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I don't do a whole lot of camping....last time I camped in rain was literally 21 years ago...the tent I'm using is a Coleman tent..."Guaranteed to keep you dry" Is it really going to keep me dry...or should I be doing something that I don't know about?
Thanks.
EDIT: Should mention I'm in a small New York City apartment with pretty much no room to set up a tent ahead of time.
Last Edit: Jun 8, 2007 12:23:11 GMT -5 by buscrash - Back to Top
Did your tent come w/ a "rain fly"? If it did don't forget to put that up as well. I've never had a problem w/ water in a tent and I've never sealed seams or scotchgarded anything. Just make sure you put up your rain fly.
I have a coleman waterproof tent I got a few years back, only used once. I set it up last week to test it, and that night we got a good thunderstorm. (I'm in CT)
Guess what - it leaked. Not a ton, but enough. Only in one corner, took a whole roll of paper towels to clean it up.
So I read the instructions, and sure enough, it said seam sealer needed. So I bought some silicon seam sealer at EMS. The guy there told me the water based seam sealer is easier, but not as good.
So I used a brush to seal the bottom seams on the tent's inside really good. Took about a half hour of breathing in the fumes. I let it dry for about a day, then tested it by dumping a big bucket of water on the problem area.
Voila! Dry tent! It worked!
So be sure to seal your seams before you go!
If you can't set up the tent beforehand, you might have some leaking if you don't seal it. We probably will get some short thunderstorms.
I have read that some of the more expensive tents come already seam sealed, and this is not neccesary.
Seam sealing is a must -- Even the best and most expensive tents with factory-tapes seams should still be seam-sealed. Seam sealant goes on the inside of the tent and MOST IMPORTANTLY on the inside (side down) of the rainfly, all along the seams.
As an additional step to help ensure dryness, you can spray the outside of the tent with a waterproofing spray. Scotchguard Heavy-Duty in the green can is fine, I prefer Kiwi brand Camp-Dry and find it usually less expensive. There are also some brands preferred by the real hardcore folks. This is less essential than seam-sealing but certainly does help. Do be aware it will reduce the flame resistance of your tent and some people are concerned about diminishing the breathability of the tent fabric. I find no significant affect on breathability but I do believe that all such sprays will reduce your tent's resistance to fire. Regardless, we spray our tent and the roof of our screenhouse.
Any cheap tarp between your tent and the ground is good -- reduces seepage of water into the tent and helps the floor of your tent last longer, but as Oleander said, be sure none of that tarp is sticking out from under your tent (the tent should 100% cover the tarp). Otherwise rain runs on top of the tarp and gets caught between the tarp and the tent, which is very bad and can really cause seepage/leakage problems.
But I've heard voices not in the head Out in the air they called ahead Through ripped out speakers Through thick and thin They found a shelter Under my skin -Evgeny Aleksandrovitch Nikolaev
