making a “bathtub” ground cloth

[Dale Caldwell]

I think that the zpacks cuben fiber ground cloth design is awesome with the "bathtub" effect. I am new to tarp camping and have never understood how one is protected from rain (sheet flow) by using a flat ground cloth. Joe's design seems to address this problem but I don't want to pay $100+ for a ground cloth so I was thinking of trying to make something similar with polycryo or the kite-making tyvek. I'm wondering if folding up the corners and sewing would be best (seems like it would be hard to sew some of these materials) or if I should be taping and if so what kind of tape I should use.

I would of course love to do this with cuben fiber but as expensive as the material alone is, I'd rather just pay Joe to do this if I were going to go with this material. I appreciate input here!

[Bob Gross]

I made one out of spinnaker fabric, and it worked well. It has just enough stiffness to it that you can sew the corners to be an inch or so high. Unfortunately, mine came out at 2 ounces, a little too heavy.

–B.G.–

[W I S N E R !]

Here are some good plans:

http://www.backpacking-lite.co.uk/diy/make-an-ultralight-tent-bathtub-floor.html

I'm guessing the design in this link could come out to less than 4 ounces if using 1.1 sil.

I've been considering giving some polycro a try for this design. I'm thinking it could be taped rather than sewn, come in very lightweight, and the seams/ folds in the corners wouldn't have to be that strong as they only have to be tight enough to lift the walls. The grossgrain/webbing tie outs could possibly be replaced with doubled or quadrupled packing or tenacious tape.

I'd like a polycro version to fit my Solomid, possibly trying to use 1/8" shock cord to lightly guy out to each corner stake (so no separate stakes are needed).

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