Bent Tent poles

[jtraf]

Well we have just last week gotten back from a 10 day stay in Eden NSW and the camper is safely stowed till the next outing.

However before the next outing we need to replace three tent poles that bent on the last day of our stay in Eden.  The winds were so strong that we have two poles bend completely and one pole bow from the wind gusts that we got.  The question is where can I buy stronger tent poles from?  The one I am more concerned about is the pole that goes to the peak of the annex of our trackabout as this was the one that bowed.

I know I can make some up but do not want to over engineer to the point where the canvas becomes the weekest link.

Have others encountered this issue and what are you using now?

cheers
James

[BigJules]

If the wind was that strong and you only bent three poles don't stress too much about finding something stronger. That is how you find the next weakest part in something and it may not be as easily replaced as a couple of poles.

Are they annex poles or internal?

[Silvo]

i'm assuming you had guy ropes holding all of the poles down, did you have springs on them?

[jtraf]

Yeap it was the poles on the Annex that gave way.........Yes the guy rops had springs on them but to no avail.....

By the sounds of it I just need to carry a few extra poles in the camper from now on and hope that we don't get hit by such a strong wind again in future.

[Silvo]

the spreader poles? sorry i thought you meant the uprights. i wonder what kind of force was on them to bend them!

[jtraf]

the spreader poles? sorry i thought you meant the uprights. i wonder what kind of force was on them to bend them!

No it was the uprights and not the spreader poles that bent.  It was a few sudden gusts that bent the first two but the constant barrage and gusts bowed the pole that goes to the peak of the annex.  I may work on getting a stronger pole that stretchs the height to the peak of the annex and keep the less strong poles on the corners.  Either that or work on a way of bracing the annex with spreader poles between poles as well as the main tent.

[BigJules]

JT provides the best poles, so unless your camper is very old and some might have changed or been slightly bent to start with I don't think you need do much other than replace them with the same quality gal steel poles.

My camper had seen some incredible storms, including the edge of one which smashed the Cooloola coast to bits and I was lucky enough to not sustain any damage. You were just unlucky I'd say.

[V8100]

I also had poles bend at moruya in one wind storm hwever gusts were up to 90kmh  Dont reckon 3 bent poles were too bnad in these conditions.

Eddy

[D4D]

http://supapeg.com.au/

[Hews]

Unfortunately canvas acts as a big sail in the wind - 3 bent poles isn't so bad. Strengthen on point and the next weekest will be exposed.

I was caught out by a sudden storm and their was not much I could do about it. Dead calm to 50knott + gusts in a couple of minutes

[gibbo301]

Had some pretty big gusts of wind over Christmas New Year blew my annex down only got alloy poles but my pegs seem to come out before any damage

[jtraf]

Yeah it was only the annex for me as well.....pegs where well and truely stuck in the ground so the poles were the weakest link.

[wartim]

Most tent poles are 19mm OD tube sliding inside 22mm OD tube, however you can easily buy tent poles made from 22mm OD tube sliding inside 25mm OD tube which are a lot stronger over the longer span of the king pin pole of a CT annex.

I'd talk to JT from Trackabout as an pretty sure he uses superpeg poles which IMHO are the best.

Cheers

Wartim