30 yo tent

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Paulatic
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30 yo tent

Post by Paulatic »

A tent, Khyham 2 man model, has been hanging in a shed for last 20 yrs. Took it out the bag today to give it an air. I’ve poured water, from a watering can, down the seams and flooded the main body of it. All seems to be watertight.
Is there anything else I should be checking?
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mercalia
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Re: 30 yo tent

Post by mercalia »

any elastic straps to pull the inner out?
leave it out side for the next deluge and see ifit can stand the on slaught
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pjclinch
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Re: 30 yo tent

Post by pjclinch »

Main problem would be PU coatings dying, but its usually pretty clear if that's happened.

If there are rubber rings for pegging they may have degraded (again, pretty obvious, if they have replace with shock-cord).

My dad's Spacepacker Plus is about 30 (mine is youngster of about 20), both are still going strong so old tents do hang in there.

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oldmanonabike
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Re: 30 yo tent

Post by oldmanonabike »

Keep an eye on the lawn it's going to need cutting soon
I'm not getting older,just gaining more experience
mercalia
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Re: 30 yo tent

Post by mercalia »

oldmanonabike wrote:Keep an eye on the lawn it's going to need cutting soon


u call that a lawn? :wink: scrub land
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Paulatic
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Re: 30 yo tent

Post by Paulatic »

mercalia wrote:
oldmanonabike wrote:Keep an eye on the lawn it's going to need cutting soon


u call that a lawn? :wink: scrub land

:lol: :lol: I’m letting it grow to hide the moss :o
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gloomyandy
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Re: 30 yo tent

Post by gloomyandy »

Check the inside of the fly to see if the coating has gone "sticky" at all, this happened with my old Vango. Probably pretty obvious by now though!
drossall
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Re: 30 yo tent

Post by drossall »

Not sure whether there's any particular reason for poles to fail if they are old but little used. However, I might get hold of a spare section just in case. Although when it happened on Scout camp, I jury-rigged a repair by binding the broken section with insulating tape, which lasted till the end of the camp, so maybe just carry some tape! (Or one of those slide-on repair bits, or whatever.)
Tangled Metal
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Re: 30 yo tent

Post by Tangled Metal »

Get one of those emergency pole repair tubes and duct tape. Just on case poles fail. BTW what's the poles made out of? Fibreglass or alloy?
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Paulatic
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Re: 30 yo tent

Post by Paulatic »

Tangled Metal wrote:Get one of those emergency pole repair tubes and duct tape. Just on case poles fail. BTW what's the poles made out of? Fibreglass or alloy?

I was wondering about the health of the poles with age. They are black and bendy so Fibreglass I would think. The knuckles and spring loaded keepers seem fine.
Apart from a slight musty smell it appears to have aged very well.
Are these pole repair tubes universal or specific to various types?
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Tangled Metal
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Re: 30 yo tent

Post by Tangled Metal »

I think most good tent brands supply one for their tents sized to suit. I didn't get one for my wild Country tent but I took one from a vango tent I had. Glad I did because a pole snapped a few days into a 2 week holiday. The tube didn't fit well, oversized, but I taped it well with duct tape and it lasted the holiday. Being a new tent I took the tube off and took the tent back for a refund.

So I reckon you have to make sure the tube is big enough to fit over the pole since I believe they're different sized. Oversized doesn't matter because you tape it anyway.

I personally used to worry about fibreglass poles. You hear the warnings over the material such as it shatters in the cold and sudden failure without any sign, etc. However I own a few car camping tents with it and they seem to take a lot. They're not that old, perhaps the oldest is 6 years. However I personally would worry about 30 year old poles. No reason or evidence to back that up though, perhaps just irrational fear of the material.
drossall
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Re: 30 yo tent

Post by drossall »

They are different sizes. I have made up replacement sets by pinching a complete set from a failed tent, and cutting one or two poles to make the overall length correct. No doubt some poles from some tents are interchangeable, but you'd have to check both width/fit of the couplings and length of the overall pole.
colin54
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Re: 30 yo tent

Post by colin54 »

I have a similar age Saunders Backpacker 2, which I hadn't used for about 12 years .

I pitched it on a night when I could see it was going to rain (not difficult in Lancashire),

it looked like the outer was fine but the floor of the inner let in water ,it had gone a bit crispy.

Possibly worth doing the same before you use yours.The ground here gets saturated quite quick so it was a

good test.
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drossall
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Re: 30 yo tent

Post by drossall »

Yes, to be fair, that's how my last tent went too. Sleeping in a puddle is no fun.
crazydave789
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Re: 30 yo tent

Post by crazydave789 »

heavy but should still be up to the task, the only thing I can think off besides any elastics, bent pegs and UV rot is the seam sealing. they should be just before seam tape became popular and naff.

worst case you'll need to mix up some silicone based seam sealant paint.
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