Steel frame tent poles

[RAPPLEBY2000]

Hi just wondered if anyone else uses frame tent poles or has modified poles for other uses.
I'm not suggesting they would be useful to everyone, they certainly are very heavy, but for use with vehicles retro frame tents can have a place, they are very useful.

I like to use old frame tents because of the simplicity (without the fabric)then fix tarps or parachute over it for public displays and demos.

I have found a brilliant source for cheap poles, Local rubbish tips (or "recycle centers") some centres allow you to buy things from the site, I bought a complete 4m x 3.5m frame for £3! it's worth going to your local tip and checking the scrap metal, you never know!

The tent I bought I've added new button cips, and re sized the poles so ther'e all the same length (no confusion).

anyone else do this?

 

[Robson Valley]

Are your tent pole sections swaged to fit, male>female into eachother?
Internal or external frame?

I did exactly that for family car camping for years. Have just handed the whole lot over to my D2 and family.
Woods waterproof 9' x 12' canvas tent (1978?) with an exterior steel pole frame. Rather easily assembled and erected.
+ = you can stand up in the tent and walk around. Space for everything.
Chair & short table if I was alone.

- = as a kid, I got accustomed to being able to hang things from the centerpole in a similar family tent.
No chance of doing that in the tent I bought. Toss-up for convenience.
I'd like a rear zipper emergency exit. We have bears. I guess I could have got that put in easily enough.

At the same time, I had a 2-person A-frame ripstop nylon tent & rain fly from REI, just two spring-loaded poles
which would almost assemble themselves. Stolen. I liked that tent so much, I'm tempted to have one made but taller and longer.

If I had a young family in this day and time, I'd buy/make a second A-frame tent or a 3rd if needed.
Still, they would all have steel pole frames as you describe.

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

Are your tent pole sections swaged to fit, male>female into eachother?

They came with the standard male/female conections. I understand how to but, would find it difficult to make my own!

Internal or external frame?

it was an internal frame a huge 1990's 6 person tent
http://www.thejoyofcanvas.info/manufacturers/sunncamp/sunncamp-chateau.html
The beauty of not having the actual tent fabric is I can decide how to use the frame, it's eesigned rather nicely in a rectangle subdivided into 4 boxes, so theoretically if I negate some of the poles I can use it as a 2m square 3x2m rectange, or 4x2m rectangle.

I did exactly that for family car camping for years. Have just handed the whole lot over to my D2 and family.
Woods waterproof 9' x 12' canvas tent (1978?) with an exterior steel pole frame. Rather easily assembled and erected.
+ = you can stand up in the tent and walk around. Space for everything.
Chair & short table if I was alone.

It's the standing up and moving around I need, so I can have a demonstration area and invite the public in it as shade or rain cover!

- = as a kid, I got accustomed to being able to hang things from the centerpole in a similar family tent.
No chance of doing that in the tent I bought. Toss-up for convenience.

Agreed, the "rafters" are pretty useful, I often use the poles to hang kit from. Because the tank sheets4m x4m (lined with thermal camera relective metal) are so heavy I'll put support lines across each square. couldn't do this if it was external!

I'd like a rear zipper emergency exit. We have bears. I guess I could have got that put in easily enough.

My sheltes are usually open most of the way around it so it's more like a gazebo.

At the same time, I had a 2-person A-frame ripstop nylon tent & rain fly from REI, just two spring-loaded poles
which would almost assemble themselves. Stolen. I liked that tent so much, I'm tempted to have one made but taller and longer.

If I had a young family in this day and time, I'd buy/make a second A-frame tent or a 3rd if needed.
Still, they would all have steel pole frames as you describe.

I've always wanted one of those army 9ft x9ft landrover tents for the same reason, heavy...yes, Bulky...Yes, but Bombproof and easy to erect.

 

[Robson Valley]

Swaging. Find an industrial electrical contractor. Often, the designs require that they run wiring inside thin wall pipes.
They have a lever-operated "squeezer" that necks 2" of one pipe end down to just barely fit into the end of the next piece.

I know that there's another "squeezer" that swages square tube stock but I have never seen it.

 

[RAPPLEBY2000]

my problem if buying random bits and pieces has always been finding correct corner joints, and getting poles with the correct angles, you'd be surprised how many different frame tents and angle choices there have been