If It's Broke, Fix It
Maintaining and Repairing Backcountry Gear
Sometimes, gear breaks. When you’re on day five of a two-week hunt, this means you need to fix it. To get you back in the game, we’ll walk you through basic gear repair and the products we use.
We have a rock-solid warranty and repair program. Our products have a lifetime warranty against defects in material and workmanship. Repairs associated with normal wear and tear are repaired at a minimal and reasonable charge. All repairs and warranty work are done at our headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. We don’t ship your gear to a third party. When you call customer service, you’ll speak to one of reps whose goal is to get you and your gear back on the trail ASAP.
Two common reasons Stone Glacier packs return to Bozeman for repair are entirely preventable. Imagine you killed a nice bull miles away from the trailhead. On your last 80-pound load, you reach the truck and slam down your pack on the ground, anticipating flip-flops and a cold one. You look over at your pack and see one of the vertical carbon stays sticking through the top. Two sheets of tough X-Pac fabric holding those stays can take plenty of abuse, but 80 pounds of elk meat creates a lot of force. No worries. Give us a call. We’ll fix it for you.
Another reason packs come back to the warehouse is because of your dog. Our packs get bloody because customers haul meat in them. When left on the garage floor, a bloody Load Shelf entices Fido. Hang your pack up until you can clean it. But if your dog does rip into it, call us, and we’ll do our best to fix it. Most times, you can patch up minor issues yourself.
GEAR REPAIR
Simple maintenance can prevent a lot of issues with technical gear, but stuff happens. Here’s a simple guide to maintaining and repairing Stone Glacier gear.
How to Replace a Buckle
Replacing a broken buckle on your Stone Glacier pack with our Repair Buckle Kit is easy, but there is one thing to remember: one side of the buckle is ribbed, and the other is smooth. Be sure to route the webbing so it contacts the ribbed side of the buckle. Otherwise, it’s going to slip. When properly routed, the buckle will bite into the webbing.
Repair a Broken Tent Pole
All Stone Glacier tents come with a tent pole repair kit. If you snap a tent pole, the repair kit comes with a piece of titanium or aluminum that is a bit bigger in diameter than your tent pole. Slip this right over the break, and it acts as a splint for your tent. To reinforce it, you can also wrap each end with Tenacious Tape or electrical tape to help the splint stay in place.
How to Patch Holes in Your Tent and Clothes
Holes happen. The good news is, they’re easy to repair with the right tools. If you get a tear in your tent, patch it with Tenacious Tape and then seal the edges of the tape with Seam Grip. Same process goes for our waterproof apparel, which we detail in the following section. Tears in other technical apparel products, with the exception of our Grumman Down products, should be sewn.
If you rip a substantial hole in your Chilkoot Sleeping Bag or Grumman Down Jacket, don’t stitch it yourself. Doing so shuts off the baffle and compresses the down, making it less effective at insulating. Use Tenacious Tape and do your best to patch the hole.
Using a heat gun can also help to seal the Tenacious Tape, but be very careful to use the heat gun sparingly so that you do not melt the garment fabric. This is especially true of down products.
To fix a hole or tear in our M5 or M7 waterproof rain gear, you’ll need Tenacious Tape (applied to the exterior) and Seam Grip and more Tenacious Tape (applied to the interior). The process is simple, and it’s going to keep your rain gear waterproof. Check it out in the video below.
Zipper Maintenance
While you might wonder why a zipper needs maintenance, consider a 30-mile drive down an old two-track to reach your destination in the wilds of Utah. At the trailhead, your pack is covered in a half-inch of the finest red dirt known to man. An untreated zipper will not work properly. A little Zipper Cleaner & Lubricant before your hunt for a desert-dwelling mule deer will prevent stuck and broken zippers.
Broken Pack Stays
Our pack stays are a carbon-fiber composite and strong as an ox. They don’t break often. If they do, call us, and we will walk you through how you can replace them. You can also return your pack to us and we'll replace them for you.
Stone Glacier’s Warranty and Repair Program
We offer a 30-Day Money Back Guarantee for purchases on StoneGlacier.com and the SG Mobile App. You have 30 days from the date of purchase to return any of our products for a refund of the cost of products purchased or an exchange for a different size. Products must still be new with original tags, unused, unwashed, and without any physical damage, stains, etc.
We provide free exchanges for purchases on StoneGlacier.com and the SG Mobile App. Initiate an exchange here.
We also offer gear repair, and you can initiate a repair here.
