Sticky sil

Graham

Graham

Thru Hiker
Doing a bit of gear admin last night. Took my silnylon Grace Solo tarp from its stuff sack and found that the silnylon had stuck together in lots of places - a bit like you get occasionally with a PU coating. I've never had this before with silnylon.

I thought it might have been the seam-sealed areas but it was the main tarp material, the seams were fine. In the sack was also my little MYOG beak that I'd made with sil from another source this had also been stuffed (rather than folded/rolled) but it wasn't sticky at all.

Has anyone seen this before with silnylon in general or MLD sil in particular?
 
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craige

craige

Thru Hiker
What mole said... I've had some (what I think must have been) tree sap on my diy hammock tarp before and it was over a decent area and stuck pretty well. Peeled it off and gave it a good rub with a fairy liquid/alcohol hand gel mix and it was fine after that.
 
Graham

Graham

Thru Hiker
Lady Grey said:
Poor Grace....:cry:
:oops:
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I know, it's upsetting having a sticky tarp...
Mole said:
Never with sil, only PU.
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Exactly. It's the same symptom as with PU, sections have to be carefully peeled apart. It's been in the stuff sack for about a month untouched. I expect sil impregnated material to be pretty inert to temperature etc. Excess silicone possibly?

Mole said:
Not had a spillage?
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No, the tarp is clean. My own seam sealing was done a few months back and was completely dry/cured for 24+ hours before packing the tarp away. When I last used it the tarp wasn't sticky.

craige said:
What mole said... I've had some (what I think must have been) tree sap on my diy hammock tarp before and it was over a decent area and stuck pretty well. Peeled it off and gave it a good rub with a fairy liquid/alcohol hand gel mix and it was fine after that.
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Good suggestion but I've not used it under any tree cover and it's not touched the ground as I normally stuff my gear.

Cheers All - it's really odd. I store it in the same place as my other silnylon gear (TrailStar, MLD inner, bivy bags etc.) and they're unaffected so it's not like an environmental thing; temperature, humidity etc.

I've now folded and rolled the tarp. Just to be sure, I might set it up and give it a hose down.
 
Teepee

Teepee

Thru Hiker
Doing a bit of reading on this because it has confused me (never seen sil go sticky without a spillage), it turns out MLD use a sil/PU blend of some sort.

That's solved that one;it's undoubtedly the PU component causing the issue.
 
Graham

Graham

Thru Hiker
Aha....cheers Pete!! Where did you find that information, I looked on the MLD Fabric Mojo page and it only mentions sil? Moreover the fabric looks consistent both sides, curious.

Now, I'm wondering why my other MLD kit isn't affected the same way, I've got MLD sil on an inner floor and my TrailStar has never done the same thing.
 
Teepee

Teepee

Thru Hiker
PU isn't mentioned on current MLD site as far as I can see, it was from an older spec posted up BPL. You are not alone either, read some reports of others with a sticky Grace.


Snipped from BPL;

"This from the MLD Fabric Mojo page:

Pro Silnylon(�)
MLD Pro Silnylon 2015 30d X 30d High Tenacity Type 6-6 RipStop Nylon coated with a Silicone-PU blend."
 
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Graham

Graham

Thru Hiker
I'll drop a line to Ron Bell and ask him to confirm and get his thoughts on storage. Will post up here.

When I've had this before it's been due to (inner) sections of a flysheet being compressed together for a length of time. So, I will probably have to lightly fold/roll the tarp for storage and not cram it inside its stuff sack like it has been!! It's already stored in a cool/dry place. The Grace stuff sack is quite small whereas the TS sack is oversized - if they're made from the same spec material, that's the only variable I can see.
 
Graham

Graham

Thru Hiker
Very quick response from Ron Bell. RB confirms: "older tarps did have some PU in the mix but the new stuff is a lot closer to all Sil". Mine is in the grey Sil and was purchased in March 2016, so maybe was built using older material stock with PU in the mix?

Got the anticipated reassurance from RB that if it ever needs replacing they'll sort it - MLD are great to deal with in my experience :thumbsup:

I'll not get worked up about this and will just store it more carefully - one of my MSR flysheets pretty much bonded together in places.

Grace may be sticky but is still SO pretty...

20160515_074025mod.jpg
 
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Shewie

Shewie

Chief Slackpacker
Staff member
Is that the Duo Graham?

I've had the cuben version for a couple of years but never used it, I should try and use it this year before the weather turns

(forget that, just read the OP again)
 
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