UKC

Hi
Camping last night near Whitby weather was very wet, very windy in these conditions I would expect my Super Quasar to perform well. Despite having the no see um down and the wind blowing lengthwise through the tent the underside of my thermarest was soaked as was the bottom of my sleeping bag. The ground sheet appears sound. Any tips out there?

In reply to clp123:

Could have soaked up through the gorund sheet, would be my first thought. Was the tent fabric above you wet? That's where I would expect condensation.

In reply to Flinticus:

Only the underside of the thermarest was wet and foot of sleeping bag, inner of tent dry flysheet damp on inside.

In reply to clp123:

Pampers?

In reply to clp123:

The groundsheet in my Ultra Quasar is crap for this as well. For car camping I put a sheet of plastic underneath it.

In reply to clp123: relatively high humidity inside the tent, with the warm, moist air meeting the cold groundsheet, and creating condensation maybe?

In reply to clp123:

Using a footprint helps stop condensation on the groundsheet.

In reply to clp123:

Were you in the tent alone and did you take a load of wet kit in? Larger tents when under occupied have a tendency for the occupant not to create enough of a thermal engine (warm bodies) to make enough of a difference to keep all the moisture vapourised until it gets to a vent point. This gets compounded when the outside air is already moisture laden that goes through the venting system.
In similar situations I have found it better (esp over multiple wet nights) to have to pull on damp kit in the morning after having left it in the vestibule after having changed into dry kit for the night. Taking it in with you only introduces more moisture and surface area upon which condensation can occur. The moisture is probably pooling under the mat as you create a low point in the tent with your bodyweight.

In reply to GrahamD:


As is the groundsheet on my Voyager. I've had to use a footprint from the get go.
I do sometimes suffer from a little condensation when solo camping but if it's damp underneath my first thought is ingress from underneath.