Annex poles, Steel or aluminium?

[Bookleaf]

Need some poles to hold out the annex window flaps and to hold up a temporary fly between 2 annexes.
What do people regard as the better poles to use - Steel with the wing nut out the side to lock the pole length, or aluminum that you twist to lock to the required length?

[Kit_e_kat9]

I guess it depends on what YOU want. 

We have aluminium for our annex.  It's what came with the camper.  They are very lightweight which means in a horrid blow they MAY bend and disappear over the horizon, but they are very lightweight which is a plus.  A plus on these is that there is no wing nut to stop them going into where they are meant to go so the storage area is smaller.  No issues so far.

I used to have steel ones with the wing nuts.  They are heavy and heavy duty.  They don't tend to bend very readilly, in a horrid blow they will still bend but you won't have to walk to the horizon to find them.  The wing nut makes them harder to store as you must take the wing nut into account which means more room ... it also gets caught on things ... but it's great for hanging things from.  No issues except in sand where mine got rather hard to use due to the sand getting in between the two lengths.

I guess it's a trade off ... lightweight against better stength. 

Personally, I'd take lightweight every time.  It means more  can be fitted to the vehicle.

Kit_e

[KingBilly]

We have both and agree with all of kit_e's comments.  I would add that I can never work out if I am tightening or loosening the alum ones.  Normally do it wrong and then have to turn them the other way.  With the wingnuts this isn't an issue.

KB

[chisel]

Steel ones are typically a fair bit cheaper.

[nbd73]

How about aluminium poles with wing nut tighteners? My Kakadu annexe came with these. Don't rust, hold up the annexe just fine, and its damned heavy. 2 yrs of solid use with no visible weakening, creasing etc. There would be a local supplier in SA who sell them. Agreed the twist tighten poles are terrible to use.

[whitey1]

Aluminum poles from Supa Peg. QLD company I think. Great poles, heavy duty and easy to operate. Our AORCamper came with them.

[Bird]

Diggity Dig

So I replaced 2 of the steel poles on the annex after I bent them (My ****up), with alloy twist lock poles... Lovely and light, not a fan of the twist locking, but it works...
But infact the poles appear too light.. Twice now have woken up to find they have blown down even when tied down the same as the steel ones always were.

Anyone else had this problem before?

[gronk]

Did you put the rope over the spigot or did you also hogtie them as well.

[Bird]

Did you put the rope over the spigot or did you also hogtie them as well.

like this (photo from few years ago)

[Ben.Archer]

I am slowly replacing all my poles with Alu ones.  The poles for my annex all store in a bag that is so heavy I can only just lift it, they are the single heaviest item I have to store and just replacing them will make a massive difference to the weight of my camper.

[Bird]

The poles for my annex all store in a bag that is so heavy I can only just lift it.

How many poles do you have by the sounds of it more than I could ever be ****ed putting up...

[Ben.Archer]

How many poles do you have by the sounds of it more than I could ever be ****ed putting up...

I have never put up many of them as there are large number of annex spreader poles etc - but at a guess I would say that there are ~ 30 - 40 poles.  The annex itself uses a minimum of 14 poles + 8 spreaders - which is more than enough.

[Bird]

I have never put up many of them as there are large number of annex spreader poles etc - but at a guess I would say that there are ~ 30 - 40 poles.  The annex itself uses a minimum of 14 poles + 8 spreaders - which is more than enough.

and here I was pissed off with 4 poles...

30 - 40 poles??


I can't see how an awning would need that many poles...  how big is awning? 100ft x 120ft? I'd never use it...

[Ben.Archer]

Its MDC over engineering at it's finest.