Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Sod cloth?

I just put my new wall tent up.
Don't laugh but does the sod cloth have to go to the inside? are there any advantages? I do not intend to use a floor.

A few pic's.........

Never seen anyone have it on the outside, but nothing says you can't as long as you can still put your bottom stakes in, which I don't think would work with my tent. I personally like to set my poles (internal frame) on the sod cloth to help hold the tent down. I also use a tarp for a floor and having it overlap the sod cloth helps form a barrier around the edges. I also tuck the edges of the tarp under the poles to help keep it in place.

Probably the biggest disadvantage I see to having it outside the tent is it will catch more wind than having it inside.

The original idea behind sod clothes was that you dug a trench for water to go around the tent and put the sod on the cloth to seal the tent to the ground.

I owned a 14'x16'x5' A wall tent for 30 years. I always put the sod cloth inside with the internal frame wall poles on top of it. Makes almost certain that the wind can not come in under the tent edges.

A trick I learned long ago was to carry enough clean, empty cat food cans or tuna fish cans to put under the poles inside to protect the sod cloth. Works fine.

Good luck.

L.W.

I always put the sod flap inside and then lay a poly tarp down that overlaps it and maybe extends up the wall a bit. Then when the snow gets to melting and dripping from the eaves, I don't get water running on thetarp. Don't know about rain,it's been many years since I had to camp in a rain.

O.K. next dumb ?
If it goes inside then if you drive the stakes from the outside then the stake would go through the sod cloth, correct?

Usually designed to go on the inside.

The coolest floor is made out of multi-mesh its tough, no need for a stove cut out, let's water, snow, stuff you spill drain through, but really keeps the mud, dirt, dust down. David Ellis made one for my tipi, use it rafting and car camping (its a bit heavy for backpacking). He calls them "woven floors".

http://www.cowboycamp.net/WallTentOptions.html

The way my tent is designed, just the opposite would be true. It has grommets sewn onto a flap along the outside bottom edge that is outside of the sod cloth, so I would have to drive the stakes through the sod cloth to have it on the outside of the tent. Hope that makes sense.

Mine is the same as GW

The sod cloth goes on the inside and you want it that way because if you put it on the outside, it will catch rain and snow melt and channel it to the inside of the tent. That will make the floor a muddy mess. You want the sod cloth on the inside to prevent moisture and wind from entering the tent.

KC