Sand sticking to silnylon pyramid shelter

[Ryan P]

Hello, I recently took my new (to me) silnylon duomid on a short trip in the desert, and ran into the following problem:

1.  I lay out my duomid on the ground to get it all spread out even, with the corners at right angles (making a rectangular shape) as the instructions say to do.

2.  The sand on the ground stuck to the entire bottom surface of the duomid

3.  When I raised the shelter, the sand was still stuck to the entire bottom surface

4.  Every time I would touch a wall of the shelter, or adjust things, or if the wind would blow, etc., sand would fall from the inside surface of the shelter onto my face.  ICK!

Does anyone have any tips as to how to avoid this?  Do you need to bring a huge groundcloth if you plan on camping on sand?  I was able to use rocks as anchors easily enough so I didn’t mind setting the shelter up in loose sand, but the sand falling from the ceiling was a real pain to deal with.

Thanks in advance for any tips!

[Jerry Adams]

I haven’t noticed that on several silnylon shelters

Is the fabric sort of sticky feeling?

Maybe letting it cure for a while would help – hang it up and let it dry.  Maybe set it up for many days.

Ask manufacturer

[Greg Mihalik]

I had the same issue, except it involved the entire tent.

It depends on the fabric and the environment.

I learned to live with it.

[Ryan P]

Jerry—thanks; I just emailed the manufacturer to see if they have any input.

Greg—yeah, the sand probably sticks to the top as well, but that doesn’t bother me nearly as much.  I’m guessing I’ll unfortunately just have to learn to live with it like you say

[HkNewman]

That was one of my frustrations with silnylon shelters, though I guess it’s fairly harmless.   I’d just rinse it at home a couple times, let it dry, and maybe try to sweep it off.  Dusty sand left kind of a ”bloom” iirc.

[Rex Sanders]

I owned two silnylon tents that behaved like dirt, sand, and mud magnets. I’d also learned the hard way to keep a clean tent interior or suffer many consequences, so this was one of my major complaints about the fabric. The other big problems were water absorption and overnight stretch. Switched to a silpoly tent, and I’m a much happier camper now.

Obviously, YMMV.

— Rex

[Jerry Adams]

yeah, that silpoly from RSBTR is pretty good, not so sticky, and it doesn’t stretch out more when it gets wet so the tent sags

[Jameson T]

Rex, Jerry – does sand not stick to the silpoly at all? Or just not as much as to silnylon?

What about DCF? I’d assume sand would not stick to it as it’s pretty slick.

[Jerry Adams]

If it’s wet, stuff will stick to it.  Then fall off onto you all night.

Just feeling the fabric dry, it’s not sticky.

Nothing is perfect.  Stuff will stick to polyurethane also.

The membrane silpoly weighs 0.93 oz/yd2 and has a silicone/PU coating.  Maybe having PU also, makes it less sticky

[J-L]

I don’t know if polyester vs nylon fibers has anything to do with sand sticking. It seems like it would be more dependent on the coating.

Seek’s Outside’s website says of one of their silnylon colors: “Sage has some PU mixed into the coating and is less tacky in dusty or sandy environments.”

Sometimes sand will stick to silnylon for me – sometimes it won’t. Very dependent on grain size and moisture. Sand does not stick to DCF as much.

[Jerry Adams]

Yeah, it’s that particular silpoly that seems to be better.  Because of the coating.

[Ryan P]

Huh, in hindsight it looks like maybe I got the wrong fabric for my shelter then!  I really doubt I’ll replace with another shelter any time soon at all, so I’ll just have to learn to live with the shortcoming.  Thanks again all

[drew doty]

I too had this happen to me in the Grand Canyon.  I was camped near the beach and the wind picked up overnight covering my silnylon tent inside and outside with fine sand particles that would not come off no matter how hard I tried.  The zipper was covered too and was not good for the longevity of it.  Will not be taking a silnylon tent into a desert environment again.  Also, will choose my campsites better too, but sand is hard to avoid in the desert.  I basically had to set it up in my yard and spray it with a hose and even  then it still was not coming off.  Had to use a wet rag and brush it off.  The inside cleaning was especially fun.  Live and learn I guess.   I too am curious if DCF has this propensity for attracting fine sand particles.

