This thread maybe should have went in the gear thread but oh well.

Im making the switch to a bug tent/tarp combo. A few of the bug tents have the bathtub flooring and I was just wondering if anyone has ever been in a situation where one was needed or if they are generally unnecessary.

In my MSR Hubba I have never experienced a situation where water could have gotten in if it didnt have that style of flooring. So.....

Is it necessary?

I have needed a bathtub floor on many occassions, but it may depend a lot on where, when and how often you use your shelter.

And just how bad the rain gets ;-) For me, in any time of the year outside of July/August...I hate rain being kicked under by the wind!

I think that I should get one, but I hear about all of these long distance hikers that just use the tarp, which I know is very common, but I wonder, do they ever get wet FROM the water coming under the tarp. I.E. My mind tells me I should get one but I too often read about people who dont even use a bug shelter to begin with, much less one with bathtub flooring. So i dont know

Um, short answer, yes. I've needed it. It's not so much about the pools of water forming around a tent as it is about splash. Kind of like the splash surrounds on your kitchen and bathroom counters at home, I guess. If it's raining hard enough, it'll bounce and splash in. That said, it depends where you're hiking. I suspect that AT hikers would be more likely to carry something w/bug net and floor than someone doing the PCT. What's the climate you typically hike in?

Im from Louisiana but hike in Texas Arkansas Louisiana mainly, but have backpacked in Switzerland, Ireland, BIg Bend, going to Sequoia Kings Canyon NP in September and some other trips already booked, point is that I hike in varied terrain and want something that can handle the elements

I would not use one that did not have a tub floor. Really just depends on the type of weather you encounter where you hike.

I have found my bathtub floor actually flioating once, on about 1" of water. A sudden and very severe downpour!

Cheers

Is bathtub really needed with thick sleeping pad such as neoair??

Only if you want to sit on the floor and have your gear around you ... and stay dry.

Cheers

No it's not necessary. But it might be a luxury item that you desire.

Are you interested in a floor to keep you dry or to keep crawling bugs like ants out?

If your tarp is big enough (which it should be) you won't get wet from splash effect. If it's water running over the ground, i've always been able to dig a trench to divert the flow. This is something you'll do even with a bathtub floor. Water flowing on the ground depends highly on the type of ground you're camped on, i find it to be pretty rare. Bathtub floors wear out their ability to hold back a flow of water quickly. So I don't rely on them for waterproofing. Have a tarp that is big enough.

In most of the western us i think a bathtub floor is not mandatory if you're willing to put up with a little more hardship.

It depends on where you hike, i suppose.
Here in Scotland, the ground is often saturated, and a rainstorm can raise the water level enough to flood a groundsheet in a very short time, even with trying to find the best site you can.
I've often wakened in the morning to find myself in the middle of a lake!

Digging trenches is a bit of a no-no here.

Yes, my experiences are much like Mike's. Once, the only place flat enough to pitch a tent was a shallow tarn! We stayed dry with a good bathtub floor. If the terrain and weather where you hike is not prone to sudden or prolonged downpours or boggy expanses, OR if you are willing to put up with the occassional wet night, then you don't need a bathtub floor. I suppose you could call it a luxury in the sense that being wet all night is not luxurious :0

Of course, you could just pitch the bugtent really high so that the edges of the groundsheet are raised (kinda like a hammock around the edges).

haha well I am not willing to put up with "wet" nights. I mean obviously if they happen, they happen but if I can control it , i.e. with a bathtub floor, ill gladly take around an extra few ounces!

Mostly no, but on some trips, they have been a must. Sometimes, its hard to find a place to put the tent, let alone one with well draining soil that isn't in the line of a minature drainage line, or in a hole.

For the extra couple of ounces, I reckon its worth it. Those few extra inches of solid material also cut breezes, which I reckon would add substantially to your warmth cf if you didn't have the tubbing-probably definitely worth the weight in that regard.

Adam

Most frequent need for a bathtub floor for me is to block splash and splatter from water dripping of the edge of my tarp... keeps the footbox on my sleeping bag dry.

once I had setup my tent in a less than ideal site on the only level area I could find on a slope... woke up with water flowing underneath my tent. If I hadn't had a bathtub floor I'd have soaked my bag completely.

2 weeks ago I was camping at the foot of a mountain in West Texas. The ground was 80:20 igneous to sandy soil stuff. Pounding stakes with a sledge was about 75% successful, and digging a trench around the 25 tarps was hours of additional backbreaking labor we opted out of. After 8 months with less than 2 inches, we got an inch of rain in an hour. The mud ran under our tarps and pooled on the ground cloths. Bathtub floors would have been nice. Interestingly, it was easier to pile drive the stakes into the muddy rocks, which was merciful 'cause we had to mud-wrestle about a quarter of them when the tarps started blowing down. More than 10 people suffered muddy sleeping gear.

Wanna see my UL sledge? Eh eh.

YMMV.

acronym 6/30/2009 1:46 AM

My ( limited ) experience of Scotland is i was very happy of the 5cm height bathtub i did on my MYOG bug tent, we slept dry in pools of water :)

I didnt need one last year in Iceland, and never needed one in France, in fact i wouldnt have considered setting my camp in grass as saturated before that trip on the south part of CWT.
I spent 2h in vain trying to find some ground with less water the first day, i didnt even try the following days.

Edited by Fre49 on 06/30/2009 02:00:21 MDT.