New Kodiak Canvas flexbow leaks at seams

[Glocke12]

Picked up a 10x10 flex bow last friday and left it setup when it rained here for the pre-weathering treatment.

Monday night it rained, checked tuesday morning no water.

Weds. all day it rained (torrential downpours at times I think), and after work I checked it and there were a couple of pools of water inside the tent, obviously coming from the seams.

Kind of expected this but was a little surprised since hardly any reviewers of this tent seem to have had this issue.

Anyway, I know KC recomends Kiwi camp dry.

A) I can't find that anywhere. Will the scotch guard equivalent work?

B) I want to seal the seams...will this be ok to use?

http://www.amazon.com/Iosso-Products.../dp/B002AQX63A

[05Kingquad700]

Re: New Kodiak Canvas flexbow leaks at seams

If you picked up the tent new, I would contact Kodiak Canvas, as you have a warranty problem and if you apply anything it may very well void the warranty.

[Glocke12]

Re: New Kodiak Canvas flexbow leaks at seams

If you picked up the tent new, I would contact Kodiak Canvas, as you have a warranty problem and if you apply anything it may very well void the warranty.

Yeah it was bought new..

I called KC, and they said to apply the kiwi camp dri and if that doesnt help contact them and they would do something...

Finally found the camp dri, applied it a few hours ago and am heading out with the tent this weekend. If it rains and water gets in even after the application of the camp dri,, the tent is going back to cabelas from where I got it.

[frank6160]

Re: New Kodiak Canvas flexbow leaks at seams

Sorry you are having trouble. Those are nice tents. Just goes to show that even the "high end" tents have issues at times. Camped in my Coleman Weathrmaster Screened tent this weekend and yesterday AM had a 2 hour thunderstorm roll through dumped about 2.5 inches of rain. We stayed dry.

[ppine]

Re: New Kodiak Canvas flexbow leaks at seams

I have a canvas wall tent that is 35 years old, made in Colorado. It does not leak at all and I have never treated it with anything.
You should not need a bunch of chemicals to treat a new tent. Have a heart to heart talk with the owner of the company.

[Glocke12]

Re: New Kodiak Canvas flexbow leaks at seams

I have a canvas wall tent that is 35 years old, made in Colorado. It does not leak at all and I have never treated it with anything.
You should not need a bunch of chemicals to treat a new tent. Have a heart to heart talk with the owner of the company.

Not sure what I am going to do yet...I had it set up in the rain yesterday and there were no leaks, than just a few moments ago I was outside hosing it down trying to find more leaks...After hosing it down I found some water seeping in through the seals between the tent walls and the floor..

I need to give this some thought. Packing this up and shipping it back the manufacturer is not something I look forward to.

I know that canvas tents need "pre-weathering", so even though this tent has been rained on a couple of times already I think I'll just hose it down once a day the next couple of days and letting it dry..If it still leaks towards the end of the week I'll probably see about first returning it to cabelas for an exchange. If that doesn't work I'll talk to the manufacturer.

[Oldcoyote]

Re: New Kodiak Canvas flexbow leaks at seams

Send back to cabelas. Don't wait for anything. Get your refund and then think about things.

[05Kingquad700]

Re: New Kodiak Canvas flexbow leaks at seams

If you "shrunk" it and it doesn't leak, I would keep it. Even though I am beginning to rethink recommending Kodiak Canvas Tents. I started to do a review this weekend. Have probably camped in it for about 3 weeks over the past 3 years. Some issues are starting to come to light that I don't like.

[Glocke12]

Re: New Kodiak Canvas flexbow leaks at seams

If you "shrunk" it and it doesn't leak, I would keep it. Even though I am beginning to rethink recommending Kodiak Canvas Tents. I started to do a review this weekend. Have probably camped in it for about 3 weeks over the past 3 years. Some issues are starting to come to light that I don't like.

What kind of issues are you having with your tent?

I really like the tent, and based on the number of positive reviews in the Cabelas website from people who claim no water go in their tent Im willing to give them another chance...every company lets a lemon get out from time to time.

If I return it and the second one has issues, than Im probably going to go with Springbar. They were actually my first choice, but I liked the features in KC better.

