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 I have a 4m bell tent (from Belltent.co.uk) with a separate ground sheet.  The skirt tucks in under the ground sheet giving a good overlap and took only minutes to do, with no draughts or leaking in some heavy rain and strong winds. The only place where there was a slight problem was at the door, don't know how this would be different with a ZIG. 

 Liz 

 The skirt on my bell tent is  continuous, if that makes sense, if the ground sheet was pegged down the skirt wouldn't go all the way under it because the pegs would be in the way. We did peg the ground sheet either side of the door to hold it down because we felt it may lift and we could trip on it otherwise. This meant the skirt didn't sit flush on the ground there(cos the pegs were in the way), so there was a slight gap at the foot of the zip.

 Hope that makes sense, it was my first real pitch of the tent, so maybe I could have improved somewhere.

 Certainly if the weather had been better and we had wanted to lift the walls it would have taken minutes and minutes to draught proof again.

 Liz

I've got the 5m ZIG from bell tent - can't fault it

The ZIG also gives the tent it's shape (especially the A-frame) once it's pegged out

Then you have no draughts etc, can unzip and stop the canvas getting dirty when you pack up.  Plus you can still raise the sides if it's hot

Also the ZIG groundsheet is much thicker than the standard separate one and the zip is strong

Would highly recommend, go for the ZIG for the additional cost

The zip is a thick strong one - don't worry about it!  If you are going to leave it on most of the time to pack it away, you're not going to be using it much anyway - and yes you can pack it away and pitch it attached no problem (quicker as well)

I undo mine purely because i lay the carpet over it before I zip the canvas to the groundsheet (have to get the central part into the middle of the carpet)

can see the zipper here better (it's 2 zips that start at the centre at the back of the tent, zipping round to the front)