UV damage to tents

Mole

Thru Hiker
Interesting article

"It's safe to say polyester’s blanket reputation as a UV heavyweight seems to be overhyped."

That 20D poly sil/pe sounds suspiciously similar to what Durstongear uses. 😬


Years ago, my Saunders Spacepacker (Silnylon) spent 3 weeks in July pitched at a Basecamp in Iceland. That aged it very fast. I phoned Bob Saunders to see if I could get a replacement, and he was adamant that he'd never had any of his sil tents suffer from UV degradation before.
 

Robert P

Thru Hiker
Years ago, my Saunders Spacepacker (Silnylon) spent 3 weeks in July pitched at a Basecamp in Iceland. That aged it very fast. I phoned Bob Saunders to see if I could get a replacement, and he was adamant that he'd never had any of his sil tents suffer from UV degradation before.
Conversely for many in the UK who pitch a while before sunset and pack up after breakfast in the morning, there are likely to be other factors that affect a tent's lifespan. There was an illustration of the likely affect of a typical PCT thu-hike on the tent fabric, which was not quite as alarming as I was expecting to read! Nonetheless it is clearly a significant issue to consider, certainly in some climates / use cases.

The take home message I am getting from reading various sources on tent (woven) fabrics is that it is impossible to apply generalisations to a particular silpoly or silnylon fabric as there are so many variables that affect strength, UV resistance, water resistance and durability. One 20D silnylon can be very different from another, even with the same coating. This of course is very unhelpful when trying to make purchasing decisions in that looking at the specs (fabric type, denier, coating type and orientation) doesn't reliably tell you what the performance will be...

On the other hand... how often to these fabrics tear in normal use or flysheets leak? I suspect the durability of waterproofing in groundsheets (the most demanding test for these thin fabrics?) is the weakness most likely to be observed.

I think there is some optimism for the future in the article, in that some light low denier fabrics had very good performance, at least from a strength and UV resistance perspective, and the more we understand the better the fabrics will get.
 

WilliamC

Thru Hiker
Years ago, my Saunders Spacepacker (Silnylon) spent 3 weeks in July pitched at a Basecamp in Iceland.
My first tent was an all cotton Force 10 Mk2. It was left erected for a couple of months in the south of France for 4 years while I was selling beignet on the beaches. It faded greatly, then ripped all alongside the zio when I put a little weight on it one evening.
UV is powerful stuff.
 

maddogs

Ultralighter
Interesting test, and good to see people trying to address the question.

I'm unsure how to translate the results...on a normal bakcpacking trip for me, the tent may be subejct to say 6 hrs daylight per overnight in summer and absolutely none on a Scottish winter trip. In the test 50 days may be say 600 hours of daylight (assuming 12 hrs per day which is about right for California 9-15hrs over the year) so 100 nights out in summer for me...several years worth of use...I've got plenty other things to worry about than the tent. I'll replace it when it looks tired or I put my finger through the fly :).

I think that "mechanical" wear and tear is more likely to be the principle failure point in tents used for backpacking (as opposed to base camping). Zip failure in dusty environments, groundsheet puncture etc. Certainly our (DCF) tent was very tired after a PCT thru hike due to zip failure, seam wear on the ground sheet, and some kind of delamination of the fly fabric at high stress points. But that was 150 nights out....or 6 years of my more "normal" backpacking. Patched up and still funcitonal I'll use it again and expect to get another month long trip out of it.
 

dovidola

Thru Hiker
I suspect it's about what you want. For those of us who camp fewer than 30 UK nights a year most decent-quality fabrics will suffice and the tent will last a good few years with proper care. For the hardcore extended user it might have to be a Hilleberg, despite the increased weight and cost.

Using nylon fabrics over the decades from Robert Saunders, Terra Nova, Luxe Outdoor, 3F UL, and most recently Tarptent, I've never knowingly experienced problems arising from degradation, and that's despite often leaving tents exposed through the day (don't do that any more).
 

tallest of pauls

Section Hiker
I had a terra nova trisar that I used on an around the world thing in the early 90s for a year. It did fine.
Went to college after that and ran out of money (beer - weed) so lived on a campsite for 6weeks and left the tent up the whole time. That killed it, it faded badly. Should have bought a £20 dome tent from tragos in hindsight
I went to North Wales a few years later, the fly tore in two like a peeled banana during a storm leaving me sat in the inner, soaking wet and using a rubble bag as an umbrella.
Happy days.

If I'm car camping now I always use a cheap decathlon dome tent, I marvel at the hillebergs pitched next to me waiting for a hurricane to hit langdale. Infact one guy was so paranoid his hille would be stolen he pitched rightoutside the booking office and asked them to guard it!

Dunno why I just typed all that. Probably has nothing to do with the question.
 

AmateurHiker

Trail Blazer
I had a terra nova trisar that I used on an around the world thing in the early 90s for a year. It did fine.
Went to college after that and ran out of money (beer - weed) so lived on a campsite for 6weeks and left the tent up the whole time. That killed it, it faded badly. Should have bought a £20 dome tent from tragos in hindsight
I went to North Wales a few years later, the fly tore in two like a peeled banana during a storm leaving me sat in the inner, soaking wet and using a rubble bag as an umbrella.
Happy days.

If I'm car camping now I always use a cheap decathlon dome tent, I marvel at the hillebergs pitched next to me waiting for a hurricane to hit langdale. Infact one guy was so paranoid his hille would be stolen he pitched rightoutside the booking office and asked them to guard it!

Dunno why I just typed all that. Probably has nothing to do with the question.
Rather enjoyed the mind dump and actually the suggestion of using a cheap decathlon dome tent when car camping is so sensible I hadn’t thought of it!
 
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