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  1. #1
    Registered User kestral's Avatar
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    Default Biggest gear fail

    My worst gear fail was my own damn fault ( like so many thing tend to be on closer inspection).

    Got a great deal on a small tent from a neighborhood yard sale. Light weight, 2 walled, airy, great for me and the pup at an incredible price. Set it up easy peasy, no missing pieces, even had a foot print all for about $10. Too good to be true you cynics ask? This was a neighbor who's son had moved across country who had abandoned a bunch of stuff and didn't want it shipped. She wanted her garage back. I even offered to pay more since I really didn't want to take advantage of a neighbor.

    first night on my trip it poured and I realized that the tent was demylenated. Yup- stored wrong and the thing was as water proof as a cotton t shirt! Fortunately I was able to hike back to car and snag my usual heavier but waterproof tent and make up the time. After cursing my damn neighbor for 1/2 a night and a morning I realized she had no idea the tent was damaged and I had to find a mirror to blame that idiot. That tent has since spent happy years as a kids fair weather play tent- well worth the $10.

  2. #2

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    What brand is it?

    Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

  3. #3
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    Default Biggest gear fail

    Osprey Hydration Pac. Out for a week section hiking, darn thing leaked all over my dry clothes and I couldn't fill all the way during the whole trip.... I had it just over a year, therefore could not return to my local REI. No more hydration bladders for me!

  4. #4
    Registered User kestral's Avatar
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by fastfoxengineering View Post
    What brand is it?

    Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk
    The tent was an old msr hubba Hubba Nice tents that I have used before, just somebody stored this wet in a warm dark place. As I understand it, a mold can grow which destroys the waterproofing attached to the nylon. Need to air out your tents before long storage. This one had been in a humid (Florida) garage for about 4 years. Msr makes a great tent, any brand will fail if not cared for properly.

  5. #5
    Registered User kestral's Avatar
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    Default

    [QUOTE=kestral;2141280. the tent was demylenated

    Meant to say delaminated. Doh!

  6. #6
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    [QUOTE=kestral;2141461][QUOTE=kestral;2141280. the tent was demylenated

    Meant to say delaminated. Doh![/QUOTE]

    Demylenated will make for shot nerves.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  7. #7

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by kestral View Post
    My worst gear fail was my own damn fault ( like so many thing tend to be on closer inspection).

    Got a great deal on a small tent from a neighborhood yard sale. Light weight, 2 walled, airy, great for me and the pup at an incredible price. Set it up easy peasy, no missing pieces, even had a foot print all for about $10. Too good to be true you cynics ask? This was a neighbor who's son had moved across country who had abandoned a bunch of stuff and didn't want it shipped. She wanted her garage back. I even offered to pay more since I really didn't want to take advantage of a neighbor.

    first night on my trip it poured and I realized that the tent was demylenated. Yup- stored wrong and the thing was as water proof as a cotton t shirt! Fortunately I was able to hike back to car and snag my usual heavier but waterproof tent and make up the time. After cursing my damn neighbor for 1/2 a night and a morning I realized she had no idea the tent was damaged and I had to find a mirror to blame that idiot. That tent has since spent happy years as a kids fair weather play tent- well worth the $10.
    My own fault too. Your neighbor must have bought my GF's tent. Relied on a college GF's tent on a Del Water Gap camp, short hike, and boat fishing trip. First it had holes in the floor. Second I never checked it out pre trip despite knowing heavy thunderstorms were possible. Third set it up in a depression. Only good thing was we slept on a 5" thick blow up mattress. Woke in the morning both totally naked with every stitch of clothing sopping wet floating on it in 4" of water inside the tent. It was one of those nights with torrential downpours and lightning strikes all around. Packed up in the rain sopping wet. She drove home in her panties and bra and me in a wrung out towel both muddy wet like we are involved in a wet wrestling match. Got a really really bad case of poison ivy on that trip giving it to my GF in her nether regions. We laughed our asrses off all the way back home wondering what we'd tell the police officer if we were pulled over. Next day we used a water pump and hair dryer to drain and dry her car out. That was a great trip!

  8. #8

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    At one of the Whiteout Canyon waterfalls in SNP saw a guy nonchalantly totally relying on one of his trekking poles with all his weight balanced on it right next to a slick steep muddy fall off just to the side of the trail in an all day rain yakking with a couple. I thought wow he's really relying on that carbon stick. Suddenly the trekking pole broke and he tumbled shoulder first down the slope being stopped from hitting a large pile of rock only by a 3" diam. cut sappling he landed on. It was a nasty fall. I thought he had really gotten hurt but he managed to get back up to the lip of the trail thread where he picked up his shirt revealing a partially pierced abdomen and 4" gash on his arm.

