Tent Repairs

I was hoping that someone with a little experience could offer some advice regarding tent repairs.

One of my father’s colleagues gave me Mountain Equipment Torres 3XT.  Three of the toggles that attach the inner to the fly had detached from the fly sheet.

He had sent the tent to Scottish Mountain for repair but they refused to complete the work explaining that the fly sheet was waterproof.

I have had the tent pitched for a few days in heavy rain and it does not seem too bad; nothing that a coat of Fabsil could not cure!  But is there a point it is not worth doing?

I am not sure what do as it has already been to a professional and they did not want to complete the work.  I really do not want to start to throwing money at it if unsalvageable but it is a pretty decent tent and I could really use it.

Any advice would be of great help!

Sorry, Tris, don't understand. Why did Scottish Mountain refuse to do the job?

Sounds strange to me?? I put a hole in the fly of a lightwave tent a couple of years ago and set it to them and they made a superb repair. If it's a toggle then surely it will be on the stiched seam?

Kate, Baaame

My father'scolegue picked the tent up at the OSC sale for £20.  He then sent it off for repair. He passed it to me when SM refused.

Looking at the tent I can see that the reapir will reqire the re-stitching of the three toggles and the re-taping of two seems.  I do not understand why they would not repair it. 

They said that they would not complete the repair as the fly was not waterproof.

It seems strange to me too.

It seems that the Torres has had quite a checkered past and I wondered if you could reply on the rest of the tent to hold up.

Tris Douglas wrote (see)

They said that they would not complete the repair as the fly was not waterproof.

Ah, ok, that's not what you said in your first post!

Presumably Scottish Mountain regard the repair as not economically viable?

If they don't want to do it (though it seems a bit odd, they could just do it and charge you over the odds, but perhaps they're not actively looking for small jobs at the moment), a quick google brings up a number of other UK companies that do tent repairs. No idea about any of them though.

Personally, I'd contact Mrs Nesbit of this Forum, who is Oookworks; he does tent repairs too.

Probably a mixture of not economic tied in with professional reputation - easiest way to get bad rep is to shaft a customer.  The origional toggles were bonded (not stiched) to the outer, so I would be tempted to get the glue out and have a go myself.  Worst that can happen is you mess up an already messed up tent best is, for pennies, tent sorted. 

I'd go back and ask for the quote from them. Then you can make an informed decision on whether you actually want to pay the money. They don't know it was bought for £20 so I'd assume they think the tent is a write off like with I guess a car crash?? Depends how much you wanna spend? Tents are not cheap, plus, how much life is actually left in it? Is it really worth investing more cash into it?

just DIY. The toggles can be done by needle and thread by hand. The tape can be applied with an iron. Stuff you need like tape (only for PU coated tents) you can find on www.extremtextile.de

Thanks for all of the input. I think I might get a couple of quotes and balance it against a DIY job.

At worst I’ll have a go myself and it can be a camping tent for the kids.

You could try LSR www.lancashiresportsrepairs.co.uk. have used them in the past and would recommend them without hesitation. Tents or waterproof in fact anythink that requires stitching from what i can see. Shortened my new ,M,E Karakorum trousers and i cannot fault them.

The Mountain Equipment Torres had lots of problems when it was launched and got bad reputation as a result which Im pretty sure eventually led to ME stopping making it. THe failure of the suspension points was one of the known flaws,besdies the tent being difficult to pitch keeping inner and outer seperate and some hints re waterproofing weakness in the groundsheet.

http://www.outdoorsmagic.com/gear-news/mountain-equipment-torres-2---me-comments/3481.html

See ME response to OM review of the tent and problems. SMG might well be taking the view that the tent is basically flawed thus they cant attempt to repair as you might always be bringing it back.

I think I am going to patch it up as best I can and see how many summers mytwo boys can get out of it.  

At least it beats carrying their Vango delta 300!!!