Bushwalk Australia

G'day what sort of repair items do you carry or have actually used in the field for a temporary fix?

I'm doing basic overnight walking and camping. Some things I already carry are:

Pocket knife
Spare 3mm cord (lashing, laces, guys etc)
Mini Bic lighter (spare fire, melting etc)
Air mat included repair kit

Thinking to add some pre-sticky nylon and mesh patches or an all-round removeable tape. Any suggestions? Cheers

(tent is ripstop silnylon, pack and clothing are nylons too, newish stuff so not expecting to have to sew)

Duct tape. Cable ties. Sleeping mat repair kit. Spare guyline. Tent pole sleeve.

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Really seasonal dependent
In winter I carry super-glue and 5 minute epoxy, an assortment of tapes and webbing at least 4 pre-threaded needles and spare thread of various sizes, spare buckles posidrive screws and a driver, double up on pole repair tubes and lots and lots of cord and string

Plastic ties, Duct tape/Gorilla tape, safety pin, needles and thread, cord, superglue, mat repair kit, water purifying tablets, batteries, foil, waterproof matches, lighter. Other items I have which don't go in the same bag...small Swiss Army knife, tweezers.

My repair kit consists of:

Sewing kit - light and heavy thread, needles, awl, bobby pins. The awl is out of an old Patagonia repair kit (8 g).
Mat repair kit.
O rings for stove and pricker.
Cuben repair tape for tent and pack.
Swiss Army card - blade, scissors, tweezers, 4 screw drivers, pen, light and magnifier.
Spare mini Bic lighter.
2 x 3 metre guy lines.
A sheet of Puritabs for backup of the Steripen.
Spare screw cap for my collapsible water containers.

The Bic lighter, Swiss Army card, bobby pins and needles live in the first aid kit. The repair kit is in ziplock bag also inside the first aid kit.

Other than the Puritabs all items have been used at some point over the past 10 years.

Cable ties is one I forgot, thanks. Have a variety in the shed. I have tweezers in my first aid and a piece of mirror incase something gets in my eyes.

I'm currently testing three kinds of tape on my gear using the pack, gaiters and silnylon tent sack.
Grey duct tape, blue cloth/gaffa tape and what looks like black 50mm electrical tape (not very stretchy).

None of them are stuck on, especially not to the silnylon. The gaffa is slightly tackier. Duct tape is designed to stick to itself after relaxing.

Does anyone use tenacious tape?

Tenacious tape is good stuff. Sail tape works well also. I also carry super glue, hot glue, spare buckles, needle and thread.

Duct tape and tenacious tape work well on nylon but what do you carry for silnylon tent fly repair? Glue? Needle/thread?

From googling it seems only Silnet or silicone will stick to silnylon which is ok for a permanent repair done at home. As for a suitable temporary repair I'm not sure (like a stick through the tent on a rainy night). I'll test out some sail tape from a marine store.

Found a similar thread from 2009 viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1550&p=13336&hilit=+sail+tape#p13336

Not much. Needle and thread. Some double sided cuben fiber tape and a small patch of cuben for my tent and tape ( or silinyon tape and patch of I had a silicon based tent/tarp), some aqua seal, and some super glue, and a small amount of duct tape..

A

andrewa wrote:...silinyon tape and patch of I had a silicon based tent/tarp

I've never seen silnylon tape. Who makes it?

There isn't a lot that sticks to silicone coated fabrics apart from silicone. I am not aware of any tapes that work with these fabrics in a way that would allow a quick patch job. So apart from carrying a tube of silicone like Silnet and a patch of silnylon or silpoly I don't think there is another viable option.

A link from McNett - https://mcnett.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/com ... eated-Tent.

McNett/Gearaid says their Tenacious patches 'Can be used on silnylon for a temporary emergency field repair' here:

https://www.gearaid.com/blogs/learn/ten ... atches-faq

Roger talks about silicone tapes for when making gear here:

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/62362/

So looks like wearing rain gear might be a temporary solution in a worst case scenario!

Tenacious tape doesn't have a great bond strength on sil coated fabrics from my testing, but yes it may get you out of trouble for a brief moment. My testing on silnylon with a rip in the fabric shows the Tenacious tape cant hold the fabric together.

One of the most important things with fabrics in this instance is to ensure you have a fabric that has a high tear strength so that the likelihood of the tear becoming greater is reduced. Silicone coated fabrics will be better than PU coated fabrics all things being equal, and nylon will be better than polyester.

Neo wrote:McNett/Gearaid says their Tenacious patches 'Can be used on silnylon for a temporary emergency field repair' here:

https://www.gearaid.com/blogs/learn/ten ... atches-faq

Roger talks about silicone tapes for when making gear here:

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/62362/

So looks like wearing rain gear might be a temporary solution in a worst case scenario!

I think McNett means that it will hold well enough to cover a small hole for a little while. Like Simon, I found that Tenacious tape sticks to silnylon weakly. It's better than duct tape but if you tug on it a little it comes right off. I found that a band-aid stuck to silnylon nearly as well, which is to say not that well. There's no way Tenacious tape would support any stress.

The sil-tape Roger mentions on BPL requires a long cure time so it's not really much better than carrying a small tube of silicone adhesive, except that it's lighter I suppose.

Tearing good tent fabric is a rare event, hopefully. I've only done it once when I stepped on the side of our tent with my skis. Fortunately it wasn't bad enough to require us to spend the night in our rain gear.

