Mississippi-Mud Forums

UPS delivered our third tent today.

I started out back in the early 80s with one of the first dome tents. It is a three-man round, free-standing dome. With care, cleaning and waterproofing, it still serves us well.

Because it was too cozy for three of us in hot weather, we got the "Res Mahol". It is a three room family-size tent. Not an expensive one, but like the first tent, it is serving us well and seeing a lot of use.

Now that we are getting into backpacking and bikepacking, we needed at least one more small tent. I picked up a Texsport 2-man Bivy Tent that is intended for backpacking. It weighs about 4 lbs, but approximately 1 lb of that is steel tent stakes. I will replace them with alluminum at my first opportunity.
it appears to be of very good quality for the $37 I spent, including shipping. The seams are taped and everything fits and works well. I will set it up outside this weekend and post some pics. I will waterproof it while I am at it.

what do you use for waterproofing? i used to use a product called camp-dry that walmart carried but the last time i was there i couldn't find i in there.

I have used McNett Thunder Sheild, that I bought online. I guess it worked alright. It came out as a fine mist, which was hard to control in a breeze, and did not seem to really get into the fabric. I would compare it to Camp Dry.

The stuff I bought recently at Wal-Mart is made by Atsko. It looks like this:



It went on very wet and soaked in, then dried quickly in the sun. Good coverage considering how fast it seamed to dispense. I needed two cans to do my 3-man dome, including the bottom. About the same coverage as the McNett brand, but it appeared to be more effective.

I have not tested it in rain yet, but I will get some idea how well it works the next time I clean it.

Walmart had it for under $6 which seems to be a great price from what I have seen online.

If you can't find waterproofing in the hunting/camping section, try the shoe department.

If you need to seal the seams, do that first, on the inside, before waterproofing. I use McNett Seam Grip and swear by it. It is slow to dry, but permanent. It will not peel like a two-day-old sunburn after a year or two like some sealants will. It is pricy, though, and you may have to buy it online. Buy the small tube. It goes pretty far. I bought the 8 oz. tube and it cost about $28 with shipping. I used it to seal my big tent and do numerous repairs. It finally reached its shelf life after a couple of seasons, and I threw away 2/3 of a tube because it hardened.

McNett Seam Sure is the shiznit. Water based and comes in a squeeze bottle with a bristle applicator brush so you can work it into the threads, give it plenty of time to dry and you're set.

The Seam Grip is on the thick side. I have had good luck using it to glue patches over cuts and holes. On small holes, I just smear some on and let it dry.

Seam Grip is not water based like Seam sure, and it has a strong odor. The odor goes away when it is dry, of course.