Help me make my YELLOW bivy/tent stealthy!

[pedalhead]

Hi chaps. I rather like my Nemo Gogo Elite for trips where I want a bit more comfort, but the yellow is really not good for stealth...



Short of going for the full cover-in-undergrowth camouflage technique, do you reckon I could dye the material a stealthy colour without destroying the performance of the fabric?

[didnothingfatal]

No, home dye kits won't take to that fabric.

[pedalhead]

Cheers, suspected as much

[Bearbonesnorm]

Out of interest Mark, how do you find condensation in your Nemo? Any worse than anything else?

[pedalhead]

Tbh I've only used it in nice weather so far (not since last year) so the jury is out. I'll let you know as I'm intending to run some comparison tests soon between this one and my eVENT bivy sack.

[thomthumb]

you could get a bit of camo netting to drape over it.

not ideal; i realise.

[didnothingfatal]

If you are serious this stuff will do the job http://www.ritdye.com

[royAB]

If you are serious this stuff will do the job http://www.ritdye.com

err, probably not if the fabric is synthetic:

From the Rit site (and a lot of personal experience of fabric dyes/paints)

''.... there are fabrics and materials that will NOT accept dye such as ...
100% polyester, acrylic, acetate, fiberglass, spandex and metallic fibers
Fabrics with rubber backing (bath mats or throw rugs)
Fabrics with special finishes such as water repellents'

There are however fabric spray paints eg. http://www.fabricspray.co.uk/fabric-spray-paint that will do a reasonable job, but to have any permanence on synthetic fabrics, they have to be 'dusted' on and will need re-coating fairly often on something like a tent that gets tightly packed.

As a general note:

'There are hundreds of different fabrics produced in the world today, and unfortunately Simply Spray will not work on all of them. As a rule of thumb, if water can absorb into the fabric then Simply Spray will too. If your fabric is coated in some way and water cannot absorb into it, then Simply Spray will not work. You can simply pour some water onto the fabric and see if it absorbs into the fabric or if it runs off'

[didnothingfatal]

If you are serious this stuff will do the job http://www.ritdye.com

err, probably not if the fabric is synthetic:

From the Rit site (and a lot of personal experience of fabric dyes/paints)

''.... there are fabrics and materials that will NOT accept dye such as ...
100% polyester, acrylic, acetate, fiberglass, spandex and metallic fibers
Fabrics with rubber backing (bath mats or throw rugs)
Fabrics with special finishes such as water repellents'

There are however fabric spray paints eg. http://www.fabricspray.co.uk/fabric-spray-paint that will do a reasonable job, but to have any permanence on synthetic fabrics, they have to be 'dusted' on and will need re-coating fairly often on something like a tent that gets tightly packed.

As a general note:

'There are hundreds of different fabrics produced in the world today, and unfortunately Simply Spray will not work on all of them. As a rule of thumb, if water can absorb into the fabric then Simply Spray will too. If your fabric is coated in some way and water cannot absorb into it, then Simply Spray will not work. You can simply pour some water onto the fabric and see if it absorbs into the fabric or if it runs off'

Best go and tell the guys over here then, they dyed a MSR tent with it.

If the colour is that off putting, try here or here

[Ian]

Hi chaps. I rather like my Nemo Gogo Elite for trips where I want a bit more comfort, but the yellow is really not good for stealth...

You could wait until it's dark before you pitch it, then no one will see it :)

At a distance, I bet it doesn't stand out all that much and if you aim for some tree or scrub cover it'd be even less visible.

[royAB]

(Overly long post - apologies in advance, but be a shame to damage a £ piece of kit)

Rit contains two kinds of dye. One ('direct' dye) works well on cottons & wools, the other (Kiton dye) on nylon - but only nylon, and then only to a degree (it's not particularly colourfast). MSR appear to use nylon base fabric for their flysheets which is probably why the example quoted earlier with Rit ‘worked’. (Be interesting to know how long the tent stayed ‘brown’)

Polyester fabric - the Gogo is a breathable a polyester with a PU coating (OSMO™) - is dyed with a 'disperse' dye. The main problem of these dyes for 'breathable' fabrics is that to work properly the fabric needs to be dyed hot and since even boiling water is not enough, 'carrier' chemicals are also added to help get the colour into the fiber. The polyester can take the heat, but there's every chance that the PU coating could be damaged by that and/or the chemicals and/or the mechanical action of the dyeing process* if you're not very careful.

Typical wash instructions for PU coated clothing says it all really;
‘machine wash at 40°C maximum on a Gentle cycle, progressive tapering of rinse cycle, gentle spin cycle. No bleach. Iron at a maximum temperature setting of Low at 110°C, steam treatment may harm the garment. Do not dry clean; do not use solvents for stain removal. Do not tumble dry' …

*Dyeing Procedure, disperse dye:

1 Dissolve the measured amount of dye in hot water and then add to a larger volume of water. The Liquor ratio should be 25:1 (approximately Three Gallons Water/1 Lb. goods)
2. Place the pre-wet fabric in dyebath.
3. Bring the temperature of the dyebath up to 160°F. and then add Hi-Conc Polydeveloper.
4. Use 4 - 10% Developer To Weight Of Goods. Adjust to Ph of 6 with Acetic Acid.
5. Increase dyebath temperature to 212°F. (Boiling)
6. Stir often to assure even saturation.
7. Maintain at boil for 20 to 30 minutes or until desired depth of shade is obtained.
8. When fabric has reached desired depth of shade, remove and rinse in hot water.
9. Rinse thoroughly with soap to complete extraction of excess dye.

Hope this helps ...

[didnothingfatal]

I still reckon it won't dye. It's a single skin breathable tent in effect, having had a few they normally have a fair amount of waterproofing in the fabric, anything that breaks that means the fabric is useless

[pedalhead]

Thanks for all the info chaps, parricularly royAB for taking the time to write out all those instructions. I've decided however that it's too risky so yellow it will remain

[royAB]

Cheers Mark. Would have been my decision too. Maybe just a light coating of mud is the way to go..

[gairym]

this might sound daft but how about just throwing a camo net over it for stealth purposes???

i realise that it'd be something else to carry but they're cheap and can't weigh much i don't imagine.

just a thought.....

[thomthumb]

this might sound daft but how about just throwing a camo net over it for stealth purposes???

why did no-one think of that before

[pedalhead]

lol actually that is a pretty good idea. Not sure on the bulk/weight of that stuff, but I'll look into it...

[fatsimon mk2]

camo net weighes a ton much better to just use a bit of local vegatation to add a bit of camo.

[Taylor]

try scrim netting rather than camp netting.

[didnothingfatal]

Why not just stop being worried about the colour, it's what a foot high and and 7 foot long? It's not like you're pitching a Mountain Hardwear Space Station. My Laser Comp is bright red, my Mountain 25 is a brighter shade of yellow than that, amount of issues wild camping, zero.