------------- April Peak District Beech Croft Farm
May Peak District Duke of York
May Holland Delfse Hout
June Cotton Arms Nantwich
july/aug Cornwall Pentewan Sands
And quite a few local weekenders
In simple terms a footprint will help keep the bottom of your SIG clean and also help protect it from stones making holes in your SIG
Hope that answers your question
------------- Live life to the full you are a long time dead
Footprints are generally used for tents with fully sewn in groundsheets to give added protection to the groundsheet from stones, as stated, or hedging thorns (as I once discovered) and also to help keep the bottom of the tent clean and reasonably dry. It is easier just to clean a footprint at home than to have to try to clean the entire bottom of a tent.
If your tent only has a sig on the bedroom pod and a loose groundsheet in the living/porch area you may still benefit from a footprint especially underneath the bedroom pod for the same reason. You could also extend it to cover the full area of the tent but make sure that it does not stick out beyond the edges of the flysheet otherwise it will pick up water running off the fly and direct it underneath the tent, which you don't need.
In fact, I have managed for years without using a footprint but decided to use one this year after I had a bad couple of years of being offered pretty rough pitches and wishing I had one.
Quote: Originally posted by teantoast on 05/5/2014
Oh I like the idea of easier cleaning.
It's just a cheap regatta tent I got from Ebay to see how we get on.
May give it a miss this time but invest if we continue with the camping.
Thanks all😃
Sounds like a good idea because if you catch the bug you will no doubt start looking at bigger and better tents as we all do, and footprints obviously vary in size and shape. I am fortunate in that the bottom of my tent is more or less square so I can use an ordinary off the shelf tarpaulin.
You could look at footprints or ground sheets by size - it MAY mean another trip to a camping shop - sorry (not really, just another excuse to window shop)