Welcome, guest [login | register]

Posted by Bill S on March 4, 2008 at 11:50:05 pm EST
In reply to Packing a tent posted by MTB416 on March 4, 2008 at 12:29:44 pm EST

Turns out that the instructions with most quality tents from the quality manufacturers say to stuff the tent, and that's why they are called "stuff sacks". Folding will eventually produce the creases that are the failure points (or lines) for coated materials (this is not as true for the newest methods of making waterproof floor and fly materials that impregnate the fabric rather than merely coating the surface). Rolling is considered ok, depending on how you do the folding to get to the rolling width (length of the stuff sack. I discovered the "stuffing" recommendation one day when I got a bunch of new tents for the Boy Scout troop I was Scoutmaster of, after many decades of careful folding (and finding lines of leakage in tent floors after a year or two of using the tents every weekend). See, being a techie, "we don' need no stinkin' directions." Who ever reads the manual (except in desperation, or on the 4th day of sitting in a tent waiting out a storm)?

There are some other surprising things, like the proper way to fold poles with a bungie cord in them (always start in the middle and work your way toward the ends - if you start at one end, you are likely to run out of stretch of the bungie, and in any case it wears the bungie out more quickly - and this really shows up in really cold weather, when you end up with a bungie that acts like a wet noodle).

Replies

View: flat | threaded

• Re: Packing a tent - sabino 23:54:12 03/04/2008

Post a Reply

Before replying, please read the complete thread.