Aluminum Tent Poles

Aluminum tent poles were not available when I was a younster. We had to make do with old fashioned wooden tent poles and heavy canvas tents. That was all you could buy back then, unless you chose to make your own.

Fifty years ago, tents were mostly made of green or white cotton duck (a type of canvas) or Japara cloth. The tent poles were clumsy and heavy because they were joined together with metal sleeves. And if they got wet, the wood swelled up and then the parts wouldn't separate for packing. They were a pain, and many hikers chose to carry their tents without poles, just rigging them to trees or even hiking sticks while sleeping for the night.

But aluminum tent poles have changed all that. Tents are now cheaper, lighter and more space-saving that ever before. This is all thanks to computer design that makes dome tents and alumimum tent poles the standard for 21st century hikers and campers.

My first tent with aluminum tent poles was a two-person hike tent that I bought when I was a teenager. The tent was olive green, about 40 inches high, and was about 6 foot by 4 foot on the ground. It was fine for me alone or even for two teenagers on a weekend hike. But grown men would have to be really pally with each other to put up with such a tight space.

Modern camping tents are mostly dome-shaped ones, and they all use bendable metal or fiberglass poles which curve along the shape of the tent's roof and walls.

Aluminum tent poles (or alloy ones) really come into their own with this ultra-efficient tent design. The metal poles are heaps stronger than the fiberglass poles that come with cheaper dome tents. Fiberglass tent poles are apt to splinter and snap when you are setting up the tent and you try to bend them to the tent's curved shape.