Equipment Woes - Resolved. Mostly.

In what seems another lifetime ago way back in July, I had a good whinge about the gear problems we were having in Equipment Woes.

I don't mind giving the people who make gear a hard time if the equipment does not live up to expectations but am also very happy to praise them when they resolve the problems.

So good on Typhoon International for excellent customer service in sending me a replacement drysuit to wear for more than half of our trip so I could return mine for testing. As it turned out I don't think there was anything wrong with it but they were concerned enough to want it back to check it was ok. They also responded very quickly when due to various courier and address mix ups my drysuit got lost and then when found it followed a very circuitous route back to me, arriving the day before we left to return to Australia.

Credit due to Thermarest in Ireland who once I made contact immediately arranged to post me a replacement, by that time though the major surgery I had inflicted on the existing mattress had worked so I only had two nights sleeping on the ground. It was nice to have a new one but as it so light and feels as though it is made of tissue paper it will be interesting to see how long it lasts.

Solarfilm too offered to replace the faulty solar panel but due to the difficulties of having a replacement sent from the US to us in Ireland I asked them to send the replacement to Tasmania. It was a bit of a gamble as the faulty one could have stopped working at any time leaving us unable to charge our phones and VHF radio - our most reliable sources of weather information. Luckily it kept working and the new one has just arrived here at home. 

We had more major problems with our Exped tent, the poles started corroding badly which made them virtually impossible to put together and/or pull apart and right at the end of the trip the flysheet ripped again. These problems coupled with others from earlier in the trip and before has made the tent pretty much worn out and unreliable in just over two years. We have two Macpac tents, one 24yrs old the other over 15yrs old that are still very much in working order and have caused less problems in all that time than the Exped tent in just two years.  I have been in contact with Exped and they seemed concerned about all the issues we've had but nothing resolved yet.