Bushwalk Australia

Hi all, I have been told that D.R. Marine are no longer in the business of tent repairs and so I'm looking for an alternative.

I have a silnylon rainfly which I dumbly lit on fire while cooking with a gas burner. It burnt a sizeable hole in the tent fabric and shrunk the surrounds of the fly and so a pretty big patch is required. I was wondering if there were any tent repairers in Hobart who could cut out the shrunk/damaged portion of the rainfly and stitch a silnylon replacement patch on.

I did consider using Tenacious Tape but decided against it because the damage is far too widespread.

I am also happy to do a careful DIY repair myself but I am having trouble sourcing fabric or even a guide on how to hand stitch the silnylon onto the tent and figured that this may be a job best left to someone who has done it before.

Cheers.

You might have to send it to Remote.

Pictures?
We may be able to help with DIY advice.
ditto on fabrics

Moondog55 wrote:Pictures?
We may be able to help with DIY advice.
ditto on fabrics

Hi Moondog, I've attached a photo of the damage. It is actually not as big as I thought however I still think repair tape is not a great fix and would prefer something more permanent. It's a Wilderness Equipment Space 2 if that helps. As per the website the outer rainfly is 'Siliconized 30 denier Nylon 6, 3000mm HH sil/sil coating', so 30D nylon with a silicon coating on both sides I'd presume.



Edit: The damage is roughly 60mm x 80mm

I'd be repairing that myself.
Put up the question in the DIY section and watch people give you help.
Do you have a sharp blade and a good flat space to work on; GladWrap and some decent heavy weights and flat boards?

Where is the hole?

Lamont wrote:Where is the hole?

The hole is in the middle of the vestibule.

Moondog55 wrote:Do you have a sharp blade and a good flat space to work on; GladWrap and some decent heavy weights and flat boards?

I can definitely get those materials together. I may repost this in the DIY section, probably not great to start a duplicate thread though.

Ok. You'll need some Silny for the patch. Have you found some? I've never seen it for sale in Oz.

BTW, the nylon of that tent is silnylon coated on both sides , so to bond a new piece of fabric you do need to use silicone.
I found that it works best if you very lightly coat both fabrics (the tent and the patch), let it cure for 15 20 min , then apply and put weights on it and leave for 24 hours. Silnylon cures faster in high humidity, slower in hot dry weather.

You don't need to use Silnylon for the patch really, any fabric at hand will work, because the silicon you use as the patching glue will automatically work as the waterproofing medium.
Actually for such a small patch even using tenacious tape would work, but on both sides of the hole, which is the same procedure as patching.

looks to me that the area damaged needs at lwast a 5x9 cm patch.

Franco wrote:BTW, the nylon of that tent is silnylon coated on both sides , so to bond a new piece of fabric you do need to use silicone.
I found that it works best if you very lightly coat both fabrics (the tent and the patch), let it cure for 15 20 min , then apply and put weights on it and leave for 24 hours. Silnylon cures faster in high humidity, slower in hot dry weather.

I might give this a go. Spotlight have some ripstop nylon (https://www.spotlightstores.com/sewing- ... 1002-white), I don't suppose this is the best quality but I'm sure it'll do. What sealant/adhesive is suitable? Is there any point in stitching the patch onto the tent then sealing it up?

Silicon glue is as strong or stronger than stitching. If you sewed you would still need to seam seal with silicon. I use good quality neutral roofing silicon and very slightly dilute it with either mineral turps or Shellite, just enough added to make it paintable, just as Franco does in his seam sealing video. It has to be neutral silicon, the acid cure stuff doesn't work.

https://bushwalk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=16639

Theres a good chance WE would drop a square of fabric in the mail for you. Hilleberg did the same for me, no dramas.

Depending on the position on the vestibule, another option is just to sew in a new section/panel. I have a Nallo repaired by Hilleberg, cut off half way up the vestibule to replace the lower section, which looks 'meant to be' (other than a bit different colour). Probably holds the original taught stretch better than patching. That way too, if you work it out/ready to go, you could just get anyone handy with a sewing machine to stitch in, no need for an expert.

Just letting people know that DR Marine is definitely still in business, despite the original post here.