Please Help Me With My Pack Fabric Selection

If the Challenge is Ultra, the con is there is a good chance the inside film will delaminate at some point. The more miles the higher the likelihood. Pack makers will say poppycock of course, but it can and does happen.

I made a pack with laminated fabric which delaminated after a while.  It was still perfectly usable except it wasn’t waterproof.  I won’t use laminated fabric again.

I was reading about recoating a pack with a product called Tent Sure, which is a recoating urethrane. Anyone have experience with this?

McNett says about tent sure “Ideal for tent floors and flys, bivy sacks, rainwear, clothing, fabric accessories and hundreds of items using synthetic fabrics.”

They did not mention packs

I wonder if that means it won’t work for packs.  They get more pressure/stretching than tent floors so maybe it wouldn’t work as good?

I might have to try this on my 200D fabric pack which leaks water a little

I was looking at reviews on amazon.  After you coat it, it takes forever to cure.  If you let surfaces touch, they’ll stick together.

That’s like polyurethane seam sealer.  After it cures you have to rub some powdery stuff, like talc, on it so it won’t stick to each other.  Dirt from garden works.

Before you try it, look at those amazon reviews so you know what not to do.

Dan McHale has a tutorial on using Tent Sure to re-coat packs here

BPL member Nick Gatel describes his process using Tent Sure in lots of detail here (he is using it for a tent, not a pack, but gives good info).

You might find this thread interesting regarding Cordura vs. laminates.

Thanks for those links, good description of how to use tent sure

Neither Dan or Nick mentioned the tent sure sticking to itself after drying like was reported on Amazon reviews of the product.  Maybe Nick let his cure better – in the hot dry desert.  He also sprayed water on it after curing to test waterproofness, and maybe that eliminates any stickiness.

I may just have to try this on my pack to see if I can make it more waterproof – when I’m sweating it will leak through and wet the contents of the pack at the bottom

*He also sprayed water on it after curing to test waterproofness, and maybe that eliminates any stickiness.

*After you coat it, it takes forever to cure.

Potentially a moisture cure urethane. Moisture in air will cure eventually. Water much quicker.

*“Ideal for tent floors and flys, bivy sacks, rainwear, clothing, fabric accessories and hundreds of items using synthetic fabrics.”

Should work on packs then. Potential issues with parts sticking together as stated though.

Challenge Ultra seemed like a perfect pack material at one point, but I too have read reports of delamination, of course as long as the fabric is fine without the PET layer, it may still be better than Cardura generally has a urethane coating that wears off quickly so it isn’t waterproof either.

My go to pack fabric the past decade has been the Dyneema grid family, though I have used some X-Pac as well.