More Tent Dyeing

[Sparky B]

Well, anarky321 has inspired me to commit a bit of tent anarchy myself. anarky wrote about dyeing his MSR Hubba Hubba in this thread: http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=52638 .

It’s funny that the MSR Hubba Hubba was my favorite design a few years ago when I bought my current tent. I did not get the Hubba Hubba because it was just too bright for me. I purchased the Sierra Designs Lightning because it was at least 50% gray and not quite so loud visually.

However, the 50% of my tent that is bright yellow still bothered me. And now thanks to anarky, I have attacked that problem.

I took a more conservative approach than anarky. I started on the large yellow section on the back of my tent. I put test spots of RIT dye (mixed with water and salt) of purple, navy blue, dark green, dark brown, and black. I let those spots dry and rinsed them off. I kept on adding spots and letting them dry. I thought a multicolored splotchy tent would have a sort of camouflage effect. It was hard to get dye to sit where you wanted it because of the waterproofing and the fabric is cut for curves and does not lie flat. After a while, half of the surface was still yellow.

Then I tried a mild dyeing technique. I used tan dye and hot tap water in a bucket. I let the water stand a few minutes after mixing. I then submerged the back portion of the tent and let it sit 24 hours.
As you can see below the back is still yellowish, but it is fairly subdued and not bright. I think I could have gotten better coverage with a darker dye and resubmerging the tent periodically. I just squashed it down into the bucket and put a weight on it to keep it submerged. I can always come back to this project and do more dyeing by spots or submerging.

I have sprayed the tent with water and the waterproofing seems fine. The dyed portions bead up just like the untreated areas.

Truth be told, I probably don’t even need a stealthy tent at this point in my life. But I have dreams of epic long-distance hiking and biking adventures. Having a stealthy camping option is one component of making those adventures possible someday.

The following are "before" (sorry, low resolution) and "after" pictures . . .

[brooklynkayak]

OK, now you made your tent ugly:-)
I love it, it has class and I suspect won't stand out as much in stealth situations.

[JoshStover]

That will be great for stealthing...

[Reid]

You've got to put salt in it and stir it every 5 - 10 minutes. You didn't stir it is why it's spotty like that.

[Reid]

Sorry, I didn't read the whole post, just looked at the photos.

[FamilyGuy]

Hope you don't have to ever sell it.