Tent Weight Placement Question

In the post on "Booth Shots to show examples to newbies", Oscar Matos Linares posted photos of his booth where he has attached his weights to the StaBars at the bottom of the tent close to the corners. 
Most of the tent weights I have seen are hanging from tie straps connected to the top corners of the tents, then attached to the legs near the bottom of the legs. 

So my question is this, since both locations place the weight near the bottom of the tent, does it matter where the weight is located? 

Would there be an advantage of the weight being more on the corner of the tent where the leg is located? 

Or, would placing the weight be more beneficial being placed on the lower StaBars? 

I like the clean look of the weights being on the StaBars.  No need to covering the tie straps at the legs.   

Just a side note to this, I went to a show this weekend just to walk and check it out.  I was surprised how many booths didn’t have weights or had them hanging halfway down the legs and just swinging in the wind. 

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  • Hi Y'all!  

    I'm sure you know that Chicago's nickname is "The Windy City". Of course that was a moniker derived from all the political hot air, but we really do get some velocity here.

    I just made a set of weights for my EZ Up for about $100....a LOT less than the systems sold online and just as effective. It took about an hour to make them.

    I went to Home Depot and bought a 10' length of 4' diameter PVC pipe and cut it into 4 equal pieces. (The guy at the store cut it in half first, so it would fit in my car.)

    I bought 4 plain caps and 4 threaded female ends with the corresponding threaded clean out caps and 4 large-ish eyebolts with nuts.

    I cemented (using the PVC recommended adhesive) the plain caps to one end of the pipe sections and cemented the female threaded pieces to the other ends. I drilled a hole in the center of the cleanout caps and put the eyebolts into the holes with the nut securing the eyebolts from the inside of the cap. The eyebolts are used to attach the tie straps to the upper corners of the canopy.

    The empty weight is about 5lbs per piece...full, they are about 45 lbs each. You can unscrew the cleanout caps and either fill the containers at the show or at home and dump out the water when the show is over.

    Voila!

  • I can not tell you where is the best place to hang the weights. I know that they can not touch the ground neither should be higher than 6 inches. Putting all the weights in corner like most artist do I had been told that can damage the tents joints and increase twist effect.

    The cross over like the diagram only works if you all for sizes. Other wise the wind twist the tent to little pieces if you get the gust from the the front side or back.

    The biggest problem is not you worry about your tent flying out is other people. I saw in Cottonwood a 10X20 trimline flip over because of the wind.

  • I just had a thought and a question for those of you with the TrimLine tent.  It is not a weight question, more of an added support question.  Do you think it would be possible to slide the awning brackets down the leg, tuning them in (removing the extension pieces that hold the awning out away from the tent) then use the cross piece from the awning as a brace for the front of the tent for the night? 

    • Yes, I think it would work.

       Separate question, after reading Jim Parker's blog.  Does anyone think that raising or removing my sides would have helped with the wind issue I experienced this weekend (I had this option with no rain/snow)?  Seems like there would have been less surface area to catch the wind.  The wind was coming in from the front of the tent, so it seems that if I only had the top on, and no sides, there would have been way less surface area to catch the wind.

      • I know at one show we put the side up to help let the wind blow through the tent...I just had to keep an eye on things to make sure they didn't get blown away.  This is why I was looking at getting the mesh walls, my thinking was the would help stabilize the tent and still let the wind/air pass through.  The only issue I had with my old tent a E-Z up Endeavor Dome was last fall at Rochester.  The show was done and we were packing things up the tent had been lowered and I had removed the walls and loosened the  weight bags...bad idea on not keeping the weight bags tight. My husband had made a trip to the trailer when a gust of wind came down between the buildings, I made a quick grab for the tent frame and top and stopped if for becoming a kite.  When he came back I was still hanging on to the tent.  we lowered in down the rest of the way and folded it to its center while we packed up the rest...lesson learned...keep the weights on until the tent is down all the way!

        • From experience, my tent is not going to move in most blows. I'm more concerned about a tent and frame blowing into mine. Comments that might be discussed: 1. is it better to just let the cover blow off? Seems to me it would cause less damage than frame and cover going over. 2. Paneled walls offer resistance to wind. Do you provide a path of less resistance by taking some down?
          During takedown in high winds, I try to get the cover off first after merchandise is packed. Merchandise provides a lot of weight to tent on pegboard on upper 3' of walls. Next is to get pegboard down on walls to allow wind to blow through. Weights remain on walls until all pegboard is down.
      • I'm not sure if that would have helped but I can tell you that getting the sides off without the tent taking off would have been very difficult in the wind.  I was at a very windy show once and at breakdown I forgot my cardinal rule which is sides come off before the pro panels come down.  So all the pro panels were down and I zipped off one side - the wind caught the tent and lifted it up weights and all.  

        • I have the mesh panels, so the wind goes thru them rather than having them catch the wind.  My thinking was the whole inside of the tent would not have filled up, just the roof. I really think the issue was the wind was coming from the front, so I had a 3 sided, roofed kite, filling up with wind.  If the wind would have gone straight thru the back of the tent, it may not have lifted.  As I was lying on the ground trying to pull the tent back down, it seemed like the top and all three sides were inflated like a giant baloon, with no where for the wind to go.

  • I just did a search and found these...is anyone using them?  Not trying to promote them, just the first time I have seen these.  http://www.ez-weights.com/index.html 
    I do have the PVC ones my husband made, but thinking we may need more.

     

    • If you watch the video on this site the tent battles against the wind, however the wind never gets above about 27mph, also there are no sides on the tent they use.  After viewing the video, I wasn't that impressed with their system, but that's just my $.02.  They don't show if the tent was just held by their weights or if it was also staked to the ground.  It would have been nice to see them walk up to it and lift one of the legs to show it was not anchored in any other way. 

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