View Full Version : waterproofing the tent
glacier48
05-08-2008, 17:37
Does everyone take the time to waterproof their tent before a backpacking
tri:sunp or does the tent come water repellent and is good enough?
Glacier
envirodiver
05-08-2008, 17:48
Does everyone take the time to waterproof their tent before a backpacking
tri:sunp or does the tent come water repellent and is good enough?
Glacier
Depends on the tent. Some come taped and sealed. Some don't. Silnylon requires a different sealer than ripstop. Extra seam sealing couldn't hurt..could it?
take-a-knee
05-08-2008, 17:53
Does everyone take the time to waterproof their tent before a backpacking
tri:sunp or does the tent come water repellent and is good enough?
Glacier
All quality tents are made from waterproof fabrics, at least in part. A double-wall tent will have an outer waterproof fly. A single wall tent is usually made from waterproof siliconized nylon . The seams however are not water proof unless they have been factory "taped". If this is the case, your owner's manual will tell you.
As Envirodiver stated, you must use a silicon based product for silnylon (McNetts's Silnet).
glacier48
05-08-2008, 17:59
I bought a Spitfire (eureka)
Tipi Walter
05-08-2008, 20:04
In the old days we all spent time on the floor seam-sealing our tents and if we felt like it we did the floor seams and sometimes both sides of the fly seams. Nowadays with taped seams the urgency to seam seal isn't as high. When you mentioned "waterproofing our tents" I thought about the half-quart cans of K-Kote used with a paint brush to coat and cover an old tentfly. But it just wasn't worth the effort as whole sheets of the stuff peeled off during the first outing.
A tent floor is the first thing to wear enough to leak regularly and I heard of people brushing on some kind of urethane floor coat but most of us would just deep-six the thing and get something new.
My Hilleberg has a fancy kerlon silnylon fly which the company says needs no seamsealing but under hard conditions I found several leaks on the little umbrella fly before using the McNetts. So I spent about 45 minutes sealing the 6 long seams along with some other small seam points.
When tent flys get really old they pull apart like rotten cloth due mostly to UV damage. At first some rescue attempt can be done using ripstop tape(or duct tape)but the tent is dying and needs to be buried. Some people even take an extra tarp to cover their old tent, just to stay dry in the rain. Time for a new tent.
I’ve never waterproofed any tent I have owned other then seam sealing it. I figure by the time it starts to leak, it’s time to buy a new one and give the old one to a neighbor kid to camp overnight in his back yard.
I take lightweight plastic with me to put between my fly and tent. I use a tarp underneath anyway.