We finally got round to pitching our tent for the first time, very pleased as it only took 35mins for the tent to go up, not including bedrooms.
I have a question about the footprint sheet, we found that the footprint sticks out an inch or two around the tent, is this normal? I'm just concerned if water was to get trapped between that and the sewn in groundsheet.
No, it's not normal, it's not correct, and you are right to be concerned, for the reason you state.
First, check you have the right footprint (it has been known to have the wrong one, even with a brand new purchase. Hopefully there's a label somewhere (on the footprint) stating the tent's name. If it's wrong, contact the seller.
Next step, if that proves fruitless, is to re-pitch the tent (if you've taken it down) and make sure the base (the groundsheet of the tent) is nice and tight, nice and flat inside.
I guess, if neither of those improve things, all you can do is to fold it back, to shorten it's length and/or width (as required) and tape it with Gorilla tape. That way (rather than cutting it down to size), you'll still have the eyelets/pegging points around the edge(s).
Oops... started that last post before the pics were posted. Looks reasonably tight at the base, from those pics. Here's hoping the footprint is the wrong one (and you can get an exchange, of course), otherwise, I guess you'll need to fold it.
Thanks for comments. I know the bag for the footprint says its for the correct tent but I will have a look to see if there is and actual label on the sheet itself.
Maybe a repitch is needed, just to make sure I had the ground sheet positioned correctly and that it was pulled as tight as possible. It's possible I was being a little cautious.
Other than this issue we are very pleased with speed and how easy it is to pitch!
yep, looks a bit big - weve accidentally pitched our tent wrong over the footprint before now! Meant we found a rip in the sig as ended up with a mini swimming pool in the porch due to water blowing underneath - fun times :)
------------- June 2015: seaview international 2 nights
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august 2015: tollgate farm 5 nights
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September 2015: tregarton park
family of 6 with young children
I had this same problem with my new tent. I bought a footprint to go with it but when pitched the footprint stuck out in various places. I thought the footprint was the wrong size but I measured it and it was actually a few centimetres short of the tent groundsheet all the way round as it should be.
The only way I could get the footprint to fit properly well underneath the tent was to cut about 10" off the back end of it (didn't think to fold it at the time). That worked and it now fits nicely underneath the tent all the way round.
I can only conclude that the manufacturers stated dimensions for the tent are slightly exaggerated. However, my tent has a 'bathtub' type sewn in groundsheet and when erected the groundsheet raises up at the sides forming the bottom of the flysheet (if that makes sense) so although the groundsheet measurements are probably accurate, by the time a couple of inches of it is raised off the ground when erected, the actually footprint touching the ground is less. However, you would think the people who make the footprints would know this and make their footprints fit properly.
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Topic: First practice, Footprint question
