I'm making my own canopy

[Jaw-naw-thin]

Hey guys I am trying to design a canopy to block heat/ provide shade for my group and possibly my fellow campers.... or something that will cover three small tents.

Here's what I am working on...



Any advice from people who have done something like this before....

My main concern is the wind knocking it down, I may need more sand bags at the bottom

[Stickjohn]

You have far more ambition than I do. Even when I'm not on vacation

Think you would need four spaces (forming a 16 x 16 square) to pull this off. This thread might be helpful - scroll down to the colored diagrams:
http://www.coachella.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29251

[eskamo951]

Unless you have a single piece of PVC for your height structures, I doubt it'll make it 16' tall. It'll be very flimsy. I wish you the best of luck in your efforts.

[feather]

This is adorable! I love your intense preparation. Good luck my friend.

[Wheres the beef?]

I applaud your efforts. I've tried making PVC structures in the past that ended in complete disaster. I like your idea though except for a few things:

The whole thing is a giant sail. It can get extremely windy at night and would blow that thing right over.

Are you really going to carry fucking sandbags into the campground????? Why dont you try something like put some rope around the PVC then connect it to two stakes in the ground.

I don't think its going to block that much sun. Especially from 11-3 which is going to SUCK.

[Jaw-naw-thin]

mission aborted, my friend has a canopy i can borrow, I'll probably trow some extra tarps over it to create more shade. Thanks for the advice guys.


16 MORE DAYS!!!

[Mr. Dylanja]

shoulda made a teepee....

[Jaw-naw-thin]

In one final attempt for awesomeness, i have taken everyone advice into consideration and come up with this



I call it Operation Destroy the Sun !

[furiacontralamaquina]

This last one is kinda like our setup...

anyhow trying to improve it for this year, great luck with your shelter.. be seeing you there

who would thought that PVC would serve to make such great portable structures.

[feather]

I don't remember the sun looking so angry last year.

[locachica73]

I think it was more like this...

[SFChrissy]

Nice Visuals Jaw!!!

[kimery08]

this thread makes me smile.
i love the effort being made.

[jennygirl]

oh man I am SO on a canopy mission this weekend

[furiacontralamaquina]

Here are some of our options from last year if they are of any help...

will def try to improve for this year but maybe will not be as grand as the gigantic timber A frame




One thing that you should really consider is to use that plastic tarp to a minimum or at least high enough because even if it blocks the direct sun it gets really hot if close enough...(use that gardening shade from home depot instead or a cotton bases fabric that breaths well) and do leave space for the breeze to flow cross flow of air is your best friend...

[furiacontralamaquina]

oh and just FYI you could use sketchup (free version) to try your design because it emulates the sun on date and time of coachella and you can see if it really blocks the morning sun or not, and even on different camping positions (N-S) or (E-W)

[didimydoe3]

I'm sorry I'm asking this but it's killing me.

What is this inside joke about Sean Penn's Acid Test!?!?!?

[Mr. Dylanja]

This is amazing, I especially like the midday girl on girl action

[PlayaDelWes]

Twins

[BROKENDOLL]

If I had wanted to make my own canopy for the fest, I should have started it back in like 2004! May as well warn you guys now...The cooler temps we'll be enjoying for the fest don't come free...It's been breezy the past few days, and this afternoon I attempted to erect our canopy. When I started, the sun was still out and the actual canopy itself was easy to put together. I felt so confident that I figured, "WTF, I'll make a toast to my progress!" (This may have been where I made my first error...

Now, granted, I picked this one up from WalMart for about $35, so it's not heavy duty in any sense.

In fact, it's actually light enough to be a kite if I really wanted to fly one! I of course took another sip of good cheer and attempted to stand it up again...which is when I decided this project had You Tube written all over it! %$#@&!!!



Keep in mind that the guide ties were factory wound into tidy little balls of string, and I made the mistake of thinking that one at a time would work...I'd no sooner get one leg up and jammed in the ground, and when I went to do another, I'd have to untangle it's string, giving the first one a chance to sneak it's way out of the ground. (The reason you're only getting random pics instead of the video version is because who the hell wants to watch a darkened video with only cursing in the background to know what's really going on?

suffacated came home to ask me what I was doing, (Hellooooo! WTF does it look like I'm doing? He answered, "flying a kite.") But, being my knight in shining armour, he galantly approached the canopy with confidence. I turned in time to see him attempting to take a guide line and attach it to one of the trees nearby... It was probably a genius idea, were we able to bring that tree with us into the campground, but I made it clear that we have to make it work with what we've got...He suggested heavy duty tent stakes instead of these pathetic things that came with it...I suggested he go back inside and just keep checking on me to make sure I wasn't sailing over the wall onto Monroe street.



