Where can I find poles for this REI tent?
September 1, 2013 11:04 AM Subscribe
I got a free new REI tent, but it doesn't come with poles. The tent just says "Quarter Dome, year of 2007". We went into REI but the tent is too old for them to support. I emailed Tent Pole Technologies for their opinion and was told that only the 3 UL was made in 2007, and I coughed up the money to buy the poles. However, they do not fit. My tent has grommets on all 4 corners, but each pole only has a grommet on one side. Also, my tent looks a lot like the pictures of other REI quarter dome 3 UL tents, but only half of it is sleeved, the other is attached by hooks. I have emailed Tent Pole Technologies back, but am not hopeful that they will do much more than grudgingly give me a partial refund. So how can I find poles for this tent or should I just give up?
How many poles did you get? I think REI's 1/4 and 1/2 dome tents have a sort of hub design, so that the pole should really only come in one piece that looks sort of spider-y, with 4 poles radiating from the central hub. If you have more than one multi-armed pole, maybe the non-grommet ends need to be connected to the hub and it was disassembled for shipping?
Later model REI tents have a slightly different pole configuration - instead of the poles meeting at the hub and forming an 'X' like they did in earlier models, they come in sort of offset, so there are two hubs and one segment kind of sticks out in the air to hold up the side walls of the tent and make the walls more vertical than they were with the X configuration.
Even if you've got the hubs correct and everything and you're just missing the grommet end of the pole, I think that's really just an insert that goes into the end of the pole, so maybe you can check with Tent Pole Technologies, tell them you're missing the grommetted end thing, and ask for them to supply it to you, assuming that inserting it is something you can do yourself.
Attaching the poles to the tent via hooks or sleeves shouldn't make a difference. I have a (non-REI) tent that has three poles, two of which are sleeved and the other one clipped, and the poles are totally interchangeable - there isn't a pole that specifically needs to be the clipped one.
posted by LionIndex at 12:18 PM on September 1, 2013
Later model REI tents have a slightly different pole configuration - instead of the poles meeting at the hub and forming an 'X' like they did in earlier models, they come in sort of offset, so there are two hubs and one segment kind of sticks out in the air to hold up the side walls of the tent and make the walls more vertical than they were with the X configuration.
Even if you've got the hubs correct and everything and you're just missing the grommet end of the pole, I think that's really just an insert that goes into the end of the pole, so maybe you can check with Tent Pole Technologies, tell them you're missing the grommetted end thing, and ask for them to supply it to you, assuming that inserting it is something you can do yourself.
Attaching the poles to the tent via hooks or sleeves shouldn't make a difference. I have a (non-REI) tent that has three poles, two of which are sleeved and the other one clipped, and the poles are totally interchangeable - there isn't a pole that specifically needs to be the clipped one.
posted by LionIndex at 12:18 PM on September 1, 2013
Can you post pictures? It is hard to understand what the problem is and how it might be solved from your description.
posted by ssg at 1:21 PM on September 1, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by ssg at 1:21 PM on September 1, 2013 [2 favorites]
REI ought to be able to tell you who was the vendor for that tent, or maybe there's a label or inspector's tag somewhere that will give you a clue. Then find the vendor. Or find a pole-set that's close but a bit too long and cut down one of each section.
posted by TruncatedTiller at 2:15 PM on September 1, 2013
posted by TruncatedTiller at 2:15 PM on September 1, 2013
REI ought to be able to tell you who was the vendor for that tent, or maybe there's a label or inspector's tag somewhere that will give you a clue. Then find the vendor.
REI makes and sells the Quarter Dome tent themselves. I'm not sure what you mean by "vendor" that wouldn't apply to those functions.
posted by LionIndex at 2:18 PM on September 1, 2013
REI makes and sells the Quarter Dome tent themselves. I'm not sure what you mean by "vendor" that wouldn't apply to those functions.
posted by LionIndex at 2:18 PM on September 1, 2013
Tent Pole Technologies did not send you correct poles. Your tent is designed to insert the poles either end first and then thread them into the grommets (as I'm sure you know). Unless you filled out the form incorrectly, they made a mistake, and they should make it right.
That tent gets good reviews. I think it is worth leaning on TPT. Tent pole assembly is not rocket science, and they should be able to give you grommet end pieces on the poles you bought without redoing every part, even if you are the one at fault.
posted by oneirodynia at 2:51 PM on September 1, 2013
That tent gets good reviews. I think it is worth leaning on TPT. Tent pole assembly is not rocket science, and they should be able to give you grommet end pieces on the poles you bought without redoing every part, even if you are the one at fault.
posted by oneirodynia at 2:51 PM on September 1, 2013
Your tent is designed to insert the poles either end first and then thread them into the grommets (as I'm sure you know)
The grommets are typically the things on the tents that you insert the end of the poles into (some tents have pockets or some other mechanism). At the end of the pole, where it's supposed to be inserted into the grommet, there's an end piece that looks like the second thing shown here (the "locking tip"). If that's all the poles that ethidda got needs, it looks like an easy fix.
For poles that are attached to the tent by clips, you need to thread the poles through anything - just insert all the ends into the grommets on the tent and start clipping the tent to the poles.
posted by LionIndex at 3:41 PM on September 1, 2013
The grommets are typically the things on the tents that you insert the end of the poles into (some tents have pockets or some other mechanism). At the end of the pole, where it's supposed to be inserted into the grommet, there's an end piece that looks like the second thing shown here (the "locking tip"). If that's all the poles that ethidda got needs, it looks like an easy fix.
For poles that are attached to the tent by clips, you need to thread the poles through anything - just insert all the ends into the grommets on the tent and start clipping the tent to the poles.
posted by LionIndex at 3:41 PM on September 1, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by feloniousmonk at 11:51 AM on September 1, 2013