medium weight hunt camp lots of pics

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david doyle

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This just showed up today from David Ellis in Colorado. An 8x8 spike tent. I had the fun of working on the design abit with Mr Ellis and I think it turned out great. It is a full 8 feet on the inside and turned out roomier then I had hoped. That is a 7.5 foot oar as center pole.

Thought there may be a few hunters out there that could benefit from knowing that this niche tent is available. Room for 4 and a stove to sleep or 2 and a stove living in comfort. Dave built all kinds of smarts into the tent and I am impressed with the quality. Sets up faster then your average dome tent and wont break your back at 20 pounds, perfect for the quad, horse, canoe, car crowd. With out all the options I added it can be had at about 17 pounds. Made of 7.5 ounce canvas. It can be pitched as a winter tent with the sod flaps out, there are stake loops on the inside as well.

It is going to see alot of field time over the next months so after hunting season is over (sheep start in 5 days!:rockOn:) I'll post up a tested review.


For now here are some pics and a shameless plug to anyone in the tent market to just call Mr Ellis he'll build ya what you want and need. I am already sketching my next one..........


Oh BTW this tent costs a bit less then what it costs to buy a 4 person 'made in vietnam' 10-15 pound dome tent from MEC:eek:
Of course a long with the $ savings you get breathabilty, standing room and the option of a warm stove

Enjoy

Edit: the pitch is loose in these pics, the kids erected it while I sat in the shade, it taunts up alot of better.

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H4831 your saying I need a 1.25 inch x1.5 inch stove in there as opposed to the 10 inch by 12 inch ? Maybe the photos are making it look larger then it is?

Love to know of any other options out there, I looked around alot and the kni-co jr packer was the smallest I could find. Anything smaller and burn time would be measured in minutes.

Leave it to an old bush pilot to find a 35 pound 2-4 man camp that fits on a pack board too large LOL.

In defence of the possible xtra BTUs available this rig is gonna keep a couple sheep hunters afield in the last week of the season and will then be set over looking a pile of apples in the last week of whitetail season, anyone that complains about 'being too hot' after a day of -30 c will be welcome to head out to thier lean-too and open fire! With that big window, door and upper vent there should be no lack of airflow available in there, be perfect for drying things out. It will also be pitched with an awning over the entrance so grumpy old pilots can get far enough away from the stove to be happy while staying out of the rain. (note: For anyone that does not know me, I call H4831 grumpy with the utmost respect, he is one of the pioneers and I value his knowledge immensely)
 
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david doyle said:
H4831 your saying I need a 1.25 inch x1.5 inch stove in there as opposed to the 10 inch by 12 inch ? Maybe the photos are making it look larger then it is?

Love to know of any other options out there, I looked around alot and the kni-co jr packer was the smallest I could find. Anything smaller and burn time would be measured in minutes.

Leave it to an old bush pilot to find a 35 pound 2-4 man camp that fits on a pack board too large LOL.

In defence of the possible xtra BTUs available this rig is gonna keep a couple sheep hunters afield in the last week of the season and will then be set over looking a pile of apples in the last week of whitetail season, anyone that complains about 'being too hot' after a day of -30 c will be welcome to head out to thier lean-too and open fire! With that big window, door and upper vent there should be no lack of airflow available in there, be perfect for drying things out. It will also be pitched with an awning over the entrance so grumpy old pilots can get far enough away from the stove to be happy while staying out of the rain. (note: For anyone that does not know me, I call H4831 grumpy with the utmost respect, he is one of the pioneers and I value his knowledge immensely)
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Thanks for the comments. I knew that was the way you would take it. I was going to say, "eighteen times too big," just to be funnier. And the tent is smaller than I thought, by looking at the pictures.
I have quite a few times had one of those old tin, "airtight" heaters that were once so common, in a tent. With enough capacity to heat a cabin, they are a bit hard to control in a little tent. But much better than not enough heat.
 
Glad you did not say 18 cause I would have needed to take my socks off, break out the calculator and call in my 9 year old to figure out 12 divided by 18 LOL.

Those old airtights you got roasted by (especially when loading em from the top) are still made back east in winterpeg. Looked at one the other day at the local hardware store, they are still dirt cheap at regular price and go on sale for even less. Everyone should have one just for the 'canadiana' of it.
 
