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         Where can I get a couple of new poles for my Cabanon Athena.

  Need the two back corner ones ( they are slightly longer than the rest )

  My local store says they have to come from France and they will take about 10 weeks. summer will be over.

  Dont mind traveling the Midlands area to get them

Try giving Graham, at TVS, a ring.

http://www.tentvaletingservices.co.uk/

Jacksons of Old Arley, Spring Hill Industrial Estate, Old Arley, about 10 miles from Coventry have a huge selection of spare poles in stock. We bought a couple of poles for our Cabanon from there, £1 per section. You will need to take the poles which need replacing with you to make sure you get the correct ones though, some are 19mm & some are 21mm.

 Hi again, have tried Jacksons but couldn't find any to suit, and also been to J&R earlier, all they had was a pile of S/H bits from which I managed to get two sections to do the top of 2 legs, but none of the longer ones for the back corners. Have had to go to Mid West at Wolverhampton, cost me a fortune (£15.00 per section plus my petrol). This is the second time a gale has bent this tent, am I doing something wrong, or is a common problem.

We bought our Cabanon Elody second-hand, and although it's a beautiful tent, it hadn't been treated kindly by the previous owners  Think it had been used as a party tent cos of beer stains on the inside of the roof - I had to clean all the inside of the tent as well as the outside!

The two pole sections we purchased from Jacksons were to replace bent poles when we bought the tent. Last year it went through a terrific thunder storm and high winds but all the poles survived it without even a kink.

I can't see how you can be doing anything wrong, so I wonder if the poles on your particular tent were made from a batch of inferior metal. Are the poles you've just replaced different ones to those you replaced before? If so, maybe you should contact Cabanon and explain the situation to them - they may have had similar complaints from people who bought the Athena at the same time as yourself. It's worth a try, see what they say.

Hi

We've got a cabanon athena, had it about 5 years, not had problems with the back corner poles bending. We have the front right pole slightly bent, don't even know how this happened but think it was when pitched on a sloping site, too much pressure the one side. I'm surprised Jacksons don't have the spares though and Midwest, although very good, are often more expensive.  I don't see how you can be doing anything wrong either as the poles fit together fairly easily.  How long have you had the tent?

Hi again,

aAnswers to Jean & Jo,

Got our first  athena in may2002, took it to Ireland and on the second morning ( after a wild night) the weather got worse and mid morning a sudden gust took it over. Spent the rest of the week in a caravan on the site, and spent lots of time rescuing things like a tea towel off a hedge about 400 yds away. You can see what the resultant frame looked like when we got home and I assembled it to take some pics for the insurance (see my gallery) The replacement we got about a month later so it could have been the same batch. This one has only been used about 4 times since then and a couple of weeks ago we got caught in the high winds on the north Lancs coast and I recon the damage was done with the full force of the wind being against the back of the tent.

Might be a good idea to contact cabanon with the dates being so close. You never know, and Iv'e got nothing to loose... Thanks for the suggestion

Off to Fleet Hargate tomorrow fo a couple of nights, but taking an Aztec Sala, the Athena is hard work for us oldies just for a couple of nights.

Hi

We had 2 poles very slightly bend when pitched on a steep slope (no choice of pitch) and then getting caught in the worse gale ever that desrtoyed all the other tents on the site except one other frame tent and even rolled a caravan over.  It is so slight that we never even noticed it at the time - were too busy pegging and re pegging and then helping other campers find their belongings. Only noticed it the next time we went away.  Its so slight we wont bother to change them unless they bend some more but that was a few years back and we have seen gales in that tent since (although no where near as severe).

I would write to Cabanon and explain your prob, you never know you could get something out of it. And in the meantime try and get some poles somewhere - did someone in one of the other posts say they got some for a £1 or £2 on one of the other posts.  At that price it would be worth a drive out to see them - take the old ones with you so you get a good match.

Good luck and enjoy your trip away. Fab weather for you.  And its not just you oldies who find putting up these grand frame tents hard work for a couple of nights - we have done it but we're not that old and find it a bit of chore (but of course we love the luxury)!