Have not purposely packed any field repair kit but for bits of string/rope, plastic sheet and folding scissors. Recently my son tore the fabric on his down jacket (Costco model), a cut section from a $1 piece of self-stick patch from one of China based mail order sites was used for the repair. Worked very well and the fabric remained very flexible. I suspect I'll keep one of these patches in my kit. Haven't specifically tried on silnylon though. I'd be happy enough if it's good enough as a temporary solution.

Sounds like a silnylon field repair under tension hasn't been solved yet. Surprising!

Today i picked up a pair of kilt/blanket safety pins 50mm and some 1g net tubes of superglue from spotlight. Still researching suitable tape.

This tape might work for a temporary repair not under tension. A silicone adhesive. Checked a couple of Pharmacies but they don't have it. If someone here works in a medical field you might be able to test the 'end of a roll'

http://solutions.3m.com.au/wps/portal/3 ... 25374&rt=d

And three more i had around the house that don't stick to silnylon are:
Brown Elastoplast type
White papery 3M Micropore
Leukoplast tough white tape

Neo wrote:This tape might work for a temporary repair not under tension. A silicone adhesive. Checked a couple of Pharmacies but they don't have it. If someone here works in a medical field you might be able to test the 'end of a roll'

http://solutions.3m.com.au/wps/portal/3 ... 25374&rt=d

https://www.medshop.com.au/products/3m-silicone-gentle-removal-tape-19cm-x-61cm-2770k-0-ea
I carry sewing needles, dental floss and some patches in my SES repair kit among other things...those orange overalls have a habit of tearing at the worst time and in the worse places

Found a tape that sticks quite well to siliconised nylon. Its called Opsite Flexifix. Here is their web page
http://www.smith-nephew.com/professiona ... -flexifix/

And a quote from that
"OPSITE Film - The film is waterproof and aids in the prevention of bacterial contamination. Its high moisture vapor permeability helps prevent the accumulation of perspiration and fluid under the dressing. The acrylic adhesive minimizes the risk of skin damage on removal, especially after long periods of wear."

Got a sample from my pharmacy and its been stuck to my dry TT stuff sack for several days.

So it calls itself an acrylic adhesive not a silicone adhesive.

It's a skin-like membrane used to cover another dressing. Take off the paper side, stick it on, take off the plastic side.
The internet tells me chemist warehouse sells a 10cm by 1m roll for $10.69
Scored another bit of the 50mm wide today. Adding some to my repair kit but if anyone has some silnylon scraps or a hole and wants to do some testing PM me an address I'll send some in an envelope.

The 3m stuff was $2.15 but ten bucks postage frome the link above so haven't tried that one yet. Looks to be paperish like masking tape...

i'll give some a test and see, I love that stuff for patching people, so it would be neat if it also works there, From memory it doesn't have a huge tensile strength, but we'll see.

So the flexi-fix will stick, not well, but enough to patch a small hole that was not under tension. Good to know, but it would be a temp fix at best.

Yeah that was my idea, a temporary cover then do a neat repair with swatch at home. Would rely on the ripstop function to avoid a total disaster! The regular tapes I've tried barely adhear, no effort to remove. Let us know how it goes.

They make a version called Flexifix Gentle which is actually a silicone membrane with an acrylic adhesive. But the point of these is to adhere to skin, not bond to it or bond to silicone. So how well does it actually work?

Gadgetgeek wrote:So the flexi-fix will stick, not well, but enough to patch a small hole that was not under tension. Good to know, but it would be a temp fix at best.

That's what Tenacious Tape does -- it sticks well enough to temporarily patch a small hole that isn't under tension. Unless this expensive and not so easy to find medical tape is a big improvement over that it's probably not worth the bother... although it could be useful for dressing certain types of wounds.


Another trick, with a simple hole, is to put the not-so-sticky-to-silicone Tenacious (or other) tape on both sides of the hole, so the tape is mostly sticking to itself. It's still far from a panacea but at least it keeps it from falling off.

Finally paid the price for some clear tenacious tape to bring an order up to the free shipping level.
Just as well because I put a 5cm tear in the bottom of a new pack on it's third outing!

Here is a pic of a test patch on my silnylon Protrail just behind where the door rolls up, so there is some tension at thet spot. Will see how long it stays there.

Tenacious kinda stuck for a while but is coming adrift after a few stuffings an pitches.

On TT silnylon that was. Will stick a patch of the med tape on next to compare

I was camping in Gowrie Park and saw someone with a Hilleberg tent. I often go and talk to the owner when I see a Hilleberg as I'm part of the Hilleberg granfalloon. Anyway, I noticed he had a patch on his tent, a little round green patch. He told me it was a stick-on bicycle tube patch, the glueless kind. Specifically, it was Slime patch. He said he'd stuck it over a small hole in the fly as a temporary solution but since it stuck so well he left it on as a permanent patch.

Wow! I didn't think anything stuck that well to silnylon.

I tried to find Slime patches in Hobart but failed. So when I got home I bought some Slime "Skabs" patches. I stuck one to a piece of generic silnylon. I stuck another to a square of Kerlon 1200 that was included in a Hilleberg catalog.

And the result?

....
...
...
.
.
.

They didn't stick very well.

So now I'm left wondering what that guy really had on his tent or if it in fact was stuck all that well. I wish I could back and look more closely.

Oh well, ha ha ha!

I haven't had much patching experience with silnylon yet but I imagine that silicon glue would be the only thing that would hold

Common tape glues: acrylic, rubber and silicone. Only silicone will stick to silnylon. The other will fall off fairly quickly. I tested so many different tapes over a year or two.

Cheers
Roger