A good way to attach my brace bars to square tent legs?

Thank you all so much for the wealth of great information that you all have provided. I have learned so much reading posts and following suggested links for more information.

So I did my first art show last Saturday. Its a small show in the courtyard of my local mall. While sales were low, it was a good way to test my setup and display. My gray display walls are home made so I was somewhat concerned about how they would do. For the most part everything stayed as set up, with a couple of issues.

The main issue is that my walls slid down the tent legs. I tried to make due with ill fitting clamps by adding a foam insert. It did not work well. Does anyone have suggestions where I can get clamps that work well for attaching brace bars to square legs? I have been trying to locate some using google, but maybe I am not using the correct name or description. The ones that Flourish sells look good and look simple to use, but I don't see a way to attach them to my current bars. My brace bars are 3/4" steel conduit with a pvc pipe outer cover and a bolt out of each end to attach to the clamps. The current clamps are conduit clamps, I believe, with foam inserts to conform to the square legs. I used 4 clamps per bar for better grip. They are attached to the legs below the canopy, but not up above because I was concerned about damaging the tent.

I realize now that I do need to simplify my set up so the walls are going to be reworked. Set up took too long as the displays walls are rolled up for transport and storage. My plan is to cut each wall in half horizontally and build new smaller frames so I can transport and store them without taking the frames apart.

I would appreciate any suggestions you may on how to find better clamps for square legs to suspend my walls or any other suggestions you have on redesigning to make set up easier. I'll ask about visual stuff in a different post.

Overall my first art fair day was a valuable learning experience.

*edited for clarity and pictures

FirstArtShow.jpg

Replies

Camille Knutson August 11, 2015 at 3:56pm

Love my Flourish Staybarz! I just got the lowers. They work great!
- Abbyanna Gehrke > Camille Knutson August 12, 2015 at 11:47pm
  
  Thanks Camille. I'm going to call Flourish tomorrow and see if I can make those clamps work for my set up.
Greg Little August 10, 2015 at 2:56pm

The sta-bars that flourish sells for other brand tents, both upper and lower, work very good and have a thumb screw that will snug them up against your tent legs.
In addition to my Trimline tent i have a pop up tent and I bought the upper/lower sta bars for it. Best choice...
You should call Flourish and talk with them because they are always so friendly and helpful.
- Abbyanna Gehrke > Greg Little August 10, 2015 at 5:04pm
  
  Thank you, Greg. I will look at Flourish again. When you use the sta bars with your pop up tent do you secure them in another way as well? I have never used one of these tents before so I was not sure if attaching something to the upper area of the tent frame would cause problems with the latches or moving parts.
  - Regina Valluzzi > Abbyanna Gehrke August 11, 2015 at 3:14pm
    
    I have Flourish Sta bars and clamps. The clamps have extra holes where the poles go in and they come with little thumb screws you can work into the holes to clamp the bars very securely. I'll try to get a photo when the rain lets up. The Flourish people are very helpful over the phone. Why not get some good photos of the problem area, call them and ask them to look at the photos?
    - Abbyanna Gehrke > Regina Valluzzi August 12, 2015 at 11:46pm
      
      Thank you Regina. I am going to call Flourish tomorrow and see what they say.
  - Greg Little > Abbyanna Gehrke August 10, 2015 at 7:51pm
    
    Abbyanna...I ended up drilling holes through the upper sta bar brackets and using a pin to hold each one in place. I did this because i hang metal corrugated panels on them in addition to some of my wood wall hangings. The brackets attach just to the legs and do not affect any other parts
    - Abbyanna Gehrke > Greg Little August 12, 2015 at 11:45pm
      
      It sounds like you can support quite a bit from the sta bars. Hopefully I will not have to do anything that extensive.
Larry Berman August 10, 2015 at 12:13pm

The obvious solution is to also attach the support poles to the roof canopy supports in the corners.

But you're not making it clear what it actually is that you're doing? Aren't your panels stiff to support the work that's hanging? If you are just hanging carpet on the top poles, the weight of the carpet combined with the weight of the hanging artwork will pull the top poles down. Is that's what's happening?

Larry Berman
- Abbyanna Gehrke > Larry Berman August 10, 2015 at 5:15pm
  
  Thank you Larry. I was rushing to get on the road earlier and so I made the quick fix to my original post and ran out the door. I appreciate your quick response.
  
  Now that I know I can attach something I the upper corners of the canopy frame that will simplify things quite a bit. Never having used one of these pop up tents before, I was somewhat concerned I was going to destroy my tent on the first day of full set up by adding too much weight. I guess these tents are stronger than they look.

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