Flooring for your ideal MYO tent....

[andrewa]

Just some lateral thought....

I have a Zpacks hexamid twin, with mesh liner/floor, and a cuben floor insert for it. I'm happy with the setup, except that I can't see when you would ever use it without the floor, so am not sure why the mesh floor is there....? maybe just to make it cheaper, given the high basic cost. I'm thinking that, as I would never use it without the floor, I will prob just sew the floor in, and rid myself of some mesh, which only collects leaves and sticks.

In making a tent, like the pyramids you guys are talking about, why would you not just sew in a tub floor, even if using mesh sides. I'd rather have something that was insect , water, and creature proof, rather than fluffing around with removable mesh sides, and BYO groundsheet concepts. What other use do you have for a BYO groundsheet? Or is it that a plastic paint cloth isn't usefully attached to the tent...

With my hexamid, I'm going to extend the tub floor at the back, so it is higher, given that i now have all this Cuben, and tape, as this is the bit where the weather can get in.

I'm still debating whether I add a vestibule/verandah to my hexamid, or just use my recently acquired Zpacks cuben tarp in conjunction with tent to resolve the gear storage/sitting around outside when it rains issue....I suppose it all revolves around my ultimate use, which is backcountry NZ flyfishing (Sth Is, West Coast, in the high rainfall, sandfly ridden areas) where you mostly need sandfly protection ( they would get under "side flaps") and where most weeks it will rain a lot on one or two days, at which stage it is nice to stand under a tarp.

On Bogong 2 weekends ago, my hexamid would probably have survived the 70-90kmh winds, but it would have been nice to be able to pull the groundsheet up the back a bit more to reduce the wind coming in, and the tarp would have been useless.

Various gear, various uses.....

A

[Redback]

Would it be possible to extend your hexamid to the ground at the back?

The flooring for me is a compromise of weight vs comfort.
1. - floorless and use a bivy. Probably the lightest option.
2. medium weight - use a half mesh pyramid in the back half of the tent. Front half floorless
3. use a bathtub floor with a mesh outer for ventilation.

[Orion]

My impression was that zpacks did it that way so you could use a very lightweight groundsheet that would wear out sooner and still be fully enclosed from insects. If you sew the floor into place it's a pain in the neck to replace it, so you use much heavier fabric.

[andrewa]

Redback, yes, it would be possible to extend the back of the Zpack down to the ground....might need to be able to roll the flap up when you want the breeze coming through. Easily done.

I only really use a bivy bag in winter to protect my sleeping bag from damp. Id rather have a waterproof floor to be able to spread gear around on, and Orion, given that I have the cuben groundsheet, it hopefully won't wear out too fast. I think I'll remove the mesh floor, and sew in the tub groundsheet. If it does wear out and need replacing, it is a simple thing to cut it off, and replace with one that is a cm higher, and cuben is easily repaired anyway.

I was going to pitch it last weekend, and have a fiddle, but it was very windy, which wasn't ideal for measuring modifications! However, now that I've got my head around glueing cuben, I'm keen to get on with the project. Will have a fiddle with sewing it too.
A

[forest]

Just have a good hard think about how you wish to use the tent.

I was ...... this close to getting zpacks to just sew the floor straight in my hexamid and only having the perimeter mesh like your suggesting. After a bit more pondering and comments from Joe I decided to leave it standard.

Glad I did as it has allowed me to use the ground sheet "cowboy" camping on Larapinta and on the rough floors in the Alpine huts under my light weight mat on trips where we stayed in the odd hut but also used the tent.

If you ever think it might be handy to have a ground sheet but not put the actual tent up it's been very handy to have it seperate for me.

I've found the 1.0oz/yd cuben bathtube floor/ground sheet zpacks uses to be very durable with abrasion and punctures, suprisingly more so that one would think with such a thin material. I have the twin size in my solo plus and it's great for spreading out gear in bad weather.

[andrewa]

Forest, I really cant think of a situation where I would just use a groundsheet.....but, if it did come up somewhere, I'd probably just sleep on top of the tent.

A

[Moondog55]

A facetious reply but my ideal floor would weigh almost nothing. be almost bulletproof tough, be flexible to 100 K, not melt of soften until in excess of 1000K and be self inflating also easy to sew and glue

[Redback]

A facetious reply but my ideal floor would weigh almost nothing. be almost bulletproof tough, be flexible to 100 K, not melt of soften until in excess of 1000K and be self inflating also easy to sew and glue

If only it came cheap as well.