My tent pole snapped in the middle of a storm last weekend

I was camping up near Lake George and a big gust of wind came through around 2am. The aluminum pole just cracked right at the joint, no warning at all. I ended up duct taping it and finding a lean-to to wait out the rain, but has anyone else had a pole fail like that on a newer tent?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_zara14d ago

Wait, at the joint? That's crazy. I've had poles bend in bad weather before but never just snap clean like that on a newer tent. What brand was it?

julia28614d ago

@the_zara brings up a good point but I wonder if it's not just the brand, maybe it's how the tent was packed. I always shove poles in the bag tight and I'm starting to think that stress over time, like from being jammed in a car trunk or stored in a hot garage, can weaken the aluminum way more than people realize. A friend of mine had a similar snap on a really expensive tent and it turned out the pole had a tiny microcrack from being bent the wrong way during setup once, then the storm just finished it off. Not saying you did anything wrong, just that these modern poles are a lot more fragile than the old fiberglass ones and a single bad pitch can set you up for failure later. Maybe try storing them loose or in a tube instead of crammed in the bag, that's what I started doing after my last trip.