Altering tent rainfly for shade.

B_Spice · Post by **B_Spice** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 5:22 pm

I have noticed the occasional post where someone mentions painting their rainfly white/with reflective roofers paint, and I'm wondering if any of you have had a good/bad experience with this idea. Seems good in theory, but I can't help but thing that it would flake insanely and leave evil little chips of paint flying through the desert.

Same person that mentioned white paint talked about using plastic backed mylar on the rainfly.. seems like a difficult material to find (I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for), so I'm wondering if using a heavy spray adhesive and regular mylar would work..

swampdog · Post by **swampdog** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 5:27 pm

Tried the mylar approach my first burn. Total failure. I got one of those cheap 'emergency blanket' thingies, shiny on one side orange on the other. Duct taped it to the rain fly.

It totally compromised the flex/stretch of the rain fly to where I couldn't use it. Had to rip the stuff off to be able to use the rain fly at all. I suspect paint may have a similar impact, not to mention the flake factor you describe.

dragonpilot · Post by **dragonpilot** » Fri Jun 26, 2009 11:35 pm

One word....hexayurt.

falk · Post by **falk** » Sun Jun 28, 2009 3:06 pm

A shade structure needs to be at least a foot above the tent to allow air circulation. A rain fly won't cut it. It might buy you an extra half hour of sleep time in the morning, but that's all.