Bushwalk Australia

I have a Kathmandu hiking tent, about 8 years old. It's only been used a couple of times, but when checking it today for an expedition, I noticed all the waterproofing substance is flaking off.

So, any idea about the best way to remove it, and whether something like Scotchguard will waterproof it again? I tried a test area with straight eucalyptus oil, and that removed it OK, but would be slow and costly to remove it all.

that waterproofing layer will be something like a silicon or polyurethane coating applied when the fabric was made. you cant replace that... you can apply a dwr type solution on it to help improve its water resistance. spray on or wash..
but you won't get the same level of water resistance it had with the original coating...

You might consider a product made by McNett called "Tent Sure". It's a brush-on urethane product designed for recoating tent floors and rain flies. It includes brief instructions on how to remove flakes of old coating. I have a bottle of it, actually, with intention to use it on the floor of my inexpensive car camping tent. But I haven't actually tried it yet so I can't give you any first hand report. If you give it a go let us know if it works.

I have a Katmandu tent with the same problem
I have reproofed my Megamid tho and will probably do the same to the little Katmandu tent, I washed my Megamid in the bath with Bi-Carb and ammonia to remove any of the loose flakes and allowed it to dry completely
I then sprayed it in a dilute solution of roofing silicon using a small spray bottle, turned it inside out to spay the inside and allowed it to dry Used about 3 tubes of roofing silicon and a full 4 litre bottle of solvent I can't remember exactly now as i used what I had in the shed for solvent, Shellite, white spirits and mineral turpentine

Moondog55 wrote:Used about 3 tubes of roofing silicon

That's a lot of weight added to the tent!

Sure, but it means you can continue to use the tent. And the weight is a replacement for the existing coating not in addition to it Don't forget that a lot of the weight in a tube of roofing silicon is the solvent.
Also I think that the surface area of a Megamid is quite large; a smaller tent will use a lot less