First Time Tent Camping, Very Nervous about Waterproofing

[Madonna3]

We purchased an Ozark Trail, 3 room, 12 person cabin tent. The seams were all factory sealed with some type of tape. The tent is labeled as being water resistant. A note from the manufacturer said the tent shouldn't need to be waterproofed, but it couldn't hurt. I didn't care, I covered the whole thing including the rain fly and the windows in some waterproof spray made for tents by Scotch. It was about $4 a can from Walmart and it took about 6-7 cans to do the job. We also ran seam sealer around any seams that didn't have the tape, including where the bottom of the tent and the tent walls meet. I can't think of anywhere else I need to waterproof.

Someone told me not to let anything inside the tent touch the walls because of wicking of the water into the tent. Is this true?

We purchased tarps to go below the tent floor even though the tent floor itself is a tarp like material. I did not get one to go over the tent cause I thought this would look ridiculous and not allow us access to the site because of this giant freaking tarp over the entire camp site.

Am I being too worried? Do tents usually stand up to rain without a problem? Can stuff touch the walls? Please, please help my mind rest or tell me how to keep myself dry.

 

[tiggerdad]

I would think that since you covered it in sealant you should be OK without the tarp over the tent. I use a 4 man tent when I tent camp and I am able to put up a 10x10 canopy over it. Your tent sounds a little bit bigger than mine however...

I always put a tarp under my tent no matter where I go and stay.

 

[Madonna3]

Yes, it's a 16 x 16 tent, so I'd have to get a massive tarp.

What about water coming through the tent if something is touching the wall, is that true?

 

[tina.tina]

I almost bought that tent this summer and may still buy it. If I am not mistaken, that tent has two ports for air conditioners, doesn't it? I hope you have time to do a trip report.

In my limited experience, anything touching the walls of a tent causes a wicking action and can cause water to come into the tent.

A regular tent camper on the disboards suggests putting a tarp on the inside of the tent floor. Just in case water comes inside somehow, it will go under the tarp and your stuff will stay dry.

Don't forget that the tarp under the tent needs NOT to exceed the edges of your tent and should be folded underneath itself if you need to fold it so that water runs off instead of being trapped between the tent & tarp.

My camping will be a kind of glamping. We plan to take an ez up canopy with screen walls in addition to our mega tent, along with DD's mini fridge, a camp stove, and a camp sink.

Good luck & have fun!

 

[chartle]

Yes, it's a 16 x 16 tent, so I'd have to get a massive tarp.

What about water coming through the tent if something is touching the wall, is that true?

If the tent is properly designed it shouldn't need an extra tarp. We used to camp with a group of other families and someone decided to "waterproof" their entire campsite with two of the largest blue traps I have ever seen. One as a floor and one as a roof. The roof was held up with a few pvc pipes as poles. Didn't work well in the rain, both collected water like a swimming pool. The roof much scarier than the floor.

They could have used the money to buy a better tent.

As for touching The sides of tent, um I was told the same growing up camping in a canvas tent. Not so sure with nylon but still don't do it.

 

[Madonna3]

I almost bought that tent this summer and may still buy it. If I am not mistaken, that tent has two ports for air conditioners, doesn't it? I hope you have time to do a trip report.

In my limited experience, anything touching the walls of a tent causes a wicking action and can cause water to come into the tent.

A regular tent camper on the disboards suggests putting a tarp on the inside of the tent floor. Just in case water comes inside somehow, it will go under the tarp and your stuff will stay dry.

Don't forget that the tarp under the tent needs NOT to exceed the edges of your tent and should be folded underneath itself if you need to fold it so that water runs off instead of being trapped between the tent & tarp.

My camping will be a kind of glamping. We plan to take an ez up canopy with screen walls in addition to our mega tent, along with DD's mini fridge, a camp stove, and a camp sink.

Good luck & have fun!

Yes, you are talking about the tent we purchased. We bought one AC unit and a fan for the other side to blow the cold air around. We thought two AC units was a bit overkill.

We bought 2 tarps since the tent is an "L" shape to make sure that they don't exceed the size of the tent.

We also are bringing an EZ up canopy. We bought a 4 day cooler instead of the fridge, are using the grill to cook on, and brought a bucket for a sink.

I'm hoping to actually complete a trip report. This will be my first try.

