Beyond sealing the seams, is it a good thing to put seam sealer on the tent fabric where it is touched by the internal crosspoles? In a sustained rain, it seems water seeps in throught this contact area.

Roman, I have not direct eperience with these shelters, but I think I have in fact read somewhere that this was recommended so you are definitely on the right train of thought.

I've never experienced that. My first gen Firstlight has been dry through many storms (including a tornado) with simple exterior seam-sealing.

I seam sealed my firstlight tent and it has not had any leaks so far.

Important caveat: Epic is water resistant not water proof. If you expect hours of rain this is not the tent for you.

It has been a near perfect tent for me. I've used my FirstLight for the last few years, mostly in the Sierras, but some in the desert as well. The key is that in these locales there is usually no more than a couple of hours of rain, no leaks and no problemss.

In a longer sustained rain the tent will leak. First small droplets of water accumulate on the poles. Then the droplets get bigger and travel down the poles towards the corners of the tent where they drip down. A very small slow drip, drip, drip.

I've never experienced it personally, but I think I've read reports that after the drip, drip stage comes the more catastrophic leaking at all points through the fabric.

So your method of putting seam sealer at the points where the poles touch the tent does sound like something that would at least delay the drip-drip stage. Even better than seam sealer might be if this tent had pole sleeves made of water proof material. But alas it does not. And this is a pretty expensive tent to experiment with seam sealer on. I'd skip the idea, and instead only use this tent when you're expecting only limited amounts of rain.

Kristin is absolutely right.

Folks need to know that the fabric is not rainproof -- nor is BD marketing it as such.

BD claims 5 hours of rain protection. My own experience -- after seam sealing -- is actually significantly better -- rain didn't seep in until after 9 hours of pretty hard rain. But once it does, it really does -- and it ISN'T anything that you can take care of with just a few wipes every now and then.

In the end, I've read plenty of user feeback claiming "wet out" after just a few hours -- or as long as 9 hours in my case -- and some holding out even longer. But suffice to say, the fabric is highly rain resistant -- but not rainproof.

Edited by ben2world on 12/07/2008 11:15:23 MST.

With my somewhat limited experience with the Lighthouse I would say that all comments above , seemingly contradictory, are correct. I have had it under rain more in my backyard than in the bush, mostly to see if I could work out what was happening with the fabric. ( I have a few tents...)
So I have had a totally dry floor after all night rain both with and without me inside, but have also had drips on me after only four or five hours but it was always very heavy (thick drops) rain.
A first observation was that if the fabric is dirty it will wet out sooner.
Next it will leak first under the poles, users of Epic jackets have experience this under the pack straps.
It can keep dripping for hours just under the poles or start to mist/drip from various areas (usually towards the center of a panel) depending on the strength of the rainfall.
Finally I would not hesitate to use it even if I was expecting rain if out for an overnighter, but would give it a miss if on a multi day outing with rainfall expected for most nights.
The idea of coating the sleeve area with seam sealer should work in delaying the dripping poles effect, putting the poles inside sleeves would not work for that (the pressure would still be there) but would possibly delay the condensation build up on the poles but channel the drips directly to the corners. In this case I would still prefer the option of wiping the poles but maybe putting pockets at the end of the poles could work in collecting the water drips. ( Bibler and ID tent owners could try this...)
Discussing this topic yesterday coming back from a 2 day walk it occurred to me that the Lighthouse could be a good shelter for the desert (sand protection and cool/breathable fabric) .
Franco

After weathering a few burly, all night rain storms, I wrote the "water resistant" bit off as risk-averse marketing. I presume my tent is waterproof, and have yet to find it otherwise. This includes, as mentioned, a TORNADO. Continuous heavy rain from 2100 thru the night, with gusts to 70 mph or more. (This was on RAGBRAI 2005, a poor soul died that night when he was crushed in his tent by a falling tree.)

Ymmv.....

Dave, all of our experiences are valid. I guess the only "conclusion" is that the fabric won't always let rain penetrate, but it "can" -- and "has" -- albeit only after putting up a good fight.

Edited by ben2world on 12/07/2008 18:24:44 MST.

Ben
That is exactly what I meant..
Franco

You said it first. :)

If you already have the tent then why not try it, if you wouldn't mind the outcome of it not working. To throw my hat into the ring I would say if you don't already own one look elsewhere for a tent. The non-waterproof issue is something that won't be too bad, until it is. As long as it doesn't rain too hard you will stay dry...but if it does start to rain hard (as I have expirienced firsthand) you will get wet. There are other options out there that will treat you much better.