What cuben specific issues would you look for when buying used gear?

I was just looking at a used Hexamid. The detachable door wa noticibly glossier than the tarp itself but the tarp had no holes or obvious flaws.

This is the first cuben I've touched. It was difficult for me to judge wear other than surface gloss due to the naturally patchy look of cuben.

I guess I'm asking is, how do you judge the usable life of the fabric itself?

Edited by Feileung on 10/11/2011 19:23:35 MDT.

I'd check if any of the guy out points are delaminating the cuben fiber or if the seams are pulling apart.

The door is probably glossy because it hasn't been stuffed in the same way or as much as the tent, at least that's the case with mine. I stuff my tent, but fold the door and floor.

BPL Member Richard Nisley has done some invaluable works in at least two threads of which on know regarding the aging of cuben, here and here

I won't pretend to have made it through either of them as they are long and invole a bunch of science that makes my head spin after a time, but if you are so inclined they might help you.

Edited by jrmacd on 10/11/2011 21:15:56 MDT.

Yeah, that's a lot of reading. Nice to see folks taking things so seriously.

Its strange though how the "lab" results haven't been verified so much by anecdotal evidence.

Its a stressful choice for me not having any experience w/the material. The stuff sack is pretty well worn (holes from stakes, etc) but the tent seems in decent shape (w/loss of gloss mentioned earlier) and the door looks mostly shiny and new.

Price is right.

I'll just wring my hands for a bit I guess.

Cuben does loose it's shine/gloss after use, but that's normal and it doesn't seem to be that indicative of the actual wear it's experienced. It just tells you it's been packed/unpacked a bunch of times. All moderately used cuben is going to be less glossy, yet some will still work great and other stuff might be damaged. The main concern with cuben is the abrasion it's experienced, which really requires looking carefully at it and looking for small holes, tears etc. The nice thing with the Hexamid is that it doesn't have a cuben floor, which would be the main thing to look at since floors see most of the wear. If the price is right and you can't find evidence of abrasion on the cuben canopy then I would pull the trigger.