Just curious why you think the silicone is going to peel off .. I know seam seal tape will do that, but I have made tarps both ways and over 7 years have seen no evidence of the bonding breaking down.
This is also the prescribed method for fixing pin holes and such, just bond a patch around the hole ... of course to get to look right you need to put it between 2 surfaces and keep it flat while it sets up.
Brian
I've been using outdoor gear for 45 years and ALL of the synthetic stuff eventually fails. Its just a matter of time.Originally Posted by Cruiser51
That certainly applies to my knees...
OK I have to say this description makes me think it's not a Dutch tarp because their bonding process doesn't yield anything sticky such as this. Now the stick-on repair patches I don't know about... I have a couple in my repair kit but haven't used one yet.
But I'll agree that everything fails eventually.
Five Basic Principles of Going Lighter (not me... the great Cam Honan of OZ)
“If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.” ~ Gen. George S Patton
Its not a dutch tarp but it really doesn't matter who made it. I guess the majority of the people who have responded feel its acceptable so I'm going to keep it. I designed membrane structures (water towers, pressure vessels, airplane fuselages) for a living for many years so I understand the issue of relative stiffness between the reinforcement and the reinforced. I just don't like the way the tarp I bought is bonded. If I was doing it myself or repairing a pinhole leak I would also use sil-net because its all a DIYer really has available to them. If I was a professional selling to the public I would use a better process. There has got be a better way to do it.
Could be that there's nothing wrong with the approach per se, but that your vendor just did a particularly bad job with your tarp.
If it were me and the vendor typically had a solid reputation for customer satisfaction (like one of many cottage vendors people seem to reference all the time on this forum), then I'd have them replace the tarp (the good ones will at no extra charge) just on the chance that maybe a poorly constructed tarp slipped through the quality review cracks. (Maybe some newly-hired neophyte got carried away with too much sealant or something.)
If my purchase was from a mass market vendor, then I'd probably return it for a refund or maybe keep it and just make the best of it and remind myself: "caveat emptor".
Different strokes for different folks though.
~ All I want is affordable, simple, ultralight luxury. That’s not asking too much is it?
As I said in my original post it is well done with excellent workmanship. I just don't like it and the method of reinforcement doen't match the description. So what I got and what I thought I was getting were two different things. I'll just leave it at that. I probably should have asked more questions before I ordered it. A lot of the cottage vendors have basic descriptions that aren't actually correct once you start choosing the options available.
I would say if you don't like it, then send it back. Why keep it? The only person that needs to be satisfied with it is you.
Because of the cost of shipping. It wasn't necessarily the vendors mistake that I misunderstood what I was getting.
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