Post
by vapor » Sat Aug 18, 2012 12:47 pm
2 general types of wind events will cause failure . . .
First is force . . . think of a 60 mph sustained wind pushing on any direction. What does that do to the poles and support system ? What will break and what can you do to avoid the breaking ? There's just too many variations of pole size, pole material, connections, ropes, seams etc. to say for sure what gives in a particular scenario, but it can help to physically push on your structure to see what happens, then visualize how it may go bad. Remember that strengthening one area will pass the load on to another area.
The second, and more common issue, is constant flapping and fluttering, which can work stakes loose, fray and break rope, pull pole junctions apart, etc. This then causes a failure in the structure and resulting coming apart of lots of parts which then flutter more and then . . . bam, nothing left but shreds of fabric and broken poles. If you want to geek out search for aerodynamic flutter and how it can cause catastrophic failure.
Anyway, the perfect storm of destruction combines both of the above, where you have a force that is distorting the tent structure, which is causing the connections to start to slip. Then fluttering, which loosens them more, then one joint slips out, which causes a rope to go slack and then everything collapses. A common failure point is the slip together poles with bungee in the middle, the can pull apart. Or the fiberglass breaks right at the edge of the aluminum connector. Double check after the tent is pitched to see if the poles are all fully seated in the connectors. Check again after a storm.
So, yeah, to start with use rebar, that way at least fluttering won't pull your stakes out and most of your tent at least won't blow away. Second thing I recommend is using bungee cord or bungee balls on every guy rope. This will hold the rope in tension but provide some give and reduce flutter destruction. The other, and equally important, thing is to be at your camp during the first big storm so you can watch what fails and fix it.
There's not really a good way to orient your tent for wind in my experience. The prevailing winds are often from Gerlach (SW) but storm winds (strongest) can be from any direction. My preference is to orient the tent so I maximize the cooling effect of the shade given the sun path.
Then again, the only fully destroyed theme camp I ever saw with my own eyes was at 2 or 3 o'clock. *shrug* Your mileage may vary.