If the tent is properly designed it shouldn't need an extra tarp. We used to camp with a group of other families and someone decided to "waterproof" their entire campsite with two of the largest blue traps I have ever seen. One as a floor and one as a roof. The roof was held up with a few pvc pipes as poles. Didn't work well in the rain, both collected water like a swimming pool. The roof much scarier than the floor.

There could have used the money to buy a better tent.

As for touching The sides of tent, um I was told the same growing up camping in a canvas tent. Not so sure with nylon but still don't do it.

Thank you. Eureka says differently, but I was hoping someone who has experienced it would know for sure. It says: Nylon, unlike canvas, will not leak if touched while it's raining. Polyurethane coatings on nylon tents prevent water from passing through. Capillary action in canvas tents allows water to enter when touched. I guess I will just play it safe. I was hoping I could put pool noodles down between the wall and the bedding to keep the bedding from accidentally leaning against the wall and that the pool noodle would prevent the walls from touching anything when the wind kicked up.

 

[Teamubr]

I grew up tent camping and back packing. I've stayed hundreds of nights in canvas and nylon tents. Sealing the seams is the only thing I have ever done and mostly stayed dry. Old canvas will get little holes that like to drip.

I had always heard the thing about something touching the wall too, but my experience has been it doesn't matter. I've had my sleeping back, backpack, pillow and many other things pushed seriously against the side and nothing. The only time I had problems with water inside from something touching was in cooler weather and it was dew completely covering the inside of the tent. One rainy weekend in 40-50 degrees I woke up and there were little droplets completely covering the inside of the tent. At WDW, you'll be fine with your new tent.

j

 

[JETS70]

]Tiggerdad and I are on the same page with this one. I would use a tarp under the tent just as a measure of protection from any objects or the abrasives material Disney uses for their campsites. The canopy is a good idea as it minimizes the amount of weather that makes it to the surface of the tent. We used this setup during our June trip to the Fort.
Here are a couple of pics

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[Madonna3]

First of all, my husband says points for ingenuity. We love your homemade camper there. It's cute and we'd like to see the inside.

Your idea of the gazebo over the tent is great. However, our tent is 16x16 and L shaped. It won't fit under the canopy. We were going to put the canopy over the picnic table to give us some place else to sit that has shade. However, I like your idea of using one in front of the tent as a screen house.

This is our first attempt at this. I'm hoping we've come up with enough ideas to keep us comfortable, but find inspiration for future trips. We didn't want to go overboard with buying supplies just in case we didn't like it. However, if we find we do like it, we'd be inclined to investing in a few more gazebos and sun walls.

 

[Sur]

If the tent is properly designed it shouldn't need an extra tarp. We used to camp with a group of other families and someone decided to "waterproof" their entire campsite with two of the largest blue traps I have ever seen. One as a floor and one as a roof. The roof was held up with a few pvc pipes as poles. Didn't work well in the rain, both collected water like a swimming pool. The roof much scarier than the floor. There could have used the money to buy a better tent. As for touching The sides of tent, um I was told the same growing up camping in a canvas tent. Not so sure with nylon but still don't do it.

omg you made me burst out laughing!

 

[PapaPiper]

Thank you. Eureka says differently, but I was hoping someone who has experienced it would know for sure. It says: Nylon, unlike canvas, will not leak if touched while it's raining. Polyurethane coatings on nylon tents prevent water from passing through. Capillary action in canvas tents allows water to enter when touched. I guess I will just play it safe. I was hoping I could put pool noodles down between the wall and the bedding to keep the bedding from accidentally leaning against the wall and that the pool noodle would prevent the walls from touching anything when the wind kicked up.

Eureka is correct and nylon won't wick moisture from the outside. But still don't have anything touching the inside walls of the tent. This is because some amount of condensation is going to build up on the inside of the tent walls from the people breathing inside the tent. You can minimize this with ample airflow, but it still happens. Anything touching the walls then allows that condensation to gather at that point and it can then travel to other places.

Enjoy!

 

[chartle]

... using the grill to cook on, and brought a bucket for a sink.

How much cooking are you planning on doing? If anything more than hot dogs and hamburgers, you should bring some sort of stove.

Since you have electricity at your site you could buy a single burner hot plate and an extension cord. Cooking anything that is not normally grilled over a charcoal fire is not going to be easy.

