Carole Fox on mon 10 sep 07
Much has been said on this list re display canopies, and having done a
festival this weekend where overnight storms did significant damage, I
thought I would share a tip with those who use EZ-Up and similar
canopies. The storm that blew through Saturday night brought lightning,
high wind, and heavy rain. There were 20+ tents that were brought down by
the wind, and several that took on water. Fortunately, my EZ-up was not
among them.
The EZ-up next to mine, however, was totally destroyed - a twisted,
mangled mess of what used to be legs and trusses. Why? The exhibitors
had suspended tote boxes of merchandise (hand-made rugs) from the trusses,
apparently in the mistaken belief that the extra weight would help hold
the tent in place. Instead, the whole top of the tent twisted in the
wind, breaking the frame into pieces. Ironically, what was left of the
legs remained firmly anchored to the ground. Their tent and merchandise
were a complete loss.
EZ-Up instructs users not to hang anything from the trusses for a reason.
And, while I can't imagine any potters would suspend tote boxes of pots
that way :-), I have seen many with weights hanging from those trusses.
The tip: don't do it!
Carole Fox
Dayton, OH
Bruce Girrell on tue 11 sep 07
Good advise Carole.
We had four, one inch thick steel plates. Each one weighed 50 lbs and had a
post that the leg of the EZ-Up sat on top of. There is a hole in each leg of
the EZ-Up for just this sort of thing. The top edges and corners of the
plates were rounded off by grinding so that our customers wouldn't catch a
toe on them.
In addition, we would stake the legs whenever possible using the corkscrew
type of anchors usually used for tying up dogs. Our booth survived intact
even in weather in which I saw other booths literally flying 10-20 feet in
the air. The only time that we had difficulty was one time when we were set
up on pavement (couldn't use the stakes) and winds were so bad that the
entire booth was sliding down the street. That day, only five vendors
survived the elements. We were one of them.
Bruce and Lynne Girrell
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