SubLite SilNylon in the Snow

> .. the tabs which were triple line stitched to the top of the SubLite had ripped away from the silnylon.

Congratulations on a successful snow-load failure test! Way to take one for the team ;-)

Please send it back if you'd like us to restitch it. I definitely did not test the Sublite Sil in heavy snow-loading–a few inches, yes, but not a foot–and it looks like we need to beef up the apex reinforcement a bit.

John, re: wind, I'm quite sure that wind loading in conditions you'll see wont put anywhere near the stress on the apex that snow loading does. However, you could certainly run a little bit of cording from the upper velcro loop through the apex clip and back down to the velcro loop on the other side. That would take some stress off the apex pullout.

-H

Henry, I really appreciate the offer to repair the damage. It's not really bad, but probably needs a beefier reinforcement patch underneath. You'll note from the last photo that the threads broke, probably near a simultaneous time to the fabric partially giving way. That surprised me a bit. Your idea for reducing the strain is an excellent one.

I'm sure that your expertise is far above my sewing skills so after the holiday I'll be sending it back. Thank you so much. Another example of the excellent customer service at TarpTent, which partially contributes wny I buy so many of your designs.

> I'm quite sure that wind loading in conditions you'll see wont put anywhere near the stress
> on the apex that snow loading does.

I have to agree with Henry here. I lost some carbon fibre tent poles once when camped under a bank. (Silly place to be all things considered.) The wind vortices coming over the bank were a bit of a worry, but the tent took them. Later that night we had about a foot of snow, and I think the weight of the snow plus a big vortex was just too much.

It does look as though the stitching failed, doesn't it? Well, that can be upgraded. Even so, I am very impressed.

Cheers

nm

After the 12" of snow damaged the SubLite I sent it back to Henry following his generous offer. I received this message today which I think will be of interest to anyone who wants to push this TarpTent beyond normal 3 season use.

"Your Sublite Sil is fixed. The good news (other than the fix) is that it's now substantially stronger. For the next production run (and on your repair) we're moving to an apex clip with a wider webbing connection. Yours was just over 3/4". This one coming back to you is 1 1/2" so the stress is much better distributed. Between the wider clip and some extra stitching your repair will be more than twice as strong as the original. That should do it for snow loading down the road".

I think this shows just how customer orientated Henry at TarpTent is, and also how proactive his thinking is.

Forgive me for being ignorant, what are those tensioners for?
How do you use them?

I'm planning on buying a tarptent real soon and I would like the learning curve to be as near zero as possible.

Thanks

Jeremy Adley

Tensioners keep the silnylon tight when conditions change, i.e. hot, cold, wet. Sil tends to stretch and the tensioners keep the sil taut.

So where do you attach them too? how many? ect….

I'm looking at the Contrail for my first tarptent and then the sublite sil. Do they both need the tensioners?

John,
I just finished a pair for the vestibule stake outs on my Evolution 2P. I was cleaning up my shop and found an old slingshot which I'd saved from a neighbor's trash. The surgical tubing was still good so I used that and some 1.5mm spectra cord I had. It took about a half hour. I'm glad you showed a photo of the ones you made. They're a great idea for silnylon shelters.

Jeremy… Tensioners are not really a necessity, but they save making manual adjustments with the line tensioners when the sil needs it. Some people don't mind a bit of slack in the fabric, but I like it nice and tight. On the Contrail I most often used just one to keep the ridgeline tight. I'd suggest that you just set the Contrail up and use it without them, then if you see a need add them later.

This forum has so much to offer, I am very thankfull I found this site when I did.

By the way, What a great post John. Thanks for the advice.

Jeremy Adley