I have a 20 something year old dome tent that I was thinking about taking on a creampuff 3 to 4 day hike. The tent is old and cheap, and I don’t have a big attachment to it.
This spring, I sprayed silicone based water seal on the outside, and used seam sealer on the interior seams. This weekend, I deliberately pitched it in my back yard and slept in the rain to test the job. I woke dry, but there was water near the door and to one side, presumably from the base seam. Did I mention cheap? There is no bathtub floor.
My question: given nylon construction, why couldn’t I use the spray rubber sealant as advertised on TV for gutters and the like to seal the base seam? Aesthetics are 90% don’t care, FWIW.
If this won’t work, I could either take a tarp with me to pitch overhead, or get a better (and smaller, lighter) tent to take wih me.
Tents with rain flies are designed to breathe, the fly protecting from the rain but the rest of the tent allows moisture to escape. Otherwise the water from your breath will condense and drip on you, making everything in the tent damp.
The lack of a bathtub floor is the easiest thing to solve - use a ground cloth. Either a blue tarp, or a sheet of plastic slightly smaller than the tent footprint should stop or nearly stop water coming through the floor. If you are having problems with the fly you can try stringing a tarp up over the whole tent once it’s set up. That rubber spray will make the tent difficult to pack or stuff, and may not be able to deal with the stresses of folding and stuffing on fabric like that.
I’ve used scotchgard on tents most of my life. We once spent a full day scrubbing mildew off tents and air dried. Then used several cans of scotchgard on them.
It does need a lot of drying time. The material will stick together if it’s folded too soon…
If there’s no water against the tent floor the seams won’t leak. A waterproof ground cloth, that’s slightly smaller than the tent’s footprint so water won’t come off the fly and under the tent, should take care of 99% of your problem. But I suspect it’s not the seams but the floor material that’s simply porous.
A redneck would probably make his own seam sealer; just mix (odorless) paint thinner / mineral spirits with some silicone caulk. Scroll down to the bottom of this page for a video demo. It takes a long time to mix the stuff so you can go real redneck and use a paint stirrer on an electric drill if you have one.
If you do decide to go with a new tent, I did a lot of research this spring and replaced my 20+ year old tent with a Tarptent Double Rainbow – very spacious for one and room to sleep two, weighs in at 42 ounces including pole, stakes, and lines.
I live along the Appalachain Trail and have seen quite a few Tarptents the past couple of years. The Contrail is very popular with single hikers and is even lighter than the Rainbow.
