Just a thought....

[Andy BB]

Was idly thinking about recommendations to use tennis balls to provide a "big foot" on chairs to stop them sinking on soft surfaces - a very clever idea (particularly if you are a bit heavier than average!).

Anyway, one of the problems of using tarps etc as covers*(and many small tents) is the vertical pole at the entrance, something that has always irritated me. So I thought about tennis balls. Put a slit in them, and then put a couple of poles/branches etc in the slit and - hey presto - you have a cheap A-frame joint, and excellent protection of the cover material! Would also work in something like the Polish laavu (using three or four branches) to do away with the central pole which takes up so much usable space in the beasty.

 

[Toddy]

I have balls with holes already moulded into them….they're meant to make structures and frames in the garden using canes fitted into the holes….but the judicious use of a hot poker on a tennis ball should give the same thing rather neatly

Good idea AndyBB

M

 

[John Fenna]

We have been using Tennis balls to turn canoe poles into tarp supports for at least 10 years - I am not sure who passed the idea onto us.... it works a treat!

 

[petrochemicals]

It's a good idea, as I remember cracking one or other piece of my anatomy off the vertical pole in old ridge tents. Other thing I have tought of is pitching the pole at an angle up the side of the fly and then guying the top and pegging the base. I'm unsure whether the pole would stand up to the stress though, as they're made for vertical compression I think?