  9. #9

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    I was saw my buddy try and cook a mountain House biscuits and gravy in a 700Ml ti mug by just dumping the contents into a stove on high and some boiling water.

    Shoulda read the directions before buying it.... Or using it.

    He still has scorched food stuck to that pot till this day

    I sat across the camp laughing eating lasagna

    Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

  10. #10

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    Gear fails? Everything fails with enough use and over time. I regard tents as disposable items---and needing replacement periodically. As I always suggest---When you find a piece of gear, especially a tent, you really like---buy four of them because the product will be discontinued in the next few years. North Face and Mt Hardwear is notorious for making excellent tents that have been discontinued and are no longer available.

    But even so, a tent is a disposable item like socks or boots or whatever else. Zipper failure, pinholes in fly/floor, UV damage etc.

  11. #11
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    Default

    It had happened in the very early 80ties when I saw at a flea market the first free standing dome shaped tent of my life. Shining blue.
    The vendor told me that it was brand-new, a gift from a local sports shop and he was supposed to sell it for the just little below the official price, to get the best benefit for the charity the flea market was run for.
    And he told me a sum that made almost half of my monthly income.
    But hey, it was the first magic dome shape - I gave myself a hard push and bought it.
    I hid it from my family a bit to get not laught at, for beeing so stupid to buy such expensive stuff.

    Days later a guy from the charity came up, thanked me heartfully and gave me back 3/4th of the sum.
    The vendor had made an evil joke by telling a phantasy number 4 times higher, just for the fun of it.

    I've used this tent for my first motorcycle desert travel, it was really perfect for setup at the beach, to provide privacy with my GF, and to keep the moskitoes out.
    Later I used it for a solo trip to Scandinavia, and there it never failed to collect every single drop of rain and keep it safely inside the almost-waterproof baththub floor.
    End of life came soon when one of the fiberglass pole cracked in a wind that was far from a storm.

    It was then when I went from a tent back to a huge sheet of plastic to build a sleep system a homeless maybe would laugh at.

  12. #12

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    My biggest gear fails have been the pieces of gear I forgot to bring. Lists, people! They work but only if you use them!

  13. #13

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    And then there are gear fails from brand new items directly out the big box store door---think Ozark Trail tents. Total pieces of crap.

  14. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tipi Walter View Post
    Gear fails? Everything fails with enough use and over time. I regard tents as disposable items---and needing replacement periodically. As I always suggest---When you find a piece of gear, especially a tent, you really like---buy four of them because the product will be discontinued in the next few years. North Face and Mt Hardwear is notorious for making excellent tents that have been discontinued and are no longer available.

    But even so, a tent is a disposable item like socks or boots or whatever else. Zipper failure, pinholes in fly/floor, UV damage etc.

    +

    When I read worries about life of gear, I think "someones buying something that they probably shouldnt"

    All gear is disposeable

  15. #15

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    Not really a gear fail but something that made me think twice...fleece base layer in a grass meadow. It was almost impossible not to be covered in seed pods from the knee down when I had to walk to take care of business. I'm still not sure I got all the grass seeds out. It made me re-think my baselayer. I still like the fleece but maybe not for mid-July/early August.

  16. #16
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by johnspenn View Post
    My biggest gear fails have been the pieces of gear I forgot to bring. Lists, people! They work but only if you use them!
    On a solo desert trip a few years ago, I carried food supplies for 10 days, one Travellunch per evening included, the one meal per day I really ejoy.
    The first day was busy with flight etc. and after leaving the taxi I just went a few km into the desert for a nice camp spot, and fell right into the bag, exhausted.
    Next morning I left at dawn without breakfast (as usual) and enjoyed the solo walk out into the unknow.
    While my mind wandered free from one to the next it suddenly hit me like a flash: I've forgotten my spoon!
    Walking back to get a spoon was no option. Eating a Travellunch without a spoon is impossible. Walking for 10 days without eating my main staple would kill me.

    So I kept on walking and let my mind focus on a substitute for the spoon.
    Found some beautiful pieces of wood and had the idea to carve one - but the wood was iron-hard acacia, impossible to carve with my tiny Swiss knife.
    Found and skipped various other items, flat stones, a piece of a camel rib, etc.
    Tired, disappointed and angry I finally sat for an late afternoon break near a small water place.
    As usual, the ground was littered with left irrigation hoses, I stared at, even more angry about those stupid careless people.
    And suddenly the bulb cam on:
    Took a piece of 3/4inch plastic hose, and whitteled, carved, melted and formed a beautiful spoon out of it.
    Which served me perfectly fine for the rest of my solo trip.

