[MR] covering the plastic tent

[Brett W. McCoy]

On Mon, 3 Jun 2002, Arthur Donadio wrote:

> A word of caution to all those trying to retrofit a modern dayshade.  There
> is a reason Wal Mart can sell those things so cheaply.  They are engineered
> (if they are engineered at all) to bear the weight of nylon or plastic.  The
> frame may need to be augmented and a system of ropes and stakes added in
> order to take a canvas load.  This is particularly true when the canvas gets
> wet.  When the canvas gets wet and you get a little wind from the side, the
> tent collapses.  Take it from one who has tried to convert every conceivable
> modern tent/shade into a more period shelter.  Just be careful.  There are
> few things less fun than trying to hang on to the roof of an EZ Up in one of
> those big storms at Pennsic.

A solution to that is to replace the dayshade poles with sturdier wooden
poles.  You can get them relatively cheaply from places like Lowes and
stain them to make them look nice.  This is really not too different than
the bedouin tents we made a couple weekends ago.  The main difference is
the dayshade roof pattern is smaller than than the roof patterns we used,
so you could probably get away with 5 poles (4 on the corners, one in the
center) rather than the 9 the bedouin tent requires.

-- Istvan
                                          http://www.chapelperilous.net/
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