Best Puncture Resistance?

tyvek

I went from house wrap tyvek to kite tyvek to the 1.5 mil frost king polycro from Home Depot for use with my duplex. In my testing and field use I found it to be lighter, much more puncture resistant, and easier to clean up on the trail than tyvek. I may try the lighter polycro next year but this is working great for now.

Thanks! I’ll try the Frost King and see how it works. I didn’t realize there were different thicknesses of polycro. The stuff I have on hand is very thin.

Curt, here is the item I bought at HD if it helps.  I cut it over sized at first and laid it on the driveway in the sun when it was hot to sort of pre shrink it.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Frost-King-E-O-Heavy-Duty-Patio-Door-Shrink-Kit-V86-18/204856298

Jimmy, what is the weight of piece of this material for duplex you used? Does it extend to both vestibules?

Thanks, Greg

Gregory, the piece I have cut out of the above kit is 108g.  That’s just 9g more than a CF ground sheet from Zpacks at a savings of around $88. It is purposefully not cut to extend to the vestibules but it is cut full size under the duplex because I always BP with my wife. The thicker stuff is definitely heavier but man it is really tough stuff and we have a lot of unavoidable rocks and nasty roots to pitch on sometimes.

Thanks for the link!

Maybe a silly question, but do you shrink the poly cro before cutting our cut it a little large?. I guess I’m wondering if it shrinks with normal day time temps/sun?

I have a couple unused from a recent Gossamer Gear order.

Bob, I cut mine a little oversize and laid it on a hot driveway in the summer for a bit in an effort to pre-shrink it. It may have shrunk a little bit but not much. I then cut it to size.

A couple years ago I did some field testing of various ground sheets—both a waterproof test and a puncture test—and found heavyweight high millimeter poly tarps to have the best puncture resistance.

Do this test:  Take a rose thorn and try and press it thru your ground cloth (or tent floor or tyvek or polycro or whatever else.)  If it passes thru the sheet is too thin.

In late 2013 I made a groundsheet for my Duplex out of the Duck brand double-thick patio door kit sold by Walmart.  It is still in use today and functionally identical to new.  I sized it to fit the floor exactly, and it has not shrunk at all as far as I can tell.  Including the 1.25mm zLine guys and 1/4″ nylon washers installed in the corners, it weighs 95.8g.

Were it needing replacement, I would build another one (using the other half of the original window kit) without thinking twice.  It’s hard to imagine how any other footprint material could have performed any better.

edit: I have not tried Tipi’s rose thorn test.

I rarely camp on rose bushes :)

So I’m with JCH… works well enough until something lighter and as effective comes along.