need help repairing a tent zipper

[shortbun]

my huge tent has a huge u shaped zipper at the front door
and it's off track; it pulls apart. Has anyone had success
repairing rather than replacing something like this. We really
want to do more camping this summer and the repair company
says 3 weeks minimum to replace it. sigh
If anywhere there is a solution-it's the DIS.
thanks!
mimi

 

[chell]

Sorry that I can't help you. I'm bumping this back up to the top of the page so someone else can though.

 

[jfulcer]

As the company if you can pay extra for fast service. A lot of places can do rush orders but at a premium price. It never hurts to ask...

 

[DISshopkeeper]

Hi Shortbun!

I have never had any luck repairing zippers. And I'm surprised you found someone who said they'd repair it. I have friends who have a great old coleman canvas tent that needs a repair and they can't find anyone to do it. Lots of awning makers have given up repairing canvas tents because of the dust that gets into their machines.

Is your tent canvas or nylon?

Have you priced tents lately? It may be cheaper to replace it.

 

[poohandwendy]

In my experience, once a zipper starts jumping track, it cannot be repaired. Usually, somewhere, the fabric holding the teeth has become stretched and the teeth aren't fully grasping each other when zipped. If that is the case, replacing the entire zipper would be the only real solution unless the 'bad area' is at the very beginning of the track. If you look closely you will find where a few teeth are bunched together or spread too far apart, this is usually the part causing the problem. If that is the case, you can remove some of the teeth (on both sides of the track), restart the zipper to close it, stitch the useless part closed and then the zipper can be pulled from that 'new' starting point. But, like I said, this will only work well if the problem is at the very start of the zipper, not in the middle. Did that make any sense, LOL?

If you can zip it together, temporarily, test each area of the zipper by trying to pull apart the closed zipper by grasping both sides (starting close to the beginning of the track)...where it can easily be pulled apart, or where you can see the teeth not holding each other tight is the problem.