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Right Hand Laser Curtain just packed up on my Skytrak, so have have plenty of time on my hands (2 - 3 months) whilst I await it's repair. Won't stop me getting out on the golf course over the weekends however, but evenings are a no go. Thought I would spend some time therefore sharing with the forum my Simulator build. Have to say I have trawled through so many Simulator build posts, PM'd a few people who duly responded with advice, before arriving at my own querky solution. I would like to firstly say "many thanks" to all Forum members who's contributions on so many subjects got me to where I am today (even the ones that lead me to diagnose the current failure on my Skytrak)
My journey started out by designing a new Double Garage, that I intended to build at the bottom of my Garden, with suitable height to swing a golf club in. Living on a corner in a Cul-de-sac meant I would have had entry to the garage from the side road. I duly calculated and sourced the ideal Roof truss Design that would give me a flat 10ft height in the Swinging area, but still limited the external pitch height of the roof so as not to annoy the neighbours. To cut a long story short planning permission was refused, due to proximity of the garage to boundary fences (within 2m), so other than play with my Skytrak in a portable net in the summer only, I needed another solution.
Whilst on a visit up to a friend living in north of England, I called in at a company called Gala Tents (Rotherham) to look at one of their Marquee tents, 6m x 4m x 3.1m height at the Apex (most important). When I turned up carrying a Golf Driver in my hands, the Sales guy got a bit worried, I think he thought I was going to assault him with it !! Anyway had a look, took a couple of swings inside the Marquee (got the wife to Video it on my Phone) and checked how much clearance I had. I must stress at this point I'm only 5' 7" tall, so anyone considering the same should take this into account. If I had the Room for an 8m long Tent I would have bought one, so there was more room for seating, but I didn't, so a 6m had to suffice. Construction was going to be situated on my decking area, which I extended to accommodate the space needed. The plan was to erect it in the Autumn, as the nights got darker earlier, and dismantle it late April / early May once the golf season started, and let the wife have her full view of the Garden back.
Before putting the legs on the frame I stretched a 4m x 5m black heavy duty Tarpaulin across two thirds of the roof in the area which would not be where the simulator screen was (will explain why later) and then pulled the Marquee roof over, fitted the legs and started fastening the roof to the frame.
End wall & Side panels fastened in place before adding internal blackout material that I had made the previous year before myself, This hangs from the Centre roof pools (cable ties) hiding the white frame. Unfortunately in the daytime this seems to blead a little light in (purple tinge) which bugged me, hence the reason for the black tarpaulin. Also stops and condensation directly onto this material from the roof in colder weather.
Before & After photos with inner material material in place. Fixed with cable ties at top and bungees around perimeter. Before I might get asked, I didn't blackout the end where the Frame & Net will be, as the material used for this doesn't bleed any light in.
Added a couple of 2m x 4m heavy duty Tarpaulins to the sides and started to build the frame. The simulator enclosure was designed by Steve Joy at golfswingsystems (www.golfswingsystems.co.uk) to meet the dimensions of the Marquee. he just needed to know the dimensions of the internals shown by the yellow lines below and the depth of the enclosure wanted. I went for 2.5m deep, which took me past the first set of 2m side panels.
The enclosure is slid in the 2 front uprights and then the roof bars swung into place and centre bar inserted. The left photo is incorrect, I had to remove the horizontal stabiliser, put the roof bars on the vertical poles first then add back the stabiliser as shown in the RH picture. This way I was able to assemble the middle pole with the roof poles at a lower position and slide the complete roof framework up to position, locking it in place. Helps if you have another pair on hands for that job.
Once the frame was up, I started hanging the enclosure from the centre roof bar, working my way back to the end panel. Fortunately with a door in the end panel I wasn't going to trap myself in. I used 7.6 x 370mm cable ties to fasten the roof, before working my way down each side in turn, fastening top & bottom. The enclosure material is well built, really strong, so the trick is to get the cable ties as tight as possible.
More photos and explanation to follow......
My journey started out by designing a new Double Garage, that I intended to build at the bottom of my Garden, with suitable height to swing a golf club in. Living on a corner in a Cul-de-sac meant I would have had entry to the garage from the side road. I duly calculated and sourced the ideal Roof truss Design that would give me a flat 10ft height in the Swinging area, but still limited the external pitch height of the roof so as not to annoy the neighbours. To cut a long story short planning permission was refused, due to proximity of the garage to boundary fences (within 2m), so other than play with my Skytrak in a portable net in the summer only, I needed another solution.
Whilst on a visit up to a friend living in north of England, I called in at a company called Gala Tents (Rotherham) to look at one of their Marquee tents, 6m x 4m x 3.1m height at the Apex (most important). When I turned up carrying a Golf Driver in my hands, the Sales guy got a bit worried, I think he thought I was going to assault him with it !! Anyway had a look, took a couple of swings inside the Marquee (got the wife to Video it on my Phone) and checked how much clearance I had. I must stress at this point I'm only 5' 7" tall, so anyone considering the same should take this into account. If I had the Room for an 8m long Tent I would have bought one, so there was more room for seating, but I didn't, so a 6m had to suffice. Construction was going to be situated on my decking area, which I extended to accommodate the space needed. The plan was to erect it in the Autumn, as the nights got darker earlier, and dismantle it late April / early May once the golf season started, and let the wife have her full view of the Garden back.
Before putting the legs on the frame I stretched a 4m x 5m black heavy duty Tarpaulin across two thirds of the roof in the area which would not be where the simulator screen was (will explain why later) and then pulled the Marquee roof over, fitted the legs and started fastening the roof to the frame.
End wall & Side panels fastened in place before adding internal blackout material that I had made the previous year before myself, This hangs from the Centre roof pools (cable ties) hiding the white frame. Unfortunately in the daytime this seems to blead a little light in (purple tinge) which bugged me, hence the reason for the black tarpaulin. Also stops and condensation directly onto this material from the roof in colder weather.
Before & After photos with inner material material in place. Fixed with cable ties at top and bungees around perimeter. Before I might get asked, I didn't blackout the end where the Frame & Net will be, as the material used for this doesn't bleed any light in.
Added a couple of 2m x 4m heavy duty Tarpaulins to the sides and started to build the frame. The simulator enclosure was designed by Steve Joy at golfswingsystems (www.golfswingsystems.co.uk) to meet the dimensions of the Marquee. he just needed to know the dimensions of the internals shown by the yellow lines below and the depth of the enclosure wanted. I went for 2.5m deep, which took me past the first set of 2m side panels.
The enclosure is slid in the 2 front uprights and then the roof bars swung into place and centre bar inserted. The left photo is incorrect, I had to remove the horizontal stabiliser, put the roof bars on the vertical poles first then add back the stabiliser as shown in the RH picture. This way I was able to assemble the middle pole with the roof poles at a lower position and slide the complete roof framework up to position, locking it in place. Helps if you have another pair on hands for that job.
Once the frame was up, I started hanging the enclosure from the centre roof bar, working my way back to the end panel. Fortunately with a door in the end panel I wasn't going to trap myself in. I used 7.6 x 370mm cable ties to fasten the roof, before working my way down each side in turn, fastening top & bottom. The enclosure material is well built, really strong, so the trick is to get the cable ties as tight as possible.
More photos and explanation to follow......
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