8-man Tipi Extras

slowelk

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I'm going to have a seek 8-man with a half liner with an XL stove.

When using as a basecamp in cold weather, what are some nice to have things that you have come up with?

I'm also wondering how severe the condensation penalty would be if I ran a two-burner Coleman stove inside? How do you do your cooking if it's not a dehydrtated/freeze dried situation?

New to the hot tent world, saw a similar thread on nice to haves in a wall tent. Thanks!
 

duchntr

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Mar 31, 2013
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Anchorage,Ak
As far as long duration winter trips and considering ones sensitivity to condensation a full liner setup would not hurt. Also when you are running the wood stove, it burns the condensation off the inside of the tent pretty quick. In a cold weather situation where I'm running the wood stove consistently I cook right on top of that. Nice choice on a good quality setup, you will enjoy it.
 
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A low chair like the ground zero is really nice for putting on boots and drinking coffee in front of the stove. Montana Marine’s review and photos was the inspiration for my purchase.
 

Beendare

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Corripe cervisiam
We typically don't add anything on backpack hunts in my tipi...not even a tarp. We do cut pine boughs and then add scavenged straw or grass over the boughs- pictured
7E9DE94C-F3F7-4631-84C7-161DFB8BD982.jpg

My side was nicer. /grin

The area below this setup was solid mud...we backpacked in during sleet/snow.....the boughs and grass made it nice....[not quite berber carpet nice /grin]

Sounds like you are using it right off the road. Then a chair for sure...and a tarp as floor. I would also build a heat sink with gravel or rocks for the stove to heat....helps maintain a little heat in the tent during stove burn/ bust cycles and after the stove dies. We didn't do it on this setup as we didn't want to take the time, not much avail.
 

mcseal2

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We run the half floor on the side without the stove when camping near a road. We only use one door and put both cots on the other side. We have low cots, I have a Thermarest and my buddy has a Cabelas one. I also like to have a big rubber tote to put firewood in when camping close to the road. It makes it easier to move around if we need to compared to having it stacked and takes up less room. I like the heat sink idea above. I might take a plate of steel when truck camping like that in the future to put the stove on. I have some that was given to me to make hanging targets that's to soft to shoot.

I like to bring my gear in duffle style dry bags. Then I can have it stored out of the way against the tent wall without worrying about condensation getting my gear wet. I used the Kuiu Taku bags in Alaska and they worked great.
 

rayporter

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one trip I heated with a buddy heater and no liner -there was some condensation but it was bearable. there was a frost line in the mornings.

fyi-a Coleman lantern puts out about 8500 btus. and a single burner puts out about 8500 btus.
 
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slowelk

slowelk

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Ya, this will primarily be a truck-camping base camp, but will get packed in for the early season if the weather calls for it, and someday hopefully dropped off by a plane in Alaska.

I assume you can run the half floor with the stove as long as you put down the appropriate barrier?

I do like the idea of a heat sink, maybe a cast-iron griddle would work? I see Kifaru sells a snow shield, but I assume that's just a heat barrier, not a storage system.

Have any of you effectively strung lines for hanging clothes?
 

Sam01

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Aug 22, 2015
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What size tipi is this that you have it supported using a pine tree pole?

We typically don't add anything on backpack hunts in my tipi...not even a tarp. We do cut pine boughs and then add scavenged straw or grass over the boughs- pictured
View attachment 80752

My side was nicer. /grin

The area below this setup was solid mud...we backpacked in during sleet/snow.....the boughs and grass made it nice....[not quite berber carpet nice /grin]

Sounds like you are using it right off the road. Then a chair for sure...and a tarp as floor. I would also build a heat sink with gravel or rocks for the stove to heat....helps maintain a little heat in the tent during stove burn/ bust cycles and after the stove dies. We didn't do it on this setup as we didn't want to take the time, not much avail.





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The Seek Outside tipis have provisions for adding a clothesline at the top edge of the liner. You simply need to run some appropriate cordage through the loops and tie off.

Any tent or tipi I sleep in will now have an ultralight cot for me. I use a Therm-A-Rest LuxuryLite which is now 10 years old and has been one of the best investments in sleep I've ever made.

For an 8 man you DON'T need an XL stove....or even a large. I have never required anything bigger than a medium stove for my 8 man and that includes some very cold hunts in AK. I think most guys tend to buy too much stove and then work to keep the fire damped down unless it's really cold. Woodstoves work far better when burned briskly and fairly hot vs smoldering fires.

I have a Helinox chair that was made by Mystery Ranch back in the day. You couldn't get me to part with it. Having a small chair in the tipi really humanizes the inside experience.

I wouldn't hazard a guess on the 2 burner Coleman and potential condensation, but....for me....I would not want to deal with pots, pans, skillets and other assorted cookware or dishes on a hunt. I want to eat fast and GO. I love properly cooked meals as much as anyone but they aren't part of my hunting strategy. I want a dependable small stove which is hot and fast. I also don't like liquid fuels inside a tent...that's just me.

I subscribe to keeping it simple inside the tipi. Experience has taught me the more stuff I bring, the more clutter and irritation I deal with. Less is generally more inside a tent. I would suggest...if camping near a vehicle...utilize plastic totes for your gear. You can use the tote as a small table or surface inside the tipi. Handy for meals or while working on gear.

