Two years ago, my wife downloaded the 1,000 Hours Outside app and challenged our entire family to spend most of the year outdoors. We have a large backyard and have attempted to utilize all that space for playtime. As part of our efforts, we wanted to add a jungle gym focused on climbing, swinging, and other physical activities. That’s when I came across Vuly.
The Vuly Adventure Quest XL, one of many monkey bars offered by the Australian-based company, immediately caught my eye. Offering a flying fox (zipline), climbing ropes and ladders, swings, and various other attachments, I knew my children, all avid climbers, would love it.
Vuly Adventure Quest XL Installation
Vuly recommends that at least two people set up the monkey bars. While each component can be easily attached independently, I quickly realized that the monkey bars needed a second set of hands to hold specific components when attaching both sides.
Thankfully, this was an easy process, and my oldest child, who was 12 at the time of installation, helped me for the first hour of setup.
Use The Vuly Quest XL YouTube Setup Video
During the first hour of the installation process, I attempted to rely on Vuly’s instruction book. However, there are a lot of steps, and I quickly found myself missing necessary steps and being confused by some of the pictorials.
A quick search online revealed that Vuly provides very easy-to-follow step-by-step video instructions. The Vuly video, which I watched step-by-step from my Smartphone, made the process much easier to complete. Within 5 hours, I had set up the entire monkey bar set. I highly recommend using the installation video.
You may notice you can’t see several base feet on my monkey bar set. My yard is very uneven, so I dug several small holes at the higher part of my yard, inserted the feet, and then anchored the feet in the ground before covering the holes with wood chips.
My monkey bar set has been installed for a year, and upon inspection, covering the powder-coated base has resulted in zero damage to the base. While I would suggest a level surface, I have found this method much more manageable than attempting to level the entire area.
A Ton Of Accessories My Children Actually Love To Use
Our yard has a full-size swing set, a tree house with monkey bars, a trampoline, and a Ninja slackline. While they will play with all of those outdoor options, they tend to stick to their favorite part of each. For example, my youngest loves the swing, my middle children love the slide and forts, and my teen only uses the trampoline.
With our Vuly playset, my kids use every aspect of the monkey bars. Thanks to the shade cover and powder coating, which keeps the Vuly monkey bars set cool, my kids also use them frequently, even on hot days. I also purchased the Vuly water mister, which can help cool down my kiddos when temperatures reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
The picture above shows closeups of several accessories that I recommend. The photo on the left is the bungie swing, followed by a family favorite, the wrecking ball swing, and on the right is another swing attachment used for the flying fox, a very cool zipline that glides effortlessly. Even after a season of snow and a ton of use, the Flying Fox still glides like the day I purchased the monkey bar set from Vuly.
Grips For Intermediate And Advanced Climbers
I admit that the ninja grips are used, but not nearly as much as the other accessories. That’s mainly because three of my children can’t easily reach them and don’t have the grip strength to fully utilize the accessory. Still, my oldest child has gotten much better at swinging from these grips over the past year. I would consider the elongated ninja grips to be an advanced climber accessory and not great for small children.
However, three of my four children regularly use the standard round ninja grips, which I’ve attached to the Vuly Monkey Bars. This is actually a great way to add a new dimension to how they swing across the monkey bars.
A Variety Of Climbing Accessories For My Little Monkeys
While my children love swinging and hanging out on the monkey bars, they are also all avid little climbers. Looking at the photo’s background above, you’ll see where I’ve had to attach rock climbers to one of our pine trees to give them more areas to climb in our yard.
That said, it’s no surprise that they love the cargo net, rope, and rope ladder. Their only complaint is that they would like the climber to be taller for more climbing action, but that’s a complaint they make about our tree climbers which go up considerably higher.
I left all of the accessories up over the winter, and they are still in like-new condition with just a little bit of color fading, a testament to the craftsmanship that has gone into this Vuly product suite.
Speaking of craftsmanship, the Vuly Monkey Bars shade cover is an accessory I highly recommend. We had a few six-inch and 12-inch snowfalls this winter, and the shade cover, which I decided to leave up over the winter, didn’t waver. At one point I did stand on a ladder and knock a bunch of snow off, but otherwise it was all on its own for the winter months.
Admittedly, getting that Shade Cover pulled tightly over the entire set was the most frustrating part of the build. However, it provides excellent shade coverage on sunny days.
A Growing Set Of Vuly Monkey Bar Accessories
As a side note, while I chose active accessories for little swingers and climbers, Vuly offers many other accessories from punch bags and speed bags, to a basketball net, and even relaxing accessories such as the hanging cubby.
Vuly accessories are meant to be easily changed out, which means you can purchase new options and given your children a bunch of different choices that can change throughout the year.
You can see all of the Vuly Monkey Bar accessories here.
The Vuly Adventure Quest XL has been a huge hit in my household, and now the company has rolled out an even more advanced option, the Vuly Ninja Quest Pro, which has a very cool new “hideout” option your children are sure to love.
The new climber and other options are on the official Vuly Website. If you like a set, use my Vuly coupon code “PP15” to save $15 on your order.
The Vuly Monkey Bars my kids have been using for over a year are a huge hit. They have withstood winter conditions and a ton of climbing from my four children and some neighborhood kids.
Even after a year, my children still play on their Vuly monkey bars every day. Even winter conditions couldn’t keep them from climbing in the snow and frigid temperatures, which is a real testament to how much they love this playset.
If you’re looking for other options, Vuly is a full-service outdoor playset company. Be sure to visit the Official Vuly Website for more monkey bar options, swingsets, and the best trampolines on the market. Whatever Vuly playset you decide on, I have a feeling you’ll love it.