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 Topic: Breathable ground sheet for footprint
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14/3/2023 at 12:45pm
Location: London
Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524
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I know some sites insist on breathable groundsheets for tents, either they are stupid and don't understand the principles at work here, or it's a legacy from long gone days when tents didn't have sewn in ground sheets (SIGS) or clip on bathtub groundsheets that covered the grass!
A breathable footprint achieves virtually nothing of worth for either you as a user, or the site owner. Your tent will still get it's SIG wet and muddy (ONLY benefit MAY be a bit of padding to protect SIG on rough ground) as water/mud will work through the open weave, and the grass will still yellow because it's deprived of air and sunlight by the tent SIG!
As to a practical footprint, a basic plastic builders tarp is as good as it needs to be (same material as most custom footprints from tent manufacturers), it's completely out of sight, so the colour is totally unimportant. Cut/folded so that it is 4"/100mm smaller on all sides than outline of tent (to stop rain running off tent walls and wicking under the tent, thereby partially defeating object of trying to keep SIG dry for repacking). After market eyelets can be added at corners and maybe midway along longish sides to give pegging points (use mushroom head or wire pegs that go flush with the ground so as to avoid damaging SIG which will sit on top of them). Pegging it down can make it MUCH easier to correctly locate your tent on it. Two smaller tarps can be Gaffer taped together to get the size you need, and give a permanent joint that won't need messing with every time you pitch.
I've got a breathable groundsheet/carpet for my caravan awning, where it's benefits to underlying grass can really work as no impenetrable SIG above it, but it can get absolutely sodden and mud infused, which makes it a horribly messy thing (and quite heavy when water/wet mud laden) to pack away! - I wouldn't consider using one as a footprint where it would bring no benefit!
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via mobile 12/3/2023 at 5:31pm
