You can use tenacious tape to repair the roof.costs about £5 , strip is 50cm long and 7.5cm wide, excellent stuff , just peel the backing paper off and stick on , like a plaster. its clear so the repair is almost invisible.
measure the diameter of the poles (I'm assuming they are the fibreglass type)
any camping shop will sell spare poles and elastic to thread them. They dont need to be coleman brand as long as they are the right diameter,, and you can cut them to size if neccesary with a junior hacksaw.
OPen sided shelters like that are a bit of a disaster in high winds. As you'll have found the wind gets under them and lifts the whole thing up so it thrashes around against poles and guys. Really it's best to take open sided shelters and canopies down in strong wind.
If you do decide to replace it, might be better looking at the day room kind of shelter, with sides that can be zipped in and out or rolled up. These usually perform better in high winds.
Ironically, the shelter was fitted with four side panels at the time of the damage. However, the panels are not a snug fit to the poles and I guess the wind just got under the considerable gaps between the panels and the ground (about 75mm in places).
I already knew that the shelter shouldn't be out in strong winds. The problem was that we didn't know the wind was going to pick up to be so strong. None of the weather forecasts had predicted them (bbc weahter site, Metcheck both useless). We had unfortunately decided to go for a walk and were about 2 miles away from the site when the damage happened.
Shelter should have been dismantled. Shouln't have gone for a walk and left it unattended in winds. Should have been safe rather than sorry. Isn't hindsight a wonderful gift. Anybody know where I can buy some hindsight from?
BTW, the poles are steel poles and are curved in profile, to make up the dome shape of the shelter's roof. So they are going to be specific to the Coleman shelter i fear.
I'm going to go and follow up on the suggestions given about repair tape and "day room" type shelters. Thanks again.
Just had a quick look at the day shelters. Problem is, they're just not big enough.
The Coleman event shelter is 4.5m square. For a large group (there were 4 families sharing the shelter for eating and socialising), 3m x 3m is too small. Also, because of the light weight of material, the event shelter canvas folds up really small. The poles are a bit hefty though, being steel tubes and not glass fibre or carbon poles.
The tenacious tape looks just the job. I'll need a couple of rolls though. The rip is about 50cm x 50cm in an "L" shape.
All I need now is for Coleman to sell spare pole sections and someone to tell me how to get the chain/shock cord clips apart to separate the sections.
Alternatively, if anybody sees a shelter being sold on ebay for spares or repairs, let me know please.
I have been looking online today and the spares for the shelter are showing as discontinued on the US site and not showing at all in the English spares catalogue :( When i bought it, spares were available. grrr
We had a split centre hub last year which i think was down to people putting it up who didn't understand the structure :( I have mended it with woven tape and am going to hope for the best for one event.
The year before i had a shock cord go but a very nice man in a camping shop fixed it for me. (i have posted all about it on here before somewhere)
Ours survived some pretty bad weather when it was up, it's the construction and destruction that have been the problem.
Bad news for me, is that there are no spares around. I talked with Lancashire Sports Repairs, who are listed on Coleman's website as the repair agents for Coleman tents. They have no shelter spares and no plans to get any. The helpful lady there gave me the number to contact Coleman directly.
I spoke to Coleman and they also do not carry spares. The lady there tried to be as helpful as she could and gave me the name of someone who might just on an off-chance have one or two spare poles lying around, but he hasn't come back to me yet.
Good news for you Sonja, is that the lady at Coleman said that the only spare she did have was the centre plastic cross piece, which I think is the bit you were saying you had broken. So if you get in there quick, you may be able to get it.
The number for Coleman is 01275 845024.
What's frustrating for me is that people keep telling me these things are not meant for wet & windy conditions. I know that, but accidents do happen and surely it would be sound customer service to have some spares holding for the shelters, given the number that must be out there.
So it looks like I'm going to have to shell out another £130 ish pounds to replace the shelter completely. Something I'm going to do very reluctantly, given the knowledge of the lack of spares availability. Problem is, there's just nothing out there to compare with it at the same sort of size.
Quote: Good news for you Sonja, is that the lady at Coleman said that the only spare she did have was the centre plastic cross piece,
Coleman were very helpful but no-one in the office i got through to had said they had a spare hub or access to any spares at all. Do you know the name of the person you spoke to?? As you were going round the houses.. was it another office ?? I have got a contact there now so she may be able to do some research for me.
If you do decide to abandon yours, let me know if you are selling it for spares!
If i don't get a spare hub i may be dumping mine after giving it a go, with the repair, in august. If so, i will let people know on here before i dump it!
here are some pics of ours and another one i saw in action in Dorset.
Quote: Originally posted by Mr Bluesky on 01/6/2010
Isn't hindsight a wonderful gift. Anybody know where I can buy some hindsight from?
..even if we could find somewhere that stocked "hindsight",the chances are it wouldn't be long before it was substituted for a cheaper,poorer version,imported from China!..
Sorry. I don't remember the lady's name. All I know was that she had a Dutch accent. Not very helpful, I know. Sorry you had a wasted call. She definitely said that she had one available, because I commented to her that ironically, that's the one bit of mine that wasn't damaged.
Mine too got damaged in the Norfolk area, wasnt the strength of the wind that really done it, was the complete change of wind direction that tore it, we had a set up of the shelter and two side panels, had it pegged out due to the wind in one direction, came back to find the wind had completely changed course and now going into a sail like shape, tore it at a guy rope section, we have had it up in all manner of winds before in the time we have had it and its performed excellently, but I guess if your not there to adjust the guys to coincide with a complete reversal in wind direction. Oh the joys of the outdoors life and isnt hindsight great...... Just trying to find someone who can put needle to the canvas, may have to look into that tape.
ours didn't get damaged when it was up. I'd added gripper thingies, and delta pegs. We did take the side panels down a couple of times. The one pitched near us in Dorset survived atrocious winds but they didn't have any side panels.
Our problems were to do with people putting it up and taking it down who hadn't read the instuctions (and had possibly had a pint or two!).
It's a great communal shelter but not best erected by a committee!
here are some pics of what went wrong the first time. Someone accidentally tugged too hard on a pole that wasn't supposed to come out of the center hub. A nice man in a campshop fixed it. :)
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Topic: Coleman Event Shelter Spares???
..even if we could find somewhere that stocked "hindsight",the chances are it wouldn't be long before it was substituted for a cheaper,poorer version,imported from China!..
It was very windy and the thingy is very spidery until it is in situ.
