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Fabsil or Thompsons Water Seal, the latter being half the price.

The TT should be fully erected  and pegged out at normal tension to be able to apply the proofer successfully. Two or three very thin coats work better than one thick gloopy one. Allow 2-3 hours to dry out between coats, then allow 24 hours after the last coat. Proofer works better if you clean very grubby canvas first, btw. Brush the canvas down first with a soft brush, then Grangers Tent & Awning Cleaner is highly recommended. Rinse well then allow to dry out, then reproof.

It's a two or three day job to be able to sucessfully clean and reproof a TT to be honest. Do you really feel you TT needs it? Once you start reproofing cotton canvas then you need to do it every five years or so, whereas if it's never been reproofed and doesn't leak then my advice is to leave it alone till it does start leaking. My Conway Camargue is 19 years old and never been reproofed, yet it's just come back from six weeks in France where we had some humungous downpours and it never let in a drop.

HTH. PS- there's a trailer tent forum on UKCS...might be better posting any other queries there?

We pitched ours in the garden then washed ours first with pure soap flakes from morrisons and a soft brush,rinse well with hose pipe as you go along so not to leave any soap in canvas. it was surprising how much cleaner it looked when dry.

When dry the next day we used a garden pump sprayer and good old Thompsons water seal one good coat and left to dry all day.

Try to pick a day that looks like it will stay dry all day (lol)then you can do it first thing in the morning and leave up all day that will then get shut of most of the fumes from warterproofing.

Ours is now 100% waterproof now and it has been tested this summer for sure ,the soap flakes got rid of alot of marks on canvas that had accumulated  over its 17 years of age.

I was in a dilema whether to watherproof our Cabanon Galaxy, bought second hand this year. There seems to lots of conflicting advice.

I recently spoke to the owner my local camping shop, apparently he used to be Cabanon dealer. He said that he would always advise against waterproofing a canvas tent, if the canvas is well cared for and cleaned, it will last for many years. Occasionally seams may need resealing. Once waterproofing is applied, it removes the canvas's ability to swell up when wet, hence the need to re proof regularly.

If your Canvas tent leaks, it has probably been waterproofed in the past and will need reproofing again, if not leave alone.

One of the reasons that I decided against reproofing is because of the smell, my wife is very sensitive to chemical smells, and she would not be happy after reproofing - some people report that it can take weeks for the smell to go. Another consideration is the price, it may cost £100 to reproof a large Trailer Tent

Quote: Originally posted by bill43 on 20/8/2008

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thanks everyone it was the first time i used my trailer tent, my son was sleeping in the large awning area. his blow up bed had drops of water on it not what you lot might be thinking lol, i felt the roof it was sucking wet, but not dripping, is this natural, you can tell am a first timer lol

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If you touch the inner surface of the canvas in the rain it will feel wet, yup. Leave your finger there for a few minutes and it will start to leak as the natural waterproofing ability of the cotton canvas temporarily fails at the contact point.  It will continue to leak after you've taken your finger away and will only stop when the  rain ceases and the canvas dries out, after which it will be as good as new again. All of this is totally normal for cotton canvas. It doesn't mean it needs reproofing. It does mean you have to learn not to touch or lean items against the inside of the canvas though!

You say your son was sleeping on an airbed on the ground in the awning? Well, if the airbed was wet in the morning its almost undoubtably because of condensation. We sweat a lot at night and an airbed is nothing more than a slab of cold air surrounded by thin rubber after all. The air circulates within the airbed, airbed never warms up and the sweat condenses out under the sleeping bag on top if the airbed. I bet his bedding was damp too. What you need to do is add some insulation both on top of the airbed (a thin fleece blanket held on by a fitted sheet is ideal) and if very cold, under the airbed as well. (A cheap cellular foam camping mat, for example.)

So if there's no other signs of leaking in the TT, then my advice is to leave it alone and don't rush into reproofing it. Conways (what model have you got?) were made of top quality canvas and this should last thirty years or so as long as you're careful about drying it out well between trips. All this reproofing is a modern phenomenon for some reason...perhaps some modern tent canvas is more variable when it comes to quality?

 

Quote: Originally posted by bill43 on 21/8/2008

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 thank you Valk_scot, i have a Conway mirage, 1997 i thought it was leaking due to small drops of waster, i seen i check the roof lining that was dry, but what you wrote explains every thing thank you, and to youzac45

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You're welcome. Glad to help. An eleven year old Conway certainly doesn't need proofing yet, unless something very nasty (mould, washing with detergent, a child with a bubble blower on the campsite, eek!!) has happened to it.,Give it another ten years at least.

So you can use Thompson Water Seal instead of exorbitant Fabsil ( £35) 5 litres, then.

Does the Thomspon discolour?

Is it a particular type of Thompson or just the type used with Brickwork etc?