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3 friends and my self are going to be taking 2 cars to roo and I had an idea for shade. Take 4 of the thicker pvc pipes, about 6 foot each. 2 of them small enough to slide inside the other 2. Take the larger pipes and hammer them into the ground about a foot, then put the smaller one about a foot inside the larger one and bolt it in. Then run a tarp from the top of these 2 post, now 9-10 feet tall, and run it all the way back to the end of the cars. Now the whole area is shaded. Thoughts? Not sure if it would work or not.
Assuming the cars park side-by-side, two problems.
-If the weather's dry then PVC's going to be very difficult to hammer into the concrete-hard ground at the farm. You're going to be breaking the pipe at both ends and bending it in the middle (yeah, even cpvc.) -Assuming you get the pipes hammered in, the weight of the tarp is going to tend to pull your pipes towards each other and towards your cars if you don't have guy lines on the corners. I'd draw a picture but if you think about it for a second you'll see what I mean.
Last Edit: Apr 29, 2013 12:54:13 GMT -5 by Deleted - Back to Top
It might work, but you're going to have a couple things to figure out.
- You need to make sure the tarps are secured to both the pvc and the cars so it won't blow away. I'm having a hard time actually visualizing it, but I assume bungee cords would work best. - I made a flagpole out of pvc last year and tried to hammer it into the ground. You can get it hammered in, but it took a lot because the ground was so dry it was like hammering it into rock. You might want to consider bringing a small sledge hammer. I don't know if soaking the ground with water or digging a small hole first would help or not. - If you are planning on the pvc pipes to be right next to the car, do something to protect the car in case the pvc pipe rubs against the side of the car from the winding swaying it. cover the car with a blanket of some sort, or get some foam that would fit around the outside of the pvc pipe.
Those are the major things I can see. I think it would work, you just need to test it once before you go. Leave it up for a day or so if you can, and even on a day that is supposed to be windy/rainy so you can gauge what adjustments might need to be made.
Oh, by the way...you're looking at something like $10 a stick for the PVC, plus the cost of the tarp and the guylines...why not just buy an EZ-up knockoff? They're like $50.
Last Edit: Apr 29, 2013 13:08:28 GMT -5 by Deleted - Back to Top
Maybe bring rebar to hammer in first, then put PVC over it??
The problem there is getting the rebar back out of the ground. It's corrugated and if you hammer it in far enough, you'll have to jack it out with your car jack and some baling wire or something. I know this because I had to do it for a friend's flagpole a couple of years ago.
If anyone goes this way, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't leave foot-long stubs of rebar sticking up out of the ground for your fellow roovians to drive over and puncture their tires on...
I think that if you used guy lines as mentioned earlier, that this could actually work. If the ground is really dry and hard, a post hole digger could make the holes.
Or you could just park the cars wide and set up the tarp between the 2 cars, attaching to both cars.
Maybe bring rebar to hammer in first, then put PVC over it??
The problem there is getting the rebar back out of the ground. It's corrugated and if you hammer it in far enough, you'll have to jack it out with your car jack and some baling wire or something. I know this because I had to do it for a friend's flagpole a couple of years ago.
If anyone goes this way, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't leave foot-long stubs of rebar sticking up out of the ground for your fellow roovians to drive over and puncture their tires on...
Thank you for posting this. I plan on using rebar to support a simple photo booth at brunch. It should be pretty light so I shouldn't have to get it too far in the ground, but this gives me something to consider, so thank you!
Post by F me, I quit America on Apr 29, 2013 13:42:26 GMT -5
I like alternative DIY solutions, but I'm not too confident about this one. It sounds like it could work, but it will not be much cheaper than a commercial canopy and has some inherent problems. If you need say 20 feet of 3"-4" PVC, that alone will run $25-$30, not counting any hardware or anything to mate it to the ground, plus the cost of a decent tarp. You wouldn't want the cheapest, thinnest grad of tarp, which would not stand up to being pulled taught and flapping in the wind, so probably $20+ right there. And of course getting the PVC to stand up won't be easy once you start trying to stretch a tarp over it, so guy lines will probably be a necessity.
Comparing cost, difficulty of setup, and chance of failure (which could be a torn tarp, snapped or bending PVC, collapse, pulling out of the ground, etc.) of this setup vs. a $50-$75 canopy, I'd opt for the latter. If you already have the supplies laying around, by all means go for it, if you can test it out on a windy day beforehand. And post pics here if you do!
