Pop up Gazebo's

[Tony]

Hey, this is a reach out to ask if any of you know of good well priced pop up gazeboes, I'm looking for quality ones for the BushMoots. There's a few brands about and there's obviously different quality products, I'd say I'm after a mid range pro model, 40mm plus aluminium legs, multiple 3x3mt ones to a couple of 3x4.5 or 4x4's if there's any about.
If anyone uses or has used them and has an opinion or contacts let me know

Thanks a bunch
Tony

 

[Toddy]

I don't know of particular varieties now but we used them a lot for demos and events in the past.
I would advise that you make sure that the legs have decent tie down points. Something you can ram ground pegs through properly. One event we had sudden gusts of wind. Blew a few of them over (the City used the big 3 x 6m ones) one of my colleagues was pretty beaten up by the leg on one. Stitches to her head and very badly bruised. The wind wrecked them doing that too. All the cross 'spars' ended up pretty mangled.
The next set-up they'd upgraded and the new ones were held down by 3' spikes put in with a sledgehammer and pulled out by the biggest crowbar I'd ever seen

M

Edited to add, these are the ones that open up like umbrellas. On the whole they seem to be much sounder than the ones on a kind of square frame.

 

[Brizzlebush]

I've tried a couple.
The clip together white tube ones are absolute garbage. With their stupid stripy kites. I mean panels.
Fart in their general direction and they fall over, twisted and torn, even pegged down.

The concertina ones can be better. Worth looking at the versions market-traders use. They seem pretty solid.

The ubiquitous Coleman event shelters are actually pretty good. Pretty versatile. But I've seen a lot go turtle. Mostly on windy campsites.
I think this might be more to do with pilot error than anything. (f-wittery as i call it)
Once they've spun on their backs for a bit, they're pretty expensive, flappy, metal bin decorations.
But they're good, versatile and can picked up second hand from reenactment groups etc.

Our scout troop uses an army mess tent which is bombproof. Not massive, 6x4m at a guess. (There are huuuge ones).
Heavy, and a bit of a faff to put up. But you could have a party on top on Snowdon in a gale in one.

And who doesn't want to do that?

 

[Wayne]

The only ones to go for are the ones with octagonal legs. Heavy duty.
I went through several so called heavy duty box section gazebos before purchasing my current two that I use at shows.

They weren’t cheap at the time around £660 each for 3x3m. However when you do the show circuit everyone has similar pop up gazebos because they last.
mine have been up in winds that have destroyed marquis and lesser gazebos. Wests Wood fair a woman suffered a broken leg when a traders stand took off. My gazebos barely noticed. just added a couple of extra guy lines to stop the sides flapping.

 

[Nice65]

Wests Wood fair a woman suffered a broken leg when a traders stand took off.

Rosie. Not broken, but so severely crushed and swollen the hospital couldn’t get an accurate X-ray for days. Cost her time off work, trauma to her kids, and the tent belonged to the local, large builders merchants (you know the ones), who sponsor the wood fair and refused to acknowledge anything to do with it. Obviously offsite after 5pm, it was left to us locals to get things battened down.

Lesson, go heavy on the tentage or get big solicitors in case it goes wrong.

 

[Tony]

Yeah, I'm looking at the hex leg ones, trying to decide if I need to go for 60mm legs for max strength or go down to 50, or even 40mm legs. Pegging down is fine, I've some very big pegs.

I've got a number of Colman shelters of different types, a couple of carports that have served well but are cumbersome.

I've been looking at Gala Tent stuff, the gazeboshop, and a number of other places, it's amazing how many claims there are for the strongest structures and parts! There's also a wide variety of warranties...

 

[Decacraft]

Bought one from 24mx a few years back, there on offer a lot. I know a motocross gazebo in a bushcraft environment isn't the best, but it was the cheapest I could find at the time with walls. Even had a fold up table with chairs at the same time. Mines lasted through some dire weather.