Repairing Montane Atomic Rainpants

[flatfoot]

My Montane Atomic rain pants have suffered some wear on the seams of the inside knee on both legs. I think this damage is a consequence of wearing Kathmandu gaiters over the top of the rain pants on my OT trip a week or so back. It was raining quite consistently for much of the week so they did get quite a bit of use.

Small holes have develop parallel to the seams. The largest of these is a slit about 7mm long.

I hoping that some of you have experience with repairing damage to similar materials. I think some form of tape and perhaps seam sealer will be required but not exactly sure what I should get.

I don't really like the design of the Kathmandu gaiters which use an elastic cord for securing. Are the S2S gaitors much better? For future trips I think I will wear the rain pants under the gaiters.

[Nuts]

Duck (duct) extreme tape ffoot. It doesnt seem to take too well at first but once applied it stays.
We had a similar problem with the inside seams on Marmot oracle pants but the tape over the seams has been on for many washes.

[flatfoot]

Thanks for the tip. That seams (pun intended) like the way to go.

[Franco]

I stuck some cloth tape (no idea what brand /type it was...) to my Montane Featherlite intending to do a better repair job at home. It is still there after 3 or 4 years.
Out of curiosity i just had a look and noticed that is is black tape matching the pants. The gaffa tape i have now in my kit is either red or blue.

Franco

[flatfoot]

Had a look at Bunnings and Big W today. Bunnings had some of the 3M tough products but not the "Extreme" variant. They both had generic duct tapes. I might consider using the transparent 3M duct tape or get a generic one that has a closer match in colour. The pants I have are a very dark blue. I'm surprised that I couldn't find duct tape extreme at any online suppliers.

I was wondering how well the tape would cope with repeated scrunching since the pants pack into a ball about the size of an orange. Probably better to roll/fold rather than scrunch (sounds like i'm talking about toilet paper technique ).

[Franco]

Mine are usually stored inside that tennis ball sized mesh sack. i took them out of that for the photo.
But unfortunately I cannot remember what tape it was , most likely generic duct tape from Bunnings.
Franco

[Nuts]

Perhaps any would work. The extreme stuff (bought in a folded packet from mitre 10) is just that cloth tape as above, maybe stronger glue, maybe not necessary. It worked the first time so just 'stuck' with using that. We taped the seams on the inside (so the yellow and orange colour didnt matter so much). Been scrunched stretched and washed Many times

[north-north-west]

This is just a form of binding tape - a cloth tape with very strong (usually waterproof) adhesive. I've been using it for years to patch all sorts of things with small tears, including dry bags, GoreTex jacket, tent floor, etc.
There are some small patches on the floor of the Salewa that have been there for four years and are still holding up fine.
In fact, I always carry a small roll of the stuff in the pack 'just in case'.