Been tweaking with poles to spread tarp out holding the side tie outs out, and was using some aluminum arrow shafts I had laying around, total length of each spreader pole is 48" like AHE new Hardrock Tarp. I will say this, Arrowhead has a perfect set of carbon poles that have the more perfect bend to them, but what I divised is perfect for when you don't have a way for tie outs, and spreads the insides of the tarp immensely giving you tons of space inside. I know these pics don't show the way I would like them too, but for now, as quick as I threw everything together, I will take some better pics later. What I used was Easton aluminum arrow shafts, cut into 3 sections, 2 ends had the 5/16 nocks on them that you use to put your piece of 1/8 bungie chord into, and glued with hot melt glue, was a 2 inch piece of aluminum arrow shaft for the coupler. The size of the arrow shafts I used, for the 48" -3 piece was Easton 2413, and for the 2 " insert coupling was 2117. For anybody that hasn't worked with aluminum arrows, the key is not to over heat the aluminum as your using your hot melt glue to sliding in the 2 inche piece of 2117 because if you overheat aluminum arrow shafts you will crystalize the aluminum causing it to become very brittle and thus breaking.
If you had to go out and buy the aluminum shafts, 4 nocks, and glue, you would probably have approx. 40.00 in it for the 2 pole sets. Total weight is only 2.5 oz for both making them very packable. I used black 2413 shafts on the Wilderness Logics Oldman Winter tarp, and orange 2413 shafts for the OES 10' x 12'. I hung the OMW with the doors tied back across the outside leaving it open trying to give you a picture of the immense inside spread, and the just tied down the OES in standard tarp form. Both tarps were hung with the sides 1' off the ground and very tight. There was quite a breeze today of 5 to 10 mph giving me a decient test for hanging. If you decide to do this with carbon arrow shafts, your costs will double so its very hard to beat AHE's price of their carbon poles for their new tarp. I just happen to have all these materials stocked at home from past shooting experiences and was tinkering around. Paul, at Arrowhead Equipment has a tarp pole set that in my opinion cannot be beat. Here is a link to his Hardrock Pole set for his new Hardrock Tarp.
http://arrowheadequipment.webs.com/a...s/show/2845425
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