Amish- they do a lot of sewing and like to make money too...I saw you live in Ohio and thought you may have some amish near ya.

That's funny. Amish don't use zippers. Didn't you ever watch The Witness?

Velcro.

Qwazse, forgot about the zipper thing but the Amish will sew whatever you want. When I left the business world almost had all my suits&ties made into a rug by the Amish. Should've done that. Velcro sounds like a good idea as well.

If you have teeth of the zipper missing the kit and repairs won't work and you need new zippers.

google for some directions for what the zipper is doing.
sometimes the pull is not tight enough against the teeth and you can use plyers to squish the pull edges so they are tigher and that will force the teeth to go back together appropriately.

Or the pull may need to be replaced, which you can do yourself fairly easily if you can get to the end of the zipper. you may need to undo some stitching, but if you can find the right size pull to replace, you just slide it in place and redo the stitching right at the end.

also check your local sewing store.
Then Get a product like this

http://www.joann.com/universal-zipper-repair-kit/prd28089/

there is a version for heavy duty zippers like are on tents or heavy winter coats.
I've fixed several winter coats with a new pull and sleeping bags. I have one tent that needs a zipper repair but I believe it has a tooth missing, which means all new zipper or all new tent.

Next time you buy tents, buy those that don't have zippers.

Three of the four tents I own do not have zippers. It can be done.

And for those that think me outlandish, I have never found a summer camp wall tent with a zipper.....

Stosh

That is the only drawback to Eureka tents - zipper problems. If they have to replace the entire zipper, $70 is not a bad price. If they repair and replace the slider, I usually pay about $25.00.

Dale

It's not a problem with the zippers, it's a problem with the scouts. Bet the broken zippers are bottom zippers, not the side one.
Scouts like to just unzip the side and push their way through the door putting too much stress on the bottom one. Or they get the flap that covers the bottom zipper stuck in it and force it.
My local guy that I buy tents from replaces zippers for $40 each.
These Eureka Timberline 4s are $200 now.

Eagle 732 -

You are right on the money. They open the side zipper and try to slide in and out of the slit. The flap also gets stuck a lot, even for the adults.

I just received 2 new Timberline 6's and they now have one "D" zipper and NO FLAP!! A great improvement!

Dale

Very nice, hopefully they'll change the 2s and 4s too.
The 6 is almost $500!

Yes, there is a problem with the scouts being too lazy to unzip both zippers. We plan to have 'tents 101' at a troop meeting SOON.

Thanks to all for the responses!

RJ

True Story - at the 1997 Jamboree we were using TImberlines and all ten days I was continually yelling at the Jamboree scouts (older boys!) to open both zippers. We already had a few broken ones. About the second to last morning it was too much, and I bellowed without thinking "OPEN THE F***ING ZIPPER!!. One of the leaders in the next campsite, a good old boy from Alabama came up to me later, and I apologized for my profanity, but he shook my hand and said "Don't worry, we ALL lose it some times."

rj, you can have Tent 101, Tent 102 and Advanced Tent Operations and it won't matter. The boys don't care because if they damage a tent, they know they don't have to deal with getting it fixed. At least that's what I see. It ticks me off but I haven't resorted to bad words, at least not yet!

Wait, Eagle732, your time is coming!!