FreeSpirit Adventure series tents - no floor! (1 Viewer)

[eatSleepWoof]

I recently got an FSR M60 tent. It came with the trailer I bought, and as best as I can tell, it's a year or two old.

Something I didn't realize, and have never seen before, is that the tent has no floor. There are aluminium cross-bars running from one side of the tent to the other, and the mattress sits directly on these. I looked at brand new FSR Adventure tents (in person) a few days ago and they are built the same way. I'm guessing this design decision was done for weight savings, but it's a pretty stupid one IMO.

The mattress seems to be in a waterproof cover, which is a good start, but I'm sure dust and water can still find their way inside the tent from the bottom. Especially since there's a hand-sized gap between the mattress and the frame on the front of the trailer. And forget pressure washing the bottom of the tent.

Everything black is the bottom of the mattress.

Note the huge gap between the mattress and the frame on the left.

Another problem is that I always use bed sheets, which will wrap around the mattress, and become completely exposed to the elements on the bottom. What's worse, the bedsheets I bought for this tent/mattress are white.

Has anyone made a floor for these tents, or found some other clever solution to keeping your bedding clean? The mattress is 60"x80", so I would imagine the floor area would need to be the same, or slightly larger.

I could make a floor out of 1/4" plywood, 1/8" aluminium, plastic, even laminate sheets. Any thoughts?

 

[cruiserpilot]

Why not just sell it and get a better tent?

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Why not just sell it and get a better tent?

That's an option, but at this point I don't want to spend any more money.

Realistically, outside of this unpleasant no-floor discovery, this is the tent to buy. Well, I'd prefer the semi-hardshell automated version, but nonetheless. This is the best compromise of speed of deployment, interior room, wind resistance, and other small features.

I had a 2018 James Baroud Explorer before, and while it was super quick to setup, it was utter s*** quality and too small. Had it replaced under warranty and immediately sold the brand-new replacement.

I think I'll be happy with this FSR tent once I solve the floor problem.

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Emailed FSR to ask about solid flooring options, got this reply:

We have had zero issues with your concern on this, you’ll be good to go. The bottom is 100% waterproof. We don’t do any solid floors it’s just added weight and not necessary. You can always zip the doorway up once you get the tent in the packed position.

Ignored my concerns about sheets immediately becoming filthy, and gave me a canned brush-off reply. Not unexpected, but still disappointing.

Thinking I'll be making a 1/4" plywood floor. Probably with walls to hug/enclose the mattress, and some weatherstripping between the plywood and the tent frame.

 

[hoser]

How about Dibond. It's 3mm aluminum composite sheets primarily used for signage. Comes in all kinds of colors. Obviously, it won't be as cheap as plywood.

 

[Cruzerman]

I bought a used one last year and these and I really like it. Are you sure this is how they are constructed? Mine is way up high near the roof of my out building currently, so I can't check easily. But looking at their site, it sound like a 2 inch waterproof pad sewn in with a 3 inch mattress on top of that.

 

[LAMBCRUSHER]

Screw the dust... what about bugs?

 

[Cruzerman]

Only used mine for one season and haven't had any bug issues, even when the mosquitoes were thick (bastards). Again, I believe there is a floor. It is just padded so it looks like the mattress, but now I want to check!

 

[Cruzerman]

Had to check and so I lowered mine from the rafters. As suspected, the bottom is a 2" pad wrapped in a heavy, water-proof material. This is then sewn to the walls and sits on top of the aluminum frame. A separate 3" mattress sits on top of this on the inside. I feel this tent is very well constructed.