Here’s How to Repair a Broken Tent Pole the Easy Way

Hey, hey, summer is actually here. Sure, the pandemic means traveling and camping will be off-limits to some, and lots of campgrounds remain closed. But dispersed camping is still an option just about everywhere, and there are more campgrounds opening all the time.

Time to bust out the tent, in other words.

If, however, in the busting out of the tent, one of the tent poles gets busted, it’s time to use the little metal sleeve that came with your tent. I’ve been camping for a few decades now, and never had to use one of the pole sleeves until last summer when I accidentally stepped on a pole while it was under tension. The tent pole was 10 years old at that point, and it couldn’t handle the pressure.

Having never used the repair sleeve before, I wasn’t entirely sure how it worked. Eventually, I figured it out, but not before 30 minutes of frustration, trying to remove the pole section from the joint that brought the different poles together.

This short video from MSR, maker of one of my all-time favorite backpacking tents, the Hubba Hubba NX, shows how easy it is to make that repair in the field. Would have saved me a good 20 minutes of swearing.