• Happy Weed Appreciation Day! 🌱🌿🌻

Innie or outie

(I'm pretty sure I need more context... I think I'll just sit here quietly until more arrives, then say something. but this could get interesting.)
 
Referencing heated debates of the past on other sites……..Tarp for your tent…inside or outside? The peeing thing is in the same vein, oops, I meant vane.
 
Inside.

Any water pooling under the tent cannot get inside with the tarp in the tent, easier to clean the floor too, just take it out, give it a shake, put it back. (not talking about pee'ing in the river). :rolleyes:

Although... these days with tent floors so darned thin, one outside would help too...
 
Last edited:
LOL, give it a shake! I just remembered why I don't need any tarp…cause I got my new wonderful thermarest cot, won't even touch the floor.
 
Referencing heated debates of the past on other sites……..Tarp for your tent…inside or outside? The peeing thing is in the same vein, oops, I meant vane.

Ah...Thank you. Neither. I use a hammock.

When I was a boy scout, we used our ground-cloths on the ground, as our old canvas baker tents didn't have floors...
 
Referencing heated debates of the past on other sites……..Tarp for your tent…inside or outside? The peeing thing is in the same vein, oops, I meant vane.
Come on....how do you get a 10 x 14 tarp in a 4X7 tent :)

Don't lose any of those 12 feet for the cot! By bye! I will be off playing with someone knives if they will let me. See ya Sunday.
 
I've never understood the mentality of protecting a $10 tarp with the floor of a $300 to $400 tent.
Knowing how and where to set up a tent and footprint stops water from "pooling" under a tent does as a little cleaning up of the tent site itself.
An under-tarp or footprint protects the floor from abrasion and small holes.
10 bucks for a spray bottle or can of waterproofing every few years is a small price to pay to keep the tent floor waterproof.

fwiw,
Ted
 
Well, my opinion, for what it's worth: You've got two conditions; the common garden variety camping that makes up 99.999% of the time I'm camping and then the rare frog drowning rain that comes along only once in a great while.
So...to keep things from poking holes in the sewn in tent floor, the tarp goes outside. There are always sharp poker things looking for my tent floor.

When or even if I'm ever caught in one of those monsoon type rains, that's the time to consider just what is going on and not be in a rush to make camp. Am I in any danger from the events unfolding? Water rising? Trees losing their grip on sodden soil? And so on.
Maybe, it might be best to just wait it out under a suspended tarp with my gear all packed up and safe beside me. With any luck I can get a small fire going and sleep in my chair up above the puddles. True, it will make for an interesting night but I've avoided getting everything wet and muddy and tomorrow will be another day with maybe better weather.

Now, that's a dandy answer, but was that the question?

Rob
 
I've often been a nonie. With my newest Nemo Losi tent I'm a factory product bothie.

I think in and out both work about the same for water.

As to puncture potential, that depends on whether the greater risk comes from the ground or from objects in the tent. That, in turn, can depend on the size of the tent. The bigger the tent, the more likely that more gear will be hauled and tossed into it, a person will sit in a small chair in it, or have a cot in it, or stand up and step around in it. So, in a big tent, I'd go innie.
 
Ha ha, OM, glad to see your return, with a phrase such as "frog drowning rain". Think I'll use that for a band name. Think I'll go one step further than OM, I've been getting soft lately, must be this married life, think I'll go all hair shirt and just pile leaves and dirt on top of me, or if the bugs are really bad, weight myself down and sleep under water with a snorkel poking out to breath. Think of the simplicity and the incredible lightness of travel. Plus it will make it easier to pee in the lake, or river, wherever I anchor myself for the night.
 
If you set up a bivy bag, would you put your ground sheet inside or outside? That is your answer folks. Don't set up in a bowl and put the ground sheet on the ground. To be honest I can't remember the last time I even used one
 
We didn't set up in the bowl, we could see how the last heavy rain had moved the pine needles around and where it had flooded the main tent pad area so we moved uphill to the flattest spot we could get, then had a frog drowning rain again. Such is life in the Boreal. No such thing as groomed tent pads or flat ground anyway.

I'm thinking of trying a hammock this year, but there is still the "every night" pee thing to deal with which is easier to execute from a tent.
 
I have always been an outie, even with a DIY groundcloths for old Eureka Timberlines and the like. Most of the tents I now use have OEM footprints – stupidly expensive, but the better ones have scalloped edges that won’t stick out past the tent body and collect rain, and corners with webbing & grommets sized for the poles.

Even using a DIY plastic sheet cutting the perimeter with scalloped edges ) ( and adding doubled duct tape corner flaps with grommets does much the same thing.

I am, on rare occasions, an innie as well. I carry a very lightweight piece of plastic slightly larger than the tent floor that I can lay down inside the tent if I’ve had to pack it up wet (or misjudged the runoff or ground flood in heavy rains – sometimes the ideal tent spot just isn’t to be had).

The coated-nylon footprints seem to hold up well, at least better than the DIY plastic ground cloths, which end up holed and sliced and in need to replacement every couple of years. Having seen the condition of those plastic ground cloths I’m cautious about wear and tear on a tent floor.
 
We didn't set up in the bowl, we could see how the last heavy rain had moved the pine needles around and where it had flooded the main tent pad area so we moved uphill to the flattest spot we could get, then had a frog drowning rain again. Such is life in the Boreal. No such thing as groomed tent pads or flat ground anyway.

Floods happen. When the ground is nothing but flat atop poorly drained soil it can be hard to avoid standing water after a long, hard deluge. Barely above water level swamplands seem especially prone to saturation flooding.

If I could sleep comfortably in a hammock there are trips-with-trees where that would absolutely be my choice at times.

I'm thinking of trying a hammock this year, but there is still the "every night" pee thing to deal with which is easier to execute from a tent.

Not to get too graphic, or wander too far off topic, but the whole “How do you pee at night” is another issue. I’m not getting out of the tent and walking some reasonable distance away. Even more so if it is cold or raining. So I have a pee bottle in the vestibule. Your choice of vessel may vary.

In a hammock I wouldn’t especially want to pee out of or under the hammock where I’ll be standing barefoot when I get in or out, so I guess I’d leave a container on the ground under the hammock. A bottom-entry Hennessey would seem ideal for that maneuver, but that’s just conjecture – how do you hammock hangers handle the late night call?
 
I don't really have the "pee in the bottle" option, unless they have come up with something for us women to use recently that would be compact and sanitary. My aim isn't that good in the dark when half asleep and the vestibules are too cramped for such a venture. So I have to dodge the rain and bugs and be quick about it. Although I was wondering if hanging would lessen the need since there would be less pressure on the bladder.

Diapers anyone?

We haven't actually used an innie or outie with the new tent, but we do have pieces of poly tarp cut that we keep in the tent to go on the floor in the corners for the rocks that hold the tent in place.
 
Back
Top