The main benefit over a 10x10 easy up would be that a 10x10 easy up doe not give 10 by 10 feet of shade all day long. If you put walls on it I suppose it would be now your limiting air flow. My plan would give an area about 25 feet wide by 40 feet long of shade and while there would be the same problems involved with the angle of the sun, a larger area would give more shade and shade the tents as well as the cars. I had thought to do bungee cords under the front of the cars and then the pvs posts would be a the other end of the camp site. If I put a 90 degree bend in the rebar then getting it out would be a bit easier. I hadn't taken into consideration the ground being THAT hard. Thank you for pointing it out.
Or how about spare tent poles and guide wires to replace the pvc if we think it'd be too hard to hammer in?
I like the idea but I think, as a few people said, you're over-thinking. Just go to Wal Mart and grab a knock off EZ Up and if you want to make the shade extend further just zip tie some additional tarps or tapestries to it.
Post by ludovico62 on Apr 29, 2013 21:32:04 GMT -5
I found a really nice First up canopy on craigslist from someone for $50 about a month ago. The idea was just to use it for bonnaroo but I've used it every weekend since I've bought it. Makeshift canopies will end up costing you as much as a real one and even the cheap real ones will last long after bonnaroo and wont take up as much space
Post by F me, I quit America on Apr 29, 2013 23:45:28 GMT -5
My group's setup the last two years included two canopies side by side for about 200 square feet of shade. One tarp was hung on one side, and used to block the dang lights at night even more than the sun. No airflow problems, and we had enough shade for the 5 of us plus some to share. If you really end up with 1000 square feet of shade I guess it would be nice to keep your cars cool, but one or two EZ ups are plenty for 4 people, and they are indeed easy to set up. My canopy was $35 at a local discount and close-out store, it is sturdy, and I can take it out of the car and have it unfolded, up and staked in less than 5 minutes.
I can't be bothered to figure out how to successfully do the PVC + tarp thing, but I'd really like to see it if someone else puts the time into making it work. Seems like too much work for too little gain, but I'd honestly like to be proven wrong, and might copy it. So although I wouldn't do it, I say go for it, take pics, and write it up here and on instructables.com.
3 friends and my self are going to be taking 2 cars to roo and I had an idea for shade. Take 4 of the thicker pvc pipes, about 6 foot each. 2 of them small enough to slide inside the other 2. Take the larger pipes and hammer them into the ground about a foot, then put the smaller one about a foot inside the larger one and bolt it in. Then run a tarp from the top of these 2 post, now 9-10 feet tall, and run it all the way back to the end of the cars. Now the whole area is shaded. Thoughts? Not sure if it would work or not.
Assuming the cars park side-by-side, two problems.
-If the weather's dry then PVC's going to be very difficult to hammer into the concrete-hard ground at the farm. You're going to be breaking the pipe at both ends and bending it in the middle (yeah, even cpvc.) -Assuming you get the pipes hammered in, the weight of the tarp is going to tend to pull your pipes towards each other and towards your cars if you don't have guy lines on the corners. I'd draw a picture but if you think about it for a second you'll see what I mean.
In 2007, we had four cars in our group, and we had designed an amazing tarp canopy that would cover the majority of our campsite. We were going to use both rebar and some spiral screw anchors. First Problem: When we were parking, the parking guy parked us completely differently than we thought we'd be, even after explaining we were all together. Second Problem: TN was in the middle of an epic drought, and we couldn't screw the anchors in the ground (the dirt just turned to powder), and the rebar actually bent when trying to hammer it into the rock hard ground. We managed to rig up a makeshift canopy with it all, but luckily one of our guys brought an EZup. Honestly, the EZup worked out great, especially for what little time we actually spent at camp under it. We invested in an EZup knockoff after that.
One of our members dropped out so We are going to be only bringing one car now so I think it going to go car, tent, easy up with a tarp connecting the easy up and the car so the tent is shaded and some tarps for the walls of the easy up.
Here's the setup I used at Bonnaroo for a few years. Your plan sounds similar. Mine has worked well. Just make sure rain won't collect on the tarp. If that happens you'll have problems.
I did very similar to the photo but my tarp went over the end poles a bit and down to break the sun in the morning that shone into my tent. I hammered the PVC in the ground with a rubber mallet. but you will still need guide lines to hold it taught.
