Kelty Staff Pole

We bought these tarp poles to go with a Hillebrand UL10 overhead tarp. These poles are very strong once assembled, they pack up to a reasonable size, and they are fairly light for what they do.However, be prepared for the fully assembled pole to be quite tall. I'm 6'2 and the top of the pole is over my head once fully assembled. Now I can understand that some people might want their tarp that high off the ground, but my personal feeling is that if you are trying to protect yourself from rain, there is also going to be wind, and when it's windy and rainy you don't want the peak of your tarp that high because it reduces the protective area of the tarp. So before I purchased the poles I sent and email to Kelty asking if it was possible to modify the staff pole and maybe reduce one segment, making the final assembled height closer to 5ft. Well, the responded and gave me a boiler plate answer informing me that it was not possible to remove the bottom segment in order to make it shorter.Long story short, I ordered it anyway and it took me all of 5 minutes to figure out how to modify it (in a non-permanent way) so that bottom segment could be removed for something that is both lighter and more suited for our needs. And while Kelty's official line on this procedure might be "no, it cannot be done" and probably more importantly "we will no support it if you modify this product in any way" I personally thing the easily modifiable nature of this product and the way it is assembled is one of it's most positive traits.

If I were to order these again, I'd probably go with the adjustable version, to get a little extra length. I use these to support a 12' Noah's tarp, for use as a dining fly when our family goes camping. Since the noah's tarp has curved edges and seams, it hangs lower in the middle than at the ends. For a 6' tall guy and his 5'10" wife, this makes the fly too low to stand under except right at the edges. I'll probably end up ordering 2 of the adjustable poles as well, and using some combination of the 4 to put up the fly in the future, depending on local terrain. Other than that, the poles are great.

And let's face it, rain is always a threat on an extended camping trip. First had the opportunity to use one of these (with a dining fly/tarp) on an 8 night, summertime, excursion deep into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), where it seemed to want to storm every 3rd afternoon. This pole can also be used upside down if your tarp doesn't have grommet hole in it. This pole, along with a proper tarp, and 4 or 5, 25ft lengths of paracord can create a very stable shelter for cooking/eating under, during rain or sun.

I used two of these poles with one of the Kelty tarps, and I had little hope of two poles and a tarp actually staying up, or even being able to set it up by myself. Well, I was wrong. The poles worked out great, and weight very little for what they are. I had them tied down very tight any they did not bend. They even survived a HUGE windstorm. I would recommend them and would recommend even buying a third one for different tarp setups.

Got these for an up coming beach camping trip. Very solid for an aluminum pole, don't be fooled by it size. I know what people are saying about strength... but keep in mind the weight to strength ratio. You could get steel, but it will be 4 times the weight and it will rust like nobodies business. These are good and will work for non tornado type conditions....

The quality is good and it seems like it will last a lifetime. If used alone with a Noah tarp they won't provide enough clearance for a picnic table underneath, if you intend to cook on the table. If you use taller poles on the other corners, or the other corners are attached to trees, then they are great for making there be more usable space.

I bought two of these poles for my Kelty Noah’s Tarp 16. I used one pole twice, since a tree was available both times to serve as the other support. In the first use, the pole held up well to 5-10 mph winds and short rain downpours. In the second use however, the pole bent badly in 15-20 mph winds. Maybe these poles could do fine with a smaller tarp, but I would strongly recommend against pitching a large tarp with these poles in winds over 10 mph.

Like most of the other reviews, they worked great in no/low wind. But one evening of moderate winds, maybe 20mph peak gust, bent one into a pretzel.

good poled

Postes muy útiles para montar la carpa de ma misma marca, cuando no tienes de donde apoyarte, elaboradas en aluminio resistente.