Bushwalk Australia

Hi All,

I have a 3 year old WE SilNylon overhang that's suffered a rip during a sudden strong wind gust. The rip is a square C-shape with the short sides about 10cm and the long side 20cm. Has anyone had one of these repaired? I'm wondering if it's worth it (from a longevity perspective) and who might be best to do it. Given I'm in Hobart I'm thinking a sailmaker might be a good option but would love to hear if anyone has been through the process and how it turned out.

Cheers, Andy

As an outdoor ed teacher I am constantly repairing tears such as yours with sail cloth stick-on material. Ideally get hold of a portion of a sheet rather than a roll of tape. Simply cut it to size, round the edges and stick on. Warming it afterwards and running a roller over will help slightly too. Do both sides. Occasionally I will then sew over the tape and silnylon but only if it is a high tension area. Most sailmakers in Hobart will sell you a suitable piece of sail cloth at a reasonable price.

Mark_O wrote:As an outdoor ed teacher I am constantly repairing tears such as yours with sail cloth stick-on material. Ideally get hold of a portion of a sheet rather than a roll of tape. Simply cut it to size, round the edges and stick on. Warming it afterwards and running a roller over will help slightly too. Do both sides. Occasionally I will then sew over the tape and silnylon but only if it is a high tension area. Most sailmakers in Hobart will sell you a suitable piece of sail cloth at a reasonable price.

Thanks! that was my instinct so good to know it works. The rip is about 0.5m from one corner and about 30cm in from the edge.

Cheers, Andy

Mark are you using that on silicone coated fabrics?

I've patched a PU overhang that had a stick punch through one of the ridge line tie loop patches, using sail tape. For Sil, I just repaired the floor of my Notch just by gluing a scrap of sil down with silicone. If I was to do it again, I'd thin the silicone a bit to make it flow better, but it seems to have worked.

You need to work out exactly what the fabric is. Contact WE and find out. Normal stick on nylon will not adhere properly to a silcone surface, the patches are designed for pu and acrylic coatings. Many so called sil-nylons are actualy pu on one side and silicone on the other. The stick on patches will work well on the pu side but not the silicone side. If you want to patch the silicone side, or the fabric is silicone coated both sides, you need some uncoated or silicone coated nylon and then glue it to the fly with silcone glue. I believe it is best to do this with undiluted silicone rather than the diluted silicone that is used for seam sealing.

Andy says it's the sil nylon version.
Ours was a full length rip passing along the edge of a centre tie point and still sits in the almost too hard basket.
I did try some odd tapes but, while they stuck, wouldn't give any strength inside or out. Good idea to tape it together (to hold it in line) before patching though.
(Iv'e not tried silnylon patching so the advice is a help to me also)

Just checked - the WE web site does say silicone BOTH sides but there are many manufacturers eg Big Agnes who talk sil-nylon but have very confusing statements like "Fly and floor are silicone treated nylon rip-stop with 1200mm waterproof polyurethane coating"

In Hobart the guy you need is DR Marine in South Hobart. Does lots of outdoor gear repair and custom work.

D.R. Marine

Outdoor equipment repair( tents, packs etc); Awnings, shade structures, covers, tarps etc; Rigging and splicing( rope and wire); Balustrading; Industrial sewing of (nearly) all types
Contact: David Ross, 0418 120 366

Looking at the material, it seems to me that it's only siliconised on one side but I will check. I was initially worried about tape sticking but when it happened I did a temporary repair with strapping tape on both sides and it stuck very well, which made me less concerned about going down that route with proper sail repair tape.

tastrax: Thanks for the reminder, I used David for something else a long time ago and was wondering if he was still going so will definitely give him a call.

Cheers, Andy

So the lightweight Si Nylon tarp is green, the industrial/schools OP tarp we have is blue PU coated and much heavier. I'm not sure if they make other colours, possibly.
You can also weigh yours to find out which one you have, the specs for the two will be online i'd guess. Iv'e found local sewing services a bit expensive for this sort of thing (unfortunately). Being able to use tape is a big bonus.

Mark F wrote:If you want to patch the silicone side, or the fabric is silicone coated both sides, you need some uncoated or silicone coated nylon and then glue it to the fly with silcone glue

Maybe easier and neater using some hot-cut or selvaged nylon tape or ribbon for this longer patch (like the tare-aid tape without glue, if such a thing exists in light nylon?)

We've got both consumer style overhangs (none of the industrial ones) and its obvious if its the silicone ones, as they are a full permeated fabric, and the PU have the coating on only one side. I thought the sil ones were also marked UL overhang, but I may be wrong.

I wouldn't worry about what the edge was on the patch if using glue since you would glue past the edge of the patch, securing it anyway.

If its PU then you can use seam-grip with a clean nylon patch. it will last longer than just sail tape, but as a short term solution, that will work as well. I just pulled a patch off one of our tent bags, it was just sail-tape, lasted a year of use. And that was the outer patch, the inner one was still secure.

Always something to learn. So there's three models/ three colours/ in three fabrics.

It must grow old fast, kids+ modern camping equipment

Nuts wrote:Always something to learn. So there's three models/ three colours/ in three fabrics.

