Shock Cord Replacement for Big Agnes

 Since Marie is not going on this trip, I decided not to take the really big tent we purchased. It's way too big for me alone. But I want more space than the little one-person Big Agnes Ultra Fly. Weight doesn't matter- we'll be base camping. Ergo... I need to use the Big Agnes Copper Spur that I purchased in 2017. But I discovered in the spring that the shock cord that holds the tent poles rigid had no elasticity left. That equals useless.

Supposedly, changing the shock cord is not a difficult job, but quite surprisingly, I've never had to do it before. This is the first time I've had it fail. Anyway, I ordered the new cord, and it came yesterday. You can see the reel of the new cord. Look at the fitting of the tent poles beside it, and you'll see the old cord lying loose between the parts. No elasticity. If you don't know, shock cord is basically a skinny bungee that runs through the tent tubes and is held tight at the ends.

I did watch a couple of videos, because there are several kinds of end fittings depending on the brand of tent. These end fittings screw in, so it was really easy to remove them.

The only remotely tricky part of this task was removing the fittings for the ridge pole. Once I figured out that they wouldn't break if I put a little pressure on them, they came out easily. This is that fitting with the new cord tied in it.

And then pulled down tight into the ring. Of course, when this was the view I had at the beginning, I wasn't exactly sure how to get it out, but it's plastic, and you just bend it a little to force it out of the ring.

I also looked up how long the new strands should be, and for Big Agnes, 80% of the length of the assembled pole is recommended. It would have been a tiny bit easier if I marked that length and then threaded the new cord through before cutting. But it didn't matter much. I used a clamp to hold the cord extended to get the last pole piece on, and that was easy enough.

I did do some research on the kind of knot to use. Found several fancy ones, but they all add bulk to the knot, and it needs to slide inside the pole. The knots that were on it were ordinary overhand loops. However, you can do these loops two ways. I didn't like the way they came from the factory (although I haven't ever had a problem with a knot letting loose). Anyway, the way they came, the loop was in the long strand which means the short end can pull through the loop. I made them with the loop in the short strand. You can see this in the second picture. Ha! I just noticed that you can't see the end of either strand. You'll have to take my word for it that the short one is the upper one.

Got all the cords replaced. Here's the whole pole assembly taking up a lot of room when it's flat in the house.

And proof that it's not too tight- they fold up as they should. The old dead cord is beside them.

What else should I have done? Set up the whole tent to make sure everything else is fine. Guess that will be tomorrow.

In other news: edited, did a bunch of things from my master To-Do list, but added some more. Cleaned the kitchen.

See What's In the Box?