mercalia wrote:I think ground sheets( built into tents) are misunderstood. I dont think, today, they are meant as a floor to keep out water etc but just to seal a tent so that you dont get any draughts or ground creepy crawlies? Unless you have an old fashioned canvas tent which came with a very tough rubberised bottom like my Conquest A poled ridge tent -(why use a thin bottom when the whole tent weighs a ton?) So a foot print is needed these days.
This isn't so much a case of "intelligent design" as "marketing-led design". Light weight is a positive feature that can be marketed, thus there is pressure to make tents lighter so they sell more. An easy way to make them lighter is use very thin groundsheets... These were pioneered on specialist tents for mountain marathons and similar, where conforming to the rules meant more than concepts like overnight comfort (if you're doing a MM you laugh in the face of discomfort, or are at least far too tired to have it bother you).
Of course, once you add a footprint you've lost the whole point of having a really thin groundsheet (so the tent weighs less), but you've sold your tent on being light
and sold a footprint too. Look at something like a Hille Black Label tent, designed to be taken to rough places, and compare it to the crisp-packets adorning the really light stuff these days and you'll see that not all groundsheets are created equal. Early "lightweight" groundsheets from the likes of Saunders really broke new ground in showing you didn't need the likes of a Force 10 Classic groundsheet to keep out water, but they look pretty meaty compared to some of the things you see now.
Not that a footprint is a bad thing, mind. It gives you the choice of having extra condensation protection (the thicker the floor the less the floor is prone to it), and on occasions where bulk/weight isn't an issue you have more abrasion/puncture protection (we use them on our Hilles when we're camping out of a boat, but not on the bikes or on foot). But it strikes me that buying a floor so thin it needs a footprint anyway is pretty daft, unless you're using it for one-offs like MMs.
Pete.
Often seen riding a bike around Dundee...