Azarxis Tent Pole Repair Splint Repair Kit Spare Repair Emergency Tube for Diameter 7.9mm-9.5mm Tent Pole

Great

Shock corded aluminum tent poles are generally stronger than fiberglass, but when they fail, they fail catastrophically. These tent repair splints are simple, yet effective. They’re aptly named too because “splinting” is exactly how they work. They slip over the broken pole segment and marry the two broken ends together. A bit of electrical or duct tape anchors the splint in place and you’re back in business.I inherited a Walrus brand single person tent; a low, non-freestanding “Conestoga Wagon” style design with two hoop poles. It’s an extremely high quality tent, but the former owner had managed fall on it and snap both pole sections near the middle. Walrus has long been out of business, so obtaining factory replacements was out of the question. Ordering the Azarxis Tent Pole repair kit I had one major concern. The pole sections are pre-curved to create the hooped forms when assembled. The slight curvature in each pole segment makes their effective diameter much greater.As I feared, the pre-curvature of the pole sections made it impossible to slide the Azarxis splint along a single pole segment, let alone the two or three needed to reach the broken mid sections. The solution was simple enough though tedious: pulling one of the end ferules out of each set of poles, unknotting the internal shock cord and separating the pole segments. That allowed me to get at the broken segment in each set of poles. It would be difficult to explain in writing how you can re-thread the shock cord through each of the pole sections and string them back together, and then stretch the shock cord enough to retie it to the end ferrule. Just know that it’s absolutely doable and pretty intuitive when you have the pieces in front of you. Just take care to restring them in the correct order (it matters in some tent designs) and orient the male and female ends correctly.I used a bit of black electrical tape wrapped around the factory pole on either side of the breaks to create a friction fit with the splints, and more over the ends of the splints themselves to anchor everything in place. The friction fit probably would have been enough, but the extra tape at either ends of the splints themselves was extra security and probably makes it a bit easier to slide the pole sections through their respective sleeves.The repair certainly feels plenty strong, isn’t going anywhere and isn’t nearly as bulky or amateurish looking as I had feared. It’ll never look like new and technically the pack weight is incrementally heavier. But it’s an entirely functional repair that is essentially invisible once the tent is fully pitched. Sure beats trashing an otherwise perfectly good tent!These work exactly as advertised and are an outstanding value so I heartily rate it 4 out of 5 stars. I’m docking one star because it would be helpful for buyers with perhaps more modest mechanical/spatial relations skills to understand how to use duct tape and deal with things like curved pole segments and the possible need to disassemble/reassemble the internal shock cording. Azarxis: feel free to crib from my descriptions above to make your quality product even more consumer friendly. Happy Trails everyone!