Just bought a Vango Icarus 500 tent and the 'repair kit' consists of three swatches of tent material (2 x outer, 1 x groundsheet) and a guy rope.
Is this correct? How would you actually repair the tent with these?
First time camper by the way
Yes, every Vango bag we've got has these little "swatches" in it, plus bits n bats. I'd guess you have to get your own glue to fix the appropriate clour/material patch, but I'm hoping we'll never need to
Also got some clear tenacious tape which I'd turn to first I think.
I recently had to repair a couple of poles but didn't know how to go about it. A quick search on you tube found a great instructional video that was very easy to follow.
I have used th patches to repair tiny hole in the ground sheet. I used glue that is bought for inflatibles etc.. purchased in outdoor shop (also works on airbeds) - found superglue didnt work. The best thing to do is to cut 2 patches the same size and put 1 on inside and 1 on outside of hole.
The guy rope is very useful. We recently had situation where we got a crack in one of our poles (caught wind as we were putting it up - turned out to be exceptionally windy weekend, in hindsight, would'nt have camped in this weather). We used the rope to "whippet" the pole and made an excellent temporary repair and were able to use tent for rest of weekend.
My own tent repair kit fills an Ikea sponge bag...things like curved needles and two weights of polyester thread, cotton thread, Tenacious tape, cotton tape, shock cord, pegging rubbers, Cliingons, roll of guyline, sliders, some pre-assembled guylines, Fabsil, ferrules, safety pins, duct tape, glue for cotton canvas, glue for synthetic canvas, seam sealant and a small pile of miscellaneous bits collected over the years. There's also a seperate bag of trailer tent bits and bobs that never comes out the trailer tent and each tent bag has spare pole sections of appropriate type and the fabric patches it came with.
I take the above every time. I hardly ever need any of it, thank goodness, but it's a bit like taking a good human first aid kit...you hope you'll never need it but when you do you're very glad you have it, no? Actually I've used it more on the tents of badly prepared neighbours tbh. Everyoneshould have the necessary items with them to do a few running repairs on their tent. It's a classic case of a stitch in time with tents...a quick repair at the time to a pegging point or tearing seam can prevent your entire tent getting ripped apart when the wind picks up.
These little packs that come with the tents? I'm very grateful for the pieces of matching spare fabric tbh. How else could you patch a tent neatly three years on while sitting in the middle of a french campsite, if you didn't have the appropriate patches? Sure, many don't give you glue but glue dries out quickly once opened and it might not be the most appropriate thing for the repair anyway. So just chuck the little tent specific kit into the peg bag and use it as extras for your real repair kit, the one that contains the things you'll actually need, no?
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Quote: Originally posted by Leanne 78 on 06/7/2011
I recently had to repair a couple of poles but didn't know how to go about it. A quick search on you tube found a great instructional video that was very easy to follow.
Quote: Originally posted by katglasgow on 06/7/2011
val - I must admit I hadnt really thought about sewing the patch onto my ground sheet - is this a better idea?
thanks karyn
If it was just a small hole I'd use duct tape or tenacious Tape, one layer on each side. I've got a groundsheet I patched with duct tape four years ago and it's still holding strong. I'd use glue or tape for any synthetic canvas or groundsheet repairs. I'd only sew something in a synthetic tent flysheet if it was part of a seam already, like a tab or split seam. Then I'd slather it with seam sealant. Stitching into polyester is basically adding a "tear along the dotted line" effect unless it's backed with something to reinforce it so it's better to use glue.
On a canvas tent though sewing is the way to go most of the time. I prefer to do permenant repairs with a sewing machine but on site it's out with the needle and thread. Even a very clumsy repair can hold a tent together long enough to get it home and to a repair specialist if you can't attempt a permenant repair yourself. So take the necessary kit...canvas needles and curved needles can be found in any haberdashery department.
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Topic: Vango Repair Kit
