Introduction of Different Outdoor Tent Pole Materials
When going camping, outdoor tent is one of the essential outdoor gears you have to pack. For different terrains or weather, the requirement for tent varies. There are definitely higher requirement for mountain camping tent than daily backpacking tent. As the mainly supporting force for the tent, tent pole plays a very important role in keeping stability. Two most commonly used materials for tent is aluminum and glassfiber. Both of them have their unique features as below.
Aluminum pole: it is a popular choice for backpacking due to its light weight. There are different models of aluminum material: 7001, 7075, 7178. The price for these models varies. But that doesn’t necessarily reflect the grade of its quality. It is more of a physical performance issue. 7001 is the widely used aluminum mode highlighting great tenacity, toughness and affordable price. 7005 and 7178 enjoy higher toughness and lighter weight compared with 7001. But they are more for specially designated high-end outdoor tent with its high cost and relatively weaker tenacity. It’s bit hard to differentiate the superior aluminum pole to the inferior one. One simple way is to choose a small section and to try with both hands whether it’s easy to bend or not. If it easily goes out of shape, then it shall be avoided.
Glassfiber pole: it can be rated by its thickness as 6.9 / 7.9 / 8.5 / 9.5 / 11 / 12.5 in a row. The bigger the figure is, more rigid the pole is and the weaker the softness is. Whether or not to choose the glassfiber pole shall be decided by the camping space taken and the height you are willing to put up. The classic size for glassfiber pole is for 210*210*130cm tent. And commonly used diameter applied is 7.9 0r 8.5.
For backpacking, many people prefer aluminum pole to glassfiber pole as part of best lightweight backpacking tent. Actually the average aluminum pole shares almost the same weight with glassfiber pole and sometimes is heavier. And the supporting force provided by glassfiber pole is slightly stronger. But it’s easily for the glassfiber type to crack after long time use especially under cold weather. Thus for daily backpacking, glassfiber pole is just as useful as the aluminum type. But for cold environment and durable use, it’s recommended to choose super aluminum pole.
