I've snapped two poles on two different tents attempting to set them up by myself when I should have waited/asked for help.

The first was on a day that was waaaay too windy for putting up a very large Eureka "The Lodge" cabin tent by myself. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. The tent was no longer in production so I had to buy a 3rd party replacement pole - not quite the same shape/dimensions as the original. Kinda bummed.

The second was last year at Scout summer camp. I brought a larger tent (Eureka Kahuna - purchased as a last minute replacement for the broken Lodge tent) since I was going to be there for two weeks straight. I should have asked for some help. It is possible that one of the ferrules (sp?)wasn't inserted quite all the way as the female end of one of the joints split wide open. Most directions these days clearly warn of making sure poles are inserted all the way into the joints.

Now when I buy a tent I tend to buy a replacement set of poles too - just to make sure I have them while the tent is in production.

My main Scouting tent now is a 6-person Alps Mountaineering Meramac tent, which is pretty easy to put up by myself, though some shorter people might have problems attaching the top center clip.

Ken K.