Ground Plan Layout
for 9' Reese Tipis
LAY OUT THE GROUND PLAN TRIANGLE.
Stand at the location where you want to position the tipi door and face towards the rear of the tipi. You should have at least an
11 foot
circle of relatively flat, unobstructed ground in front of you to set the tipi up on. With your feet comfortably spread apart and facing the rear of the tipi your left foot is at the "Door Pole" position, your right foot at the "F1" pole position (see diagram below).
In most cases the tipi is placed with the door facing East unless prevailing winds or setup location do not permit this. If you plan on having fires in your tipi, take care to place the back of the tipi to the prevailing winds as best as possible.
Now, reach down and place a peg at your left foot (Door Pole) position and then place one at the "F1" pole position - these pegs should be spaced as indicated in the diagram. Drive the pegs in just enough to keep them from moving as you will use these two pegs as reference when positioning the remaining poles.
All measurements are to the outside edge of the peg or pole.
Next measure straight back from the center of these two pegs and place a peg at the "Lift Pole" position as indicated on the diagram. This distance is very close to the radius used to scribe the bottom edge of the tipi cover. We also use this measurement to designate the size of our tipis.
The above process is made easy with a triangular marking rope with loops at each end. You may order a marking rope for your Reese Tipi online at
www.reesetipis.com or by calling us at 1-866-890-8474.
Once you have a marking rope made up with the loops spaced properly. It is a simple thing to put the end loops over the stake at the Door Pole location and pull the other two loops out to form the triangle and automatically find points for the South and North Poles. Since distances between the poles are not the same, it is important to color-code or mark the loops so as to know which is South and which is North.
If you have a Reese Tipis marking rope, the ropes are color coded as follows:
Door pole to South pole = Yellow
South pole to North pole = Yellow/Black
North pole to Door pole = Black
Door center to Lift pole = White
Now LAY THE NORTH AND SOUTH POLES SIDE BY SIDE with the butt ends at the South Pole marker and extending to the left of and beyond the North Pole marker.
And PLACE THE BUTT END OF THE DOOR POLE the Door Pole marker and lay it across (on top of) the north and south poles so as to allow the marks on the poles to intersect just below the point of crossing.
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