Here’s another long-stalled project completed: replacement of the shock cords on my Eureka! Timberline 2 tent. After almost 30 years, they lost their stretch, and the fly wouldn’t stay attached to the frame. I found new shock cord some time ago at REI, but puzzled about how to secure it. Eureka! used custom aluminum hog rings that close in a tight oval and have rounded tips (the better to not cut holes in tender tent fabric). I tried to pry one off, but found they were a one-use item.
I have to go to a meeting in central Georgia tonight and tomorrow and welcome a chance to sleep outside. I don’t want to set up Nimue’s palace and I shed the 1-person tent earlier this year, so I need the Timberline back in service. It was time to stop making perfection the enemy of the good and accept the use of “regular” hog rings.
But since I neither raise hogs (they’re used to attach tags to pig ears), nor build chain-link fences (which use rings several ways), nor re-cover automobile seats (they hold the fabric to the frame), I didn’t own hog ring pliers and none of my parts drawers were full of rings. So yesterday I went on a hunt.
At one auto parts store, the clerk apologized, “We didn’t move many, so we stopped stocking them.” At the next I got a blank look and shake of the head. “Hog rings? What are those?” an employee of a Big Box Home Improvement Warehouse asked. A second Big Box HIW had pliers, but no rings. Fortunately, I live near a Medium Box Farm Supply Store. Nimue and I went there on our evening walk, and I came away with enough to tag 100 piglets.
hog ring pliers with hog ring, the proper tools for the job
It went smoothly once I had the tool and supplies. A groove in the jaws of the pliers holds the ring until it’s pressed, whereupon it folds into a triangle, clamping whatever it’s meant to secure.
fresh shock cord on a 30-year-old tent
I’m thrilled to see the Timberline up again. It’s sheltered me in a lot of interesting places, and we have more of the world to see!
the Eureka! Timberline 2, first produced in the 1970s and still available almost unchanged
shedding style: repair
Comments welcome … no hogs were harmed in the completion of this shed!
What I Shed Today 
I guess you know Father Darkwater probably has one around here someplace. :) Maybe in the lower shed – or basement. Maybe even two or three of them! <3
I looked around on our most recent visit, and asked pere. No luck. It’s quite possible they’ve already been “shed” to a sib. (Hope so!)
I can remember helping to install “fits all”, usually plaid, slipcovers on some of the used cars he loved to acquire.
[…] I was digging down through our box of plastic sheets (in search of one I could use underneath our Eureka Timberline as I attempt to renew its polyurethane waterproofing) when I uncovered […]
I need to make the same repair. Do you know how long each cord needs to be. Mine are so shot I can’t even measure them for reference
Hi Kelly, I cut my shock-cord to about 7 inches. You need a couple inches of overlap. That repair has held up well. Good luck with yours!