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TT Rainbow with CF poles

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PostedJun 5, 2009 at 9:40 am

This may be a long shot, but has anyone used a Tarptent Rainbow in freestanding mode with carbon fiber trekking poles?
My concern is the carbon fiber possibly being damaged under tension from the tent.

Do you think this is anything to actually be concerned about? Or would the tension of the Rainbow not be nearly enough to do anything to bend, crack or break the carbon fiber poles?

Jim MacDiarmid BPL Member
PostedJun 5, 2009 at 10:32 am

I’ve only used it with my CF trekking poles in my living room, but it didn’t seem to be putting any ungodly amount of tension on them . . . at least not compared to the stresses put on them when propelling my 175lb body uphill, and getting jammed between rocks. I use these poles which are pretty sturdy, but I can’t imagine any pole would give you much trouble.

The one time so far I’ve used my Rainbow in the field, I staked it out because I wanted to use my trekking poles for trekking. If you want to utilize the beak and have tension against the wind on the other side, you’ll be carrying stakes or using rocks already. Titanium shepard’s hook stakes would serve just fine in just about any conditions to stake out the corners and weigh about .25oz each.

PostedJun 6, 2009 at 5:50 pm

You don't need much tension at all to keep the Rainbow up in the freestanding mode, so (IMHO) most CF poles should do.
Those BD poles that James has are pretty safe ( I have a similar but non full CF version)
A point that comes to mind (as well as James comments) is that in all but the mildest weather you still need to stake the tent down. The poles will allow you to improvse, for example by piling stones or sand bags on top of them and using multiple stake points along them, so the stress will be distributed and not concentrated in just a couple of small areas.
Franco

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