D-I-Y Clamshell ??

[krly]

I know you can buy a carport from Costco but it appears most (?) folks use it "clam shell" style (see photo). Does anyone know if you could just buy conduit connectors and make your own ? Any ideas which connectors would be the correct ones ? And H-W-L meas. of legs/cross pieces ?
THANKS........

clamshell.JPG

[some seeing eye]

If you do a search for "canopy fittings," you will find many inexpensive suppliers, including in Yuma, AZ. It is not a hard welding job, but steel loves to be rusted by playa dust, so most steel on the playa is galvanized (or people use aluminum.) You could easily fab up almost anything with pipe scaffolding and fittings, commonly people use aluminum pipe for that and the fittings are galvanized. YMMV.

To angles, if you use the same angle fitting where your flat top transitions to your angled sides, on both sides, you will be fine. For instance, people in Yuma, AZ might use 120 degrees or 102 degrees (90 degrees would be plumb walls to a flat roof.

BTW, I remember old Costco carports as 4 side poles on each side, now it's 3, people with them, have they changed? It also looks like they are powder coated now rather than galvanized.

[Ratty]

viewtopic.php?f=277&t=77435 Scroll down a bit to the handmade drawing. It gives measurments. The picture you're showing is not a costco car port. It's made of all 5'7" pipes. The original plans call for 6'5" roof pipes. I had a lot of pieces so I made it entirely of the longer pipes.

[Just_Joe]

I had a lot of pieces

OP, this is why many of us have clamshells. Not because we said, "hey let's get one", but because we said "hey, what should we do with these orphan parts?".
What kind of shade setup do you use now?

[Ratty]

Joe, I thought it was because we lost the legs off of one side. I discovered it by accident while setting up. "Hey, I like it better this way. Put those legs back in the truck. We don't need em."