echris 1,425 #1 Posted October 12, 2020 (edited) I did, on the cheap. And she's been around for over 20 years now. Years ago a bunch of family and friends would do a huge 4th of July camping trip. One year, it was a rainout. Which kinda sucked because all the ladies were hiding in the tents. So that winter I thought I would design a huge party tent that can be packed up with your camping supplies. They told me I was crazy. And it freaking worked! The next year, it was drizzling the entire 2+ hour trip to the campgrounds. 30 minutes after arriving at the rainy campgrounds, our 40' x 20' party tent was set up. These are the original plans, I've made a few mods over the years, but in about 1995, it cost around $100. Very simple, sturdy, cheap design using off the shelf parts. If you have a pass-through trunk the 7' poles should easily fit in most cars, trunk closed. I originally used a cheap blue tarp, but they didn't last long, maybe 2-3 seasons. About 15 years ago I bought a much heavier silver tarp, removed the grommets, sewed Kevlar patches into each grommet point and re-grommeted. That tarp lasted until this past year when a factory seam tore open. (Gorilla tape just might fix that. ) For the stakes, I originally used plastic tents stakes. Ha, no. Between hard as stone campgrounds dirt, and rainy muddy soil, the final solution was re-bar, cut into 2' lengths with a flat washer welded at the top. The craziest thing about this design is that I did about 90% of it in paper. Put it together in the real world, and aside from a few issues (The stakes mainly ) it worked like a champ, for decades. She even hosted my best buds wedding back in 1997. So now ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the "Cheap Mans Big Ass Party Tent ™". Edited October 12, 2020 by echris 4 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
echris 1,425 #2 Posted October 12, 2020 OK, so the forum is freaking out tonight, I can't remove the duplicate image. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
echris 1,425 #4 Posted October 12, 2020 (edited) 10's of thousands of digital pics and this is the only one I could find. This is from 2015 when I did a Skylanders themed birthday party for my son. The drop cloths on the left are a sun shield. Note the two flags on top. The tarp is held to the outer poles by the ropes. I wanted to hold the tarp down on the center poles as well so I bought two flags from a marine supply, one a beer mug, the other a martini glass, made two flag poles out of wood and thread them onto the top of the tent center poles before raising it up. I can set the entire tent up myself. It's easier with 3 people, but I figured out how to do it on my own if necessary. Edited October 12, 2020 by echris 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
