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Richard, thanks for bringing this item to our attention.
[Note: In the following discussion, which was written very quickly & edited primarily for spelling/grammatical errors, no attempt is made to dot every "i" or cross every "t". it is purposely not overly technical & detailed & so to some extent will not earn a grade of 'A' in an engineering Dynamics or Strength of Materials undergraduate class.]
checked out the eBay listing for this tent. had no intention of purchasing (even though from all that i've read, this is a "primo" tent), but was curious none-the-less. what caught my eye was that one of the poles was slightly bent. the listing didn't say where that pole was bent (e.g. "near the center of a section", or "near the end of a section", or "near the end where the pole inserts into a pocket"). now, to the best of my knowledge (and i'm going to be cursory here and not get too technical - a frequent fault of mine) when a piece of metal bends (a pole section is no exception), it tends to want to "spring" back into its original shape. this "spring" characteristic is a constant, peculiar for that piece of material/alloy/metal. bend it too far and the piece of metal yields. what this means is that the metal does not return to its original shape. its "spring constant" changes. it becomes weaker. the listing said that the bend did not affect the tent functionally. i'm guessing that what might be meant is that it's just as easy to erect the tent now, with the small bend in a pole section, as it was prior to the pole bending. however, and this comment is made without knowing precisely where the bend is, my guess is that it's ability to withstand large stresses caused by high winds or snow loading is somewhat diminished. we really need to know more about the bend before anyone unequivocally and dogmatically asserts this statement, but this is generally true, i.e. a piece of metal is weaker after it yields - how this affects its use in an application is a slightly diff matter. if it yielded when not in the erected tent (for example in the trunk of a car when a heavy object was thrown on it), then it might be bent in a place that doesn't affect its strength when in use. however, my best guess given the minimal info in the listing is that this is not the case. if it yielded/bent during a high wind or heavy snow load, then it bent at the point of highest stress and is now not as strong at that point as it was before it bent. therefore, it will not support as heavy a snow load or hold up under as high a wind. it is more likely to bend further under those same stresses that caused it to bend in the first place. likewise, if something heavy was thrown on it in the trunk of a car & it bent at a place where it will experience high loads in use, then it is weaker than in its pre-bent state. for example, anyone remember over stretching a small coil spring, like from a ball point pen, as a child. it didn't spring back to its original length & it had less "strength" when stretched a similar short distance, i.e. placed under tension, after it yielded than before it yielded - doesn't matter whether it is a coil spring, as in this example, or a leaf-spring (like in an old 60's American sedan's or a truck's rear suspension, or a tent pole - which in reality functions, in part, as a spring).
my point is that this may be a perfectly fine tent, or it may be somewhat (very slightly???) weakened and may not perform maximally under high winds or snow loading. i simply don't know, but just want my friends here who read the BPL Forums to be aware of this point. sure, one can replace the pole. also, perhaps, someone would like it for the eVENT fabric and overall design, but won't be using it at altitude in high winds or under a heavy snow load.
these comments are for the reader's info only (and the eBAY lister if he/she happens to read this - i believe the lister would not want to misrepresent the item in any way). these comments should not be taken as intended to disparage the item or the lister. obviously, this fine point would probably only be known to engineers, metallurgists, or someone with a similar technical background - some readers of these Forums and the lister, perhaps, may not possess this knowledge.
having said all this, only the potential buyer can decide if the item represents a good value. given that it's no longer made for sale in the USA, it might be worth more than the original purchase price even with its minor defect. i don't know. perhaps, it has already achieved "collector's" status, so to speak, due to its increasing rarity. again, i don't know. from my perspective, six mos. ago, i probably would have bid on it myself (even with the bent pole section - i prob. would have replaced the pole section before use in winter/snow). for now, i'm probably going to do my next winter using the same ID eVENT Unishelter bivy as i used last winter. hence, my lack of interest in this item. now, if the price were lower... i'd probably bid. i'm an easy mark for a deal.
final edit:
i've made a few of prev. comments in the last paragraph above bold. i'm not sure if these comments were understood correctly (perhaps i had already put most/all readers to sleep before they got that far).
Edited by pj on 09/08/2005 10:27:09 MDT.
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