Sticky rain fly?

[Jennifer Mitol]

I dug out my old REI quarterdome 2 to use as a car camping tent for trail races.  It’s been rolled up (put away clean and dry) and kept in the stuff sack for probably 8-ish years now?

Anyway – I opened it up and a) there’s a really strong old-camping-equipment smell that I remember from my youth and b) the rain fly was VERY sticky on the underside. I didn’t see any places where the PU coating was peeling away (except on the inside of the bathtub corners on the inner tent), but it was so adhered to itself that I literally had to peel it apart. And it’s tacky to touch.

Is there anything I can/should do to clean/revitalize it? it’s a great little tent, and I can re-do the silicone on the bathtub floor corners no problem. But is that rainfly toast?

[JCH]

Jen – in my experience that rain fly is toast!  With time (and heat) the PU coating deteriorates with no way to bring it back to life. This is an, unfortunately, all to common occurrence and I have seen it on 3 different MSR rain flys…luckily Cascade has replaced them every time no questions asked.

 

[James Marco]

Jen, I agree with JCH. Someone needs to come up with a restorer for PU coatings. Till then, we are out’a luck. I lost a couple tents that way…

 

[Jerry Adams]

uh oh

I got a couple tents I haven’t used for years – REI PU flies – I better check them out and throw them away if no good

[James holden]

open it up, air it out …. set it up, do the hose test … if it passes use it till it dies

or you could try the infamous REI warranty as it was purchased before the “1 year” deadline change

if that fails just find a cheap kelty, eureka or alps mountaineering for ~100 dollahz on amazon … they work just fine for car camping …

or you could come to the dark side and get a 3F chinese mid for around the same price at UL weights

whatever you do dun use yr new cuben mid for car camping !!!

;)

[Greg Deitrick]

If you like the tent you might want to consider Tent Sure.

If the sticky stuff comes off easily with or without rubbing alcohol and you like the tent I would give this a try. In my case the material had a second type of coating that would not come off clean in spite of lots of scrubbing with rubbing alcohol. This stuff still might have worked but I decided that the tent really wasn’t worth the effort.

[Jennifer Mitol]

well crap!

I was all excited to get that puppy out – it was my first “ultralight” tent (HA!).

I guess i’ll be in the market for a new car camping tent……

 

[Jennifer Mitol]

i like the suggestions.

I also emailed REI to see what they say…..

[Michael Sirofchuck]

You could try returning it to REI.  As mentioned above, MSR had that problem  and they replaced my Hubba and Carbon Reflex flies and all the stuff sacks at no cost.

I now store all tents and flies loosely in net bags, hoping to avoid this problem.

[Steven Paris]

It happened to two Sierra Designs tents that I use for car camping now. These models aren’t made anymore so I haven’t decided whether to send to SD and see what they suggest. However, the inner tents are still great to use for car camping if you know it’s not going to rain or want to use them as places for kids or dogs to hang out.

[Jennifer Mitol]

yeah i just looked at the current QD version and i like mine a lot better.  it’s a great little tent – tons of room, all mesh inner…vertical sides. I can see why i used it for so long….

I may try cleaning it up and see if I can salvage it. if not, no harm/no foul, but it’s at least worth a shot since it’s such a great little tent.

 

[James holden]

air it out for a few days ….

;)

[David Thomas]

I’ve got the same thing on my old REI Quarter Dome, even though I’ve been above-average diligent about drying out tents ASAP after a trip.

If you take the path of trying to strip off the old PU prior to recoating it, note that washing it in hot water (the nylon will be fine) and lots of a good stain-removing laundry detergent will often completely delaminate the old PU coating.  If you’re worried about those flakes of PU in the discharge of your home washing machine, there are always laundromats.

[David Thomas]

It seems to stick mostly to itself, rather than to the uncoated side of the nylon.  So I’ve had some success in rolling it like a roll of paper so the PU is always against uncoated nylon.  Then I’ve got a very long roll of rain fly and I roll it in the perpendicular direction to get the air out.  Which is easier if the first rolling was down very loosely, with a large diameter.  Folding, really, not rolling tightly.

[Ben H.]

I recently had a very similar experience with my old REI car camping tent.  Went in to REI to see what they would say.  They recommended some soap and about two days of scrubbing.  I said, that doesn’t sound like a good use of my time.  They suggested I contact Rainy Pass in Seattle and see if they can repair it…. I wasn’t to impressed with the REI guarantee since I knew MSR was fixing there PU coating problems.  I have mixed feelings about this.  It is an old tent and seems a bit much to expect service on such an old product, but at the same time the PU coating they used seems to be a ticking time bomb.

I will say I left mine out for a couple days and the stickiness dried up quite a bit.

[Franco Darioli]

Common forum wisdom tells us that PU deterioration/delamination is from storing the tent somewhat wet.

HOWEVER there is some evidence that it can also happen if the item is stored rolled up tight because apparently PU coated fabrics let gas out and if that can’t escape it will cause the problem.

I have no direct evidence one way or the other but maybe worth keeping in mind.

 

Short version :

don’t store your PU coated stuff into a tight stuff sack.

[Greg Deitrick]

Common forum wisdom tells us that PU deterioration/delamination is from storing the tent somewhat wet.

