Heating a Canvas Wall tent

I'd use a wood stove if you have the room. The few times I've slept in a tent with a wood stove we've had to open the door most of the night, because it was too hot. And then you have to get up and stoke it a couple of times throughout the night.

The last few years I've been using a generator with electric heaters that have a fan. It runs all night, adjustable or thermostat. This year we're bringing a small chest freezer to bring our meat back too.
 
My experience is similar: a small wood stove can keep things very warm, even with little fuel. I've also been in arctic tents with the army and concur the kerosene heaters stink!!!
 
You start out with an old pressure tank and a zip wheel.

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Grizz
 
Wood is cheaper.

We been using a diesel heater now for 8 years in our 16x20 wall tent. Nice consistent heat. Downside is hauling in jerry cans of diesel but we have someone going by the trucks every couple of days and they bring take out empty containers and bring in a couple more. Trucks are only a few miles away.

We have a Prospector heater for our tent. If you have a smaller tent, go smaller heater as this unit puts out. LAst year was the only time we had to turn up the setting from 1 to 2. Been other years where we just shut off the heater for days as it was warm in the bush.
 
A warning about spark arrester. They plug up easily and need to be cleaned every two or three days. If heated by wood leave your keys and anything important in your truck. If it burns down at night you will have seconds only to get out. I talked to a guy who just about perished that way. Everything was lost in the fire including firearms and keys. No time to gather them. Having a fly over the tent is a good idea to keep the sparks off and to keep the tent clean. Lastly make sure you dry it out well before you put it away. Mold forms on these easily & once on is there for good.
 
As much as I like the traditional wood stove, it only goes so far. The convenience of temperature control that comes with a diesel stove beats tradition... especially around 3 am.
 
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I usually get a nice fire going....get a good bed of coals.....fill just about with dry wood.....then a couple sticks of birch(even if its green). Then damper down the stove. Usually get good 4-5 hour burn. Birch will leave nice coals.....stir up, open damper and few sticks of dry wood on top and you have instant fire again.
 
Only use a catadyne heater here just need to vent the exhaust outside or you will die from the carbon monoxide. The same is true for wood
 
We use a custom built airtight wood stove, filler up and lasts all night. Way better than the cheap tin stoves that only last a couple hours, and wake up to a cold tent.
 
My vote goes for a woodstove - like the one attached in post #2. A side wall exit is best with a protected fire sheet. In this way a tarp can be placed over the roof for added protection against rain and snow. Having hunted in 5 days of rain means that all the small things add up to keeping warm and dry...
 
Highwind said:
My vote goes for a woodstove - like the one attached in post #2. A side wall exit is best with a protected fire sheet. In this way a tarp can be placed over the roof for added protection against rain and snow. Having hunted in 5 days of rain means that all the small things add up to keeping warm and dry...
Click to expand...

^^^ that's the setup I use, tarp overtop is added protection and easy to install. Plus it's not as wet when u head home, and its some added insulation.
 
I have hunted out of a wall tent several times, unfortunately none of these times was wood anywhere within 100 miles so it was kerosene and propane. Of the two kerosene was by far the better fuel with no moisture generated and with the proper type of heater there is no stink either.
 
Wood all the way, even the peavey mart tin stoves. Nothing small will hold a burn overnight so the key is planning, and having guys with you with prostate issues - everybody over 40!
Set it up so you have good stacks of wood inside, everybody needs to piss throws in a good pile on the the way out, open dampers. Come back in and shut her down. The colder it is the more guys got to piss, with a good setup of wood, and good guys, -40 is doable. Got to be on the same page.
Don’t use drier vent or galvanized pipe for stovepipe, it burns chemical off forever when it gets hot and is big time unhealthy. That said, set up your stove and pipe in the yard and burn it hard before you go to the Bush. Need to burn off oil and paint free air, nothing worse than a oily painted pipe hangover!
 
And go side wall vent if you can, gives you the option of hanging another tarp over the wall tent, those silver ones work great with a 2-6” gap. Huge difference in the serious cold
 
I have been using an Alaknak tent for many years as a hunting camp. My heating set-up is a small wood burning stove backed up by a Martin thermostatic propane heater ( 10,000 BTU. The Martin stays on pilot while the wood stove is heating at night and turns on as the stove cools down it also provides rapid heat when we return to camp at the end of the day.
 
Hunted out of 14' x 16' for 15 years. Wood is by far the best heat source, lots of it and it is a dry heat, so it keeps any condensation well under control and dries your cloths easily. I have never ever seen a canvas tent that was 100% water proof so we would put two generously over sized tarps over the whole tent. The snow slid off and the rain ran off. Plus any water vapour would pass through the canvas and condensate on the plastic tarp. We were as dry as bone inside no matter the snow or heavy rains outside.
 
As mentioned before wood is very practical for a wall tent application, usually the fuel is free with the exception for the work to obtain it. It is better for drying clothing and cold bones.
We use wood stoves in both of our tents, the cook shack is 12X14 and the sleeping tent is 14X16. And the fly is a definite asset.

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