For washing dishes we use two dish pans, not quite so deep as a bucket. Also if you are not going to eat a lot of meals think about using paper plates and other disposable items. For silverware only give out what people need, we also share things like knives.

One last tip for now, think about what you plan to cook (making mac and cheese, how are you going to drain the noodles) and how hard it is to clean up. Many think pancakes are great for breakfast but not realize how hard it is to clean up without running water.

OK one more , for things like breakfast meats we get precooked sausage and bacon, particularly bacon. Nothing brings out the critters like bacon grease. We repackage the sausage into seal a meal bags, one bag per day.

 

[mkoerner]

We tent camped for years and never once had flooding or bad water issues throughout thunderstorms. As long as the tent is assembled correctly with the rain guard on top ,you should be fine. Make sure to close the windows any time you leave the site and zip everything completely. Just in case

 

[Madonna3]

I grew up tent camping and back packing. I've stayed hundreds of nights in canvas and nylon tents. Sealing the seams is the only thing I have ever done and mostly stayed dry. Old canvas will get little holes that like to drip.

I had always heard the thing about something touching the wall too, but my experience has been it doesn't matter. I've had my sleeping back, backpack, pillow and many other things pushed seriously against the side and nothing. The only time I had problems with water inside from something touching was in cooler weather and it was dew completely covering the inside of the tent. One rainy weekend in 40-50 degrees I woke up and there were little droplets completely covering the inside of the tent. At WDW, you'll be fine with your new tent.

j

Thank you!

Eureka is correct and nylon won't wick moisture from the outside. But still don't have anything touching the inside walls of the tent. This is because some amount of condensation is going to build up on the inside of the tent walls from the people breathing inside the tent. You can minimize this with ample airflow, but it still happens. Anything touching the walls then allows that condensation to gather at that point and it can then travel to other places.

Enjoy!

Ok, I'll keep that in mind. We were figuring condensation may not be an issue because we have an AC unit running with a built in dehumidifier so we may be able to keep the inside air dry, but I will definitely watch.

How much cooking are you planning on doing? If anything more than hot dogs and hamburgers, you should bring some sort of stove.

Since you have electricity at your site you could buy a single burner hot plate and an extension cord. Cooking anything that is not normally grilled over a charcoal fire is not going to be easy.

For washing dishes we use two dish pans, not quite so deep as a bucket. Also if you are not going to eat a lot of meals think about using paper plates and other disposable items. For silverware only give out what people need, we also share things like knives.

One last tip for now, think about what you plan to cook (making mac and cheese, how are you going to drain the noodles) and how hard it is to clean up. Many think pancakes are great for breakfast but not realize how hard it is to clean up without running water.

OK one more , for things like breakfast meats we get precooked sausage and bacon, particularly bacon. Nothing brings out the critters like bacon grease. We repackage the sausage into seal a meal bags, one bag per day.

We have running water at the site. I am NOT cooking anything breakfast related. It's cheap enough to book it on over to Trails End. I am only cooking foods we can grill and using things like foil pouches. I only have to cook 4 lunch and 4 dinner type items. We'll be cooking steaks, burgers, chicken, and salmon prepared in a pouch. I brought cast iron pans to handle things like veggies. Thank you for your expertise.

We tent camped for years and never once had flooding or bad water issues throughout thunderstorms. As long as the tent is assembled correctly with the rain guard on top ,you should be fine. Make sure to close the windows any time you leave the site and zip everything completely. Just in case

Thank you. I'm feeling much better about all of this.

I had a very bad experience a few years back when camping with our son for the boy scouts. Hubby wasn't with me, I was with friends and a storm came through and ripped the rain fly because it was not secured properly and the tent flooded. We were far from any facilities. These people would not let me use their vehicle to go to a laundry mat and dry everything out. They insisted that I stay and "rough it" like real campers. Well, I'm not a real camper and it was February with temps dipping into the 20's. You can't keep warm if you're wet. Everything was wet. The bed, our clothes, everything. As a mother, you try to protect your children. My son is very small and I was trying to use my body to keep him warm, but we shivered through out the night. I promised him and myself we'd never go through that again.

Now, I know that camping in August we're not going to shiver, but the psychological damage has been done and it has taken my husband years to get me to get back out there and try again. However, he's Canadian and has dealt with fair weather camping and not the monsoon thunderstorms in Florida.

