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My 1998 MSR tent fly finally gave up, but the numbers shocked me
I dug out my old receipt stash last month and found the original purchase date for my MSR tent, July 1998 at a shop in Bozeman. The fly had this sticky, degraded coating that I thought was just age, but then I read a forum post that said most tent flies only last about 10 years of regular use. I've camped with this thing at least 40 nights a year for over two decades, so I figured I was lucky to get 26 years out of it. It made me wonder if the newer lightweight fabrics are actually tougher or if companies just want you to replace gear more often. Has anyone else kept a tent running way past what the specs suggest?
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stella221mo ago
That sticky coating thing happened to my old tent too, but it was a cheap Coleman from the 90s and the fly basically turned into a giant piece of tape. I remember pulling it apart from itself one morning and just staring at it, like, welp. Ended up using the poles to make a greenhouse cover for my tomatoes for like three summers after that. But yeah, 26 years of 40 nights a year is wild, I bet a lot of that fabric is just made different now, even if the weights are lighter.
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