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Posted by Bill S on May 15, 2006 at 8:38:42 pm EDT
In reply to niche footprints posted by Camp dog on May 14, 2006 at 5:38:07 pm EDT

You have 3 choices for protecting the bottom of your tent from early wear-out:

1. spend mucho bucks for a custom footprint made by the tent manufacturer. They work, but wear out fast enough that you will go through 2 or 3 of them in the time you would wear out an unprotected tent floor (in other words, you get double or triple the tent floor life).

2. Buy a plain old "ground cloth", meaning some kind of tarp, like the blue nylon-reinforced plastic tarps that cost $10-15 at OSH, Lowes, etc. These will wear much longer than the custom fitted ones from the tent manufacturer. But they weigh a fair amount more, and you have to remember to tuck them under the edges of the tent. Anything extending beyond the tent will tend to funnel water under the floor of the tent, which will produce condensation, or may let the water leak in. Tucking all parts under the tent will prevent this.

3. Stop in the paint department and buy a plastic dropcloth, preferably 3 mil. The 12x12 size is $2-3. You now have two options -
3a. Split it in half. Use one half as a tarp (see (2) above) until it wears out (almost as long as the custom footprints, in my experience and a lot of other people's as well), then use the other half. Lighter than the custom one, much lighter than the blue tarp, and for the same price you can get dozens of them.
3b. Pitch your tent in the back yard or garage (don't try this in the living room) with the plastic drop cloth under it. Do a bit of shifting until you completely cover the bottom with the most extending to the side (should be about half of a 12x12). Use a magic marker to outline your tent's floor. Take the plastic out and trim a couple inches inside the outline (idea is to have the footprint completely under the tent to avoid the water collection problem that all poorly aligned footprints and ground cloths will have). Again, much cheaper and lighter than the custom ones, and lasts an amazingly long time (I have had them last me 3 or 4 years). If 3 mil wears out too fast, you can get 4, 5, or 6 mil.

Actually, I'm lazy and use 3a most of the time.

You don't really need a footprint when camping on snow.

Some people advocate using Tyvek and have suggested ways to scrounge it for free (go to a housing tract and beg the scrap from the builders, for example). Problem is that Tyvek is not made for contact with the ground, is 1-way water repellent (not really waterproof, so you have to watch which side is up), and when it gets damp, it gets much weaker and can tear easily - all conditions that are not encountered in its intended use in construction. The only people I know who have used it for any length of time used it in places like the Sierra in summer, where there is very little rain, and what there is evaporates quickly in the dry air.

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