FIX IT for $12 || How to Waterproof a Tent (even cheap tents!)

that's right the tent you may have paid hundreds of dollars for is not waterproof don't believe me take a look at your tent information and see what it's made out of look either online or on the tag that's on your tent bag chances are unless you're rocking a dyneema tent it's made of either polyester nylon or maybe cell nylon now go look at your favorite hiking shirt if it's a moisture wicking shirt chances are it's made out of basically the same material some combination of polyester nylon so how can your tent that's made to be waterproof be made out of the same materials as your favorite hiking shirt that's literally made to pass water through it the answer is that your tent actually isn't waterproof that's what i'm trying to tell you any polyester or nylon tent has to be coated or otherwise treated with polyurethane silicone or a dwr coating in order to properly protect you and your belongings from rain and other moisture otherwise it will not be waterproof but when your tent is brand new it should have come from the factory properly treated to be fully waterproof but what you may not know is that that waterproofing treatment will eventually wear off because of use as well as exposure to the elements including the sun i've also learned that especially in my budget price range often if i subject a new tent to a rain test even if it keeps rain out for a little while it will eventually wet out and rain will get through that tent got some here as well oh oh my goodness there's a bunch of water right there does that mean that you have to spend hundreds of dollars in order to be confident that you have a tent that's fully waterproof if you've watched any of my other videos you know that i am way too cheap to agree to that so let me show you how for twelve dollars and just a little bit of time you can make any tent waterproof and i'll show you on two of my tents that originally failed the rain test this is the ozark trail one person backpacking tent this is the underwood aggregators one person trekking pole tent both are definitely in the budget price range fifty dollars and twenty eight dollars and failed the rain test miserably but after this treatment both now shed rain for days and are absolutely waterproof and you can use these same methods to refresh the waterproofness of your tents on a regular basis which is a really good idea just to make sure you don't get caught in the rain before we get to the next point if you've ever taken a tent out that didn't keep you dry or a tent that performed like a champ i would love to know what tent it was so head down to the comments and either slam your tent or give it a nice humble brag all right back to the task at hand there are two main things you need to be concerned about when waterproofing your tent one is the material itself which we've already established is definitely not waterproof on its own but the second and probably more importantly are the seams those places where they've stitched two pieces of fabric together or where they've reinforced guy out points those areas because all those little holes from the needle are places where water can penetrate even if the fabric is treated to be waterproof let's talk about the seams first and then we'll talk about how to waterproof the material overall in a minute if you don't give a rip about seams then feel free to check out the bookmarks in the description below and skip ahead mistake the first thing you should do when you get a new tent is set it up and then check the seams they should be sealed and you can tell it looks like some clear tape or even some clear paint over the top of the seams if you know me you know that i tend to buy tents in the budget price range and with those i definitely recommend setting it up in the rain and testing it before you take it on a trip and if you've tested your tent and it failed or if you just want to make sure your seams are sealed well and don't have time to test it i'll show you how to seal those seams the first thing you want to do is make sure you have the right seam sealer i have in my hands two different seam seal products both from gear aid this one is their seam grip sill and this is their seam grip wp this one is made specifically for tents made of sil nylon this one is made specifically for tents made of polyester or nylon you need to make sure that you get the right seam sealer otherwise it will not work it can be confusing the good news is gear 8 actually has a webpage where they tell you what seam sealers will work for which different temp materials so check and see what type of material your tent is made out of and then buy the right seam sealer for that and before anybody accuses me this video is definitely not sponsored by gear aid i bought both of these off of amazon with my own money but gear aid if you're watching and you want to drop some dough on dose of dirt give me a call oh they're calling dozer enterprises this is jeff oh yeah hi mom yes i did miss church to go backpacking yes i will be there this week yes mom i'll get a haircut soon thanks mom guess that wasn't gear aid where were we right seam sealers i'll put the links where you can get these on amazon down below