Just got a new camper

[KeithB]

Just bought a Chinese built-locally assembled Ezytrail hard floor camper. I'm building my own super-duper number (See World's Slowest Build) and I bought this intending to resell it when the super duper camper is finally finished.

Anyhow, it's not too bad overall considering the cost, but I have one query regarding the canvas, which is not as heavy as the canvas on most local campers.

I have opened it up and am hosing it down every day so that the stitching can get conditioned to water and hopefully not leak. My question is this:

Would you normally expect the canvas to either shrink or stretch as time goes on?

Just curious.

Keith.

[evans52]

My understanding is the wetting and drying is meant to shrink the canvas to shrink it - ever so minutely though. As piece of mind for you, I "seasoned" our canvas on our Ezytrail thoroughly (2 x daily for a week in Summer) and no problems. Only leak we've had was when water pooled in the corner on New Years day this after rain all day. Only ended up with about a cup of water and that came through the zipper.

[KeithB]

Thanks heaps for that.
I have been doing that with mine over the past week - wetting it down and letting it dry. The reason that i asked the  question is that I expected the canvass to be all tight and wrinkle free, like you get with a regular tent.
But it all looks a bit wrinkled, not unlike my goodself.
Keith

[grafy82]

I'm pretty sure that the seasoning idea is more to shrink the stitching holes down after the sewing process. The stitching is usually where the water will leak in first. If the canvas is not sitting taught, id say that's the way it will stay as the chinese canvas rarley sits as neatly as the aussie made stuff. I have to run spreader bars when it rains on my tent top to stop the water pooling due to the canvas not being taught, whereas I've seen quite a few aussie ones that are nice and tight so the water can't sag them down and pool up on them. Not a huge issue except for if the water stays pooled for too long, it will start to weep through the canvas.

[Ratbag]

Gidday Grafy and Keith

This is my understanding as well, Grafy.

I was speaking to one of the design blokes at Oztrail in Brisbane when I was contemplating picking up and fitting one of their tents to my trailer in Sydney on the way through to Brisbane; or just picking it up from Sydney and fitting it there, then driving back to Melbourne. Bloody glad that I didn't do either, but that's another story! I had North Parramatta Kangaroo Tent City ship it down to me (about $260).

The chap in Brissy said that it wouldn't really matter if the tent were seasoned or not, as their's are usually waterproof around the stitching even straight from the factory. He also informed me that seasoning was a good idea, just in case. He told me that it causes the canvas around the needle holes to swell slightly, resuming its previous shape, and also causes the thread to swell slightly, further filling the inevitable gaps. He added that even a light dew was sufficient to achieve this, and that there was no need to hose the heck out of the tent. A light hose down with a fine spray was perfectly adequate, maybe repeated once or twice over the course of a day.
He stressed ensuring that the tent was absolutely dry before packing it away.

I might put up my Crusader tent today and see if it leaks at all. It hasn't been erected for about 10-13 years, so should be pretty dry ... .

Keith, do keep in mind that other makers may use different needles and threads. I can see that a very cost conscious maker might use a bigger needle than absolutely necessary to cut down the cost and downtime associated with broken needles. This would cause bigger holes, so seasoning may be more necessary in such a case.

Grafy, the OzTrail Camper 6 appears to be quite taut, and well fitting. The design and adjustable internal frame/s help with this. I don't know if all these kinds of tents come with these? One can buy spreaders for the annexe, and I will pick up a couple of these from OzTrail when I (finally) get to Brisbane sometime in November this year.