Expanding Tents Along the Length
Growing Your Event, Growing Your Tent
As you look through the various sizes of tents that Celina offers, you’ll notice that there are sectional and one piece. We’ve covered previously the differences and pros and cons related to your choice, but now it’s time to dig a little deeper into one of the aforementioned “pros” – expanding your sectional tent.
Sectional Tents are made the way they are so that 1) the tent pieces are easier to handle and 2) the option of expansion is included. To fully utilize the expanding properties of sectional tents, you’ll need to have additional; pieces of hardware and tent fabric on hand to add to the base tent and bridge the two halves as they move farther apart. This makes the “expansion” aspect perfect for rental companies or event locations, because fewer complete sets of tents are needed when you can just adjust one base set with a few more fabric mid-panels and hardware pieces.
A few things to keep in mind for expansion:
- Tents are always expanded along the LENGTH, not the WIDTH. Tent widths are constant throughout for the ease of naming conventions.
- Mid-panels (fabric added during expansions) can be different lengths, so make sure you have the proper amount of hardware to correspond.
- If using mid-panels that have been in storage, be sure to compare to the other panels you intend to use in case the stored and used fabric sections have become discolored and no longer match. Depending on the type of event, this mis-matched appearance can be detrimental.
Hardware
Each tent has a certain amount of spacing between the legs or side poles; this is your basic unit of expansion. In most cases this is 10’ leg to leg. As your tent begins to lengthen you will need to add hardware evenly along the length:
Frame
- If expanding a square tent, the center crown will need to be replaced by two 3- or 6-Way Crowns. This first expansion will also require three spreader tubes.
- Each additional length will require adding a ridge crown, two side tee fittings, two rafter tubes, and three spreader tubes.
Pole
- The first expansion of a square sectional pole tent will require the addition of a mid-piece, one center pole, and two side poles.
- Every expansion after the first requires a center pole and two side poles. Larger poles tents may also have quarter poles to add as well.
Fabric
Since Frame and Pole tents use different fabrication methods any mid-pieces that you add must be for that specific brand of tent. Mid-pieces must have the same width as the base tent parts you’re adding to; tents are named with the widths first in order to make this process easier. As you choose the pieces, make sure you have the right amount of hardware to accommodate the length of the added pieces as the mids can be different lengths.
To make sure you’ve gotten the right additional hardware, it’s always safe to compare the measurements of tubing, poles, and fabric panels to those of larger versions of the tent you going to expand. With the Layout Handbook from Celina, you can easily flip through electronically to the tent brand of your choice and quickly review and compare the hardware counts. Get yours today or find out more when you call us at (866) 761-1192. We can also be reached by email (sales@gettent.com) or by clicking on the message box in the lower right corner of any Celina website. We’re here to help you!