Why Doesn’t Tarptent Seam Seal Their Tents?

No Cottage company seals seams as standard that i know of.

I just got a Squall 2 and paid for them to seam seal it for me. I think it is money well spent! It is done professionally and you do not have to worry if it is going to leak. I have tried to seam seal in the past but I always apply to much and it does not look that good. $$ well spent IMO!

Greg, seamsealing is really easy. Not to mention, it really doesn't smell so the headache is optional ; )

Tarptent will do it as will Six Moon Designs for a small fee but the Shires method where you apply with a small foam brush is really quite simple.

Good points all. I used to do it back in the day but got spoiled in recent years by it being part of the standard package. I guess it is a deliberate choice by the manufacturer to minimize cost and pass that on to folks willing to do it themselves. Just wondering. Thanks for the replies.

I got professional results sealing my Squall 9 years back or whenever. The foam brush does a great job.
Duane

I still haven't seam sealed my MLD eVent mittens… that should take me all of 10 minutes but I haven't done it…

"No Cottage company seals seams as standard that i know of."

Lightheart seals their cuben tents but charges extra for their sil-nylon versions.

I never seal seams and have never had a leak – but my seams are on fairly steep walls of pyramid

I sew a little velcro tab to keep door open and water occasionally drips through there so I seal that.

Aren't the MLD event mitts taped? I have a couple of pairs but haven't looked at them recently and so forget.

I know that Stephenson's also charges extra for seam sealing, and Bibler didn't do it when it was independent. I simply assumed that it wasn't practical to do it and that the manufacturer didn't want to have sealer smeared on the tent or rainfly. Perhaps from my starting out with Biblers decades ago, I've always considered seam sealing the owner's responsibility. It's certainly easy enough to do.

It's a good question but the simple answer is that there is no machine capable of seam-taping siliconized ripstop nylon. If it were machinable we would/could do it but it isn't and we just have way too much production and nowhere near enough space or reliable weather to hand paint them all outside. For those of you who don't know, we have started offering a $5 seam-sealing kit which makes the job pretty easy and straightforward. The premix silicone goes on easily with the included foam brush and eliminates all the hassle of otherwise mixing up silicone with paint thinner.

-H

I have used this pre-mix from Tarptent and the brush and it works brilliantly. I did a Notch in about 15 minutes. And that is because I am anal.

A TT Squall was easy using the brush, my BD Hilight using different product, about had my hands killed off by the time I finished the seams. An hour job at least.
Duane

Tarptent seam sealing video: http://d22u3mtwtxpk6b.cloudfront.net/video/seamseal.mp4

Not the prettiest method, but certainly quick and it seems (no pun) that the thinned silicone mix would get down into the thread holes, which is jst where you want it. I was surprised at the proportions of sealer and thinner.

I once bought a used tent that someone else seam sealed. It was like a surgical job, with a thin line on the threads and where the fabric was folded. The only way I cam imagine it was done was to load sealer into a syringe. It must have taken hours and a steady hand.

A few days ago, I did the top seam on my Borahgami tarp using Silnet straight from the tube and the brush provided, putting on enough to get it to flow over the thread lines and the actual fabric seam fold. It's about as good as I have been able to do with the stuff as provided. I love to paint and varnish, but glue-y stuff like this has always vexed me.

I use a syringe because that is how I learned to do the Bibler and Black Diamond tents with.
I tried other ways but just prefer to use a syringe.
This is one of my seams :

Takes me 40 to 60 minutes to do a shelter that way, but of course it also needs to remain set up for 10 to 24 hours depending on temperature and humidity levels.
The $5 kit Henry was talking about is this :

Just to elaborate a bit about seam sealing silnylon , some manufacturers choose to add PU to the underside so that they can machine tape theirs, however that weakens considerably the tear strength of the fabric.
Others , like most of the "cottage" industry but also brands like Terra Nova and Macpac choose to keep the original tear strenghth and get you to seam seal it .
BTW, Henry's way (paint on , let it sink and wipe) is even less visible than mine…)

Logistics
My old lawn could handle 4 tents, the new one only 3 :


(Australia is only about 5% of the TT market)

If I use a syringe to do it, I can get the sealer to go down into the needle holes. For some seam types, this gets the job done with the least quantity and weight of sealer. For other seam types, the sealer needs to be painted over all of the stitching, so that requires much more sealer and makes the finished product a lot stiffer, although it takes less skill and less time.

–B.G.–

Good Grief!

I post something about seam sealing a tent, and then this banner ad pops up about Asphalt Sealing.

–B.G.–

what do the neighbors think, homeless camp?

Probably why Franco had to move.

homeless camp?

I might be camp but not homeless.

Anyway, this is why Henry had to move out of town :

Frome inside the house :
Henry!Stop playing with your tents, dinner is ready .

"I post something about seam sealing a tent, and then this banner ad pops up about Asphalt Sealing."

Buy an MLife membership, cheepskate. ;0]

"Buy an MLife membership, cheepskate."

I'm afraid that would be like pouring money down a rathole.

–B.G.–

Why post at all Bob?

What does Tarptent charge now to do it for you?

my key word of polycro earlier netted me an ad about dual pane window installation. the internet is nuts