Tell me about it, took an awful long time to find this tent. This tent is actually the first/prototype spike tent out of Dave's shop. Before this the 2nd best option from many builders was a tipi/range/miners/prospectors/pyramid type tent out of 7.6- 12oz canvas . The trouble with a tipi style is that you have to move 2 feet in from the wall to gain 2 feet of head room, as such a 10x10 tipi ends up being an 8x8 spike tent and the stove ends up in the center when you give it 2 feet of clearance. That leaves a pretty narrow sleeping area between wall and stove clearance.
I spent half the winter with tent outlines and roof angles taped to the floor of the living room and strung from the cieling it aint easy getting a red hot stove and a sleeping bag to safely fit in a small space! One of my requirements was to have room for 2 to sleep side by side so I could put the wife between me and the cold wall LOL. This is the minimum tent that allows that.

The other comparable option is the snow trekker tent but that is an expensive option and requires you lug a frame. There is also an oufit in the NWT that makes a pretty nice looking 7x7 wall tent out of 12 oz but then you need a serious frame and ski-doo sled to lug it. I have a feeling that the NWT outfit knows what they are doing and if I was erecting trap line shelters they would be the ones I'd call, but the wieght was not for me.

You can also find lightwieght wall tents/tipis made of synthetic material but for warmth and comfort I would'nt go that route.

re: the stove jack I included a pic cause I measured the diameter of the tapered pipe at the hieght it would go through and Dave cut the oval to NASA tolerances. Might just be me, but having something like that work out so well with a tradesman via phone and email was some refreshing!
 
H4831 is a grumpy old bush pilot, but I also say that with respect. :p

That looks like a nice tent. I bought a canvas tent a couple or three years ago, but only slept in it in the back yard a couple of times in the summer. It weighs at least 30 lbs. and would be good for a semi permanent hunt camp.
 
Very pretty tent.
Be interesting to hear your review commentary after hunting in 3 days of solid rain and then 6" of wet snow.
I agree with H4831, as we speak from personel experience, if you ever get that stove fired up on sauna mode it will start to char the canvas roof and melt your plastic sod cloth for sure. Clearance from the stove top to any combustable should be min. 60".
One that size is capable of taking 4 fella's down to there underwear in a 14' x 16' with 4' side walls and 9ft centre if you get her the least bit cranked up with dry wood. The one we used was made of sheet metal, oval shaped and a top loader. You could buy them cheap at any hardware store

Hunted for two weeks every fall for 15yrs in a 14' x 16' prospector style tent in every imaginable type of weather. They can be very comfortable in the worst conditions "if" there rigged up right. When not they can be your worst nightmare, which is usually discovered about 3am in a cold driving rain.

You will figure it all out by trial and error like the rest of us.
 
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We did one hunt with a 14x16 Prospector with a wood stove.
It got so hot in there with the minus 20 or so weather, we ended up
making a fire outside and stood out there to cool off.
The bonus with the wood stove in the tent is it doesn't take terribly long
to get warmed up and dried off after coming back to camp soaked to the arm pits.
 
Nice to see a custom tent. The blend of size/weight seems pretty good and the quality looks very good.

Based on my experiences though, I would have gone with much higher vertical walls (say 4', maybe even 5'). I just find there is so much unusable space when a tent has relatively low sidewalls, and everybody ends up jammed in the middle in order to stand up and not be pressing their head into the roof of the tent.

The small stove is great.
 
Just a hint for you guys who like to char/melt stuff with your wood stoves, every thrift store in canada has a shelf of old cookie sheets for a few dimes a piece, they make everything safe and easy, pack to nothing and weigh nothing. Pop a few holes around the rim with a nail and wire to suit. Also take note that this stove vents through a 2.5 inch pipe with a spark arrestor which further constricts air flow. You'd need gasoline and an 80km/hr wind to make it roar out of control LOL. Well tested at this point out of tent to insure my 2 foot clearance is sufficient. Did'nt want to trash up my pics with all the 'aftermarket' mods I have installed. LOL

Yeah I agree extra hieght in the walls would be nice but for my application wind firmness trumps all other considerations. 2 feet is a compromise, it allows a low cot close to the wall but does'nt give the wind 32 square feet to work on. The extra wall hieght would also make the roof pitch alot diffrent, not to mention making it heavier. I should also note that on most of my hunts the 3 and 4th person are still under 5 feet tall.
4-5 feet is perfect for a wall tent but this is is not suppose to replicate the comfort of a 5 foot wall 10x12 that two guys lift off the tail gate, it has a "niche" inbetween ultralight back packing and full on horse camp. Also fits in budget wise between a wallmart tent and a medium grade brandname dome nylon tent. Many hundreds or even thousands cheaper to get into one of these then into a "luxury" unit. (someday look for me in a 12x16 with an aircon, covered UTV parking and sat dish.........)
 
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