DAE spend a whole morning trying to get a tent pole to fit right?

Gavin Grant · 2026-03-17T06:40:05.153645+00:00

I was setting up my new two-person tent from a brand I won't name, and one pole section just would not slide into the grommet on the rainfly. I messed with it for over two hours in my backyard before I realized the pole tip had a tiny plastic burr from the factory. Has anyone else had a simple gear flaw eat up a huge chunk of time?

valallen7mo ago

That "tiny plastic burr from the factory" is the perfect example. I see this everywhere now, where a small, dumb manufacturing flaw creates a huge time sink. It's like the universe's way of reminding us that most problems aren't complex, they're just a piece of plastic in the wrong place. You feel like you're going crazy until you spot the one thing that's actually wrong.

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patricia_king235mo ago

Wait, did you check if the burr was just on the outside of that pole tip or if it affected the inside diameter too? Because I had a similar issue with a tent pole where the burr was inside the tip, and it made the whole section impossible to fit into the ferrule. Everyone always blames the pole for not being smooth, but sometimes it's the connecting piece that's wrong. You end up fighting the pole for hours thinking it's your fault for not pushing hard enough. But really, the manufacturing defect is hidden where nobody thinks to look. Makes you wonder how many "user error" problems are actually just cheap parts.

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mason_stone97mo ago

Wait, is a grommet the metal ring in the fabric? Because if the pole tip was messed up, that's a pole problem, not a rainfly problem. That tiny burr would mess up any hole it tried to go into.

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