Going In-Depth with the West Coast Style Frame System

October 5, 2017 by
Going In-Depth with the West Coast Style Frame System
Celina Tent Europe LTD

You may have noticed by perusing our latter Tents and All Products sections that we offer hardware for tents piecemeal. This makes sense as a base for replacing parts of our tents. If you look closer, you may have noticed that we mention the “West Coast Style Frame System” a lot.

The West Coast Style Frame System is a set of interchangeable fittings and tubing that can be used to create tents of various sizes. This saves space and time by allowing you to stock a moderate amount of each piece to cover a wide variety of end tent sizes. This also comes in handy when ordering replacements, as they are guaranteed to fit with the rest of the hardware.

Fitting Run-Down

All fittings are made with a two-hole system that allows for a pin placed closer to the center of the fitting. This stops the tubing that is slid on to the fitting from going too far, aligning drilled holes in the tubing with the second set in the fitting. Fasteners are inserted into these holes to keep the frame together.

  • Side Tee Fittings – these connect the eave tubes to rafter tubes, and provide points for the legs to attach. They are also equipped with metal rings that are needed for longer tents; steel cables connect to these to provide additional lateral support.

  • Corner Fittings – as you can guess, these fittings create a connection point with a 90 degree angle between the horizontal connection points, forming a corner for your tent.

  • Base Plate Fittings – used so that your tubing don’t sink into the ground, base plates spread the pressure from the frame across a slightly larger area and give each leg a flat base for stability.

  • Crown Fittings – with 5 different styles (Adjustable, 3-Way, 4-Way, 6-Way, and 8-Way), crowns are the fittings located at the topmost points of the tent. Each of the variations are due to the differences in required attachment points per tent size; luckily, you won’t have to stock up on a large amount of them so long as you have the ones required for your preferred tent size.

Tube-a-Tube-a-Tubing Info

Tubes used in West Coast Style Frames all have the same diameter and the placement of holes at each end. No matter whether they’re used in the top framework or as leg segments, tubing can be interchangeable as long as they are as long (heh see what I did there?) as is required for the specific tent size. Common sizes (with notes on special lengths) include:

  • 1.3 m (4’ 4”)

  • 1.49 m (4’ 11”)

  • 1.52 m (5’)

  • 2 m (6’ 8”) – This tubing is most often used as leg tubing, setting the tent’s eave height at around 2.1 meters (7 feet) high. The complete length is created combining the connection points at the top and bottom with the tubing length.

  • 2.1 m (6’ 10”)

  • 2.3 m (7’ 8”) – This is the other tubing used as legs, this one setting the tent’s eave height at around 2.4 meters (8 feet) high. The length attributed to the eave height combines the entire length of the tube with the addition of the base plates and side tees or corner fittings.

  • 2.8 m (9’ 4”) – Leg spacing is important for the stability of each and every tent; this tube is most often used as the spreader tube connecting the corner and side tee fittings that attach the legs. This gives you a leg (and therefore anchoring point) every three meters.

  • 3.2 m (10’ 6”)

By looking up Celina Tent on YouTube, you can find out exactly what components are needed to make every size of every style of tent we offer. Simply look for our Component Checklist Playlists (Classic Series Frame and Classic Series Pole playlists linked here!) and select the tent of your size to see exactly the tubing, fittings, fasteners, and staking required for a safe tent experience.

Going In-Depth with the West Coast Style Frame System
Celina Tent Europe LTD October 5, 2017
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