 

[Teamubr]

I had a very bad experience a few years back when camping with our son for the boy scouts.

Wow! I am an Eagle Scout and we always taught to use the resources available to resolve a situation. If you had a car and laundromat, USE IT!

The "tough it out" comment was ridiculous. I may have had to take a bucket of water and dumped it on their sleeping bags. Then we'd see who was going to "tough it out". (Probably would have violated a Scout law, but it would have made a point.)

j

 

[chartle]

We have running water at the site. I am NOT cooking anything breakfast related. It's cheap enough to book it on over to Trails End. I am only cooking foods we can grill and using things like foil pouches. I only have to cook 4 lunch and 4 dinner type items. We'll be cooking steaks, burgers, chicken, and salmon prepared in a pouch. I brought cast iron pans to handle things like veggies. Thank you for your expertise.

Just be very very careful with all that raw meat. I would seal a meal it all into meal size pouches. You don't want it bleeding all over everything in the cooler (yes I have seen this). Don't even rely on zip lock bags, even the good ones.

But again look at the food and think of everything you need to prepare it. We for years didn't have a real kitchen type knife and used a blade on my pocket knife. Do you need a can opener or even worse a cork screw?

Also anything you can freeze helps in keeping it and everything else fresh.

And yea you have running water at your site but its not hot water, and not sure where you are supposed to put your grey water. I think you can wash dishes at the comfort stations.

 

[chartle]

I also wanted to relate a story of unprepared newbies that once camped next to us.

Its was 22 years ago and a family was camping next to us with 2 girls maybe 8 and 6.

It appeared that all they had was:

• a small "4 person" tent
• sleeping bags
• a cooler of not very friendly camping food
• an axe
• a cast iron skillet
• a pancake turner
• firewood

Well one rainy morning we see the dad come out of this tiny tent with an axe and start to split wood to make a fire so they can make pancakes. After he got the fire going he went back in and then tried to make those pancakes while he and his family stayed in the tent. Not sure exactly what transpired but eventually we let them come over to our site with our 12' dining canopy and let them use our propane stove.

oh we also had a 9 month old.

 

[Madonna3]

Wow! I am an Eagle Scout and we always taught to use the resources available to resolve a situation. If you had a car and laundromat, USE IT!

The "tough it out" comment was ridiculous. I may have had to take a bucket of water and dumped it on their sleeping bags. Then we'd see who was going to "tough it out". (Probably would have violated a Scout law, but it would have made a point.)

j

It was their tent as we were sharing it with them so they also were a bit wet, but our room suffered the brunt of it. If I had some way to get out of there, things would have gone much differently. However, I will never go someplace again without my car. I was going to follow them to the camp site with my car so that I had it and it was insisted that my car wouldn't make it because of the rough terrain, there was no where to park, etc. and that was all completely untrue. If I had my car, I would have left them to "rough it" in their wet, broken tent.

Just be very very careful with all that raw meat. I would seal a meal it all into meal size pouches. You don't want it bleeding all over everything in the cooler (yes I have seen this). Don't even rely on zip lock bags, even the good ones.

But again look at the food and think of everything you need to prepare it. We for years didn't have a real kitchen type knife and used a blade on my pocket knife. Do you need a can opener or even worse a cork screw?

Also anything you can freeze helps in keeping it and everything else fresh.

And yea you have running water at your site but its not hot water, and not sure where you are supposed to put your grey water. I think you can wash dishes at the comfort stations.

We have the can opener and I was going to freeze everything before we left so it would stay cold. I don't need hot water as I can boil water and I was told that I could bring my dishwater in the bucket and dump the gray water there.

I wrote my recipes down on index cards and using your advice I made a shopping list for each recipe so that I could see exactly what I would need, including what I would need to prepare it such as a bowl, knife, and cutting board.

 

[chartle]

I don't need hot water as I can boil water

Good luck I have never boiled water on a grill with charcoal.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

. . . I covered the whole thing including the rain fly and the windows in some waterproof spray made for tents by Scotch . . .

1) This should do it.
2) If it doesn't, pretend you are camping at Niagara Falls.
3) SUCH A DEAL !
4) Being at The Fort and at The Falls on the same vacation !