I have a Coleman Valdes 6 Fast pitch air tent. I'm trying to find a suitable tarp or awning to add a porch at the side entrance. We don't use the "front" door as we have a bedroom there. Doesn't need to be huge, just dryer space for boots and storage really.
I'm looking at the Vango adventure tarp but just unsure how it would all connect if it would at all?
The side door has an actual pole for the small canopy that is built in - could I just use any 3x3 tarp and hook it on.
Don't know the tent, so can't really add anything specific on that, but a warning about tarps in general, they have a huge sail area that can catch the wind, even a strong breeze, and if wrongly attached to a tent do damage to the anchor points, literally ripping them off! Always be prepared to take a tarp down/don't leave up unattended, if wind a possibility.
Big no-no, don't even consider a cheap builders tarp, they flap and 'rattle' very noisily, they'll drive you and your neighbours nuts in the quiet of the night!
I'd look at possibility of rigging tarp without actually attaching to tent, so reducing risk of damage. Of course any guy ropes/straps that are in contact with tent, as in perhaps slung over it, may chafe and wear the tent.
I've just acquired, and only used once for 5 days, a huge Decathlon 'QUECHUA MULTIFUNCTION CAMPING TARP AND AWNING - FRESH XL', which we used free standing on the supplied 4 poles, and was brilliant, I think probably far too big for your needs, but the smaller 'QUECHUA CAMPING TARP - TARP FRESH' may suit you. We found the sun/heat blocking properties amazingly good in the near 40C French sun, which otherwise would have been intolerable for just sitting around in (tent's were too small and hot to shelter in!). It proved waterproof in everything from torrents to drizzle, and didn't cause any problems in quite strong wind gusts, so with it's sun blocking, more than proved itself a valuable addition to our camping kit. We used it as our kitchen shelter and sitting out cover.
Just checked out some pics of your tent.
The pole may not be as strong as the one in my pictures below (Steel pole, arched down to the ground), but it may suffice.
Such a set up utilises the elasticated edge of the (Vango Adventure) Tarp, lapped back/hooked over the door head pole, and guyed down to the ground (with or without poles at the rear corners), so all independent of the tent and it's attachment points.
If the tarp dimensions suit, might be worth a try?
The 300cm side is the elasticated edge, that "Hooks over" the tent door pole...
Technically it's not "attached" to the tent. However, guying the tarp rear corners direct to ground, like this...
will of course put more pressure on the tent door pole than supporting those corners on poles.
Looking back at my previous pics, they are a mid-height pole, thus reducing the pressure of the tarp over the tent door pole. By using longer/taller king poles, you could of course raise the tarp so there is no contact at all with the tent and/or door pole.
However, those poles need guying. And to avoid the tarp falling forward (away from the tent), they need guying out and back. The protrusion of your door pole suggests the foot of the poles would be up against the tent base at ground level, and offer no space to guy out properly (as your tent is in the way!).
Our tent's canopy extended out from the tent, rather than just the curved pole directly over the door.
With that, you may have to consider a much larger tarp, that would need to be extended up and over the arched roof of the tent, and guyed out on the opposite side. This usually means the tarp must pass the top centreline of the tent, to avoid rain running down onto your door... but of course, your door has a protective hood, so any rain would simply trickle down the side of the tent, not into the door. Might work? Never had need to try that approach.
An alternative is something like below (2.85m x 4m in this case), but that does have a couple of connections to the main tent poles (but not the door head pole). Again, steel poles in my case.
Oops! Just realised you have one of those fancy air tents, so I presume my last pic isn’t an option, as you have no main tent poles to connect to!
Doh! Sorry!
You may have to go “up and over” then?
Hopefully sorted this by now but if not agree the Vango adventure tarp a great option (find the straight 3x3m tarps more ungainly). Used it on the little side porch on my Montana 4E (see photos) and on the little side canopy on my Trout Lake, gives good coverage. Tend to use just 2 poles at the front (higher in the middle and lower at one side) and just guy the other front side straight out to give better low protection. Where it attaches to the tent just straddle the elastic across the canopy without problem (only fibreglass pole on the Montana porch) and fix to the tent poles each side of the canopy with ball bungees. Although your tent is air could probably use the guying tabs as fixation points.
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Topic: Side awning for air tent
via mobile 01/8/2022 at 12:42pm
