UKH

The groundsheet on my old Wild Country Trisar is worn out and leaky. The rest of the tent is fine so I'd like to have the groundsheet replaced. I've emailed Terra Nova for a price, but has anyone got any recommendations for a company that would do this? Materials don't need to be lightweight as it's only ever used for car camping nowadays. Thanks.

I used Scottish Mountain Gear for this in the past, they gave me a choice of ground sheet weights. 

Does it have holes or is the waterprooofing just gone? if it is the latter then try painting it with fabsil gold (or dilute silicon in white spirits and use that)

My initial thought would be Lancashire sports repair or Scottish mountain gear.

An alternative could be to buy a secondary groundsheet to put under the old one, you could even just get some tyvek style builders membrane.

Thanks. There are no holes that I can see, but it's just thin. This is a tent that I bought in the mid nineties, so it's fair enough. I tries McNett tent floor sealer but the results weren't great, and I suspect diluted silicon might be the same (and also tacky).

Thanks. I have a groundsheet/footprint but I find that condensation can build up between it and the groundsheet, which then soaks through. Seems that the groundsheet has just reached the end of its life.

Are you still using regularly? I have a now 22 year old Terra Nova Solar 2 tent, it has been excellent for most of that time but in recent years when I've got it out I've found that the mesh pole sleeves very readily tear - I guess it just the age of the nylon. It's a shame but I guess we've had pretty good value from it.

If the rest of the tent is still holding out the weather, then it may be worth seeing if SMG or similar can do it, but it might be a case of sewing new nylon onto rather old and weakened nylon?

Alpkit do kit repairs, maybe ask them for a quote and see if it's worth doing?

Back in the day (90s) it was my backpacking tent. Hard to believe I used to carry something so heavy. Then I got a Solar 1 when it came out. Then various tarps. I've had an MLD Trailstar for about ten years and I wouldn't go back to a tent for backpacking or hill use.

I realy only use the Trisar for car/campsite-based climbing club meets. The flysheet, inner, and poles are in good condition, its a good tent, and it served me well on some good trips. But if its not worth repairing then I'll dump it without (much) remorse. I'll see what quotes I get.

Sounds a bit like my Solar 2 - it was my do everything tent, including ski touring expeditions in Lapland, but slowly became a spare car camping kind of tent.

I think if a replacement groundsheet gets you another decade's use out of it, that's wonderful. But I'd just be a little wary of how structurally sound the rest of it is. It would be a shame to spend the price of a decent replacement tent from Decathlon on a new groundsheet only to find that on your next usage that the fly tears over the poles from UV degradation or similar. I've just heard various stories of major failures of tents of a similar vintage.

Try the groundsheet/footprint inside the tent so it's between you and the condensation/leakage?

I had an old (25 year+) Terra Nova hyperspace tent where the groundsheet had delaminated and become leaky - sent it back to Terra Nova who looked at it and gave me an option to replace it (at a cost) which I agreed to  - got it back and have used it a few times since, including at the weekend there where the was a sustained torrential downpour - tent preformed admirably, and groundsheet was great, stayed dry!

Yup, it wasn't the cheapest to get renewed but Terra Nova did a great job on mine, would recommend them to repair their tents!

(I have no affiliation with Terra Nova, just a punter who got their tent fixed by them)

Good luck with getting your tent repaired.

My groundsheet was leaking on my laser competition 1, TN quoted me £200 to replace it, Scottish mountain gear quoted £89 so I pasted it with fabsil gold and it seems fine.

When you think of the time to unstitch the old one, and restitch the new one in, make sure its all finished properly, corner seams are taped etc etc. then 89 quid seems a bit of steal not even considering the cost of big bit of high quality nylon used!

Agreed, £89 did seem a reasonable price, but I already had half a tin of Fabsil, so that cost nothing and I thought it worth a go.

Yeah, sorry, wasn't suggesting you were tight or something! More I just started thinking about how much time it would take me to start unpicking a groundsheet, let alone sewing a new one in! It struck me that's not actually that much at all just for the time involved. Even the 200 quote from Terra Nova doesn't seem that bad, even though obviously that's a chunk of full price. 

In the end Terra Nova quoted me £220 and Scottish Mountain Gear said £92-£110. Lancashire Sports Repairs said they couldn't do it and Alpkit didn't reply to my email.

£220 is absurd - I could get a new tent for that. So I'll go with SMG.

You could - but not a Terra Nova. Obviously the SMG price is much better, so why not go with that? But all the same if you think about the time and skill needed to do this, it must be a pretty big job. I think we are so used to the price of things churned out en masse from Chinese or other Asian factories that it's hard to get a sense of the value of other's work.

As I said, I will go with SMG. But Terra Nova currently have several Wild Country tents at that price - e.g. Zephyros Compact 2 at £230 or Helm Compact at £210 and currently reduced to £168 - all perfectly good for car camping.

A valid point, but these are both UK-based businesses with decent reputations.

Yep, plenty of tents great for car camping for quite a lot less than that from Decathlon and the likes too.

I'm not sure if it's still the case but wasn't it that Terra Nova tents are UK made while Wild Country ones are produced in Asia? I imagine it isn't just materials quality that accounts for the price difference.