Thumb Screw and Nut

The Flex-Bow tent is a well made product that has a poorly designed tent pole lock. One of mine failed on the first use of a three night camping trip and I had to use sticks to prop up the one side. I'd wake in the morning to a partially collapsed tent that constantly needed to be propped back up again. The threads inside the nut part are not fully formed and stripout with moderate twisting force. Maybe better threads would solve the problem, but regularly spaced holes and a pin would be a more positive method than a metal-to-metal sliding clamp. I ordered two replacements and I'll have to determine if they might need modifications to be reliable.

These nuts and screws work...okay. If i was kodiak, i would drill the hole all the way through the pole and use a cotter pin type system. it would be damn near indestructible at that point. Just brain storming to make a good product better.

I changed up my tent thumb screw and nuts a few years ago. The replacement nut's that I have had like 3/4 of the thread gone. I have now replaced them all with stainless hillman 4143-B Tee Nuts, I had to grind them down to fit but work better and have not had a problem with them stripping out. I also changes the thumb screw to part# 449563 10-32 x 5/8" Knurled Thumb Screws / Stainless Steel. I got my grand cabin tent in 2016, use it for 3 weeks a year and this is the only problem I have had to deal with. The quality of the tent and poles are top notch, The locking nut needs to be better.

These screws are not an ideal solution to your otherwise fine tent. I wish those poles had the push pins that other tents have. I've already went through 2 of these because the screws have gotten stripped. There's already a better design solution out there use it. I bought 5 of these just in case the screws get stripped again.

A must have item for my tent