Seam Sealing Failure Report

[bigbamaguy]

Well it is early Christmas morning as I write this and I am sadly disappointed in my most recent hanging experience. I received a BBDD Winter Tarp, modified for my Clark NX-200, for an early Christmas present from the signifigant other after I went to the Sipsey Hang over Halloween. I sealed the ridgeline seam back in mid-November and have not had a chance to test it out until tonight. I figured it would be a wonderful time to test it out because of the weather that was expected here in East Alabama. That weather is a typical southern winter storm consisting of massive amounts of rain, strong gusting winds and upper 40*F temps. I got the hammock and tarp set up during the day and did a test nap to see how I liked the tarp and hammock together............All I can say Scott Littlefield does a wonderful job with this tarp design and I am very pleased with my purchase.

Please, don't take this report as a negative feedback on Scott or any of his products.........what happened here is all of my fault and shows that my learning curve is still on the upswing.

I used a seam sealing agent, water based seam sealer, that I got at the local sporting goods store. It had worked on the other tarps that I had sealed so I thought it would work here........boy was I wrong! After taking care of wrapping some presents and having family time I decided to retire for the night and headed for the hammock. As I left the house I walked into a virtual deluge of rain water thinking what a great sleep I would be getting. I looked forward to the raindrops on the tarp, gentle sway of the hammock in the breeze and a book to read......how better to spend Christmas Eve.

I got under the tarp and opened the weather shield on my hammock, then I noticed that there were some drops of water in the hammock. I thought this was from the rain jacket I was wearing and left it at that. Once I got in and situated I noticed that I had a wet spot on my backside, passed it off as the water from the jacket. After two pages of the book I noticed the wet spot was spreading and my back was getting wet too. Looked at the foot end and could see no water coming in, looked at the head end and noticed that the pull handle there was soaked and wicking water at a good rate. At this point I pulled the cord and got out of the hammock. This is when I noticed the ridge line seam was leaking in several places and dripping at good rate on the hammock. While all of this was happening the the weather outside was getting worse with wind and rain. I pulled the cord on the rest of the testing experience and will be making some DIY seam sealer later this afternoon and spend Christmas day working on this issue.

Conclusion:
Just because it says safe for Silnylon does not mean that it will seal Silnylon.
Always do a test hang close to the house or somewhere that you can easily bail from if things go bad.
Ask the manufacturer, especially the ones on this sight, if they have a recommendation for a certain problem.