Dry and cozy in your sleeping sack, you listen the first raindrops hit the rain-fly. You drift benefit to snooze. You are awakened subsequent to the wind picks going on, and the sides of your tent begin to shake as soon as a flag blowing in the breeze. That’s in the express of you publication the wet floor. You atmosphere the windward side of the tent wall, and discover a little tear. Through the tear, a steady stream of water flows down the inside wall and accumulates occurring for the floor. Unless the rain lets up soon, you know you are in for a night of mopping and wringing. When your tent dries out, you know you will have to create a repair.
To Repair or Not To Repair
Our aeration here is limited to patching a tent, rather than repairing seams, grommets, or frames. Any aeration of patching fabric has to begin gone a ventilation of the fabric itself because not all fabric is worth repairing. Tent fabric, whether nylon, canvas, or vinyl, is susceptible to a host of ills that weaken the fabric to the reduction where a repair will not preserve. When you repair an place gone a patch, the demonstration that caused the indigenous tear is simply transferred to the fabric surrounding the patch. If the surrounding fabric as well as tears, you have wasted your period making the stick. Before you attempt to patch a tent, tug coarsely the fabric surrounding the tear to make unconditional that it, too, does not tear.
Preparing the Surface
If you determine that your tent’s fabric is in all right condition to preserve a patch, the adjacent step is to prepare the place to be patched. Both nylon and canvas are woven, and vinyl is sometimes fiber-reinforced; tears often depart ragged, frayed edges. Use scissors to clip away the frayed place; if vital, clip into the undamaged fabric until all frayed edges are when. You will be gluing the patch, consequently tidy concerning the damaged place subsequent to denatured alcohol to tidy off any fabric treatments and dirt. Clean both sides of the fabric. If the tent is vinyl, graze the surface vis–vis the tear lightly in the look of fine sandpaper to p.s. pin adhesion.
Making the Patch
The best fabric for a patch is the fabric that matches your tent: use a canvas patch for canvas, a nylon patch for nylon, and a vinyl patch for vinyl. Cut the patch twice as long as furthermore to the tear, and at least several inches wide upon each side of the tear. Cut the patch in an oval have an effect on, because square corners will tend to peel behind the tent is flexed. It is important that the patch is sufficiently large. Patches that fail reach for that defense along the edge of the patch, because the cloth flexes more at a set sights on where a enjoyable thickness (the patch) meets less thickness (the fabric). To prevent failure there, make certain that the edge of the patch is far afield-off and wide satisfactory from the uncharacteristic that the load is sufficiently edited.
Gluing the Patch
Glue is the best mannerism to put in going on a patch, because behind you use fix, the fabric won’t fray and the secure won’t leak. The best paste for patching is one which will adhere to the fabric reliably numb each and every one share of the conditions (heat, cool, moisture, packing, etc.). Latex paste is often touted for tent repairs, but avoid it; it doesn’t adhere highly adroitly in extreme conditions. Contact paste performs proficiently, but can be a tiny stiff. The cement recommended by tent rental companies is called Barge Rubber Cement, made by the Quabaug Corporation. It can be purchased at Ace Hardware and most hardware stores. Barge Rubber Cement stays well-ventilated in a propos any conditions you tent is likely to stroke, and far along than long periods of era.
Paint the paste upon the calm of the patch, and upon the area surrounding the broken. Give the paste solvents a few seconds to flash off, and later press the patch onto the fabric. Be flattering the edges of the patch are skillfully glued. To be flattering that the patch is ably glued, sticking to the fabric from underneath and hammer the patch following a rubber mallet or roll firmly in the by now a rolling stick or veneer roller. For best results, patch the damage from both sides of the fabric.
Allow the paste era to cure in the back packing the tent for storage. While you are making the repair, area some of your repair supplies in a plastic bag and pack them subsequent to your tent; you never know how far from dwelling you will be the by now time to dependence to patch a tear. Do you know about pvc tarpaulin canvas?