ground cloth



anonymous added this item on October 04, 99


under (or inside depending on your preferences) the tent

On March 30, 2000 Pondo wrote:

Put INSIDE tent. When it's outside, rain gets between the ground cloth and the tent bottom and can cause a soggy night's sleep.


On April 16, 2003 RC wrote:

put it on the outside and protect the floor of your tent - make it smaller than the floor so it won't catch any rain or fold it in.


On May 03, 2003 Mark wrote:

RC is right. Consult any Boy Scout handbook and that is what it will tell you to do. If you need to put it inside the tent, get a new tent. Also, selecting the right tent site makes a big difference.


On July 26, 2004 tom wrote:

Actually, I use one inside the tent and under the tent. I roll the edges of the under tent tarp so that rain can't get between the ground cloth and the tent. Haven't been wet yet.


On February 20, 2006 D. Nei wrote:

I have a dome tent so I layed down a tarp and placed my tent on top of it and traced the outline with a magic marker. I then cut the pattern a few inches in so I didn't have to tuck any tarp under the tent. I also cut the pattern in front of the door the width of the door plus a few feet out in front. This was used as a rug to keep out mud and pine needles. Once inside the tent for the night I tucked this under the door opening in cased it rained during the night.


On September 06, 2007 CanoeFly wrote:

I can't hold back my comments on something as controversial as this, especially when it may very well affect someone's survival if they become wet and cold. A ground cloth is kind of a misnomer as it doesn't belong on the ground regardless of the opinion of the Boy Scout Handbook authors. RC says to make it smaller than the tent footprint apparently thinking that the rain will run straight down to the ground. Rain runs down the tent sides, UNDER the tent and between the tent floor and the plastic sheet. Plastic is non porous, urethane coated nylon (tent floor material) begins to degrade every time you fold and roll the tent for storage or transport. It begins to get microscopic cracks and pinholes. Pressure from your weight forces the water up through the (at one time) sealed floor and into the tent. It only takes a few pinholes to squirt a couple of gallons of water up into your sleeping bag. My brother-in-law and I had this debate over "inside or out" for many trips until a 24-hour downpour in the Quetico left his down bag soaked while my tent contents stayed dry as a bone. Not a word was spoken but he's now a devout convert.I spend dozens of days every year in a tent on all types of terrain being as careful as I can about removing debris before pitching. After I had used my tent for 10 years I finally put a small hole in the floor which I easily patched. Don't worry about damaging the tent floor. The most important thing to protect is the interior contents with a vapor barrier (plastic sheet) INSIDE the tent. IMHO anyone who tells you to put the vapor barrier under the tent obviously hasn't spent a lot of time in the woods .


 

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