Can Gear Aid Tenacious Tape be Used for Silnylon Tent Repairs?

For uncoated quilt Tenacious Tape does very well, especially with a thin layer of urethane sealant added (like Seam Grip) for the best bond. Depends on the pad but for most I’d go with an adhesive along with patch, however Neo Air pads of course come with their own stick-on patches.

On silnylon tent or tarp I’d clean both silnylon patch and area to be repaired with alcohol wipes (can be bought at drug store) and let dry. Then apply a silicone adhesive like you get in Tarptent’s repair kit. Not too thick of a layer on BOTH patch and tent. Apply patch and let dry as long as possible. I like Tarptent’s kit because the silicone packets are small and you don’t have to carry a whole big tube of silicone around.

At home and not in the field the ultimate repair is to place tent/tarp on hard flat surface. Clean both with mineral spirits and let dry. Apply silicone to BOTH tent and patch and put wax paper on top. Go back and forth over the patch with a roller to get all bubbles out. Then a fresh piece of wax paper. Next put something like a hardbound book on top with a 5 lb weight for 18 hours, then remove book. Let dry another 18 hours in open air. I’d use the Permatex Flowable silicone at home. Can be found at any auto parts store. Better than other brands.

Thank you for the thorough response and advice. It’s greatly appreciated.

Regarding the silicone adhesive, I’m wondering if it’s simply silicone? I’m about to leave on a trip in a couple of days, so I don’t have the time to order a Tarptent’s repair kit.

I currently have about half a tube of GEAR AID Seam Grip SIL Silicone Tent Sealant at my disposal. Do you think this would serve as an effective adhesive for the silnylon patches?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks again!

Yea that’s good for silnylon, it’s the regular urethane Seam Grip you don’t want. Urethane Seam Grip works best for PU coated fabrics. It’s also fantastic on uncoated nylon and polyester. If I’m not mistaken the Gear Aid Seam Grip Sil is what used to be the McNett Sil-Net but I could be wrong. It’s not as ideal as Permatex, however it has good adhesive bonding qualities, far better than just regular GE silicone you get at the hardware.

if you have half a tube of silicone sealant, it’s probably not any good now.  It cures in the tube after you open it.  Better to have a small tube that you leave unopened.

this isn’t a real good field repair if it takes 18 hours with book on it then 18 more hours.

I’ve never had a silnylon or silpoly failure that could be fixed that way.  Maybe don’t worry about it?

A tent stake loop ripped off once (due to my own stupid construction technique) so I got a small, round rock.  Put it inside the fabric and then tied a nylon cord around it and used that for the tent stake loop.

18 hours plus 18 hours is the ultimate at home cure time. Of course you don’t have that much time to deal with in the field. 5 or 6 hours is good enough if not a lot of stresses are put on the spot where the repair is made.

Even Tenacious Tape has a recommended cure time. I find it to be way overrated but I’m sure there are many who would disagree. Nothing really sticks very well to silnylon except quality silicone adhesives (properly applied).

To the original question, I have used Tenacious Tape to repair a silnylon shelter from Six Moons Designs and a tent from Hilleberg.

SilNylon Patches:

https://www.abigsaleequipment.com/mcnett-gear-aid-tenacious-tape-silnylon-patches-products620003.html

I have used these successfully on stuff sack holes. Not sure how these patches would hold up at a high stress point on a tent… These patches are expensive, but convenient. Clean, dry, apply, press hard.

Basic rule for SilNylon repairs: Only silicone sticks to silicone. You can use silicone glues/caulks… all caulk and glue repairs should be cleaned first… alcohol…

I agree with you monty on 18 hours + 18 hours.

The silicone isn’t very strong regardless, so you really want to give it every chance to cure completely.

Probably 24 hours total would be okay.  In a few hours it would still be wet and would come right off.

You could bring needle and thread and do a bunch of hand stitches.

The Silnylon patches do well on a tent. We repaired a tent near the apex, a Seek Cimarron , so 4 person mid, and it withheld probably 50 -60 MPH winds later

I’m just back from my Alta Via 1 trek in Aosta Valley.

While there, one morning I dried my tent on some rocks, and later discovered that it had caused several small micro cuts on the fly. Fortunately, I had Tenacious Tape with me and used it to repair those small holes, which worked perfectly.

However, a few days later, a seam broke while tensioning the tent panel:

In this case, Tenacious Tape obviously couldn’t provide much assistance.