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  Karole Bowlds February 26, 2012 at 3:31pm

  the X using bungee cords, I do this. It helps stabilize the tent-which is the rocking, and walking that people have problems with, and prevents the attached side walls from blowing into the tents display space, which can do damage to your goods.
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  Greg Little February 2, 2012 at 9:25pm

  If a strong enough wind comes along it will lift any tent...no matter what brand and how good it is secured.  The recent Palm Springs 90 mph windstorm is a  big example..

  All we can do is secure out tents as best as possible and hope those rare windstorms do not come along at our shows. I have talked to people who have been doing shows for over 30 years and never had their tent blow away and then freak storms happen to people that are ew to the business.
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  Bill Coleman Entertainment February 2, 2012 at 6:29pm

  In Alamosa, CO I arrived on a Saturday to see the results of Friday's dust devil, that lifted EZ ups 30 feet in the air and then dropped the tents.  Was told that the tents had been wieghted with 60 pounds on each leg!  Elsewhere,  I have seen tent rental companies  use several turns of stretch wrap plastic wrap to secure cast lead weights to the bottom of the tent poles.  Diagonal bracing, on each wall, AS WELL as through the center of the tent is great.  Weight the bottoms, tie down the tops, secure both the top of the tent, and the bottom of the tent from movement will help keep the tent joints from failing.
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  Angela Jones February 1, 2012 at 11:01am

  I've done some really windy shows with my pvc weights hanging from the poles and  have never had an issue with them flying through the air. I think as long as you use something to secure them to the pole such as mini-bungees it should be fine. Maybe the people who had that problem also used an ez-up tent? All I know is the trimline with sta-bars combined with the hanging weights is about as heavy duty as it gets.
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  Greg Little February 1, 2012 at 10:59am

  I have been through several hurricanes and  lost an entire house in the last one. A strong enough wind can take an entire roof off of a House with no problem and a set of weights on a tent surely doen not stand a chance if the wind is strong enough.

   

  Since I just ordered a set of starbars I have decided to use my PVC weights laying flat on the ground and attach them to the starbars with some extra heavy duty tie wraps. I liked the idea suggested about the 2" steel bars with handles...so i am going to get 4 of those made and atach them to my tentpoles. it is also a good idea to strap them to the tent posts with tie wraps also in addition to the web straps I normally use to connect them to the top. It is a little bit of extra effort but I guess I want a lot more peace of mind.
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  Amy Ikenn February 1, 2012 at 10:00am

  I rest my PVC weights on the ground, strap them in 20 places to the pole AND use a ratchet strap to tie them to to top of my trimline.  So, they are weighting the bottom like the Happy Feet and Eatons, which should help keep the tent from flipping.  they are attached in 2 places to the pole which should prevent them from flying independently, and they are tethered to the top so even if my tent flipped they would stay with it.  I'm not sure if any of what is mentioned here is more secure - just nicer to look at.  The look is the reason I was investigating new ones or attaching them to the stabar instead.
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  Alison Fox February 1, 2012 at 9:45am

  Most were secured.  Because of the force of the wind the tents swayed with the PVC's swaying with them and as you can imagine, that lead to the whole tent flying over.  When the weights are at the bottom, as in the Happy Feet or the Eaton weights, there is a stable base.  If anything, it might "walk" alittle.  I have seen this first hand at shows as my Happy Feet are not moving. :)
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  Kathryn Riechert February 1, 2012 at 9:33am

  Would the flying pvc weights be due to them not being secured to the poles of the tent?  It just seems that other weights would be prone to doing the same thing (if attached to the top of the tent and not just on the feet of the tent.)
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  Alison Fox February 1, 2012 at 9:31am

  The same thing happened when a friend of mine did the Duluth MN show.  She said that the PVC pipe weights were flying like projectiles thru the air.  Her husband got hit by one and she said he's lucky he got away with just some nasty bruises.
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  Ginny Herzog January 31, 2012 at 10:58pm

  I still swear by the Eaton's Stack-On Weights of cast lead.  They connect to the feet of your canopy with an aluminum attachment and you can move them in seconds if you need to adjust where you want the most weight if winds are very strong from one direction. Jim Eaton, a sculpture and former engineer knew what he was doing when he designed these! I've never had any problems with winds at shows and my booth even withstood that horrific storm at Des Moines about two years ago that demolished several artist's booths, one right across from me. 

  http://www.canopyweights.com/

  Many, many years ago at Lakefront in Milwaukee, my KD canopy flipped upside down over the booth behind me (a glass artist), with the PVC tubes filled with concrete, that were fastened to the legs. One of the concrete tubes sailed (pendulum effect) over the top of the booth behind AND the crowd walking in front of the booth and landed next to the glass artists chair across the path. The other tube  detached from the leg and crashed through the glass booth. It was a MIRACLE no one was severely hurt by my weights.

  Lakefront banned artist's canopies on the grounds the following year and put all of us under big tents, lashed to scaffolding.

  The artist next to me also lost his entire booth and most of his display, but his canopy was weighted to his crates of pots. PVC weights were not used in his booth.

  I HATE the PVC weights because I know what a hazard they can be and don't like being near artists who use them.