Shock-corded tent poles

I have two perfectly good tents. One has enough room for four people (or even six, in a pinch) and is great for car camping. Since I camp alone, it’s like a luxury suite. The other one is a ‘two-person’ (theoretically – it’s pretty small) affair that’s great for strapping onto the motorcycle. But there’s third…

Twenty-five years ago I bought a dome tent from Gemco. It’s in great condition and perfectly good except for one thing: The poles. The original poles are fiberglass, a couple of feet long. There’s a socket on each end, and IIRC six of them fit together for each of the three spans (which all cross at the top). The problem is that you have to be careful setting it up, or the pole segments may come unsocketed. Wouldn’t it be nice to replace them with some lightweight shock-corded poles?

I haven’t measured them in a while, but 114" comes to mind. Suppose I can’t find corded poles of the right length. Can they be cut to fit?

If you have any rinky-dink camping stores in your area, I bet they can help. About 12 years ago I bought replacement poles for a tent that I had. My problem was the fiberglass would give you slivers if they came within a mile of bare skin. They just had bulk pole, then I had to buy they parts and cut the pole to the right length, but they still are fine. The pole was cheap, the shock cord was cheap, the little connecting things were ridiculously expensive considering what they were.

Here eBay has some for pretty cheap.

Yes, but epoxy the shaft where you are going to cut it so it does not fray while being cut.