    My wife joined me at the end of the solo trip, and we had some relaxed days together in a seaside camp. The story of the forgotten spoon gave us hours of laughing.
    We then continued for a round trip covering five more desert days (she had brought supplies for this purpose - including more Travellunch).
    The first evening out, we realized that she had forgotten her spoon, too.
    So the plastic pipe mockup spoon had to serve us both, which was fine.
    And from now on I carry it in my emergencies bag on all my trips.

  17. #17
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    Default

    My only equipment failure has been my brain.

  18. #18

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    I've been on a couple long trips whereby my spoon breaks (crappy lexan)---even a sea to summit long-handled metal spoon broke in two once. Point is, I always bring two spoons on every trip, otherwise I use a stick to slurp up food.

    Here are some recent gear failures---

    LIMMER BOOTS 005-L.jpg
    This was a pair of Limmer lightweight boots which failed miserably in the field when the welt thread broke apart and the soles started peeling off. After I sent them to New Hampshire for repair (cost $90), they returned them and in two weeks the glued heels starting coming off.

    P1000208-XL-1.jpg

    P1000311.jpg
    Like a retardant idiot I paid $35 for just four MSR titanium carbon fiber stakes and after two months of use one snapped in half for no reason. True pieces of crap.

    P1000350-XL.jpg
    On a very recent trip I stepped on my Mystery Ranch hipbelt buckle and it snapped---but I always bring a spare.

    P1000374-XL.jpg
    The insoles on my fairly new Zamberlan boots are starting to wear thru---never happened on my cheaper Asolo insoles.

    PUR CRAP 001-XL.jpg
    My old PUR Hiker water filter pump handles breaks routinely because it's made with a tiny plastic weld holding it together.

    TRIP 102 OCTOBER-NOV 2009 131-XL.jpg
    Snapped in half tooth brush and melted together to get thru a trip.

    TRIP 117 107-L.jpg
    TRIP 136 406-L.jpg
    I've been thru many Sangean radios---this one freaked out on me during a trip and went all haywire so I pulled it apart and crushed it with a rock.

    TRIP 136 010-L.jpg
    A minor Mystery Ranch pack buckle breaks. Always carry a spare anyway.

    TRIP 142 453-L.jpg
    TRIP 142 617-L.jpg
    Very crappy Asolo 520s. It started with the heels pulling apart and by the next trip to Mt Rogers I discovered this wonderful sight---

    TRIP 168 186-XL.jpg
    Asolo Fugitive boots just 3 months old and brand new---started pulling apart.

    TRIP 148 098-XL.jpg
    My backpacking pruners snapped in half during a trip---Corona pieces of crap.

    Trip 165 287-XL.jpg
    Not my first rodeo with a delaminating Thermarest---probably my 6th or 7th experience. Really sucks on a trip as in this case.

  19. #19
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    ^^ Asolos fit me well, but they fall apart quick. And I was pretty sure the only pair of Zamberlan's I've had were going to kill me.

  20. #20
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    Super pics, Walter.
    Maybe you should patent Thermarest's integrated self-inflating pillow?

    Had the hipbelt buckles break on my old heavy Lowe Cerro Torre and always carry a spare.


    One epic gear fail we encountered on a desert trip in 2010:
    My friend, new on this type of hiking, asked me about which shoes to use. He showed me several boots, trainers, runners, and - Adidas Jogging High II. Old, but good as new. The perfect desert shoe.
    We did our hike, 10 days of walking through wadies, hiking over passes and scrambling high mountains. Really great stuff.
    Just a few hours from our goal, a rest house on the rim of civilisation, while slogging along a sandy stretch - his left shoe broke.
    The sole had completely came apart from the upper part, his forefoot sticking out into the sand.
    Obviousely the glue that had hold together the whole thing had gone brittle and lost its strength, by pure age or poor storage condition.

    We managed to continue into the safety of the rest house, where I was able to fix the shoe by using pieces of barbed wire to form U-Clips to clamp together the pieces again.
    He then said that he doesn't feel any difference between before and after, and we were able to continue hiking as planned.

    I've become quite skilled in repairing footwear by this method since, it was 4 pairs I repaired during my last trip.

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