Sorry, guys
Yet another dumb question I need to ask..
Following my earlier posts on whether my Jamet Roma 6 is waterproof or not, I now think it may well be suffering from inadequate night time ventilation. This tent has only two vents on it, at the back near the sleeping pods, which are always open. However, it has two large "window" panels which are half plactic, with the top half being mesh. The flap covers over these windows zip shut or roll up, but have no facility to be left slightly open, by use of guyropes.
Is it a bad or good idea to punch eyelets into the lower part of these flaps, and attach guys, so they can be opened away from the tent body, but not allowing in any rain. (We ALWAYS get rain when we camp....friends call it The Watts Curse!!)
If it is feasable, could I have your recommendations please?
I would give it a try first using a couple of sturdy safety/nappy pins to attach the guylines. Make sure you pin the safety pin into a seam, hard though it may be, otherwise you risk tearing the fabric.
You might find that the rain comes in round the side of the flaps, though, which is why I suggest trying it with safety pins before permenantly modifying any part of your tent. Most tents whose windows are designed to open this way have side baffles or gussets. You might want to try only opening the flap up as far as the mesh section...though you`d then need to pin the zip shut at that point to save stressing the teeth.
As to safety pins being strong enough...well, use big ones. I`ve used them for two seasons now on the flaps of my kitchen tent and they`re still going strong.
I did wonder that, as the nylon is pretty thin. I think I will go for Vals idea of pinning some guys on, just to try it out. Its pretty frustrating really, we love the tent but in the few trips out we have had, it has been so wet inside. We did absolutely torrential rain last time out, so I guess maybe that, not great pitching and condensation must have caused our wet problem. We did literally have a torrent running under the side skirts on one side of the tent and exiting on the other! Of course, anything on the floor (mostly kiddies toys I confess) got totally saturated!
We are going to try seam sealant, attempt more ventilation, test with a hose pipe in the garden and it that fails..... look in the sales!!!
We also have a 35 year old canvas frame tent, sadly a bit too small for the 4 of us now, although ok on a quick stop. We reproofed it as few years ago and it is fantastic! Bought second hand, never a moments trouble!
In the C&CC magazine this month, someone was advertising clips to attach to tents for Guys. They looked like they worked on the same principal as Mens Clip on Braces.
Quote: Originally posted by bandit-gray on 24/8/2006
In the C&CC magazine this month, someone was advertising clips to attach to tents for Guys. They looked like they worked on the same principal as Mens Clip on Braces.
It would save cutting the fabric.
We have straps at home to hold fitted sheets in place on the kids beds, sold by Betterware of all places, which are exactly the same as ladies suspenders! These clamp on pretty firmly to thin fabric so may be a useful alternative for gripping the vent flap.
We take stacker boxes with lids to put stuff in on the floor, its stop things getting wet and keeps the bugs out, use them to pack stuff in for travelling too, we had torrential rain last time and although we didnt have any leaks from tent or drips from condensation we had a stream running down the hill we were pitched on, which came in one side and went out the other. Great fun this camping!!
if the hole punch (eyelet) was to go thru more than one layer it would be fine.
you need a double layer at least for reinforcement, so that it wouldn't stretch or tear.
I agree with colette - reinforce the area you intend to fix to, if you look at your tent you will see that all the areas where guys/zips etc are fixed have been reinforced.
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Topic: Can I punch eyelets into nylon tent?
