Make your own Big Agnes Footprint that holds poles & fly for “Tarp-with-Floor use”

[Rob Setili]

I got a good deal on a Big Agnes Copper Spur 2UL, (a bit over 3lbs, and pretty cheap) and we've gone on two lightweight trips with it so far and like it a lot. I didn't want to pay $60 for a 5.? oz footprint, but I like the idea of warm camping with a "semi-tarp" (just taking poles, fly, stakes & footprint".

Before the first use of the Copper Spur, I bought some new tyvek to protect it. (We tend to make our stuff last forever, so we have a lot of old heavy stuff :)) The Tyvek is on the heavy side, at near 8oz footprint, but my warped hexagon footprint shape INCLUDED nice footprints for the 2 large side vestibules, which the STOCK BA footprint does not.

Weight of Tyvek with 2 roomy vestibules: ~ 8oz. Sort of warped hexagon shape.
Weight of 4 corner straps for poles, Fly buckles, & Stake loop: 4 x .25oz = 1oz
Weight of 4 grommets in Floor/ groundcloth: 4 grams. .14oz

MATERIALS:
a. Floor- whatever you want & feel is strong & durable enough. My ver.1 is Tyvek.
b. Grommets for poles, and maybe Footprint: Lord & Hodges 1073A-1, Amazon ~$8, or hardware store, I used 1/4" and had to STRETCH the rivets to hold .265" Big Agnes Pole ends. (See my 5/16" bolt ground into a stretcher shape in photo)
c. Buckles that look same shape as Big Agnes 5/8" flat snap buckles. These work!: $6.25 ebay Best Buy Buckle, "10-100 pcs Side Release Plastic Buckles 5/8", 3/4", 1", 1 1/4", 1 1/2", 2""
d. Lightweight 5/8" nylon webbing. I had bunches from previous projects, I bought on ebay, Country Brook Design. "5/8" Black Lite Weight Nylon Webbing Strapping,5/8 Inch". Or just find some scraps from something you can cut off of :)
e. Superlight cord. I use scrap 1.75mm zingit tree climbing throw line. I think it's rated over 200lb.
f. Tape to reinforce and/or mount to corners of tyvek or whatever. (I like 3m EXTREME tape from office store- lighter than duct tape & SUPER good adhesive)
g. I have my Mom's old sewing machine which does zig zag which I love. I think you could hand sew the buckle's on, and sew the webbing in half to look fancy where the stakes go.

How to make:
1. I just set up the tent, & marked the tyvek with sharpie to decide footprint w/ vestibule shape, and I've trimmed it a bit smaller twice after camping use.

2. My first idea for the strap design, was to SEW the webbing to enough EXTREME TAPE to hold it securely to the Tyvek. I think that would work fine, but most our trips will be with the tent, so I won't NEED the webbing on the groundcloth for those trips. And why carry ONE EXTRA OZ? So after sewing all that extreme tape on (and re-using envelope release paper to allow the tape to WAIT for it's first real use), I cut it off :(

3. My second design uses 3- 1 gram grommets per corner: for the pole, for the tiny dyneema cord to hold the nylon webbing, and on the groundcloth corner. This way, you easily mount or detach the corner system from the groundcloth grommet anytime, AND adjust the length to suit. (Stick loop of string through grommet, & feed nylon thingie through this loop- sort of like a square knot looks).

4. I think the photos, if I can figure out how to include them, tell the rest of the story!

Extra MYOG work if you buy too small grommets LIke I did: Since the 1/4" grommets were too small for the poles, I tried drilling (bad idea), then remembered some engineering: You can STRETCH & FORM metal, of course! That's how they make these grommet parts in the first place. So I used the bench grinder to shape a steel bolt into a cone to stretch out the grommet. See photo of all parts. (drill 5/16" hole in wood, hammer oiled cone into grommet- slowly wins the race. Presto, they stretch without cracking. Re-form in the grommet press tools for prettiness, repeat as needed)

I'm hoping someone will make a ultra-super-light cuben micro footprint for the Big Agnes that weighs 3.3 oz? Happy MYOGing. PS(I blame or credit Mike Clelland for me being infected and making these.)

[Steven Flynn]

This is great!  Thanks for putting it together. I have the CS  UL1 and I want to do the fast fly. No BA footprint though, so I’m giving it a go. Will report back on how it goes.

[Sam Farrington]

Sewing the floor and sides looked good until read that this greatly increases interior condensation.  But haven’t come up with a solution yet.

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