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 Hi,

Im new to camping and am a bit confused (nothing unusal in that).

I have a Khyam Ontario 6 with a SIG, and have been reading about footprints? what exactly are these and would I need one? Could you just use tarp?

We are going camping properly in half term in October up to that point we have only camped in the garden. Am so excited, already counting down the days....

Cheers

I use an ordinary tarp from the likes of B & Q etc; only cost me £10 and is perfect for putting under my tent.

I use one as it keeps the bottom of my tent clean so if I have to fold it after a wet week its all nice and clean to put away.

As Bramapp says its personal preference - but no need to splash out on one specifically designed for your tent unless it is an odd shape but I would just buy ordinary tarp one pop my tent over it and cut it to shape and hem the edges.

Depends of the shape of the tent, we had a dome tent which you needed an footprint to match the shape, where we now have a tunnel tent which is a rectangle and an normal tarp does the business, as long as previously stated it doesn't protrude from the actual tent as water will then run under the tent and soak through.  We did have this problem with our dome tent but it was our fault as the fly sheet didn't go over the footprint completely.

Omg, I must not let 'Im Indoors see this!

I made the mistake of mentioning this evening about using laminate underlay to go under the airbed and he's remembered there's some in the loft/shed/garage and added it to the camping list (now 4 sides of A4!). He would so love the idea of a tarp to keep our "bottom" clean and as he works in the building trade I just know a tarp would appear within 48 hours, to be kept for solely that purpose.

This summer you couldn't have fitted a box of matches in our car by the time it was loaded, with a tarp and some underlay we'd have to buy a blooming trailer.

Thank you all so much for clearing that up for me. Thats me off to B&Q this morning now. Cheers

x