Scarp II Leaking

[John W T]

This is a continuation of this tread regarding a brand new Tarptent Scarp II

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/lightweight-seam-sealing-tent-fail/

I decided to start a new thread after reading the comments on the Section Hiker post called

Do Ultralight Backpacking Tents Need to be Seam Sealed?

Below is a picture of the condition we experienced while during our 10 day trip in the Cariboo of B.C.

We did not take the Scarp II on trip.

Funny story…..a CO stopped to talk to us. During the conversation we told him there was torrential rain for hours on the first day and then we had sun for the last 3 days.  He rolled is eyes then looked up at the sky and said  “It rains every day here.” ….from then we had light rain showers roll over each day.

On to the tent test.

The seam sealing was done by Tarptent

The sprinkler ran on the tent for exactly 1 hour, 6 minutes,  53 seconds.

 

The farbic for the pole sleeve is soaked through.

Leaking inside. The yellow pole sleeve is running left to right.  Water running down the mesh on the bottom left of the picture

More come.

 

 

 

[John W T]

The pullouts. Every one leaks

 

 

 

[John W T]

Pullouts on the corners

 

 

[John W T]

Inside

 

In this picutre I’d taken the clip holding the mesh to the fly and forgot to put it back on

[David U]

This definitely should not happen.  I would seam seal yourself.  Use GE Silicone and a 1:1 mixture with mineral spirits and apply with a small foam brush.  Paint it on and allow it to soak into the threads.

[William Chilton]

Does it look as if it’s been sealed? I wonder if they forgot to seam seal it.

[Todd T]

Does it look as if it’s been sealed? I wonder if they forgot to seam seal it.

Ditto.  I can’t imagine that many failure points unless it simply didn’t get sealed.

[Pigeon]

The first closeup of a pullout seems to show a very faint circular brush stroke. Maybe it was sealed too lightly

[d k]

Have you contacted Henry Shires?  He’s always been very helpful.

[Pedestrian]

Two threads about an issue that ought to be resolved with a phone call to Tarptent – Henry Shires has always been very responsive and helpful in resolving any issue.

It’s good to know that Tarptent is not perfect (I’m shocked!) but, at least in my experience, they’ve always been good at owning any product issue and resolving it. If I paid for such a sloppy seam sealing job, I’d ask for it to be redone or simply get a refund if it’s still possible.

And yes it does rain in B.C. in the summer.

 

 

[Christian Knutsen]

Curious as to why you started a 2nd thread about this?  Didn’t they offer you a full refund including return shipping?  After offering to rush you another fly, which you declined?  Also, didn’t they rush sewing a tent for you, without rush charges, when, as far as I know they had a backlog?  And you say they seamsealed it for free?  Something they normally charge for?  My guess is there was some miscommunication and you didn’t pay for it to be seamsealed so it wasn’t.

It sounds like you’re going out of your way to be difficult.  Just take the refund and move on.

[John W T]

It was seam sealed as there are brush strokes around the pullouts and there are patches of seam sealing stuck to the tent body because the seam sealing was not completely dry when it was folded for shipping.

I suspect Tarptent chose to seam sealed it due to the hassle of shipping dangerous (liquid seam sealer) goods to Canada.  They didn’t charger for it but that’s not an excuse.

Far as I’m concerned the $35 fee is not enough to set up a tent, seam seal all the places needed on a Scarp II, then let it sit to dry.

Several offers to pay extra for expedited shipping where made so it was not rushed. The offer was not accepted.

I was trying to save Tarptent the costs of sending another tent body so I called to find out if it was O.K. to cut the thread where the body was sewn together and do a temporary patch on the holes in the tent body. They agreed.

Things went sideways the next morning when I called Tarptent to ask why the floor was not  seam sealed. The answer was, it is not necessary. I replied that on our previous trip we had 1″ of water on the ground. I was then told we should have and need to find better places to set up.  To this I replied that is finding a better place is not always possible when there is torrential rain.  After this the talk shifted to the sewing mistake being minor damage and they’ll decided how to repair it.  I asked about shipping the tend body that was offered the day before they refused as now it would not arrive in time. The conversation was on a Tuesday and we were leaving Friday.

 

[David U]

“I suspect Tarptent chose to seam sealed it due to the hassle of shipping dangerous (liquid seam sealer) goods to Canada.”

Nope.  Not an issue.

As indicated in my previous post, Seam Seal it yourself and be done with it.

[Dan]

I appreciate your posting those photos and clarifying the situation, but honestly it’s probably hard for anyone to judge the merits of a dispute like this hearing only one side of the story. If this type of thing is widespread, I assume that other TT owners will eventually chime in or create their own threads, so it’s a potentially useful data point. If it’s a unique situation, then you just got unlucky.

Unfortunately, it sounds like the situation between you and TT has deteriorated to the point where the best approach would be to return the tent for a refund and buy another one from a different manufacturer.

[John W T]

Thought I’d let people know I decided to seam seal the Scrap II but after this year we’ll only use it canoe trips when we’ll pack a tarp to go over it.

Due to noise and condensation we are using the 2nd set of poles because:

–  the large panel + the pole ties get really noisy in the wind.

–  the nylon fly gets soaked with condensation then the nylon sags onto the mesh inner.

The yellow fabric of the pole sleeve has a hole worn in it where the 2nd poles are pushed through a loop at the top.

Seam sealing the pole sleeve made it difficult to push the pole though. Probably why TT doesn’t use coated/water proof fabric (that leaks) for the pole sleeve.

It was seam sealed, sprinkler tested and seam sealed a 2nd time. Our latest trip it was used in the rain for he first time in months. Two of the pole tie outs, the pole sleeve and 2 corners of the fly were soaked through.

 

 

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