Looking to buy the MLD TrailStar for this years camping and was wondering what most people do with a setup like this (tarps). If we get a torrential downpour, water will be coming from all directions flowing into the trailstar. How are you supposed to keep dry?

As with all tarps, you need to be aware of where you pitch the Trailstar. Any shelter pitched in a depression may have water running underneath it.

The Trailstar is large enough to offer you plenty of protection, even when the sides are several inches above the ground. Even with on of the panels propped up to create a door, you'll be fine. It takes a Hell of a wind to drive rain under it.

That being said, you can use a bivy just in case. Many of the bug nets that work under the Trailstar have bathtub floors and will mitigate the water issue.

In my experience you'll be in trouble with any shelter if water comes actively flowing in, at all. A bathtub floor will wet through with standing water underneath. Avoiding this is part of good site selection.

What you might see with a floorless shelter is hard rain, or more likely hail, boucing in under the sides if the precip is especially vociferous. As Travis noted, the TS has enough floor space that some might get under, but you'll still have plenty of dry space for two.

A decent bathtub should keep you dry, David. I've often had to pitch on saturated ground, and further rain during the night, has meant i've woken to a mini lake under and around my tent.

The Bearpaw Innernets have the option of having 10-inch high walls on their bathtub floors, or any other height you desire.

I think you'll be surprised at how water does NOT run under a tarp unless you do a really bad job of site selection. At least in most places, the water soaks in the ground and goes down instead of flowing across your tarp site.

Mike, my experience has been different. Saturated ground is no problem with a good tent, but every time I've had a quantifiable amount of standing water directly under the tent floor it's soaked through at least a bit. Then again, it's been quite a few years since I've owned a conventional tent with a bathtub floor.

In either case, best to avoid such circumstances.