Are my poles covered under warranty?

You’ve got your new tent out at the campsite, tipped it all out of the bag and you’re hurriedly putting all the poles together to thread through the sleeves. You’ve got a pole all the way through the sleeve without ripping it, got one of the Ring and Pins in one end, now for the tricky bit. It’s that moment where you you’re stretching the fabric out and trying to force the pin into the end of the pole but it just won’t reach…..maybe if you bend the pole a little bit more………SNAP….!

This is an all too familiar event, and not suprisingly, more often than not happens on the first pitch of a tent. This is no co-incidence and generally isn’t a sign of shoddy materials, unfortunately a lot of us can be guilty of not looking at the instructions and rushing to the finish line…..with a little preparation and organisation these type of hiccups can be avoided.

The Ring and Pin system used on most Fibreglass poled tents relies on a certain amount of tension between the pole and the fabric in order to keep the tent up. Most importantly when trying to get the 2nd pin into position, make sure that none of the pole ferrules are caught up on the sleeve, with a little gentle persuasion the ring should pop in the end of the pole. A lot of tents and awnings (although not all) nowadays have an adjustment strap on one end which enables you to slacken the tension off in order to pop the pin in the end of the pole before tightening it up again. Please have a look the video below for tips on pitching from Outwell

The above is one of the most common breakage complaints, however poles can break or split due to a variety of reasons, often in some way influenced by human had, or human error!  Pitching errors, striking in transportation, accidental damage, incorrectly seating the ferrule, dropping the pole, or breakages in storm conditions can all happen at any point over the life of your tent. There are thankfully seldom, however due to the myriad of reasons, no tent manufacturers will cover poles under their warranty. So when pitching and transporting, please take care, and just in case, always take a set of spare poles with you. Check first which diameter poles your tent has (manufacturers generally provide this information) and take a spare set with you incase you need to make a repair. check out our video here for tips on repairing your pole. A junior hacksaw and a little bit of patience is recommended 🙂