Rain Fly Support System, Version 2.0

I finally put up my new, re-designed rain fly support system. It's taken a while, but I'm pretty pleased with the results so far. The idea was to mount the rain fly 2 to 3 feet above the peak of the tent roof, thereby keeping hot summer air away from the tent roof. The rain fly would act as a big shade tree in the summer.

The support system consists of two 4x4 posts, one in front and the other in back, with a 25-foot board running parallel to the roof ridge from the top of one post to the top of the other. The top of the posts are about 3 feet above the peak of the roof which gives the desired clearance for air circulation.

Detailed architectural blue print of the design :)

I pieced together the 25-foot cross piece using doubled-up 1x8s. I face-bolted the 1x8s together using carriage bolts, and staggered the joints. I used 8- and 12-foot 1x8s so that the nearest joints were at least 4 feet apart.

25-foot cross piece built-up from sistered 1x8s through-bolted with carriage bolts

Next, I planed a crown into the top of the cross piece so that the sharp edges didn't wear through the rain fly.

Smoothing the top edge of the cross piece

Now, how to erect the support system? One of the posts is over 14 feet tall. It's quite a lot to handle by myself, but I tried. I attached the guy-lines to the post and then fastened them to the stakes. I then started walking the post up. It went up surprisingly easily.

Raising the post

Then for the next step: I set the post nearly vertically, leaning it toward the tent just enough to keep a bit of tension on the guy-lines. Then, I leaned my 24-foot extension ladder against the post and started to climb up (not shown). This all looked good on paper :) I'd just climb on up to the top, hoist up the cross piece, fasten it, move on to the other post, and repeat the process. Easy, right? Wrong! It was scary as hell up there! Fourteen feet off the ground and everything moving around! Abort! Abort!

I was about to give up on doing this job solo but figured I'd try one more thing. I'd put up both posts, tie a rope from the top of one to the top of the other, then add tension to the guy-lines in front and rear. Maybe this would stabilize the whole system.

Front and rear posts both in place, temporarily connected by a rope

Front post after stabilizing the system

This time things were much more stable and I felt much safer climbed up the ladder. The next step was to hoist the cross piece to the top of the posts and bolt it into place. I draped two ropes over the horizontal rope that joined the two posts, then tied them off to the ends of the cross piece and hoisted it up as far as I could.

Cross piece tied off and resting on the roof, nearly in place

I climbed up the ladder again to see whether I could grab the end of the cross piece and set it in place. I started to pick up the cross piece, very slowly, very deliberately. Once again, things started moving as I picked up the heavy cross piece and starting shifting weight around. My ladder loaded up with the new weight and pushed harder against the post. The horizontal rope between the posts off-loaded weight which created slack and allowed both posts to move a bit more. And as I was reaching out and down with my left hand to pick up the cross piece, the ladder twisted on the narrow 4 x 4 posts that it was resting on. To counteract the twist, I grabbed the guy-lines on the right-hand side with my right hand. Slowly, I kept lifting the cross piece, making fine adjustments with my feet, shifting my weight, pulling on the guy-lines. Slowly. Slowly. Inch by inch.

Then a thought ran through my head, "You don't have a cell phone signal out here." Why was I thinking about cell phone signals? Because I figured I might have to make a call. To 911. Because I had fallen. While doing something stupid on a 14-foot ladder. Hey, dummy, stop!

I lowered the cross piece. Slowly. Slowly. Until it was resting again on the roof. Then I climbed down the ladder, took a deep breath, and waited for my heart rate to return to normal.

Hmmm, now what? I pondered different ways of getting the cross piece into place by myself but finally decided I needed help. I was able to place the ladder against the short post in the rear, raise the cross piece into place, and slip a single bolt through to fasten it to the rear post. But that was the end of my solo attempt.

A few days later my good friends Tom and Ian were visiting and offered to help put the cross piece in place. I once again leaned the ladder against the tall post and climbed up while Ian stood below and steadied things, keeping me safe. Tom stayed below, too, and used a long notched board to capture the cross piece and slowly raise it into place. Ian handed me a hammer which I used to persuade the cross piece to align with the holes in the post while I slipped the bolts into place.

I got down from the ladder and walked around the tent to inspect the results. Everything looked pretty good. The cross piece had a pretty bad twist, but the posts still had to be plumbed and the guy lines tightened, which would take some of the twist out.

Cross piece bolted in place