Interior poles and rain. Do they mix?

**cougarmeat** · 01-02-2019, 19:10

I might have asked this before (old age) but I recall that if I touch the inside of my tarp when it is wet/raining, that causes some kind of pass-through and a drip. Maybe I am thinking of uncoated nylon and I was breaking some kind of surface tension barrier. But if that happens to "waterproof" material, wouldn't an interior pole pushing against the nylon have the same effect? Maybe I'm remembering tent days where we didn't let the side of the breathable tent nylon touch the rainfly. But if the rainfly was waterproof, the underside should be dry.

So I'm a little puzzled about this "pass-through" phenomenon and the influence of interior poles pushing against the material. The rainfly, which was supported by poles didn't drip - or maybe it did but because we were religious about not touching the tent walls we didn't notice.

Though I live in the PNW, I don't live in Seattle or Portland so I'm only theoretically familiar with extensive rain/wet camping. I imagine it's a developed discipline, not transferring outside water to dry eating and sleeping areas as one moves about.

Insights appreciated.

Below is a photo of my travel to Seattle for some sunny spring camping in late March a couple of years ago - at least it wasn't rain:
JeepInSeattleexs.jpg

**FJRpilot** · 01-02-2019, 21:46

I’ll weigh in with my experience... My interior pole mod presses against the fabric of my tarps pretty tightly. I’ve only used “Silpoly” with my poles, but I’ve never experienced issues where the tarps started leaking due to the poles touching the fabric.

I’m old enough to remember what you have described and I distinctly remember having a canvas pup tent leak on me as a Boy Scout after a friend dared me to do the same thing during a downpour... I’ve always thought this that happened because of the cotton canvas material.

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**MikekiM** · 01-02-2019, 22:02

Over the past few years I've used the same under tarp pole with both silnylon and silpoly... Never had a leak due to the pole touching the fabric.

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**Tikker** · 01-02-2019, 23:17

I've used my interior pole mod in some crazy wind and rain, and not had a drop come thru the tarp via the pole touching

**WalksIn2Trees** · 01-02-2019, 23:53

i believe you're thinking of old canvas tents, I read somewhere on here that they do that...

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**Benji** · 01-03-2019, 00:26

It was the canvas tents that when you touch them, you broke the water tension and it leaked.
On a tent with a breathable wall covered by a rain fly, you would get condensation on the inside of the rain fly because moisture vapor could not escape, when you touched the breathable nylon up against the rain fly you got the internal condensation on the breathable material.
When you have a waterproof material against a pole or otherwise, water will not pass through it.
Benji

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**Five Tango** · 01-03-2019, 16:13

I'm so old that my first camping experience was in a JC Higgins canvas pup tent.You had to be careful not to touch the canvas when it rained or it would drip.

**GreatBigDave** · 01-03-2019, 16:52

I haven't seen waterproof modern fabrics leak from contact.
We still have canvas tents at boy scout camp. More summers than not a scout "tests" the warning not to touch the tent when it's raining. Funny thing is that they always touch the canvas right above their own face.

**cougarmeat** · 01-03-2019, 16:55

Ah, I see - with a "modern" tent, the interior wall was breathable (not waterproof like Gore-Tex) and condensation would form on the inside surface of the rain fly. So touching the wall of the tent to the rainfly would let that condensed water in. But with a hammock hanging (not touching) the inside of the waterproof tarp there is little chance of "contamination" (condensiation - new word). In any event, the water isn't coming through the tarp because of the poles. If there is any at all, it's the result of condensation forming from the inside. Got it.

Thank you and enjoy those memories of canvas tents. I was never in a canvas tent, but I remember many a night listening to the "music" on a non-catenary tarp flapping in the wind.