spreader pole for Frabill

[planofslayer]

I have a Frabill XL Twin and I want to make a couple of spreader poles to keep the slack out of the sides of the tent. I know you can buy the spreader poles but I have the thin wall conduit but need the, I guess you would call them C-clips, that slip into the ends of the conduit and clip over the poles that are in place. Does anyone know what they are called and where I can get them for a resonable price? I see that Clam sells the clips/clamps for $9.95 plus shipping. I know that I have found them before and I was thinking that they were about $.50 a piece. Thought maybe someone could help my tight a*# out.

[deja vu]

I have a two-year old Frabill Ranger Solo shelter, built with a heavier tent fabric and a heavier waterproof fabric coating than earlier Frabill shelters. The fabric walls still fluttered in high winds...

I purchased a set of one long and two short spreader poles from Frabill. The original fittings are C-shaped, but are not clips; the C fits perfectly around the aluminum tubing support frames for the fabric tenting, and is held in place by extending and locking a spreader pole between two aluminum tubing frames.

The fitting on one end of my long pole was broken during shipment, and Frabill quickly sent me another long pole gratis. Instead of discarding the damaged pole, I picked up an inexpensive plastic T-fitting at Menards. The aluminum pole end fit perfectly in the bottom of the T-fitting and I locked it in place with a pop rivet. I then used a hack saw to cut the length of the top of the T-fitting in half... The C-fitting that resulted duplicates the original pole fitting, and works perfectly. So now I have two long spreader poles, which I put on each side of the wall panel with the zippered door in it. The sides still flutter...

So last year I installed aluminum bubble insulation on the back wall, the two roof sections and the front (door) wall section. If you do it carefully, the shelter unit folds up almost as neatly as it did without the insulation in place.

That insulation really reduces the flutter, and makes the shelter much warmer and brighter.

I had insulation left over, so I made two panels that fit along the walls on each side of the door panel, back to the edge of the sled towards the door. These panels have to be slid in between the walls and the aluminum framing after the shelter is erected, so I don't often use them. But they eliminate wall flutter entirely, and make it possible to heat my shelter using my Big Buddy's lowest setting, even in -20 degree storms.

Good luck.