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Quote: Originally posted by xtinexoop on 17/4/2008What is the thinnest lightest smallest folding groundsheet to put under a sig?

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My hubby is adamant that we don't have room in the car for anything and that it defeats the object of the sig in the first place if we have to faff with a seperate groundsheet (that is the thing that always takes us the time with our current tent).

As he rightly points out our new tent was only £100 so its probably not worth protecting, but I would like some info as the idea is to find out if we like a tent with a sig and then to buy a better one.


Christine

we use a footprint, which also allows us to plan out where exactly to pitch before the tent is out of the bag- and with our big blue whale- nicknamed by our daughter, it is huge and heavy to move once up.

but it does give protection , and  keeps sig clean. We don't clean the footprint, just fold up to keep clean side clean as already said above.

I use large floor wipes for inside and outside of the groundsheet before packing away leaves it smelling fresh when we unpack

B &Q are the cheapest i've found for blue builders tarpaulins to use as an extra groundsheet. I've used them for years, under the sig,makes things a whole lot easier, and you get a nice clean dry surface to roll around on trying to fold your tent up to get it back in the bag at the end .

 I find that once I've packed the tent away, if its a DRY day , if you turn the tarp over, so the dirty side is up, and leave it loosely pegged for half an hour or so, while you finish packing the car up , the breeze will dry it off .

We always lay out a huge sheet of ordinary clear plastic, then lay our tent out then the ground sheet on top. That way the tent is kept clean the ground sheet is clean. The sheet of dirty plastic goes in its own  bag and cleaned when ever,or dumped. Saves all that hard cleaning and keeps the tent clean.

Malc

Jenny,

Malc's suggestion sounds cheapest!  The other ideas are all very good, but as you said there's no point you spending 10's of pounds on a footprint or the like when the whole tent only cost £100!  You could something like a really thin plastic decorators dust sheet just to put down under the tent purely as a labour saving device to keep the SIG a little bit cleaner.  We always hang on to the plastic sheeting used to cover new furniture and matresses and use this.  Don't make the mistake I did tho'.  I left some of the plastic showing around the end of the tent and although it didn't rain the dew was heavy and after 3 nights the tent was effectively pitched in a pond (albeit shallow!).  Aldi sometimes get in tarps for about £5.

All good ideas here. We use a cheap tarpaulin under our tent to keep it nice and clean. We don't have any of these wonderful SIGs so any extra on the tarp is laid over the mud skirt inside the tent which helps to keep out draughts. When we leave we shake off any bits, lay it ground side up and use an old newspaper to wipe off any worm casts, lumps of dirt etc before folding it dirty side in. At the end of the season we put the hosepipe on it and that works well for us.

If you want quick and easy the decorators thin plastic dust sheet is ideal. At the end of the holiday you just dispose of it although that does incur some expense and is not entirely eco-friendly!