Lag screw or through bolt: what your beam is asking for
The one decision that gets made wrong most often, and the published numbers that settle it.
Two questions
Find the hardware for your setup
Pick what you plan to drill into and we point you to the right shelf of hangers, brackets, or kits.
What are you working with
How many seats
Pick one from each row. The shelf below narrows, and the note underneath changes with it.
What the two answers point at
Why the note matters more than the list
Four of the five answers above land on much the same hardware, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise. A hanger is a hanger. What actually changes between a porch header, a garage joist and a frame you are building from lumber is the fixing: what you drill into, whether you can reach the far face of the beam, and whether the thing is anchored to the ground at all.
So the list narrows a little and the note changes a lot. If you only read one line on this page, read the note. And where a number appears in it, remember whose number it is: where the figures come from.
Spacing on the beam: three published layouts, side by side
Nobody agrees on the inches. Here is what four sources actually say, and where they overlap.
Anchoring an A frame: stakes, augers, and when it has to be concrete
A frame rarely breaks. It walks, it rocks, and on one side it lifts. That is an anchoring problem, not a strength problem.