Ramada / CanopyRamada / CanopyI went to Costco and bought one of their 10x10 foot
ramadas. Cute. It cost a little over $100 and had one wall
attachable with a zipper. This year they sell the same canopy
with 4 walls and charge $200. The canopy infrastructure is
sturdy. The canopy lasted almost a week before the prevailing
beach wind tore the canopy apart. Literally. It was in
pieces. The fine print on the instructions tell you to not use
the ramada in high winds. I think this depends upon your
definition
of "high wind". The beach winds are not high in my definition,
they are just always there. As the canopy was immediately in
front of my RV I could watch it as it destroyed itself. No, the
damage was done almost immediately and watching the remainder of the
tearing just gave me the satisfaction of knowing that there are not
enough engineers left in this country. The fault of the Costco
canopy was that it had no center (or any other for that matter) vents
-- it acts like any other umbrella.
So, I went online and ordered a new canopy top.
Surprise. Replacement from the same company cost double the
original Costco price. For $200 (including shipping and handling
and taxes), I could enjoy watching the new cover for another
week. For $300 dollars I could get a different brand. I
finally found (Google -- Garden something or other) a canopy that claimed universal fit and
defined itself as a replacement able to survive the winds. And it
only cost $100 plus a small amount for shipping. It has a one
meter square piece of material on the top and tacked at the four
corners to the main canopy. The hole underneath is slightly
smaller than the cover. With the 4 corner tacks, there are 4
large vent holes for the wind. The material is not as strong as
the Costco original and the tiny Velcro strips are hardly worth
having. But it survived the week with only tearing out the Velcro
strips. I was surprised because the materiel did not tear.
But I figured help was needed.
The Costco structure has a center post a little more than 1 meter
tall making the canopy come to a nice point in the center. The
problem is that although the material is lightweight, it is ugly when
there is no wind at all. The entire canopy is supported by the 4
corner tacks and looks like it stretched itself (it didn't). This
problem is easily solved. I drilled two holes crossing through
the center post just below the little circle at the very top. I
passed cords through the holes and connected the cords at the opposing
corners of the frame. I left the cord just taut enough to support
the roof taking the weight off of the tacks. Tighter than this
would have closed the holes in the vent and made the ballooning
worse. These cords served there purpose very well. The only
problem now is that the wind blows the cover off of the top. This
was the intent of the tiny Velcro tabs (long gone). Oh. The
cover has a few grommets. These are NOT for strength. These
are for water runoff. I made the mistake on only one
grommet. Now it is just a hole.
It was time for more drastic measures. I hate jury-rigged
contraptions seemingly favored by single old men in converted buses
living by themselves in the middle of nowhere with their solar panels
providing the electricity for their "lives". I was not about to
make this thing ugly. So I took more of the cord and strung it
through the vent from middle to middle in both directions. This
cord is about the same color as the roof and ties down at the middle of
the infrastructure sides, passes through the vent, out the other side
and ties down on the middle of the other side. Two of them at 90
degrees to each other. This works and completes the
solution. Again, the cord is just taut enough to follow the roof
line when there is no wind at all (rare).
It is fun to watch the roof in action. It has now survived a
fairly serious dust storm. When the wind blows, the one side sags
inward and the opposite side bellows outwards, The middle cord
holds the bellow from being a balloon. The corner cords keep the
sagging side from total collapse. Since the side cords are not
fettered in the middle, they can move to the bellowing side just enough
to hold it in place. The corner cords act in a similar manner but
are more restrained. I am proud of what I have done. It
works. It looks good. And I think there will be no more
$100 shipments.
But a couple more weeks and I realize that this cord-supported
replacement canopy will not work either. So I removed my new top
before it tore itself to pieces. I think a little stronger corner
"welds" would have helped. Along with some center welds. Some serious
Velcro at the edges instead of little pretty but useless pieces.
You can buy an entire new ramada, frame and all from Walmart for
less than $100. It is an ugly dark blue and not white -- for the
money I could live with blue. It is center vented with a sturdier
center vent than the replacement top I bought for more money. And
the other is an ugly tan instead of cream or white like the original.
Oh. The zippered walls? You can forget them. If
you use all 4, you cannot use the ramada as a garage. If you use
all 4, your stakes had better be good as the thing will literally
fly. One wall? Same problem on a smaller scale. And it
really will try to fly. My first attempt had flying stakes.
And watch how you connect the corner cords to the frame I had a
couple tear before I used stronger cord. The black cord is pretty
and it really is strong enough. It just cannot take the friction
of rubbing on the canopy frame or the little hole in the pretty yellow
stake. Now I use yellow rope.
But these are history now. I found a solution -- and I am in
the middle of a serious storm right now and shall see if it
works. If not I am out $25 for two fabric shower curtains and a
bottle of cheap tennis balls and some yellow rope. I fastened a
shower curtain using the supplied holes on one edge to the ramada frame
with yellow rope. On the other end I tied a tennis ball into the
corner with more yellow rope and tied this to the ramada. The
same for the other corner. I did the same for the other
curtain. This takes care of the front half of the ramada
frame. The part over the front of the car. Then I took more
yellow rope and made 4 crosses. One under and one over each of
the curtains tied off at the ramada strut crossings. So far this
arrangement (you pick the colors) has gone through more wind without
damage than anything I had bought. I had lots of yellow rope from
the previous attempts.