[05Kingquad700]

Re: New Kodiak Canvas flexbow leaks at seams

I was going to do a video review this weekend, but my memory was full. It just little things.
1)All the tent pegs bent. They need to be heavier duty.
2)I replaced the guy line tensioner, but that was more preventive than necessity. You know the brown things that hold the guy lines for the canopy.
3)The shock cords that hold the two pieces of poles together for the sides are broken in both poles.
So far just little things, I am about 3 years into this tent. So far, just some petty things.
4)This weekend there was about a 2 hour rainstorm. Not to bad, there was no sagging anywhere that I noticed. When I unzipped the door to go out, I heard a large "POP". The left side of the tent was sagging. It seems the metal rod that fits into the "T" had snapped. Luckily, it snapped right at the T, so I was able to get it back in and finish the trip. This issue really made me mad.

Plus if you factor in the other threads, 2 I think, about weather proofing issues, you have got to start wondering whats going on.

[Glocke12]

Re: New Kodiak Canvas flexbow leaks at seams

I was going to do a video review this weekend, but my memory was full. It just little things.
1)All the tent pegs bent. They need to be heavier duty.

It sounds you have had your tent for a few years? I wonder if the upgraded the tent pegs in that time, the ones that came with mine seem pretty heavy duty, but in any case Im probably going to pick up a set of the Monk Industries pefs.

2)I replaced the guy line tensioner, but that was more preventive than necessity. You know the brown things that hold the guy lines for the canopy.

Thats actually something I was thinking I would do also when I saw them.

3)The shock cords that hold the two pieces of poles together for the sides are broken in both poles.
So far just little things, I am about 3 years into this tent. So far, just some petty things.

Thats actually something I kind of expected would not last long when I saw the cable holding the poles together.

4)This weekend there was about a 2 hour rainstorm. Not to bad, there was no sagging anywhere that I noticed. When I unzipped the door to go out, I heard a large "POP". The left side of the tent was sagging. It seems the metal rod that fits into the "T" had snapped. Luckily, it snapped right at the T, so I was able to get it back in and finish the trip. This issue really made me mad.

I'd contact KC about that..I read elsewhere on the internet that another guy had this issue about 3 years ago..Gist of it is KC had some manufacturing issues with those at that time and fixed the issue. They sent the guy replacement poles.

Plus if you factor in the other threads, 2 I think, about weather proofing issues, you have got to start wondering whats going on.

Yeah, I saw one other thread on here where a guy left his flexbow in the dumpster. Overall though, the reviews on both Amazon and Cabelas are pretty positive for this company.

In any case, Im not ready to give up on this yet, I really do like the design. After hosing it down again I detected more leaks along the floor seam, so boxed it up and returned it to cabelas and exchanged it for a new one. If this one has the same issue and I can't resolve it I will probably just take this one back and suck it up and buy a springbar, although Ive seen cases where even that company puts out tents with issues.

Part of me says that leaky seems in any tent is to be expected, but Im not so sure Im willing to expect that on a high end tent.

[jimkuhr]

Re: New Kodiak Canvas flexbow leaks at seams

Just a quick FYI, I bought a FlexBow 10X10 about 4 weeks ago at Cabella's and had a chance to spent 5 nights in it last week.

The setup on Sunday was a bit of a challenge because the ground was so hard, getting it staking in was certainly a bit of work that I hadn't experienced in free standing tents. We got the tent up however and Sunday night we had a thunderstorm with light to medium heavy rain. No leaks anywhere so we felt pretty good going into what turned out to be a really heavy thunderstorm and rain on Monday night. It was literally raining so hard that you couldn't hear the other person speak across the tent, mud splatters were halfway up the side of the tent. We also had pooled water between the tent and the Kodiak footprint I had put down, however once again, not a drop of water in the tent. I'd personally suggest contacting Kodiak if you have any leaks at all.

A few other thoughts, it was really hot and humid on a few of the days during this trip and things did seem to stay a bit more damp in the canvas tent but I don't know if the same thing would have happened with our previous Marmot tent. Also, when I got home I set the tent up to dry out and clean it up, very impressed by how clean it was after a simple brushing off. Overall I'd say I'm slightly concerned about the dampness in high humidity but otherwise the tent seems like a real winner.

Hope things work out well for you and let me know if there are any questions.