I took my new superfly out for the first time this weekend accompanied by torrential downpours. Unfortunately, it was not exactly watertight. This is no comment on the tarp, probably more so user error. I had 4 points of water and intrusion.
1. I seem sealed the panel pull outs per instructions by placing a very light coating of silicone sealer on the underside of the panel pulls covering the threads. All four of them leaked pretty bad. Not sure what I did wrong, I got really good coverage with the sealer but maybe went a little too light. Perhaps I'll try some more sealer on the outside as well. Fortunately this was not too big an issue because the drips did not end up on the hammock.
2. The biggest issue was the little mitten hook tab in the center of the ridge line. I did not put any seam sealer on this and it leaked a steady drip all night long right onto the hammock. I've been looking at it and not quite sure the best way to seal it. Maybe just some sealer on the outside of the ridge line where it is sewn in? Anyone else had experience with this? I'm kind of surprised that there were no instructions or notes to put seam sealer here. it started leaking shortly after the rain started and continued as a steady stream.
3. I thought that the continuous loops on the ends of the hammocks were underneath the tarp enough, but apparently they were not and the gathered ends of my hammock got pretty wet from water running down the lines. I rigged up some shoestring drip lines in the middle of the night and I think it helped but by that point everything was so wet I can't really tell.
4. this is not so much a water intrusion issue with the tarp, but I had very heavy condensation build up. I need to do some more research on this but perhaps leaving the doors opened a little bit would have helped. The condensation did stay on the tarp though and I Don't think it contributed to the drips on the hammock.
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