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Warning: dropped $60 on a "waterproof" tent footprint and it turned into a bathtub in Yosemite
Bought a cheap Ozark Trail footprint last spring for $60 thinking it would keep my tent dry during a weekend trip to Yosemite. First night it rained and the thing pooled water under my sleeping pad so bad I woke up floating. Turns out the coating was basically plastic wrap and it never drained, just held everything in. Has anyone found a footprint that actually works or am I better off just cutting a tarp to size?
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martinez.paul1d ago
$60 for a piece of plastic that holds water is a special kind of pain. I did the same dumb thing a few years back, except mine was a $25 no-name brand off Amazon that I swore was the same thing as the fancy ones. Woke up in Big Sur with about an inch of water in my tent and my dog looking at me like I owed him an apology. A cheap tarp from the hardware store cut a few inches bigger than your tent floor does the job fine, and you can pitch it so the edges stick out and the water runs off instead of under you. Just fold the extra under or cut it so it doesn't stick out too far, or it'll catch rain like a bowl and soak your floor from above. Honestly the tarp cost me $8 and it's been through three seasons now without a single leak. Save your money and skip the fancy footprint, they're mostly just precut tarps with a markup.
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