A lifetime extented
/In the quest for the perfect hiking tent, we found ourselves with a Nemo equipment Dagger Ultralight backpacking tent. Our friend had recently purchased the 3-person tent and the tent was (at the time) the number one pick on OutdoorGearLab, which meant that even though we had not tired the tent ourselves, it was likely going to be a good-quality tent. Given the Australia Tax can be particularly brutal for outdoor gear, we elected to purchase the tent in the USA and have it shipped to a friend living in Washington DC who was very kind and offered to forward it onto us. In the end it would turn out that his partner would be coming to Australia for a visit, so she took it directly with her on the plane and avoided the shipping kerfuffle. The first thing we did with the tent was take it on an eight day walk: the South Coast Track in Tasmania’s wilderness and delightfully the tent was up to the task.
It thus came as a shock at some point later when I received an email from Nemo saying that our tent was considered to be faulty with the base being insufficiently waterproof, and the fault was a material fault and they requested that we return the tent for either a full refund or replacement. As we were in Australia, I did not really want to ship the tent back, despite their offer to pay, but upon consultation with Nemo it was decided that destruction of the tent would be sufficient. Now this was devastating from my point of view: a tent that is fine shouldn’t need be destroyed; however I get that they do not want inferior products around. They were specific that destruction meant a large x cut in the tent base, and with sufficient evidence they would send us a replacement. I was also somewhat uncomfortable with the arrangement given we would have to trust Nemo to send us a new one once the deed was done. In any case, as they did not have stock on hand, I said I would hold off on cutting it until they were ready to ship out the new tents. It would turn out that this would take many months and the only way any news came forward was when I inquired, but eventually one day the email came back saying the new tents were ready to ship and if I had the proof of the tent’s destruction.
With some trepidation, Mia stepped inside the tent and with some razor-sharp material scissors and cut diagonally across the floor in both directions, making the insufficiently waterproof floor somewhat less watertight. We sent of the images, and just wanted some form of acknowledgement, but of course it did not come. I would not say it kept me up at night, but it was somewhere on that spectrum, as we had destroyed a very valuable tent with only their word promising a replacement. A response eventually came, also dripping with excuses for the slow reply (I think I had sent three or four emails in this time), with the primary reason being that we were corresponding with an unmonitored email address. I found this surprising given the previous levels of correspondence I had had with said email and it being the primary contact email listed on their site, but their response contained a tracking number for a parcel, so we were happy. Now the real question was whether we would receive a full tent, or just the faulty components. We were desperately hoping for the former, as this would mean we would have enough for two complete tents, provided we could restore the destroyed floor of the inner. The package arrived and it was a complete tent, which meant the mission was now repair and conquer.
Tape applied to the base
Initially we (well, Mia) was looking at stitching it back together, but it was a difficult task. In conversations with some very knowledgeable people, the consensus was to try using Gear Aid’s Tenacious Tape along with some Silicone Tent Sealant. We decided to seal both sides of the inner given the stress the floor is normally put under during operation, which meant spending about $75 on glue and tape, but if it meant that we could resurrect the tent, it would absolutely be worth it. We dutifully set out on our task, initially using masking tape to hold the floor together, then applying the tape on the outside. Following this, the masking tape was removed and the sealant applied to the interior and then being allowed to try before finally placing a layer of tape on the inside. This combination was probably overkill, but we figured that it was better to overcook than undercook this one.
The interior of the inner after sealant had been applied
The interior after (most) of the tape had been applied
In a similar vein to the tents original outing on the South Coast, the first usage of our bonus tent was lending it to Mia’s parents when we completed the 6-day Overland track, once again in Tasmania and once again, it performed like a star. Good thing we have two of them!