Field repairs, whats in your kit?

[GPSGuided]

They didn't stick very well.

What preparations did the owner and you make prior to sticking on the patch. For cyclist patching tubes, typically one would lightly sand the patched surface first. Did you do that?

[Orion]

I thought about that as I know it's what I'd do with a bicycle tube. But I don't think I'd sand my tent fly. Maybe that guy did, I didn't ask him.

The reason for sanding an inner tube is to remove dirt and grease and to provide a more complex surface area for the adhesive. My silnylon samples were clean. And while a rougher surface might help it wouldn't have any impact on the inherent ability of the adhesive to bond.

But it's an easy thing to try.

[Orion]

So I tried it. I lightly sanded both the generic silnylon and the Kerlon 1200 sample with some 220 grit sand paper. It was very easy to sand a hole right through the fabric! And quite difficult to only sand the area where I was going to apply the small round patch. That by itself makes the notion of sanding questionable.

Once prepared I applied the patches and left them for a number of hours. The patch on the sanded generic silnylon was noticeably harder to peel off than the unsanded one. But it still peeled off without enormous effort. The difference between sanded/unsanded with the Kerlon 1200 was detectable but it wasn't very much of a difference.

If there were a patch on the opposite side of a hole in the fabric then the patches themselves would bond together making it a somewhat better situation, at least as a temporary solution. What I don't know is if the Slime patch is any better than Tenacious Tape or a band-aid or whatever on sanded silnylon.

A mediocre temporary solution at best.

[Neo]

I'm still wondering on the temporary tape product...

Forgot about it for a while! Now also have a thin STS tarp but it's only sil on one side.