crazy tent idea

[270man]

Fellow camping hunters (or hunting campers),

We've had lots of posts on tents for hunting camps over the past few years. I've owned a number of different types myself, but am still looking for the "perfect" tent. Requirements include being rugged, water repellant, roomy, fairly vertical walls, not too heavy or bulky, not too difficult to erect, etc.

I've had the privilege of staying in a couple of different canvas outfitters tents in bitter cold weather. With the sheepherder stove going, I could relax in toasty warmth in my T-shirt. One was 10'x12' and the other a bit bigger at 12'x14'. After helping erect and strike both tents, I realized that they were both too big and bulky for my taste.

A lot of the strength in these tents was provided by the sturdy metal poles and heavy-duty couplings. They have to be strong to hold up the heavy canvas, which is draped over the entire frame.

Now here's the crazy idea. Why couldn't nylon be used for the tent material and the tent suspended from the external frame via hooks or ties sewed into the tent seams? The tent itself would be lighter and additional weight could be saved by going to smaller diameter poles. Like the canvas outfitter tents, this nylon version would be floorless and have the option for a sheepherder stove.

Anyone every seen something like this or made one from scratch?

270man

[270man]

No one picked up on my post (guess it isn't that big a deal for most hunting campers (or camping hunters).

My original post specifies what I'm looking for in a tent. Well, what do you know?? I found one that's pretty close.

It is the Eureka Pine Lodge, advertisted as a free-standing 9x12 wall tent. CampMor has it for $400 plus S&H. If you have experience or know anything about the Pine Lodge, let us hear from you.

The Cabela's Big Horn tent is also interesting. I saw one on a hunt a couple of years ago. The man said he could set it up by himself.

270man

[Swift]

I only have 2 man tent camping under my belt. How would a free stander like you describe hold up to a good deal of snow weight if that should happen?

[BILLY D.]

270 man

Sorry I didn't see this sooner.

One good place to look for a tent like you described is in different German Camping catalogs. They have tents like you talked about.

They also have ones with private sleeping and dressing areas. A tent within a tent so to speak.

The only problem, I can't for the life of me think of the manufacturers name. I can fix that tomorrow sometime. I still have a contact in Germany.

Best wishes, Bill

[270man]

Swift,

I don't think the freestanding feature makes a tent either better or worse for handling snow loads. A couple of my freestanders have withstood some pretty heavy snowfalls but both of them had good slopes to the roofs.

Unless a wall tent is unusually high in the center (or has low sidewalls), it probably doesn't have a steep slope from the roof. The canvas outfitter tents I've seen have 1" frames and lots of structural support in the roof. That provides the strength to withstand heavy snow. The nylon tent I described should be pretty strong but probably not as strong as the canvas version since the tent body would be hanging from the frame rather than stretched over it.

Most hunters aren't away from their tents more than 8-10 hours, so snow removal should be a mandatory task for any type of tent to prevent damage and leaking.

Just my thoughts,

270man

[Jack]

One thought: I assume the nylon version would be waterproof (coated) nylon of some type.
Canvas will breathe, but coated nylon will not. If you made a wall tent from coated nylon, you'd have to make some arrangement for ventilation, I think.
Many nylon tents have a waterproof coated fly that goes over the uncoated (breathable) nylon tent. That's one way to handle it, but it might change your frame arrangement.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

How about using one of those old parachutes you see for sale in supply catalogs?...I can picture one of those looking sort of like a dome tent?

[GoodOlBoy]

How about ordering a surplus GP medium (think the swamp from the TV show MASH)

Takes two people to put one up, and it is a wee bit bulky, but not as bad as some others. Besides there comes a point of no return. You can make it outa tissue paper and get it lighter too, doesn't mean it will be a good tent. Also keep in mind you cannot use nylon anywhere around where the stove is going to be, or where the stovepipe is going to be. Flame retardent or not you get a good howling fire going and your tent melts.

GoodOlBoy

[Tater]

Yes, 2 people can put up a GP Med but it's a pretty large pain in the neck. We had 4 putting ours up the first time I deployed and it took a while. But, on the plus, you can live in one literally months at a time and they'll stand up to the use. They get a little noisy when the wind blows but it's not too bad if all the guy lines are taught. You could probably fit one in the bed of a full size truck and still have room for everything else you'd take hunting. If I had the money and enough people I hunted with or if we hunted longer than a week at a time I'd pick one up but I only hunt with one or two guys so it's not really economical.

[GoodOlBoy]

Yep I didn't say it was easy, but like you said two CAN do it. I seriously considered picking up a GP large I could have gotten a deal on a couple years back. We had a big family reunion coming up, and it was all an outside/camping affair. Sure I woulda needed a little help putting it up, but I was thinking about using it for the kitchen/eating/card and domino area.

My point was and is that sooner or later when you trade off weight for convenience you get to the point where you can't weather a beer fart.

I have spent alot of my life camping (especially in my scuba diving days) and it don't take long to tear out a floor, rip a wall, ruin a rain fly, or have a spark from a campfire leave you sleeping in the back seat of your car. Heavy tents need to be resealed every once in awhile, and they are harder to lug, and they take more to put up. But I would rather go through the extra effort in the beginning to be more comfortable in a rain storm/snow storm.

GoodOlBoy

[buckhunter]

Our family still has the tent we used about 50 years ago. Its basically a 12x12 wall tent with a flat roof. The flat roof would be a pain during the snow but she never leaked in all the years we have used it despite the moth holes. Even survived a Kansas tornado once. Tore a hole in it but a patch fixed that.

I'm not a big fan of nylon tents. Just never kept dry when it rained. Yes it lighter and easier generally. I have doubts wheter a hanging tent would survive in really nasty snow storm. I would go for something like the Mash GP tent. A pain to put up but a pretty decent home.

[270man]

Thanks for all your inputs. I almost forgot to go back and look at this topic, but now see some recent posts. Since passing the age of 60, my wife and I have settled on a metal tent -- actually, a small travel trailer. We can tow it to most of our hunting campsites but there are still some places too rough. I will probably tent camp next javelina season here in Arizona, but the weather is usually great (the early 2009 season was a drastic exception). Most trailers I've seen are built for pavement and decorated to please suburban housewives. This really bugs me because furnishings break, screws pull out of thin veneer walls, etc. They just don't make them rugged enough for hunting use. In spite of these drawbacks, I'll continue to use the trailer whenever I can and use a simple nylon tent when the going is too rough for the trailer.

When the trailer can be towed to the cold weather hunting site, it works pretty well and you don't have to worry about snow caving in the roof. If the trailer can't get there, then we still have the problem and we should choose one of the options suggested in your posts. Several years ago, I saw an ideal setup using a trailer. The trailer had a canvas awning and the guy had rigged up vertical walls and attached them to the awning on three sides. The trailer made up the fourth side. The setup looked pretty rugged with the heavy supporting poles he used. The awning structure created sort of an anteroom where hunters could sit in camp chairs, store wet gear and leave other stuff outside before stepping into the trailer. This would also be a good place to have a propane heater.

Enjoy hearing all your ideas,

270man

[GoodOlBoy]

270man thats the best idear yet. By the way some of my hunting buddies have bought old airstream trailers and redone them more "rugged" for hunting use. One of them even had the floor sprayed with rhino lining.

GoodOlBoy