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Preparing a Tent for Your Emergency Kit (or just to use...)
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May 21, 2024
Don't make the mistake of buying gear (like a tent) for your emergency kit, without learning how to use it properly, and without preparing it completely for use. When an emergency comes, you don't want to suddenly realize your gear isn't ready! Here's the tent from this video: https://amzn.to/44PYAww And here’s the stuff I used to waterproof it: Gear Aid Seam Grip: https://amzn.to/3sXmdpP Scotchgard Outdoor Water Shield: https://amzn.to/3Lrzi0S Pantry Preparedness is a trademark of Income School LLC, an Idaho Limited Liability Company
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One of the most common mistakes I see people making with their emergency kits
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bug out bags, 72 hour kits, whatever sort of kit that you're trying to put
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together is that they gather the gear that they want. They put it in the bag and that's it
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They never see it. They never touch it. They never train with it or practice with it. But in many cases, they also don't fully prepare that gear
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Just the other day, I happened to be at our local D&B supply and I saw this
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little backpacking tent and it was on clearance. Now this is only about a $30 tent right now on Amazon, this exact same model
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but I got it for a few dollars less than that. So it was a good deal as well as perfectly good timing because I wanted a small
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tent to be able to put in my 72 hour kit. My wife has one like this in hers
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Now I'll have one in mine and each of us could fit at least one of us in one of our kids
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But before packing that up into a 72 hour kit, I wanted to make sure that it
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was fully prepared to be able to use even in not ideal conditions, which is
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fairly common during emergencies. So I picked up some of this seam grip from Gear Aid
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I was able to just go ahead and get it on Amazon. I'll put a link in the description. This stuff is the stuff, okay, for sealing the seams on your tent
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You see the material that a lot of really lightweight tents are made out of today is a ripstop nylon that's also been waterproofed
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However, everywhere where they sew, they've poked a whole bunch of little holes in it
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And so tents have a tendency to leak at the seams. The seam grip puts a nice, fairly thick rubberized coating over each one of those
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seams that helps with two things. First, it waterproofs it. But second, I found that it really strengthens those seams
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You see those seams where the fabric is sewn together also tends to be one of the weakest points in most things that are made out of fabric
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It doesn't take long. You just put a little bit of this, spread it out over the, over every
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one of the seams on the tent. One tube that's a one and a half ounces was able to do almost this whole tent
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I ended up needing to buy two bottles, which is okay because it's guaranteeing
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that first of all, I have this waterproofed tent, but also it allowed me to go a
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little bit further on either side of the seam than just right on the seam itself
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Could probably get by with just one tube if you decided to use it a little more sparingly
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After letting that seam grip dry really well, I also recommend using a little bit
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of Scotchgard or other similar product. What that's going to do is also put a nice thin waterproof coating over
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the top of the entire tent. This is something that I like to do on tents and outdoor furniture because it
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does help protect it a little bit better from UV light as well as from the weather. This is maybe a little bit less necessary in a tent that's already
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waterproof and that we're really only planning to use for emergencies, but it's
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a way to help ensure that your tent's going to be waterproof as well as that it's going to be protected and last longer
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Now, these are tips you can use on any tent. So if you're camping and stuff, also make sure that you do this with those tents
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In fact, it's going to be even more important that you take good care of your tents if they're ones that you use really regularly
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Now, in addition to spraying kind of a fine coating of the Scotchgard on it
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Scotchgard does recommend with this stuff that you also come back afterwards and
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mist it with a little bit of water. Something about that, I think helps to make that coating do whatever it's
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supposed to do, but then you just leave it out and let it dry. And once it's all good and dry, then you can go ahead and pack it up in your 72
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hour kit. And now it's ready for when an emergency or hopefully if an emergency actually happens
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Also, because I'm the kind of person that likes to test things, you can fully expect that I'll be breaking this tent out and actually using it, um, probably when
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there's some fairly severe weather at some point, just to make sure that this is actually not a really crummy tent
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That's just going to totally bomb if I get caught in any sort of real emergency
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where I actually need to use it. So fully expect that in the future too
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And if there's anything else you'd like me to test here on Pantry Preparedness, that's what I'm all about
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Let me know in the comments below