My cousin's comment about his tent made me stop using a footprint

I was helping my cousin set up his old tent in his backyard in Portland. He didn't have a ground cloth, so I offered him my spare. He just shrugged and said, 'I stopped using those years ago. The floor on this thing is 70 denier, and I've camped on gravel for a decade. Never a hole.' That hit different because I'd been buying a specific footprint for every single tent I've owned, thinking it was non-negotiable. I realized I was spending an extra $40 to $80 each time for protection I might not need, especially on shorter trips to established sites. Now I check the tent floor material first and only bring a tarp if the ground looks really rough. Has anyone else ditched the dedicated footprint for most car camping?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_elizabeth1mo ago

Yeah, I had the same wake up call with my last tent. The sales guy really pushed the matching footprint, said it was a must. Used it twice on clean tent pads and it just collected pine needles under it. Now I keep a cheap blue tarp in the car, cut to size. If the site looks sharp or muddy, I throw it down. Otherwise, I let the tent floor do its job. Saved myself sixty bucks right there.

charlie3841mo ago

I mean, the pine needles under the footprint thing is real, but that's kind of the point. It keeps the abrasion and moisture off your actual tent floor, which is way more expensive to replace. Maybe it's just me, but I'd rather clean a footprint than patch a hole.

-1

verac4020d agoProlific Poster

Oh, come on now... that $60 savings is gonna cost you way more in the long run. I've seen plenty of tent floors get chewed up by a single sharp rock you didn't notice, and 70 denier isn't magic armor. My buddy thought the same thing, took his new tent to a sandy site in Moab, and a tiny piece of broken glass poked right through the floor on the first night. A blue tarp is a decent backup but it slides around and bunches up, which is annoying. The tight fit of a real footprint keeps everything flat and stops moisture from wicking up under the tent when it rains hard. Seems like false economy to me, especially if you camp anywhere besides a perfectly groomed site.