We have not yet used our new Cabanon canvas frame tent.
I have been adviced that it would be best if I put it up, give it a hose down and let it dry before I take it camping for the first time. With the amount of rain we are having at the moment I have not found a long enough dry forecast to get it dried so daren't wet it.
How important is it to do this?
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It is quite important to do this for a canvas tent as it`s very likely that the canvas will let drips through on the first wetting. The new cotton fibres need to be wetted to allow them to swell up and form a tight weave. If you omit this first wetting, you`ll have to hope that you only get light rainfall the first night, which will weather the canvas rather than saturate it.
put it up and dry to drench it with a hosepipe or something similar. it will drip until the fibres have shrunk...putting up at home gives you a chance to make sure you know how to erect it too.
I never did. And overhere in holland I never got the advice to hose down first, only the remarks that a new tent may show some 'mist' or some drops during the first rain, but I never had that with my canvas tents. Even morning fog may already have the desired effect.
It´s also a matter of quality of the tent. My two large tents (Randstad pyramid and Karsten dome) were/are very high quality.
I did have the 'drizzle' with a nylon tent on the seems during a thunder storm and than seamsealed that during the next morning (with nylon tunneltents one should have seam seal with him).
------------- WL
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We did not have the chance to proof our Kos 6 before we used it so when we erected it on site we proofed it there with watering can as it was a dry day and it has been ok since
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Topic: Proofing a new tent
