Tent Failure Tales

[insanelupus]

I've pestered mtwarden for a few years, picking his brain on tents. I'm a keep it simple stupid (KISS) fella that tends to lean toward all things in moderation, best value, just have 1 do all gear kind of guy. Yup pack is a little heavier, but I know my gear, it's as close to bomb proof as I usually, within reason, for the money. And my kit rarely changes.

I'm buying a tent soon. I have severalthree models in mind, but as we pack our fears, we can also lean worse case scenario more than we should.

So, while I can imagine all manner of tent failure, common sense says, "But where have tents ACTUALLY failed in the field and why? "


If you've had a tent failure, please describe the tent, the failure point, vague location (mountains, tundra, timber, plains, etc), and environmental conditions that brought on the failure.

I'd also be curious as to your field repairs, remedies, or solutions.

Thank you!

 

[adamm88]

Not backpacking but just car camping, My kelty i had a pole snap in the male to female connection on the male part. Not Windy or any bad weather when it snaped, it snaped in the middle of the night.

Im finding out keltys "life time" warranty is crap, I have slept less than 10 nights in this tent.....

 

[Zdub02]

I've got 2 stories of failures, both truck camping at campsites. First one was with an old coleman 4 man tent that my granddad gave me. Parents and I were camping at a lake. We had a torrential downpour all night long. I was in a eureka timberline 2 man dry as a bone. My parents were in the coleman and woke up to standing water in the tent and were soaked. The remedy was to pack up and head home as they were not too happy.

Second failure was with a massive 8 man Walmart special tent. We were on a antelope hunt in the plains of Wyoming. High winds kicked up one night and shattered the pole thus collapsing the tent.

Moral of the story - don't use cheap, old tents. Also don't use large tents in high wind conditions. FYI I still use the eureka timberline mentioned above. It's old but still works great.

 

[5MilesBack]

It's been a few years, but had a centerpole snap on a Seek Outside tent, and the first time I used a Tarptent Rainshadow (IIRC) a couple tie down tabs pulled out of the stitching. That's about it.

 

[rayporter]

before morning this one was flat. we propped it up and went hunting. i think i had to buy a new pole. it was a 3 season with 3 fiberglass poles.

 

[svivian]

When I worked in the outdoor industry i was given some new camping equipment(sleeping bag and tent) to test from a popular brand that was looking to expand. Me and my two buddies took it on our high country archery mule deer hunt in september. We decided the best idea(really wasnt) was to camp at the highest possible peak in the area at almost 12,500 with absolutely no protection. The first night was wonderful and glassing out of the tent was awesome.

The next three evenings was not the case. A storm rolled in and we proceeded to get hit with rain, hail, sleet and snow. The fly of the tent failed in the middle of the second night and I got blasted by snow and sleet for hours. Surprisingly the sleeping bag was phenomenal and I stayed warm and dry inside. However each following day, it was my only option to dry out clothes so I went to bed wet each night. The second identical tent did survive but being only two man tents... left me the odd man out.

Young and dumb but damn was it fun.

 

[Decker9]

Twice, both msr hubba hubba’s.

First was my dad’s tent on a sheep hunt. One pole snapped while out for the day in a rain/wind storm, the broken pole shredded his rain fly. These were the old aluminum pole’s msr use to use. I suspect it had a crack but can’t be sure. No photos of the mess, just the tarp over the tent to keep the rain out.

Next was my tent, the fly went rotten I think. 5 years of heavy use, I think packing it up damp to many times while hiking/hunting may have been the cause. Once it started to tear, it didn’t want to stop.

 

[highcountrymuley]

Hub failed in high winds, heavy rain on a tall 6 P REI grand hut tent. It twisted the Hub assembly where the poles intersect. Car camping so not that big of a deal though tent was pretty wet inside. Tent pole technologies fixes these poles and things. Pretty great tent other than that, though too heavy for anything but car camping.

 

[mtwarden]

I’ve seen two different carbon poles snap. For a “summer” shelter I think they’re fine; outside of “summer” I prefer the security of aluminum—with the weight penalty.

 

[TaperPin]

Wind and forgetting or losing poles are by far the biggest tent failures I’ve seen. Some guys just love to separate poles from the fabric to make packing it easier, but I’ve seen it fail multiple times, even when a checklist is use, so I always pack them together no matter what. In some open windy areas if you don’t have good tent stakes you can’t use some prime locations, so I also don’t separate them from the tent.

Wind is the biggest tent killer by far. Any tent should shed wind and have plenty of attachments for tie down cord and more cord than you normally need. Tall skinny tents, or those without a fly that slopes gradually to the ground are asking for trouble. Ultra light weight is awesome for good weather, but when it’s being beaten up a little extra weight for stronger fabric and poles is nice to have.

 

[S.Clancy]

Several.

We used to pack in a camp with horses. Coming in late (like 10-11pm) to a camp we hadn't seen all week, our Cabela's Alaknak was completely buried in snow. We shoveled the snow off, taped the fabric where the center poles tore thru, and got the stove fixed up. Fired her up and ran the stove hot. We basically slept in a sauna that night, but everything dried out. This happened several times with that tent.

Older Marmot tent, 18" of snow, woke up sucking in tent fabric. None of the poles broke, but they bent pretty good. My buddy was using my Big Agnes Seedhouse 2 tent, he was fine.

Seek outside cimarron, multiple places, multiple times. High winds, came back once to see the tent violently flapping and my gear getting sucked out. Another time in Alaska, had multiple tie out pts tear on a dyneema cimarron in high winds on a ridge, blew shit everywhere. Luckily, I was inside when it happened so was able to collect almost everything. In WY had the Cimarron blow apart around us in the middle of the night, somehow I grabbed it before it flew off the MTN.

 

[AK Troutbum]

Not really a "failure" per se, but spent a night on Kodiak with my Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2 pushed down on top of me from very heavy winds. In the end, the only damage to the tent was that, one of the guy out points ripped loose.

 

[Paladin]

This was New Mexico first week of archery. Pretty heavy wet snow and it collapsed my BA Tensleep 6 which, in all fairness, is a 3- not a 3+ season tent, so my own fault. The Slumberjack Roadhouse tarp held up well and I finished out the hunt sleeping in back of the truck.

 

[KHntr]

MSR Hubba Hubba, aluminum pole version. Really heavy winds and rain one night had the tent squashing down flat on me. It would bounce back up, but rain was either coming in from underneath or coming through the fly so it wasn’t great having cold wet nylon plastered over my face every minute.

Certainly made me understand why water boarding is so effective….

 

[Dennis]

During a Mid-September Colorado bow hunt we had a tent failure. We had packed in eight miles and camped at timberline. Three of us were sharing a Cabela's Alaskan dome tent with a vestibule. One night it snowed with a heavy wet snow. The snow collapsed the tent and torn the vestibule off during the middle of the night leaving us with a flat tent. Cabela's replaced the tent. I now use Hilleberg tents for such hunts.

 

[S-3 ranch]

I had the fiberglass poles break on a base camp tent
Same tent got sun rot and ripped during a storm