Portable moose camp

waltman

waltman

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Location
ontari-NO! Land of the Ban!
Next year myself and a few others are planning on getting a house trailer to moose hunt out of and our plan is to get a portable garage to attach to the trailer for an eating/sitting room so I am looking for ideas on what others have done and what not to do. Pictures would be great if you have any.
Some questions I have are what is your heat source for the structure, what did you cook on, how did you attach the structure to the trailer etc. Any ideas will be appreciated.
Thanks
 
If you have any military connections try and get them to sign out a section of modular tent for ya.
I use one section attached to the side of my trailer/ice shack/hunting camp..lol
Works great.

We cook on a BBQ or coleman 2 burner stove (naptha), or use the propane 4 burner in the trailer.
The propane heaters with a hose to a bbq tank work well .
 
our group does something similar, we have a porta-garage, just build additional frame from readily available wood around, the bigger the better, depending on how many guys are hunting, cover both with tarp/tarps and you set, quite compfy, only problem was ventilation, idea was to prevent wind from comming in but it also stoped venting, you will have condensation on the inside, beds and sleeping bags had to be covered up, otherwise they end up wet, a large camping stove with a large propane tank was good einough for cooking, no heat source, with good sleeping bags, cots you good to -10C (dont remember how cold it got last year but it was managable)

make the external frame about as tall as the tallest guy, but make sure to have a pick running down the middle to raise the ceiling, about foot taller, to allow for water run off and for comfort sakes

campw.png
 
For my hunting and fishing trips in northern ontario we use a portable garage as our dining/cooking tent, and generally a place to dry out wet things.

Heres what we did...

1. Sew a 12" wide strip around the bottom (we used blue tarp material) The sidewalls don't go down that far, and the extra 12" allows it to sit on the ground and add rocks etc. to seal out the wind

2. add a stove ring out the side out of heat resistant material

3. we heat with a small 30 gallon size wood stove..plenty hot!

4. to the foot fittings on the legs, add a piece of plywood so you have a place to weigh the legs down..again with rocks etc.

5. we added 2x4's across the front at ground level and about 7 feet up. we then install a proper door and fill in the gaps at the side with the material that comes with the garage.

Finally, we built shelves that hang from the horizontal bars to store food, etc.

shoot me an email and I can try and dig up some pictures


waltman said:
Next year myself and a few others are planning on getting a house trailer to moose hunt out of and our plan is to get a portable garage to attach to the trailer for an eating/sitting room so I am looking for ideas on what others have done and what not to do. Pictures would be great if you have any.
Some questions I have are what is your heat source for the structure, what did you cook on, how did you attach the structure to the trailer etc. Any ideas will be appreciated.
Thanks
Click to expand...
 
We used to moose hunt from the big canvas wall tents before we build a framed cabin.
I think one of these kits would be good for a barrel stove.
http://www.vogelzang.com/browse.cfm/barrel-stove-kits/2,6.html?r=1

Remember that it will be dark inside the shelter; day and night. We used to build 2X lumber frame at the front of the tent and cover with 6 mm clear vapour barrier. That way you at least had light inside during the day.
Another idea for lights, if you have a power source, is a string of LED Christmas lights. They don't draw much power so would probably last a while even with a deep cycle battery and AC/DC inverter.
 
Eight foot widths of army modular tentage are easy to find on the surplus market. They lace together, have snow flaps, have flexible windows with covers, and have a semi-asbestos chimney ring built in. Best of all, they cost less than $50 a piece. You might need to do some repairs, because that is why The Queen sold it for surplus.

Modular tentage fronts and backs (one of each reqd) will close off the ends. There is no limit to how many sections can go together. The single entrance end has a vertical opening that buttons shut. The double end has two curved zipper doors with buttons. Good durable material that doesn't look like a hobo's blue tarp over a '78 Dodge Monaco junker. If you get ambitious, there is modified modular tentage for mechanics that is 2-3' taller in the centre for working after dark and in the driving rain. Hard to find and probably hand-made by the mechanics' buddies, the materials techs.

The only problem with modular tentage is the poles get sold separately as scrap aluminum and very few guys seem to have a full set of two arches and three purlins to make a single section tent. One guy reverse engineered the hinges from plate stock and thick wall aluminum tubing. Otherwise, you're looking at $$$ per arch - if you can find any.
 
This year is big step up for me in terms of my camp, my old camp was a $50 dome tent, this year I picked up an old tent trailer for next to nothing and got it all cleaned up and leak proofed. Still no heat, but it'll be warmer and more comfortable getting up off the ground regardless.
 
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