I need some help. I have a Caravan Tent, but the walls that I have no longer close. Part of the reason, but I don't think so - might be that I have stabars on three of the four sides with mesh panels. I am looking for suggestions. Do I need to buy new walls? Can I get wall extenders?
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Try scooting the front legs toward each other and see if that works. I used some EZ-Up tarps that came with one of my tents instead of the much older Elaine Martin tarps I have, and had some of the same problems you're describing to the point of busting some sewn seams on the zippers. I pushed the sides of the tent toward each other as I only had Sta-Bars on the left and right side, but not on the rear. That gave enough clearance so they would zip. It was made easier the next time by attaching the sides first, and partially zipping the sides together before installing the Sta-Bars. Just don't completely unzip them until tear-down or it'll be a royal pain to get them zipped again.
As Larry said, it's easier to saw off an inch of the Sta-Bar and drill a new hole and eliminate the problem altogether. I've got 3 or 4 sets of EZ-Up sides that date back a good 10 years or so for the oldest and they're better construction than the new ones, but they all are a little short when using the Sta-Bars. My Elaine Martin tarps have lasted a long, long time, but they're shabby looking and starting to delaminate the woven fabric. If trimming an inch off the bars will save me from buying a new set of tarps, that's a cheap fix I'll do in a few weeks before my first show of the season.
Most problems are solved through the process of elimination.
Do the sides close without the sta-bars? Are the sta-bars put on correctly? Can the sta-bars be shortened by an inch if so? That might mean drilling an additional hole an inch over in each bar. Has anyone else had this problem? I don't recall anyone ever posting about it.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
Larry is correct. Caravan does not make sta-bars for their canopies, only a side rail for half walls. I have two Caravan canopies and they the dimensions are nominal so if you are counting on a true 10 X 10 they are short. The legs must be perfectly perpendicular or the original wall that come with a caravan will not close. I don't use the inexpensive side wall because the zippers are very poor. I use the denier 500 wall that I made myself and I added a flap on each corner that covers the zippers.
I didn't find any posts about it when I searched it. Now that I think about it, I bought them used and I am not 100% sure that they actually went with the Tent originally.