Long story short...
Bought a car canopy, Set it up on the side driveway (pretty reclusive, Or so you would think to wind from all directions).
Thought it would be fine until the notorious NW rain let up for the summer.
So the other day we get hit unexpectedly to anyone with EXTREME winds for the whole of about half an hour.
I get out outside after hearing crazy whooshing noises flowing over the house IN THE BAsp00geT just in time to see my 10x20 car canopy hovering over the T-Bird (2 of the legs ready to stomp on it) and our property fence holding it from flipping over~Sop i run over and grab a leg and hold it, While gusts continue to hit so hard i'm nearly lifting off the ground with the thing...
After holding it for several minutes and having no idea what the heck im gonna do (no one else is home) i just say eff it and flip it upside down over the fence (easily with the winds help).
Only way to get it back over after the wind died down was to take it back apart. :punchballs:
T-Bird seems to be ok, Couple bars on the canopy were bent.
So now i have no idea what im going to do...
I have nowhere to store the T-Bird that is covered, Best i can do is a fitted cover. And we have HUGE NW Trees covering our property (Pine Needles/Tree + Constant Rain).
I spent $200 on the canopy, And im afraid to use it now.
I'm trying to think of ways to reinforce it or build it up to be stronger, But im just not sure.
What do you guys think?
And for anyone wondering,
This is what I'm currently thinking about doing.
I was thinking of how i could add weight to the frame poles themselves, And i got to thinking about filling them with cement~Thus an internet search led me to this:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Stiffening-a-Pole
So I'm thinking of trying that with the Legs for starters, While continuing looking for ideas as how to sturdy up the frame all around and secure it to the ground.
That sucks. Reminds me of last summer, with the house on the corner of my street... A runaway car missed the corner and smashed through his garage and part of his house. He waited for the insurance to fix it. They ended up residing the whole place. Then, not a week went by and the neighbors aluminum car canopy did what yours did, and flipped up and smashed into their house, wrecking their brand new siding, and part of the roof.
Is yours one of those all metal/aluminum ones? Or one of those bar/canvas ones? Either way, I bet you could get by with some mobile home tie downs (they are like a big threaded eye that goes into the ground with some steel straps that connect to the frame). Or you could red-neck it, go to the pet store and get some of those big threaded things to tie big dogs to. Thread them down into the ground nice and deep, and chain them to the canopy frame, heh.
If you don't have it secured to the ground in any fashion...of course the winds are going to pick it up and toss it around. It's a big sail.
You could secure it with stakes, etc as mentioned.
Another idea I thought of is using the weight of the car to hold it down. I'm assuming the feet of the poles have plates with perhaps holes in them? Perhaps you could get some 2x4's or whatever, and build up a base frame that attaches to the pole bases, and then run 2 cross pieces where the axles of the car are. Then when you put the car under it, and stop it on those crossbraces, that would be holding the canopy down. YOu wouldn't even have to bolt the crossbraces to the pieces running along the sides between the poles, as the weight of the car sitting on top of them over the side pieces would keep things in place.
Just an idea.
Thanks for the ideas guys.
And also if anyone was wondering~We dont really have any neighbors. ;-)
We live next to a huge baptist church on one side, Then large empty fields (owned by the church) surround us, due to a loophole in the 60's by the builders and original owners of our house~Church owners lost there one and only chance to date to get there hands on this bit of property.
Anyway,
This is the exact one i have:
http://www.mac-automotive.com/
I also have the enclosure kit, Which I had not installed yet. (besides the front piece)
It's what i could come up with locally in my price range, I was leary of the frame, Especially with the 6 legs instead of 8... But i went for it anyway~Regretting it.
Yes, I have got the "In ground" stake style tie downs, As they came with the enclosure kit. But they only have a thin nylon cord + i have awkward positioning around the sides to deal with them so i was still deciding on that and waiting for the rain to subside.
As for the weight of the car idea~Thats pretty neat.
I may actually incorporate that into sturdying up the frame legs in general, As they go wonky and any direction they want to.
And yes, The legs do have the ends with holes for mounting, But they did not work too well... I had cynder block positioned over them, And the poles just yanked right out of em.
Ill get upload some pics of after i put it together so you guys can get an idea of the area its in.
The holes in the legs aren't going to work all that well if you just set cinder blocks on them, that's why I suggested bolting the side pieces to the pole bases. Once the wind starts knocking the thing around, the weights that are just "set" on the bases are not going to stay in place.
6 legs or 8 legs, the thing is going to want to fly with a good wind as it weighs nothing compared to the surface area it has to grab the wind.
Anyway, if it were mine, I'd do as I mentioned.
I will and then some.
Like i said, I just wanted to get it set up and i made temporary precautions for it until i got around to actually placing it.
I truly believed i would be fine weather wise to do this, And was proven terribly wrong.
