REI Co-op Campwell 6-Person 3-Season Tent $163.83 + Free Shipping

berukz

Jul 23, 2026 10:16 PM

419 Comments

Joined Mar 2014

berukzJul 23, 2026 10:16 PM

419 Comments

The reviews are pretty bad on this

2

majorhavoc

Jul 23, 2026 11:14 PM

3.1K Comments

Joined Oct 2008

majorhavocJul 23, 2026 11:14 PM

3.1K Comments

Not that it's the only thing you should look for when selecting a tent, but hold out for aluminum poles. Fiberglass is heavy and prone to cracking and splintering. Trust me, the price premium to get aluminum is worth it.

crazycreations

Yesterday 10:30 PM

2.9K Comments

Joined Apr 2009

crazycreationsYesterday 10:30 PM

2.9K Comments

Quote from majorhavoc

:

Not that it's the only thing you should look for when selecting a tent, but hold out for aluminum poles. Fiberglass is heavy and prone to cracking and splintering. Trust me, the price premium to get aluminum is worth it.

fiberglass is flexible, which makes it easy to setup. i never had aluminum, other than durability and lightweight , does it have any other advantages ?

majorhavoc

Yesterday 11:42 PM

3.1K Comments

Joined Oct 2008

majorhavocYesterday 11:42 PM

3.1K Comments

Quote from crazycreations

:

fiberglass is flexible, which makes it easy to setup. i never had aluminum, other than durability and lightweight , does it have any other advantages ?

Fiberglass only works as a segmented pole material if it's used with aluminum ferrules for the next segment to plug into. Those ferrules are slightly larger in diameter than the rest of the pole and more easily get hung up in pole sleeves or other hardware. Aluminum, on the other hand, slides through pole sleeves and past hardware with ease.

You're supposed to only push on a shock corded tent pole when pitching a tent. Never pull on it because it can inadvertently separate, or worse partially separate the pole segments. A fiberglass pole segment that's only partially seated in the next segment's ferrule is much more likely to crack or splinter than a fully aluminum pole. It's still possible to split an all aluminum pole but I've only seen that occur once. I've witnessed it happen numerous times with fiberglass poles over the years.

If you've ever had to replace the shock cord in a tent pole, it's much, much easier with aluminum pole segments (larger internal diameter, smoother inside walls) than fiberglass (tighter internal diameter, really difficult to feed the shock cord through).

No judgment if tents with fiberglass poles are all you can afford or it's a model that has features you value over all else. But all other things being equal, once you use a tent with aluminum poles, there's no going back to fiberglass.

1

Knifey_Spoony

Today 3:07 AM

236 Comments

Joined Jul 2017

Knifey_SpoonyToday 3:07 AM

236 Comments

I'm surprised REI put it's name on this. 3.4 stars and looks like a cheap Walmart tent.

AlfredoM5218

Today 2:34 PM

109 Comments

Joined May 2018

AlfredoM5218Today 2:34 PM

109 Comments

Thanks

1

REI Co-op Campwell 6-Person 3-Season Tent $163.83 + Free Shipping

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