I'm going to extend a Dri Ducks Emergency Poncho for use with a backpack. I know some have adapted Dri Ducks pants for use as a rain skirt. I'm thinking that just gluing a section from another poncho would do the trick--- any tips? McNett Seam Grip is what comes to mind. Seems like polyurethane would be good as far as sticking, but too crunchy when dried.

Haven't done it myself, but I think Tyvek tape is supposed to be great for this kind of thing. No glue mess, either.

I would second the vote for Tyvek tape. Both Tyvek and the Driducks material are nonwoven polypropylene. Polypropylene is very difficult to bond, so a tape made for that specific purpose seems to me like a good bet.

The industrial applications for which that tape were designed, though, don't require a permanent fastener. I think it was engineered to be temporary, so taping both sides of the seam, and giving it a thorough inspection before each trip, might be prudent.

I recently used 3M Super 77 spray on glue to bond some sections of a clear plastic tarp to a DriDucks emergency poncho quite successfully. Just be careful to not go overboard with it though like I did because the stuff takes forever to fully dry if not bonded between between two surfaces.

your going to be having so many holes that gluing will severly slow you down, just duct tape. THen use your fingers to apply a great deal of pressure in opposite directions on the tape to get it to adhere very strongly. do this for a few minutes til it burns your fingers. Doing this, i've never had a piece of duc tape come off any of my gear, be it quilts, jackets or whatever.

Edited by isaac.mouser on 05/05/2011 05:58:45 MDT.

does your emergency poncho have a different material than the standard dri-ducks stuff?

i've seen pictures of the emergency and comparisons of weights to the standard poncho. the emergency is lighter (my standard poncho is 8oz or so with the stuff sack removed, and something else i cut off which i don't recall).

my standard poncho is easily big enough to cover both myself and my go-lite jam as well as my bigger gregory pack.
where are you adding the extra material?

i'm also curious how this goes as i'm about to make my (too big for me) dri-ducks pants into some chaps.

i use 3m #850 tape on my recent tyvek experiments. when i make my chaps i can try that out to see how well it bonds. (on the tyvek the tape bonds seem stronger than the tyvek itself, however not as plyable)
taping to the back/fuzzy side of the dri-ducks might be an issue...

@ike: holes? you mean because of the notoriously un-reliable nature of dri-ducks?

i just saw your other post in Gear forum with the picture. the emergency does look a lot smaller.

i just measured my standard poncho:
~100cm (~39") long (from shoulders to hem) by ~130cm(~51") across

someone should be organizing group buys on this stuff to consolidate and reduce shipping, not to mention get some discounts...
i'd be interested in trying out the emergency one at almost 1/4 the weight...

I am going to add material to the back, to give the extra length to cover the pack and my legs. The poncho is only 44" wide, so it may be weak on side coverage with the pack covered. We'll see.

As it is, the poncho covers to my knees in front and just past my butt in back. I want to add a couple feet or more to the back. I would like to get covered to the back of my knees or better--- I will use a cord for a belt, which would use even more material on the rear. The front length suits me as is.

good plan, dale! i'd love to see how it turns out and if the emergency poncho holds up tolerably.

hi guys, interesting timing reading this for me. i was in the thrift store yesterday browsing and came across a driducks jacket that had a myriad of electrical tape fixes. I was going to buy it but even $3 was too much for how much electrical tape repair it had been through. but it had me thinking of what would be an effective adhesive repair for it....

"I would second the vote for Tyvek tape. Both Tyvek and the Driducks material are nonwoven polypropylene. Polypropylene is very difficult to bond, so a tape made for that specific purpose seems to me like a good bet."

Tyvek is a spunbonded Polyethylene.

Driducks uses a point bonded synthetic, not sure what kind, but they may not be identical.

fyi, i tried that 3m tape on some dri-ducks material i had left over.

as i suspected it didn't stick as well to the fuzzy side, however it stuck better than i thought it would. the tape on the smooth side held until the dri-ducks material stretched. when the seam was twisted the tape tried to let go in places since it's not as malleable as the material itself.

my quick conclusion is that it doesn't work as well as on tyvek, but it'll work okay. i'd probably look for a different type of tape prior to using it long term...

I got the spares today and trimmed 11" off bottom in the front to even out the hems in preparation to make a cape. The front hangs down 12" farther than the back when I'm wearing it.

So I took the scrap and tried heat bonding. That was a joke. It may be possible-- the hood is welded-- but you would need to have a very accurate temperature control. My household iron just blew a hole in my test piece.

I made a test strip using Seam Grip and that works great. It stretches with the fabric, which is desirable. You do need to get the glue all the way to the edge to get a good bond---- I fear that any loose overlap might be a point for starting a delamination. I did bond the smooth top side to the textured underside and I was concerned about the smooth surface peeling, but it is fine. My impression is that the bond will hold past the wear life of the garment.

I should mention that the hems are sewed, so sewing is an option for working with this material. I think that bonding with the Seam Grip would reduce tearing and ripping on sewn seams as well as waterproofing.

Next step is to add a tail to an unaltered poncho to give backpack coverage.

I'm going to get some help sewing the side seams on a cape option. I'm going to make a very simple loose smock-style arrangement that can be worn under a pack rather than over. I don't have high expectations of durability. With the sides cut out and the 12" section removed from the front, it should yield a breathable rain shell that is about 2oz.

BARGE cement, available at any hardware store. This works great on DriDucks material.

THis is the smelly stuff where the instructions tell you to put a thin coat on BOTH sides of the are you want to connect. Very flexible, and it dries fast (but VERY smelly)

A good possibility. You introduced me to Barge Cement with your excellent article on making a Multi-Pad-Ground-Sheet Integration System (http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/make_your_own_gear_multi_pad_ground_sheet.html).

I did test the Seam Grip to destruction. The fabric failed before the Seam Grip section did. Can't ask for more than that.

Dale I got mine a few days back and last night put some snaps on it thanks to help from Tom Holbrook on cam-snaps.

Now I have a really breathable 5.3 oz rainset with the frogg toggs poncho combined with dri-ducks chaps made by cutting the seat from the pants. ( 2.3 oz size large I think..??before trimming

I put one set on 16mm snaps high towards the shoulder to make "sleeves" and another about a foot from the bottom though I staggered the front and back leaving the front 4" longer since that's how it seems to sit on my shoulders.

Then I figured out I can put a male snap @ 18" up the back of one side and a female the other and pull the back across my hips and snap it closed in front for a trim fit in wind.

I 'll post some photos when I return from a trip next week.

Thanks again for the point to the poncho. It works perfectly with the home-made chaps!