Odd Odor in Eureka Timberline

[rrcrazy]

Hi Everyone!

We have a Eureka! Timberline 4 tent that is probably 25 to 30 years old. It is in excellent shape. It has always been dried out properly and stowed in a dry environment.

The tent has a strong, pungent odor to it. It's not anything like mold that has triggered allergies or anything, but this weekend I used it for the first time in over a year, and the people using it noted the strong odor.

What might it be from a tent of this era (late 70's, early 80's) and what can we do to mitigate it?

Thanks!

Dan and Robin
Columbus, Ohio

[renodesertfox]

Howdy rrcrazy,
It could be anything. If you think that it is just from being an Eureka tent call the company. I know you're serious but the odor could be caused by anything. What I would do is to set it up in your backyard and hose it down real good. Take a bucket of dish soap to it and scrub it really good inside and out. The dry it really good, re-waterproof all the seams, then go camping again. The odor should be gone. Depending on where you stored it for over thirty years depends on what was around the vicinity of the tent during all those years. It's hard to say. I too have been camping that long but I have never let a tent sit in storage any more than a month or two before I'd take it out to go camping. Maybe the odor is from lack of camping, go figure. Now go camping!

[tplife]

I'd try a load's worth of laundry soap in a 5-qt bucket with a 5% bleach solution and warm water. A stiff handled brush to mop inside and out and plenty of rinsing, then erect the tent to dry overnight. Bleach pretty much kills all of the stink-making critters.

[lionslayer]

The unpleasant odor is very likely from the chemical deterioration of the polyurethane coating on the floor, fly, doors, and other coated parts. This is typically also associated with the coating becoming "tacky" or "sticky." Eureka/Johnson Outdoors recommends washing the affected parts in laundry detergent (in a large commercial washer, or by hand, in a big tub) to remove the original coating. Then you must recoat the fabric panels with a waterproofing agent to restore the watertight integrity of the fabric. I have done this with great success on the fly of a Eureka cabin tent. I squandered lits of time and energy trying to restore a decades old rainfly on my T2 Outfitter this spring, and could not, for love nor money, strip off the original coating, and so ultimately just bought a replacement fly, which turned out to be the cost/time effective alternative. I was able to strip the original coating from the tent floor and doors, and recoat with a as yet untested application. The lesson to take here is twofold --- taking assiduous care of your gear will let it last a long time, after which it may just fail of old age, rather than neglect or abuse...