Skins adhesive not so adhesive when wet

I find the various commercial tail attachments to be inferior to the "rat tail" system -- which makes me wonder why it isn't offered commerially.

That's interesting. I have BD skins and the hook they use seems pretty solid and I can't really see it coming off unless I happened to clip it in a kick turn or something. But I guess it's better to convert to a failsafe system before I have an issue on the slopes

Some good advice above. Different skins and glues seem to fare quite differently when wet. I hear that the BD skins and their glue tend to do fairly well in wet spring/summer conditions. I've been happy with them.

Pity the fool, though, who does not have some sort of good sticky tape along to wrap around the skin/skin combo at a few points along the length of the ski in the event that their skins are just failing to adequately adhere. Duct tape works. Waterproof adhesive tape is OK but tends to start unwrapping as it gets wet. I bet Leuko tape would work too (I have started carrying it in the blister kit - great for putting on hot spots before they become blisters and it's also useful as an adhesive tape for applying gauze...), though it's possible that ski edges will cut through it faster than they do through duct tape. Once you cut through the tape, it is of course useless and you need to reapply. No one should have to try to ski with skins falling off...

Pity the fool, though, who does not have some sort of good sticky tape along to wrap around the skin/skin combo at a few points along the length of the ski in the event that their skins are just failing to adequately adhere. Duct tape works. Waterproof adhesive tape is OK but tends to start unwrapping as it gets wet.

Voile straps can also work well for this. Since they are reusable, they're my first choice for dealing with glue failure. One or two straps per skin should be enough.

I like to dry skins as much as possible at rest stops. Lay the skis on the snow with the bases up or stand them up braced by ski poles. Be careful not to let them get too warm in the sun (once they're drying out) because glue can come off the skins and stick to the bases this way.

^^^^ Ditto on drying being helpful. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. I've had best luck with making sure the skin is stuck with no gaps before skinning, to keep the wet snow from establishing a beachhead. Then after skiing, before skinning again, I wipe the bases on my pants or glove, and let the skis dry in the sun (normally futzing with other pieces of gear) for a couple minutes before reapplying skins.

That's interesting. I have BD skins and the hook they use seems pretty solid and I can't really see it coming off unless I happened to clip it in a kick turn or something. But I guess it's better to convert to a failsafe system before I have an issue on the slopes

Maybe I'm just a klutz -- or have skis that are too long (~185-195cm in my quiver), but I find that it failrly easy to knock off the BD "ClipFix" off while making kick turns.  

I have less trouble with this with the "rat tail" system's lower profile -- also the "bungie" component of the system seems keep the skins tensioned more reliably when the skins stretch.

But if the BD tail attachments are working for you -- what the heck.  

In addition to some Voile straps as Lowell suggests -- I have the old-skool habit of wrapping a couple of 3/8 - 1/2 inch thicknesses of duct tape on my ski poles just below the grip -- on the pole these make a useful "choke up" grips and are always availble to deal with glue failure (and the hundreds of other things duct tape is useful for)  

Every time I've tried to use duct tape to hold on a failed skin my ski edges quickly cut through the tape. So I do not recommend duct tape.

What works well for me is athletic tape. Not first aid tape, but the stuff athletes use to tape themselves up. You can apply it to a wet skin/ski and it will still stick. Think of all the sweating an athlete does and that tape stays on. I wrap it two or three times around the ski/skin in two to three places. Typically I use the 3/4" width tape.

Of course like others have said voile straps work too.

Your skins don't need to be really sticky to stay on your ski, if you can go straight up the hill. Once you start traversing snow gets under the skin.