Harbor Freight Portable Garage

[TractorGuy]

I recently purchased the 10x17 Harbor Freight portable garage. The door opening is about 90" wide at the bottom and 81" wide at the top. The door height is about 79". For the money I think it makes a decent temporary solution and should last a while. At least one review I read said the tarp cover was just showing signs of wear at 5 years old so that is a decent life span for a tarp. I purchased mine on sale for $179.99 plus tax. It is intended for a compact car but a medium size tractor should fit.

I bought it to keep my 1999 Mustang out of the sun. When my tarp fails I may cover it with roofing tin if the frame looks good. Mine has sat through a few blowing rains and showed no signs of damage or movement.

The frame is all 1-1/2" OD by .058" wall tubing. All the hoop and side pieces are of the same size tubing and they all join together with tee joints. Everything is numbered and is pretty easy to match up. I went a step beyond and ran a button head drill tip screw in all the joints to keep them from sliding apart during assembly. Some of the joints fit tight and some loose. I used a cone shaped muffler tool to straighten a couple of the joints but I could have managed without it. I used a 1/2" socket adapter with a 12 point 1-1/8" socket to screw the anchors in with a cordless drill. The supplied anchors screwed into my soil very secure.

I strongly suggest you have a helper to erect. The wife and I assembled mine in a little over 4 hours.

 

[CoachEarl]

Interesting. Tempting to have at the deer camp for when I leave the tractor out there. I also wonder how long it would last in South Texas.

 

[RNeumann]

My buddy has had a few of these. A relatively minor wind event (we don’t live in a windy, tornado or hurricane area) will wreck shop. When they go it will probably damage the old Mustang.
He finally had success after some very aggressive footings. He started with those concrete post bases the hardware store sells and ended with several railroad ties buried in the ground. Good luck and hopefully you can avoid a similar experience.

 

[plowhog]

I had the Harbor Freight large canopy, about 10' x 20', with aluminum pole frame. Installing by myself was a challenge but i did it. It was not the enclosed garage kind.

At the first significant wind (maybe 20mph?) it lifted up and moved down the driveway, buckling the thin aluminum tubing poles that was holding part of it. I put it back in place, got everything mostly sorted out, and weighted it down.

Our summers at this location are usually in the mid-90's with 105F occasionally. Maybe a dozen days over 100f in a typical summer. After one summer, I started seeing thin spots in the covering tarp. In the next summer, I had "chaff" blowing out of it where it was coming apart. I took the cover off (a chore) and threw it away. I bought a quality UV resistant cover for it-- which cost double what the entire thing had originally cost. And putting that cover on was a big chore as it weighed at least twice the original Harbor Freight tarp.

The poles rusted out and the welds between the pole frame pieces were then breaking. I was worried it would collapse and damage my vehicle. So I took the whole thing to the landfill. Except I kept my expensive UV cover.

Your mileage may vary. I wouldn't buy one again unless it had a better frame and a much, much better UV resistant tarp.

 

[flewism]

I have a harbor freight 10 by 20 canopy also but I only used it for parties or bon fires, BBQ's etc.. gatherings where I need extra shade for people. So it is up and down in 2-3 days stretches 3-4 times an year I have replaced the string tie-downs with light duty ratchet straps and bought a tote for the cover and small parts, bungee cord the poles together and back on a shelf in the barn. So $120 for the canopy, $10 for the tote $20 for the ratchet straps, so $150 and we've used it maybe 16-18 times over the last 4 years I'm good with it.

Mine is always staked into grass and I don't believe it would hold up to any long term use.