source of replacement tent poles

[Steve King]

I'm rebuilding my beloved North Face Bullfrog with modern lighter weight materials, including some lighter poles. Who knows where I can purchase DAC poles or another similar lighter weight pole? I see Quest sells the Easton poles which are pretty light. Do they bend sufficiently to arc from left to right side of a 55" wide tent?
Appreciate any help. Steve

[Gary Dunckel]

You might contact these guys. I had them make a few poles for me a couple of years ago, and they did quite well. Their
customer service was great, and they'll help you make anything you want, within the range of the materials that they carry.

http://www.polesforyou.com/index.htm

[Sam Farrington]

Think you will need to have alloy poles prebent slightly to work in that tight a radius. Agree that having them done by poles for you is a good way to go. The Easton .344" o.d. are around 10% lighter than the DAC's, but as you might expect, are not as strong.

[Jerry Adams]

I went to polesforyou.com (Vancouver WA) and they bent some poles for me. 0.34" Easton.

They have this circular plywood jig with a metal piece to hold one end of pole and then they bend it by hand around the circular jig.

They have several jigs with different radiuses.

They can bend it by hand, it springs part way back, then they can determine if it's bent enough, then bend it some more by hand as necesary.

[Sam Farrington]

Jerry,
Roger Caffin has an ingenious home-made alloy tent tube bender. Maybe he will post some pictures one of these days.

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