in the description both of these tents are made of polyester so i will be using the seam grip wp not the seam grip sill a tube of this is only nine dollars or you can get a two pack for 15 so a pretty cheap insurance policy on waterproofing your tent now when you get your seam sealer read the directions but for these i know that it should not be applied at temperatures below 60. so i've waited for a nice warm sunny day to apply this to both of my tents you'll also want to take note of how long it takes to dry this will take 8 to 12 hours so i'm going to apply it now and then take the tents down tonight before i go to bed let's apply the seam sealer all right so we've got our seam sealer it's really easy to apply i know it can feel a little bit daunting but i just squeeze a little bit out of the top pick it up with the brush and then brush it right on the seam you want to pay attention to when you're applying it first of all not to make a giant mess you really want to make sure that you get it in over the top of all that thread and then also the seam along the top here this is essentially glue that's going to fill all of those holes and make sure that water cannot get through so when you're doing this you want to look for any seams along the tent again they're pretty easy to find and spot it's just where two pieces of fabric are coming together and have been sewn together the other areas to pay attention to are the guy out points sometimes they're right on the seams or sometimes on other tents like my lan chan pro 1 they're actually right here in the middle of the fabric either way you want to make sure that you pay attention to those as well essentially anywhere where a needle has passed through the fabric you want to put some seam sealer on that spot to fill in those little needle holes and stop water from coming into your tent all right so we finished the orange one with about one quarter left in the first tube of seam sealer so we're gonna finish this tent now all right so in places like a toggle like this you're going to want to get the seam up there but then also make sure you get it down underneath here water can get in both places so you just want to make sure you get all the way around it all right we are done seam sealing both of these tents i've got about a quarter of a one ounce tube left so one one ounce tube should be good for a one person tent maybe even a two person tent but i say order a little bit more than you think you'll need that way you're sure to have enough both tents took me about 45 minutes to me that is well worth it to make sure that your tent is completely waterproof one thing i should note after it dries wherever you've painted this the seams essentially look wet which is funny because it's you know waterproofing it but you'll notice that they just look wet and shiny all of the time that doesn't bother me but it's something you should know before you do it to your tent just in case that's something that really annoys you so now we've taken care of the seams what do we need to do about all this polyester and nylon that we've established is not waterproof good news is this part is even easier there's a lot of different products you can use to waterproof nylon or polyester tents but today i'm going to use this scotchgard heavy duty outdoor water shield this is a 10 and a half ounce can that i picked up at walmart for about five dollars you can also get them on amazon but they're a little bit more expensive but if you don't want to go to walmart get it from amazon so once you're ready all you do is grab the can shake it [Music] wow this can and then when you're ready hold this six to eight inches from your tent and give it a nice even coating one spot you want to pay special attention to is getting under this tenth flap the orange one is done onto the ozark trail so one spot on this ozark trail i want to pay special attention to is underneath this little vent that's because i've got this seam here where water could come through so i want to make sure that this fabric underneath that seam is also waterproof so i'm going to spray over the vent and i'm going to hold it open a little bit and make sure i get underneath so were able to spray both of the tents with one 10 and a half ounce can of the scotch guard it worked great there's no no no there's a little bit left in here so this is enough for two one person tents maybe even a two or three person tent and the directions don't tell you how long to let that stuff dry it just says dry completely so we're gonna leave out here for several hours make sure that it has plenty of time to dry and then the tents will be ready to rock and roll in the rain and if you're waterproofing your tent it could also be a great time to prep your gear for tick and mosquito prevention for the upcoming backpacking season i have some tips and then two products that can help you stop ticks in their tracks i'll post a link to that video right up here so take a look at that and remember life is better with some dirt in it the 37 year old married man trying to shake my butt

Channel: Dose of Dirt

Views: 189,522

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Id: 9CGgrWM6Y6k

Length: 9min 41sec (581 seconds)

Published: Tue May 24 2022