To Peppy.

[Grebo]

I see you make tents, ;D
I am wanting to make a new cover for my comanche montana trailer tent, the previous owner has creased the canvas  >:( & I have had to fabsil the whole thing except the roof.  :(
The original is made from tencate, do you think I should keep to the same thing or would you recommend some other fabric.
http://www.comanche.biz/en_home.asp?g=en_model_montana
I have not made a tent before, just repaired a few  ::). Guess it's pretty much the same as boat canvas covers. ?

[Peppy]

Lurking around photobucket, eh? Haha, I was looking for someplace to put these I guess they'll fit here





I made this for my brother a couple years ago (maybe even 4?). He's just left on a vacation to Winnipeg (2000km?) and needed curtains. Nice instock cow fabric, eh?

It used to be an A frame type tent. Two bars met in the middle and the other 2 spread out like a V. I redesigned it like that to give more head room in the center. I don't have a picture but I supported all the bars with tension bars. Bars from the bed platform supporting the first bar then splitter bars from that to the center bar. I used his frame work, just placed it in a different set up. I thought about a complete redesign but it's tricky getting the frame small enough to fit inside when collapsed. And his was in good enough shape. If I didn't have his frame to work with I would have made it more like a boattop. With 2 sets of 'y' framework to back. Like a pontoon boat or something.

I used topgun on this at the suggestion of the boss, his reasoning was all that work, all that canvas, make something to last the ages. I agree, it's almost like the day it was made. There is very little 2 kids under ten could do to hurt the canvas. I'm not familiar with tencate, so I can't give an opinion, but go with something 'bullet proof'. Think about setting it up at midnight in a rain storm. Use something that'll stand up to some hurried tugging.

Doing this over again, I'd probably make it a 'california' tent trailer, with zip away sides leaving a bimini. It's a massive hunk of tarp, and the fabrication would be hugely simpler dealing with small pieces. In the end we went with saving zippers (aka money) and spending time. My brother is a carpenter and traded his time for the tarp, so material costs were considered.


In yours put in lots of window and screen and think about curtains before you build it. We didn't consider curtains and I had to use cloth turnbuckles through the wall of the tent. If we'd just sewn some velcro on during fab. then it woulda been fine.

Next he's going to want new cushions I bet. It's a good thing the shop is a rickety/falldowny building that needs lots of carpentry love!

[Grebo]

 8) Cool.

;D Thanks Peppy, I 'intend' to pretty much copy the one I have with a few minor modifications. I don't like the latest version of it the montana LX, ours is like the one in the vid. It has a huge awning (to big in my mind) & a sun canopy, which I think I will copy & add zips (like your California bimini) It will be much smaller & lighter to carry that the full awning.
Tencate is a type of trad canvas, no coatings but water proof, the density of the weave dictates how water proof it is.
http://www.tencate.com/smartsite.dws?id=9086  (Ours is the cotton one)
Does top gun 'breath' ?  Or is condensation a problem ?