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Thread: Harris Tent Storage

  1. #11
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Harris Tent Storage

    5 years is more? I'm going on 30 yrs on both my Harrisons. The other problem common with Chinese fabrics is that they're so heavily plasticized that you can get a horrible rash from them if they're not aired out for several weeks before use. Who knows what that might do to film?

  2. #12

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    Re: Harris Tent Storage

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    5 years is more? I'm going on 30 yrs on both my Harrisons. The other problem common with Chinese fabrics is that they're so heavily plasticized that you can get a horrible rash from them if they're not aired out for several weeks before use. Who knows what that might do to film?
    5 years is what my last Harrison tent lasted, yes.

    I understand your apprehension to the knock off but it is literally made the same way and I’ve never had any issue. But if you want to pay $257 for the Harrison one, you’re free to. I’m just making people aware of other options.

  3. #13

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    Re: Harris Tent Storage

    Mine melted into a stinking gooey mass of melted yuck. I will never buy another one...

  4. #14
    Drew Bedo's Avatar
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    Oct 2006
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    Re: Harris Tent Storage

    I have been pretty happy with mine over all. I will take the advice of those who recopmend keeping it aired out.

    Becides the out-gassing coating (manageable I gurss) I would waqnt a slight change to the way the poles fit into the corner retaining pockets . . .a minor quibble.
    Drew Bedo
    www.quietlightphoto.com
    http://www.artsyhome.com/author/drew-bedo




    There are only three types of mounting flanges; too big, too small and wrong thread!

  5. #15
    C. D. Keth's Avatar
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    Re: Harris Tent Storage

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    5 years is more? I'm going on 30 yrs on both my Harrisons.
    That is more along the lines of my harrison experience. I had the same one for 10-15 years and changed thousands of 35mm magazines and 4x5 holders in it. I sold it a while back when I thought I wouldn't shoot LF anymore and at that time it was still fine. I wonder if some of the equation is warmer, drier places allowing the offgassed solvents to get completely away from the tent by virtue of stronger evaporation. The wet places, like Robbie 2 above this post in Florida, have those chemicals sticking around longer?
    -Chris

  6. #16
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Harris Tent Storage

    Domestic products outgassed rather quickly. Many of the Chinese imports seem almost soaked in phtahlates and plasticizers, recklessly. There was a mysterious local epidemic of wrist rashes on people buying exercise watches with vinyl handles, and the doctors didn't even know to ask the obvious - where were they made? I wanted a lighter wt backpacking tent due to advanced age, bought a Big Agnes, which was indeed a good choice for an import, but gave me a rash everywhere I touched it for the first two trips, despite being aired out first. That never happened with any domestic tent. Things like carry bags given to me had to be thrown away; even being in the same room would give me a sore throat, and it wasn't an allergic reaction. For years I used Leki trekking poles with either cork or true rubber handles. When I tried a new Black Diamond pair with fake rubber handles from China, it gave my hands little blisters until I aggressively scrubbed those handles with solvent. I'm aware that cottage industries in China can make some very nice things like view cameras; but when big US stores order up massive volumes of outsourced low-bidder consumer goods, there is always a roll of the dice. I remember Stanley planes coming in by the tens of thousands when the accompanying plane iron wouldn't even fit through the sole of the plane; nobody ever checked, either there or here. And any film tent maker is not making the fabric itself; they're buying it from an outfit far bigger over there, and just sewing it together. There's a real difference between superficially cloning something, and knowing the right questions to ask a subcontractor of materials to begin with.

  7. #17
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: Harris Tent Storage

    I bought some cheap curtains for my bedroom -- a wide window that took three packages. Two sets were odd -- the graphics on the packaging sort of transferred slightly to the drapes -- and when I hung them up, they started to smell especially toxic. Some solvent in the inks of the graphics on the packaging reacted with the plastics of the drapes...tossed them all out and got better.
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  8. #18

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    Nov 2014
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    Re: Harris Tent Storage

    My Harrison PUP has lasted me over 5 years, but has become sticky due to storage in the bag. It along with my Jumbo Harrison tent (bought for $30 like new) now stay assembled and hanging on the wall next to my JOBO CPP2. No issues over this last year with stickiness.
    Follow everybody’s advice and keep it out of the bag unless traveling to extend the life of the tent.
    -Mikey

  9. #19

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    Re: Harris Tent Storage

    The stickiness and stink go away when properly stored. I had a large Harrison changing bag stored in its original packaging for years and when I took it out for a road trip my wife thought something died in the house. The old lady made a bigger stink. On my solo road trip (yeah!) I hung up the changing bag with the AC on all night and a week later it smelled like Spring. Now I keep it folded out in the open in my den. No smell.

  10. #20

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    May 2010
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    St. Louis, Mo.
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    Re: Harris Tent Storage

    I bought a cardboard box from the local UPS store for under the bed storage. The box helps keep the dust off too. Just make sure you measure everything first.

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