Gear Care: Tips for Maintaining and Repairing Your Wall Tent for Longevity

Canvas tents are renowned for their strength, insulation, and design. A wall tent doubles as a 4 season tent. It can serve multiple purposes outside of camping as well. While wall tents are an impressive choice amongst canvas tents, they are not invincible.

To ensure your wall tent remains the most reliable thing in your camping gear, you must give it the care it requires.

Before Setting Up The Tent

The best site for pitching your tent would be a spot that isn’t at the very bottom of a slope. This way water won’t pool to the tent in case it rains. It has to have a topography with natural drainage leading away from the wall tent.

Glamping sites offer raised wooden platforms that protect the tent from touching the ground. You can build a basic platform for yourself as well. This will also serve as the floor of your tent.

The area must also receive adequate sunlight so that it can dry your tent before it breeds mold from the moisture. Make sure you pitch it in front of a natural windbreaker like a tree in case there are heavy winds. You don’t want the wind to sweep the tent and pluck it off its stakes by damaging the guylines.

Protection From UV Rays

Canvas tents don’t disintegrate the way plastic tents wear out under direct sunlight. That being said, prolonged exposure to sunlight can accelerate this process and shorten the life of your tent.

Before you think twice about camping in the summer, remember that there are convenient preventive measures to counter this. A tent fly is a camping accessory that is tethered on top of your tent as a protective layer.

Proper Care For The Tent Stove

Your wall tent will have a stove jack, that allows campers to fix their stove inside the tent. With a tent stove, you can cook indoors and keep the interior warm.
When installing the outdoor stove in your wall tent, remember to keep it a fair distance from the canvas fabric. Follow the safety guidelines when using the tent stove so that stray embers don’t burn holes in your tent.

Open All Zippers

When you are pitching the tent, make sure you loosen all the flaps and open the door zipper. This way when you cover the tent frame with the canvas it won’t snag or stress the canvas to make it fit. Why risk tearing the fabric before your camping trip has even begun? Simply place the loose canvas on top of the frame, then close the door zippers and viola! The tent will automatically take shape.

Keep An Eye On Your Tent

During your camping trip, you want to check your tent periodically for any rips or tears. If you find any you must fix them before the damage spreads. To avoid mold, clean sap, and bird droppings from your canvas as soon as you spot them.

Cleaning The Tent

Cleaning your wall tent doesn’t require extensive equipment and heavy-duty cleaning concoctions. Before anything, you must remove the accumulated dirt and dust on the canvas using a dry brush or broom.

Next, focus on the stains. Rub spots with soap and rinse with warm water. If you feel your tent needs a deep cleaning, use a hose to completely dampen the canvas and then use a soap brush to scrub the surface. Hose it down to rinse out the soapy water and the dirt. Don’t forget to dry the canvas before packing it until the next camping adventure.

Storage Care 

Canvas for tents is made from Army Duck which is manufactured from a blend of materials including cotton, which is organic. At the end of your camping trip, lay out the canvas to dry so that it doesn’t catch mold and mildew. When packing it into a bag, Instead of folding the canvas try rolling it so that you are not creating any hard creases on the fabric.

How To Repair A Wall Tent

If your wall tent sustains a tear in the canvas or damage to the frame, you can fix it yourself without having to replace the entire tent kit. Mending broken parts is essential to learning camping gear care.

Patching Tears In The Canvas

Begin by cleaning the area around the tear. This is so that any sap or debris doesn’t get in the way of your repair job. You can use rubbing alcohol for this. Let it dry for a couple of minutes.

Sew the patch so that the cut fabric is taught and recovers its original shape. Measure the length of the tear and then add an inch on all sides. Cut the tent repair tape to these measurements. Remember to round off corners so it is difficult to pick the patch from the corners. Press this patch on the tear. If it is a large tear, cut two identical patches and place the second one on the inside of the canvas.

If you are fixing the tent at home, make sure you give a day for the adhesive on the patch to cure, before you apply sealant and pack the canvas into storage.

Wall tents have mesh lining in entryways. If your tent sustains a hole in the mesh fabric, investing in quality mesh tape to create a patch would be a great idea. A normal patch repair will also do the trick, but a mesh tape will look more refined and cleaner.

Fixing A Broken Pole

The best thing to fix a broken pole is to get a pole sleeve. These are repair sleeves that come in various sizes. You want one that is a few centimeters wider in diameter than your tent pole.

To use this, you have to first prep the broken pole. Sometimes, the pole is not broken all the way and just bent. Straighten the pole, and slide the sleeve over it. The next step is to tape the sleeve from both ends.

You can also fix the pole with a spare tent stake. This works better if the pole is not cut in half and only bent. Align the stake next to the bent area and tape it tightly to the pole.

Fixing A Stuck Zip

Your canvas tent zipper can get stuck with frequent use. This is an easy fix. If you are camping and you find the zipper won’t shut all the way through, use a candle stick and rub the wax on the zipper teeth. If you are at home, buy a zipper lube to fix this problem.

What Goes Into A Basic Repair Kit

Needles

Whether you are fixing tears with a patch or plain old stitches, you want a needle that is sturdy but also small. A smaller needle will make less prominent holes in the canvas, leaving less room and potential for fresh tears. Needle holes that are not visible are a neat way of giving the repaired area a polished look.

Thread

Buy cotton thread over synthetic thread. Cotton weaves swell and tighten when they come in contact with water. Therefore when you stitch a tear in the canvas with cotton the stitch will act as a sealing barrier in case it rains. Also, you want the thread to be the same standard as the canvas so that the repair job lasts as long as the tent does.

Tape Measure

You need a tape measure to measure the correct size of the patch for a tear. If you go by guesswork you may end up cutting a smaller patch and wasting fabric.

Glue or Repair Tape

You want heavy-duty canvas glue to be specific. Canvas glue can be paired with the sewn patch to make it extra durable. You can spend your camping trip without worrying about the patch coming apart.

A repair tape is an adhesive sheet that you can cut and shape into the patch of your liking. Read reviews on this camping gear before picking a brand.

Pole Sleeves

Pole repair sleeves aka pole splints are tubes that are made to fit over your tent pole with very little space to bridge or straighten the damaged area.

Sealant

Fabric glue is not the same as a sealant. To finish the repair job, cover the area with a waterproof sealant.

With a good repair kit, you can fix damage to your canvas tent while you are camping. Don’t leave the slightest tear or hole in the canvas untreated.

Wall tent maintenance helps you avoid any hiccups during your camping trip. It also extends the life of your wall tent, making that initial purchase worth it.