes and were still a little wet. Used dish soap to coat the wood and then hammered away using a baby sledge and a piece of 2x4. Took about 15 minutes per end and about 100 swings but the end result was a flush and very tight fit. The treated 4x4s dropped into the brackets with no problem. It is a very sturdy A frame.

These brackets are very well manufactured and were easy to put our swing set together.

Update: 18 month later and after much fun we moved. When we went to disassemble the set the 4x4s just fell out of the slots. The bolts have rusted and broke. We love this set enough that for re-assembly we bought the middle type bracket to expand the set, but we are headed to the hardware store to get bolts that will last. We live in Florida, so with constant rain and humidity it’s not surprising to have things rust faster than normal. I’m keeping it at 5 stars because the brackets are great, but keep an eye on the bolts.I bought these this week and set up the swing set today, so this review will be based solely on assembly.Everything that I needed to set up the A frame was included except for the wood of course. The 6x4 was a tight fit as others have said. Mostly the corners were snug going in, so I sanded the corners and it slipped on easier. Toward the end I still had to bang it on with a mini sledge hammer and wood between to soften the blow. All the hardware was present and worked great. We put the wood in the slots, drilled holes then added the bolts.Once the 4x6 was in place we added the swing hinges before the 4x4s to make assembly easier. I also sanded down the wood to prevent splinters in little hands. All in all it took 6 hours to complete including the trip to lowes for wood, sanding, assembling, digging.At first we let it just sit on he ground, but there was some lifting of the posts, so we buried them about 6" and will get the anchor kit. I would recommend this as I feel it is safe and sturdy for my kids to play on. I'm 130lb and felt comfortable swinging on it. I took it as high as I could go to test it and there was no sign of safety issues.