Folding Ridge Pole: one solution

[Sutoris]

We have the same problem David.
We are scattered over Flanders and have a lot of members without means of transport.
I bought me a van for this hobby :roll:

We discarted the original papilio poles, you had to screw them together and the thread was damaged.
So I replaced them with the square tube system, it had to be fool-proof not authentic ;-)

[jkaler48]

Has anyone tried the two parallel iron plates an 4 bolt method? It might be period authentic as the Romans did have nuts and bolts (Although not used extensively)

[Sutoris]

Mmm, don't like to fiddle around with nuts in the field and lose them :wink:
And you need a spanner to.

[gaiusseptimiuslucianus]

...The stand alone frame you use seems very well made and I am sure it works well, but I really wonder if it is really necessary when the same tent could be held up simply by vertical poles. Is the inclusion of a central vertical pole really a problem? I have stood in many tents of that size and larger whose roofs were supported by a central pole and have never found the pole to be inconvenient.
Crispvs

Hi Crispvs,

The advantage to the standalone frame might come when you are doing displays at locations where you can't stake your tents. I once did a living history display at a college on their playing field and we weren't allowed to put up any of our canvas because it would have meant staking it all down. Come to find out (and of course we only found this out after we had arrived :evil: ) the entire field was underlain with piping for an irrigation system!

Live and learn,

Lucianus

[gaiusseptimiuslucianus]

Has anyone tried the two parallel iron plates an 4 bolt method? It might be period authentic as the Romans did have nuts and bolts (Although not used extensively)

Yes but this was for a standalone fly not a tent. Unfortunately it didn't work terrifically well in a good breeze as the pole tended to want to torque. It didn't actually break (although I've had that happen to a solid ridgepole in strong winds) but I was nervous about it giving way all weekend.

Lucianus

[Cavok]

Mmm, don't like to fiddle around with nuts in the field and lose them

Hazards of life in the Roman Army Mate.

One little point.....2 flat plates....would that have meant flat side to the poles? Could they have been flat plates on round poles drilled through with pins ?

[gaiusseptimiuslucianus]

Mmm, don't like to fiddle around with nuts in the field and lose them

Hazards of life in the Roman Army Mate.

One little point.....2 flat plates....would that have meant flat side to the poles? Could they have been flat plates on round poles drilled through with pins ?

In our case it was flat plates with holes in the plates, the ridge pole made from a 2x4, with lag bolts going through and held together with nuts. If you had a round pole, I'd use a piece of pipe such as is used for the frames of chain link fences, cut to about 10" long. Taper the ends of the poles so they fit and drill each side of the poles for a cotter pin to just secure it and keep the ridgepole from wanting to work apart if its windy.

Lucianus

[Crispvs]

I don't think I have ever seen a ridge pole joined with a section of pipe (and ours are around ten inches in length and no bolts or pins are involved) which worked itself apart even in high winds, although I have seen vertical poles fall down plenty of times when wind has inflated tents and pushed off the guy ropes.

I wonder - why do you used square section poles? I am fairly confident that most ancient tent poles, like most tool handles, would have been grown in coppice fields, which would make round sections far more likely.

Regarding putting a tent up on your own, I agree that where there is a ridge pole it is very difficult to put a tent up unaided, but for tents lacking a ridge pole, when I was being taught to put up tents singlehandedly when I was in Scouts, I was taught to peg down the front of the tent but not the back or sides, then put up the pole nearest the tent door (or one of the front corner poles if the tent was a square one) and attach two guy ropes which should be pegged to run at 45 degrees to the ground and 90 degrees to each other (and 90 degrees to the tent if a square one). These guys should be adjusted to a secure (but not tight) tension. This should keep this pole steady and vertical to allow you to enter the tent to insert the tip of the rear pole through its eye. Brace this against the ground and return to the outside. Attach two guy ropes and peg them in the same way but leave the guy ropes fairly slack. Return inside the tent and move the pole as far as possible towards its vertical position until the guy ropes are pulled to tension. Go outside again and loosen the guys slightly in order to then push the pole into its vertical position, after which the guy ropes at both front and back can be tightened to full tension and the rest of the tent pegged down. For a small ridge tent the process should take less than five minutes and not too much longer for larger tents. Because the tension needs to be adjusted during the process, either half hitches or wooden slide adjusters should be used.
If the tent is a square one with a centre pole, the other front pole should be inserted second and brought to equal tension with the first, before the centre pole is inserted and allowed to lean away from the door, its weight being held by the guys at the front, which should run out at 90 degrees to the tent. Once this has been done the rear poles should be inserted in the manner described above and tensioned once the centre pole has been brought vertical. I have erected 10' by 10' tents singlehandedly in this way in under ten minutes on many occasions.

Regarding surfaces which cannot have pegs driven into them, in mountainous terrain in New Zealand I have erected tents many times on rocky or stony surfaces above the tree line, where pegs could either not be driven in or would simply pull out with minimal force applied and there was no vegetation to tie lines to. In these places we used to tie guy ropes around stones and then pile heavy stones on top of these to hold them securely in place, which generally worked quite well even in windy conditions. Of course, these were not large tents, but it should demonstrate that weighting guy ropes can be a viable alternative to pegging them.

Crispvs