An hour and 20 minutes later, I had completed my mission! It seemed the darker it began to get, the stronger the breeze got. Pics don't even do it justice. The noise on the vid is almost deafening! Need I say that once it was up I thought it would be appropriate to make another cheer, then leave it standing for the night as a test of wind durability...(Besides, the Coachella PBS show had come on and I wasn't gonna miss it because of worrying about natural disasters!)
By the time the show ended and my excitement had grown even more, I looked out back and noticed what appeared to be an alien dancing around in the yard area...No...it was the fucking canopy half-assed attached to the ground, the rose bushes, and thank God, leaning towards the wall! It had decided to unassemble itself I guess, and I have decided that suffacated was right...heavier stakes are needed, along with concrete foundations at each corner! &^%$#@&!!! (Kidding!)
Just wanted to share my first ever canopy erection with all of you, as well as giving a heads up to the possible conditions if you're planning on having an erection also...

[jennygirl]

phew! canopy mission accomplished here last night *sigh of relief* TWO WEEKS!!!!!!!!!! omgomgomgom

[furiacontralamaquina]

From my experience you should first assemble the canopy structure and then when all is done, put on the tarp or whatever blocks the sun. this way you wont be dealing with basically a giant trash bag in the wind :P...
also some camping stakes or a rebar stuck to the ground and then zip tied to the canopy's legs works just great to keep it from moving.

[Jaw-naw-thin]

wow, this thread has turned out to be really helpful, thanks everyone for replying!

[Jaw-naw-thin]

Here are some of our options from last year if they are of any help...

will def try to improve for this year but maybe will not be as grand as the gigantic timber A frame




One thing that you should really consider is to use that plastic tarp to a minimum or at least high enough because even if it blocks the direct sun it gets really hot if close enough...(use that gardening shade from home depot instead or a cotton bases fabric that breaths well) and do leave space for the breeze to flow cross flow of air is your best friend...

Huh. So no on the plastic tarp huh? I am looking at home depot for "gardening shade" and cant seem to find anything... cotten base, you mean like a sheet???

[Stickjohn]

Your thread inspired me to look for more shade, and I found this triangular-shaped 12 x12 x 12 canopy but I wanted to know how "wide" it was.

I had to break out 8th grade algebra and Pythagoras' Theorem. I think it was the first time.

10.4 ?

[furiacontralamaquina]

Huh. So no on the plastic tarp huh? I am looking at home depot for "gardening shade" and cant seem to find anything... cotten base, you mean like a sheet???

shade cloth, well they usually have it on the garden section its like 5' wide and the long that you desire (or want to spend), and yes any fabric that is mostly cotton or any piece will be ok just don't go all polyester unless you like disco LoL.

also thats not an absolute no to the plastic tarp, its a great option too you know, cheap and light weight just don't over do it, the main thing here is not to build a plastic shelter box unless you really like to sweat and don't like a cooling breeze just remember to cover your east (and partially south) side as that's the direction the sun gets up on the morning and the main reason you put a shade because no matter how hot it gets during the day you will be rocking the polo fields and be back to an all cooled down camp at midnight


Look here for the shade cloth:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/...3&Ntk=AllProps


And here is a little animation of the sun trajectory in indio on the days of coachella to give you a little more visual on where to block, hope it helps every step is +1 hr.. from 6am till noon.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txp4zvQEJY8

[somahead]

Father-in-law brought over some amazing "fabric" this evening for us to use at Coachella. If you see the EZup sporting walls that look like the skins of a polar bear, don't hesitate to drop in and say hi.

Next weekend the wife and I will be setting up and tearing down our assumed camping area. We like to work the kinks out before trying to erect our masterpiece under the scorching desert sun.

[Jremy]

Way to raise the bar on the digital art.

[furiacontralamaquina]

well I use sketchup about every day so, also lets me see any possible problems in advance... great for trying crazy setups and not waste a dime

[BrettShipes]

We put our tent offset to the west of the canopy and put a tarp on the east side, that way there's still room under the canopy to put our tiny pool and a couple chairs while still blocking most of the sun in the morning.

I'm also installing two homemade ventilation fans in the tent to take away a good chunk of the accumulated warm air. Computer Case fans being run from a battery generator via 12v usb.