It must grow old fast, kids+ modern camping equipment

Mines Gold/orange coloured and the bag says "Ultra-Light Siliconised Overhang Tarp"

Maybe that's different to SilNylon? (that was just my interpretation) - it is 3 years old so I suspect it's different to the modern versions, fabric seem to change fairly quickly.

It definitely seems to me that the coating is only one side. I'll let you know how I get on

Cheers, Andy

"Just checked - the WE web site does say silicone BOTH sides but there are many manufacturers eg Big Agnes who talk sil-nylon but have very confusing statements like "Fly and floor are silicone treated nylon rip-stop with 1200mm waterproof polyurethane coating"
If a tent or tarp has taped seams (like the BA shelters) , that taped side has a polyurethane coating.

For silnylon repairs I found that a good way is to very lightly coat both surfaces with undiluted silicone , let it cure for about 15-20 minutes then apply and put a weight on for 24 hours.

WE have a repair section on their website.

http://wildernessequipment.com.au/article.php?article=FABRIC%20DAMAGE%202%20%20%20%20%20Hole%20and%20tear%20repair%20in%20lightweight%20SIL-coated%20fabric

simonm wrote:WE have a repair section on their website.

http://wildernessequipment.com.au/article.php?article=FABRIC%20DAMAGE%202%20%20%20%20%20Hole%20and%20tear%20repair%20in%20lightweight%20SIL-coated%20fabric

Thanks, I was reading that this morning. I'm still a bit confused as they say nothing sticks to the silicone treatment but as I said, the strapping tape I used stuck pretty damn well - it was hard to get it off, so I'm still not sure I have the same material they're talking about.

I'm also struggling to see how just smearing silicone on both sides would work with a larger rip in something like an overhang. Maybe I just have to have faith

I've sent the WE brand manager an email so I'll wait and see what he comes back with.

Thanks, Andy

Diluted silicon is a very strong glue when allowed to cure properly but it does work better for smaller tears. Just using a cover piece of fabric about 55mm wide and a little longer than the tear works, there is little point in stitching at this point. If you do stitch then you really need to be aware that the repair may be stronger than the original tarp and it may then rip elsewhere; usually along the stitch lines.
I've not had great success with stithed repairs due to the slippery nature of the fabric, I found it hard to stop puckers etc
One tape I have found that does stick reasonably well to silicon is the silver tape sold at Bunnings for use on RFL insulation. I use that then glue the repair fabric on the outside

Having a medium WE UL Overhang Tarp, albeit in green, I look forward to reading the outcome.

I believe it was RonK who kindly steered me toward the brand and I've been happy with it.

Don't forget to update us AndyR and good luck with the repair

I promised an update, so here it is:

I paid my local sailmaker a visit where a friend of mine happens to work. Their view was the only self adhesive material (not tape) they have would be too heavy duty to really use on the lightweight tarp. Their only suggestion was to use spinnaker tape and to stitch and waterproof once applied. I decided to wait for more ideas before going down that route.

Subsequently I had a reply from the WE brand manager at Sea to Summit and his response was:

Hi Andy,
Thank so for getting in contact.
Being a silicone ultralight tarp this will need to be a sewn repair, sealed with pure silicone. A sail making would not be able to perform this repair, as their machines are too heavy for this weight of fabric. A domestic sewing machine would be ideal, if you or one of your friends have one?
Otherwise we can recommend Remote Equipment Repairs in Melbourne: http://remoterepairs.com.au/contacts/
Warm regards,
Henry
Henry Kelsey :: Brand Manager
henry@seatosummit.com.au

Simultaneously I'd also contacted David Ross here in Hobart who suggested a similar repair, so basically I gave it to him and a day later it's done and very reasonably priced. Light tape (not spinnaker tape, something slightly different) on both sides, stitched and sealed.
Obviously I haven't had a chance to test it yet but by the looks of it, it will be stronger than the rest of the tarp but shouldn't distort the shape at all. So at this stage, I'm happy with the outcome. Oh, and he threw in a little handle on the bottom of bag to make it easier to get the tarp out - oversight by the manufacturer me thinks

Cheers, Andy

We have a FairyDown 2-3man tent that is in excellent condition, however the fly has some issues:
*seam tape has come off
*waterproof lining on the fly's "tent side" has perished
Through bush walk.com I have read many ways to 'do it yourself' re waterproofing,
can anyone tell me if you can re-waterproof commercially? If so where? Aprox cost?
I am in Melbourne Victoria
Port Melbourne

Heidi....I've been down this path with 2 of my Fairydown tents....an Attack and a Assault.....both fly's had the same issue that you described with the seam tape disintegrating and the PU coating degrading causing the fly to become sticky. Sent each to Remote Equipment Repairs at Pt. Cook for an assessment for a re-proofing job and neither was suitable for the processes that they could offer commercially. I gave the Assault to Moondog55 from the forum and he cleaned the fly and re-proofed it using the turps/silicone mix process but I'm not sure how that went in regards to making the fly fully waterproof or not.

Time for a new tent most likely....but seeing Remote Equipment Repairs isn't far from you it may be worth letting them have a look at it just in case it can be re-proofed at a reasonable cost. Good luck with it. Cheers

s358