HOWEVER there is some evidence that it can also happen if the item is stored rolled up tight because apparently PU coated fabrics let gas out and if that can’t escape it will cause the problem.

I have no direct evidence one way or the other but maybe worth keeping in mind.

Short version :

don’t store your PU coated stuff into a tight stuff sack.

It happened to a tent I had that was sealed in the box from the manufacturer. No chance to get wet; stored in the living space of my house. But yes, rolled up tight.

[Cameron M]

MSR replaced my Hubba fly, and another tent fly from that same era also went bad. I got the impression at the time that it was from a certain generation of tents and coatings, and it may not be an issue with the newer coatings. It did not seem rectifiable.

[Nick Gatel]

I haven’t used it, but you can try McNett Tent Sure.

Dan McHale uses it to revitalize his really old packs and recommends it for that use…

Tent Sure
They are many older packs on the used backpack market. One major turnoff to old packs, though, are the failed urethane coatings. Don’t despair, get Tent Sure. The local company McNett makes this and many other useful products Like Seam Grip. Most gear shops sell it, or it can be purchased from fabric stores like Seattle Fabrics. I’m thinking of stocking up myself so I can ship it with repairs and etc. Tent Sure easily recoats pack and dries pretty fast. But, the directions on the bottle say to shake well. You must stir it well instead because it thickens so much at the bottom while it sits around in stores that shaking cannot mix it. The bottom layer needs to be dug up and stirred, and then you can shake all you want.

The pack in this photo below is a 15 year old McHale Pack that is like new again. Although it is called Tent Sure, in fine print at the base of the bottle it says Coated Fabrics. Every time I use this product I have great luck. Just turn the pack inside out, stuff it full and paint one panel at a time with the foam brush that comes with it. Don’t stuff with valuable items since the urethane soaks through when the old coating is completely gone. 2 coats may be need for far gone packs or cordura fabrics. If some of the old coating is still there it becomes reassimilated – it’s cool stuff. For climates like here in the Pacific NW coat the outside too! It spreads thin and is hardly noticeable. For seam sealing I like it too, because of the way it can soak into fabric, thread, and thread holes and look better than Seam Grip. The dark spot to the right of the bottle is an abrasion that has been sealed with SEAM GRIP.

Here’s a video from CampSaver

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=16yC63IS9mg

[Tony Campana]

J,

That happened to me and my first REI tent as well! I thought it was damaged from being stored in my garage in the hot summer here in SC but perhaps it just got old.

I now have a Tarptent Cloudburst 3 for car camping trips. Feels like being in a palace with all the room! Check it out..

Tony

 

 

[Franco Darioli]

“MSR replaced my Hubba fly, and another tent fly from that same era also went bad. I got the impression at the time that it was from a certain generation of tents and coatings, and it may not be an issue with the newer coatings. It did not seem rectifiable.”
The same was true for another well known brand made by the same factory at the time.
However I have seen comments about sticky tent fabric (from gassing) about other brands too.

[Donna C]

My Hubba Hubba has done that twice.  Because I rarely use the tent, I bought a few cans of waterproof spray for tents and sprayed the fly.  REI sells the Nikwax, Walmart has some and there are several brands that seem to work. You have nothing to lose.  I even sprayed it on an old cheap silnylon  tarp that I got at Walmart.  For car camping I bought a pretty nice Alps Merrimac 3P tent for $80. I figure if I rarely car camp, this is a palace and no money lost.  If the fly leaks, out comes the spray.  There are several brands on the market. Just do a Google.

https://www.rei.com/product/850168/nikwax-tent-and-gear-solarproof-waterproofing-spray

[JCH]

re: MSR – So far they have replaced:

1. An Orange (gen 1) Hubba Fly
2. A Yellow (gen 2) Hubba Fly…surprisingly, and kudos to Cascade, this was the replacement they sent for the Orange fly.
3. A Green (gen 3) Hubba Hubba Fly. When contacted about this one CS said “we have yet to see a green one go bad”…they can’t say that anymore.

The Orange fly was stored in my garage and I explained that to Cascade accepting that I may be to blame…didn’t matter to them. Since that time all my tents are stored loosely in giant mesh laundry bags inside my conditioned home, so heat and moisture likely did not contribute to the deterioration.

In all 3 cases, the first hint of trouble was the seam sealing tape starting to turn whitish at the edges. The dreaded stickiness then became apparent along with the tape deterioration progressing to little white bubbles and peeling off. When the Green fly exhibited whitish tape edges,  I recognized the problem and contacted CS immediately so I never saw it deteriorate any further.

[david richardson]

I had no luck getting SD to replace one for me, They did give me a 40% off coupon for it.Got a down sleeping bag at a good price with it.

 

[Jennifer Mitol]

REI basically said “wow! sounds like you need a new tent!  we have all kinds of experts to help you choose a new one to purchase!”

I emailed back that I was disappointed because the tent isn’t THAT old, had been well cared for, always stored dry (I was also DILIGENT about drying out my gear before storing it – since I ruined a TNF tent once by NOT drying it out before flying home with it soaking wet…), and that MSR replaces theirs.

They did not reply to that.  Still waiting.

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