awning poles

[CharlynnT]

Hello all,

Well, on our first camping trip for 2007 we had plenty of rain. Our '77 17' Boler has an awning, with three two-piece aluminum poles which work great. (The button-hole system allows many points of adjustment for uneven ground, and the rounded pointy top that goes through the grommet is easy to hook onto with rope or straps to tie down at an angle.)

Living on the wet coast, we bring along tarps to cover a larger area, including another layer over the awning (which is waterproof up to, oh, say 500 inches of rain per day: after that, it starts leaking!)

Question is, where do we find more of the nice old-fashioned poles? New ones are meant for dome tents or have only a few large adjustment options. Or they use tension between the ground and tarp, which works fine until the first gust of wind.

Any suggestions out there?

Thanks!

[Pete Dumbleton]

Look in WalMart and camping stores for replacement tarp/shelter poles, altho they may tend to be steel instead of aluminum.

Also keep an eye out around campground dumpsters, esp after a severe weekend rainstorm -- Lots of folks have problems and leave their broken gear there rather than take it home, and you can recycle the usable parts.

[Doug Mager]

Do what I have done.... with all the storms we've had here on the Wet Coast, I have acquired (through some unfortunate neighbours) whats left of their aluminum poled shelters and grafted them together to form expandable square rods that I can use for multi-purposes with our Trillium!!

Made 4 thus far with spare parts left over (Just like Sunday nites supper, LOL)!

[lwehrly]

I too like to use leftovers, but in case you need or want new, I saw some poles just last week at WalMart that looked like what you described. I think they were about $5 each.

[Dan M.]

I use painter poles. They are quite adjustable, reasonably strong and adjustable. I got mine for around $10 a few years ago. keep the sand out of the inside.

[Chris Z]

http://www.rei.com
there is a telescoping pole there.

[D Shubel]

Kiwanis, Salvation Army, Purple Heart Store, Habitat for Humanity Resale Store...these are a few places that probably have several of these poles.

Just around the corner from my work there is a Recycle center that accepts donated goods. They sort out donations and place them in their warehouse for resale. They have a barrel full of many different sizes of poles. Crutches seem like a viable option, because they are lightweight and adjustable....but they woudl be a bit shorter than the average tent pole.

[Alistair Camelford]

Charlynn. go to www.campmor.com and keyword tent poles. They carry aluminum 7 and 8 footers for about $14 & $15 respectively.
Cheers...Alistair

[Con]

Another thing to look at is the locking telescoping alum. poles for paint rollers. I was looking at some in Walmart or our local hardware store. I thought they would work great with a little modification on the ends.