[Elliott Wolin]

Might dusting the fabric with talcum powder remove the stickiness?

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Is it static making the sand stick or was the sand wet? I have not noticed this myself. Maybe next time put down your groundsheet first?

[Sam Farrington]

Am I glad that you reported this.  It has been reported on the BPL forums before, but I’d completely forgotten about it.

Right now I’m deciding between a silnylon and a nylon coated with sil on one side and PU on the other, for a tent.  The current all sil coatings are quite different from those in the past – much more slippery to the touch, and more waterproof.  Have a whole bucket of fine sand for tube bending, and will have to experiment with it and the fabrics.  Dry, moist, and wet (guess I know already what will happen with wet).

Wonder how the sand got on the inside of your tent.  Must have missed something.

Also wonder what Roger would say, as he is a strong proponent of silnylon for its strength and elastic properties.

In any event, thank you very much for possibly saving me from a mistep.  The RBTR silpoly would add considerable weight to a tent if the goal were durability equivalent to nylon.  And the DCF is hard to make a good tent with due to its lack of elasticity,  Applaud TarpTent for its efforts to overcome this.  But don’t know if for MYOG I could achieve the necessary tolerances.

Will test with the sand and see.  Wish RBTR would add some medium colors for its 6.6 Nylon. They say lighter colors are coming, but it’s like waiting for Godot.

Thank heaven for the BPL forums.  Could never do MYOG well without them.

[Rex Sanders]

Sand, mud, and dirt barely stick to my silpoly tent, and what’s there brushes off easily in the field. No need for a hose down / wipe down when I get home (which my silnylon tents required), and isn’t exactly practical on a longer trip anyway.

I’ve experienced less condensation on silpoly vs silnylon. Plus the silpoly barely absorbs any water, while silnylon sucks it right into it’s little fibers – and stays there until it gets a nice long warm dry sunny day. That partly explains why less crud sticks to silpoly.

Silpoly is made from polyester fabric, silnylon from nylon, with different properties and pros and cons. Both are coated/soaked in silicone and sometimes with polyurethane (PU) too.

I seam sealed one silnylon tent and had trouble with seams sticking to fabric. Coated most of the tent with talcum powder, which solved the stickiness problem. Did nothing for the other problems.

These are my experiences with silnylon tents made in 2002 and 2012, and a silpoly tent made in 2019. I’ve read that fabrics and coatings have changed a lot over the years, sometimes for the worse.

Again, YMMV.

— Rex

[Rex Sanders]

These comparisons of nylon vs polyester tent fabrics helped me understand a lot:

http://www.thetentlab.com/MoonLightTents/PolyNyl.html

http://www.thetentlab.com/MoonLightTents/Tear.html

Mike’s resume (258 commercial tent designs and counting): http://www.thetentlab.com/didthat/resumeofsorts.html

— Rex

[R]

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/sand-and-silnylon/

[David U]

I backpack in sandy environments often and always with a silnylon shelter.

The quick answer is that sand and dust will stick to a silnylon shelter and the only thing you can do about it is try to keep said sand and dust off the fabric – i.e. don’t lay your fly out on the ground, which I understand would be difficult with the DuoMid.

 

[Roger Caffin]

However . . . after you have pitched your silnylon tent on enough sandy pitches, the surface will become a bit passivated and stop picking up so much. Sufficiently so that a good shake will get most of the sand off before you roll the tent up.

(Central Australia, Larapinta Trail, serious desert country)

Cheers

[David U]

Except where you may have seam sealed!

[Roger Caffin]

I had used a silicone seam-seal (Permatex) on the underside, but that too became ‘immune’ to the dust fairly quickly.

Cheers

[James Marco]

I always assumed it was mostly a static problem, though it might not be…never paid that much attention. Yes, after 20 or so uses silnylon picks up little dirt, what is there flys free with a snap of the fabric.

[Author]

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