Zipping the entrance zipper all the way down (closed) is a hassle when inside the tipi. It forces you to kneel and reach. I took a carbon arrow shaft and epoxied a piece of paracord into one end. Tie the cord to the zipper pull and use the arrow shaft as a sort of extension 'wand' to operate the zipper. The arrow shaft simply lays flat on the floor when the zipper is closed.

I've never used or wanted any type of substantial floor or material inside my tipi. The one time I tried it I found it aggravating as I was frequently brushing off debris and trying to prevent getting it messed up. One strategy is to bring a small 30"x30" piece of tyvek (or something more substantial like canvas if truck camping) and use it 1) underfoot when bathing or changing clothes, 2) to lay gear on when going to bed...I'm thinking of headlamp/flashlight, sidearm, glasses or anything you might need in the night.
 

Deertick

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I'm still trying to wrap my head around just how brilliant of an idea the arrow/zipper idea is.

This is the current winner of the "Best Tips from Internet Hunting Forums -- 2018" for me.
 

mcseal2

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Yeah I definitely need to do that. My hunting partner kept using my rubber camp boot to kneel on and then I'd have to carefully crawl out of the cot and kneel on the other one to reach it by the door when I wanted to go out. Not a big deal, but the alternative would be a lot more convenient. Thanks for the tip.
 

mcseal2

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We were truck camping on snow when we used the half floor. As for debris we just took the whisk broom out from under the seat of my truck and would brush it off every day or so. Something like the canvas Kevin used, or even the floor mats from the truck would have worked also. The stove can be used fine with the half floor, just put the stove on the side without the floor.

We use paracord to make a clothes line and pack a dozen clothes pins when truck camping. It's nice to hang merino socks, gaiters, stuff like that. We have hunt our heavy Kuiu Yukon rain pants but with 2 pairs of those hanging it was as much as I'd have wanted on the line. It's really best for lighter stuff.
 
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Bring a propane torch and one of those small green bottles of propane. Base camping - don't mess around with matches and getting all the proper kindling - just light it up!
 
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slowelk

slowelk

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Thanks for the ideas and advice.

Kevin - you're saying you don't keep a consistent fire going when in the tent? You just warm it up, then let it die?

Keeping it simple is something I struggle with when it comes to truck camping. My mind tends to go to, "I have the room, bring it".
 
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I only burn the stove when it's necessary, or when I've got a bit of extra time. I never burn it continuously. I don't want to consume that much wood, nor do I want to keep the stove tended. Do keep in mind my preferences are centered around hunting, and hunting hard. I'm only in the tipi a short time each day. Leisure camping would be different maybe, but the ultralight woodstove is not designed or well suited for long slow burns. Some are trying to do that but it's not how these stoves are built. I can get a good hot fire going in a few minutes using tinder and the right pieces of wood. I never burn the stove in the morning. I'm too busy getting dressed, eating and gearing up to be outside at dawn. I can't afford the time and luxury of messing with my stove.
 

Eric4

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You could probably save the weight of the Coleman 2-burner, and just bring a backpacking stove plus cook on your wood stove. My optimus Vega plugs into our basecamp propane jug, as well as the small backpacking fuel canisters, and is stable enough for cast iron.

A collapsible sink would be a nice, lightweight addition, for soaking your feet and washing off the stink.

In the cold mornings, when the wood stove has burned out, I like to wake up and have a micro propane/butane lantern for a small dose of light and heat.
 
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Broomfield, CO
FWIW, we have the XL stove for our 8 man and I'm glad we have it. Kevin is correct that the medium will easily heat the tent, but I'll disagree with him on the stoves (at least our XL stove) not operating well dampered down. There are 3 advantages of the larger stoves, but depending on how you see yourself using your set-up these advantages may not outweigh the disadvantage (weight penalty) of the larger stove. 1. Accepts longer pieces of wood so less processing for given amount of fuel, 2. has over twice the volume to accept more and larger fuel, our experience has been we can damper down and have a nice slow burn for about 1.5 hours. This can be very nice on a cold evening or stuck inside for "weather" days and not be constantly feeding fuel. 3. Cooking space - if you are using your stove instead of a backpacking stove and fuel cans, you have much more cooking space. This is more of an issue if you are actually "cooking" as opposed to just heating water for MH meals or coffee.

The XL weighs 1lb 2 oz more than the SO medium - so as I said, it depends on what you want it for as to whether its worth the weight or not. I would however recommend the large over the medium unless you are an extreme oz. counter...you get almost 4 extra inches of length and 40% more volume for only a 4oz penalty. As you can see, we use our stove a lot differently than what Kevin is using his for. We had an additional benefit on our recent Alaska outing in that both our water filters clogged the first day and we were boiling a lot of water to stretch out our tablets for purification.

Anyhow, we sure enjoy our set-up and I hope you do too!
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A few more images of tent life. We like to try and mix in a real meal once in a while between MH freeze dried....depending on where/how far/and how long we are going. Pictured is shrimp/andouille creole over rice.

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tztivsL.jpg

CGEAFzj.jpg
 
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