Live and learn, Wont happen again. :disappoin
Here is some pics~
Getting ready to set up, Middle of the night, Cleaned up the inches of tree debris and the weeds at the fence line during the day as well as mowed.
BONUS! Pic of my "Elusive '84 Thunderbird" (Kinda ;) ):
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/Aesthetikz/Thunderbird/t-birdframe01.jpg)
Top Frame:
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/Aesthetikz/Thunderbird/t-birdframe03.jpg)
All together minus sides:
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/Aesthetikz/Thunderbird/t-birdframe04.jpg)
Heres a quick and crude mock up of ideas for reinforcing the frame:
(http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b325/Aesthetikz/Thunderbird/framereinforce.jpg)
Lower red would probably be wood, to allow for further and future attachments or hold downs.
Upper red could be wood, pipe or pvc (depending on structural needs to be determined)
blue would probably be pvc, just for extra stiffening and to hopefully get rid of some drooping in the roof tarping.
green is tie downs that would go in the ground, or attach to the fence.
Legs filled with cement and fitted with rebar to provide extra strength, and more importantly~Weight.
Throwing the idea around in my head of digging holes into the ground and fitting pipes that the legs would fit into, Similiar to how you seat a flagpole.
But... One side i would have to go through concrete to do this.
I could also have the rebar sticking out of the legs as the cement in the legs dries, thus making the need for the "socket" hole in the ground much smaller.
Wow that looks very weak.
Will need quite a bit of work to reinforce that.
Yes. It would almost be better to build one yourself out of wood or metal pipe.
Could you anchor it to the fence on the one side then tie the other side down as per your green lines on the other side? Most people in my area seem to have the eight leg tents and use rail road ties down both sides to hold them down. As common as it is for these things to blow away I thought everyone knew?
Scott
You think that was bad? Try a 24x20 STEEL carport blowing up on top of a two story house in the middle of winter!
Yikes!
Thats actually like what i really wanted to get, But was WAY out my price range.
I made mistakes on the decisions and purchases, I'll suffer the consequences... and have.
But its what i have now, And i need to make it work.
I've got a lot of ideas swimming through my head + What you guys have offered, Just need to make a trip down to the Hardware Store and get busy!
And i may just end up using it as a base frame to build onto and make an actual car port in time as mentioned.
Anyhow,
If you have any more suggestions, feel free to keep posting 'em as i'm always looking for ways to better things.
on rented tent canopies over here, the have steel plates welded to pipe. you slide a couple half or whole concrete block over that, and the tent poles go into the pipe and have holes to put a pin or bolt through the 2. or you can drill some holes in the steel plate, and drive some rods through the plate and into the ground on each one
Try some puppies....:rollin:
That could be dangerous. :rollin:
So i made a trip over to Home Depot w/ Dad.
Found a straight up replacement for the weak 10' 2-piece legs of the canopy:
1-5/8 16ga steel (chain link fence posts) pipe in 8foot lengths.
had the elbows for the top/roof of the frame and test fit them, absolutely perfect fit, it could not be any better, just a slight resistance but a bfh or force twisting and fits like a glove.
we also went for dads idea to go along with the new legs:
1 of these:
http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?jspStoreDir=hdus&catalogId=10053&productId=100323041&navFlow=3&keyword=pier+blocks&langId=-1&searchRedirect=pier+blocks&storeId=10051&endecaDataBean=com.homedepot.sa.el.wc.integration.endeca.EndecaDataBean%40bafaf4b&ddkey=Search
at the base of each leg, with a 1/2 piece of rebar cemented in the hole, with a piece of pvc/pipe bigger than the leg pipe setting over and connected/filled with concrete.
so you slide the legs into "pier block bases" and put a bolt through to lock em' in place.
and also use the stakes/tie downs but possibly using chain instead of rope (to the fence at least).
I'd sink some eyebolts in the pavement and tie guy ropes to the top of the poles, just like a tent, which is what that is really. You can get those yard anchors for dogs that cork scrw into the ground if you didnt want to sink bolts in the driveway.
yes, I plan on doing this on top of the other modifications i'm working on.
I got to thinking last night about dads pier block mating plan (Plus we forgot to buy cement mix), And was trying come up with a better setup for it, so...
I've been checking the H-Ware store websites for something like this:
http://www.homedepot.com/Building-Materials/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xh8Zaqns/R-100645155/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053
But those are a wee bit small, So im still on the hunt (Need something that fits closely inside or outside a 1-5/8 tube)
Then i would get some redhead concrete anchor bolts, And mount them to the pier blocks.
Stick the canopy legs in (or over) the "base mounts" drill a hole through and stick a bolt through. (on all six legs)
and for those curious, between the new legs and the pier blocks, There is roughly a 400lb weight increase~more than double what the canopy weighed out of the box.