looking for tent with wood heat ideas

[Dand]

Well we're into another cold rainy summer here in Bristol Bay. Lately I've been using a small cabin that has a good wood stove in it. Sure was nice to sit upright and comfy warm while it poured rain Sunday morning.  Today I'm surfing Cabela's sale site and see a few tents offered that can be rigged with a small wood or oil heater.  As I will turn 55 right during moose season, and it is almost ALWAYS wet  and real buggy then, the thought of  being warm and comfy instead of wet and shivering for 5-10 days would be a really nice change from my old ways. I know there are nice wall tent set ups and some of Cabela's offerings might be good, I wonder what else is out there that isn't real expensive ( $500 or less range), light weight 50 lbs max would be nice, and reasonably easy to set up.  I know about Arctic Ovens and std wall tents , weatherports (expensive and heavy).  I hunt out of an 18 foot boat and need to haul a fair amount of gas so I need to keep gear wt and bulk minimal.  Probably wishing for the impossible but sure would be nice to get truly warm and dry while out.  Maybe I just need to be better at making friends who happen to have cabins.

Figured it might make a good discussion - what works well in Alaska?

[billy_56081]

Look for an Army surplus 16 foot Octagon, they are sey up for heat with a chimeny hole.

[williamlayton]

Dand
I know this is off topic, however, as this topic is old it may not create a disturbance.
I have often thought about you boys and the ways you use the rivers as highways. It has often seemed to me that the commercial built alweld aluminium boats are a real thought here.
There are many of these commercial builders in S. Louisiana. They ride in shallow water, are stout and rugged, most having the ability to accomodate a small cabin.
They take a beating and keep on ticking---fuel efficent, also. This would be a solution--doan know if I would use a wood stove but there are acceptable methods of heat for them.
Blessings

[bilmac]

I have one of Cabelas Analak tents.It has some pluses and minuses. It is made of all waterproof material, so it has to have vents to let moisture out. Maybe OK in soggy places where the wind doesn't blow too much, but they let too much wind blow through the tent here in Wyo. I fixed that by fastening light cotton cloth over most of the vents. 

I have the small one and it is much easier to set up than a wall tent, and it is well guyed and very stable in the wind and will probably handle heavy snow loads well too.

The tent itself is not too heavy, but the poles are heavy duty steel and there are lots of them, so if you take them the whole rig is a load. You can hang the tent from a tree, or a shears however, which will make it nicer not having a center pole. I plan to keep the steel center pole for my tent, but get rid of all the little poles around the perimeter, 12 of them, and replace them with PVC to save weight.

 If you decide to get one be sure to get the vestibule. It is floorless, so makes a nice kitchen area.

[Gun Runner]

Dan, try looking in the sportsmans guide. sportsmansguide.com  Go to their tent section, seems they had something their like you were looking for..

Gun Runner

[Dand]

finally taking some time to read the advice offered thanks.  I'll try to cover several comments:

Wmlayton,  Alweld boats are pretty popular around the state. I've seen a few on the Kuskokwim. There may be one or two around Dillingham. But buying a boat and putting a cabin on it is way out of my budget and would interfere with using the boat for poking into sloughs etc. I think a few folks do just as you suggest on the Yukon and Kusko but I've heard some of those folks tow a smaller boat or canoe to get around.  I have toyed with the idea. Around here quite a few of the commercial fishermen take their 32 foot gillnetters up various places and live aboard them - nice option.  I've posted a photo of a friend winching a whole moose aboard his boat.  Thanks for the thoughts tho. And I agree those alweld are tough.




Bilmac, thanks for the review of the Alaknak tent.  Cabela's has one on sale now and I've been real tempted but was concerned regarding the very problems you mention. One problem we have here too is if I tent on a "sand bar", more often its a gravel bar and very hard, hard to put down adequate stakes and hard to find a big flat area.  Get off the bars up on the river banks and wide flat spots are more scarce unless I use a vacated fishing guide camp - which I do often.

The more I thought about it, the more I think finding dry fire wood or keeping wet wood lit might be a hassle I don't want to mess with.

I got to reading the fine print on some of these Mr Heater Portable Buddy type heaters that use propane. I see some have special oxygen sensors to make them safer in a tent.  This might be an answer that I could use in my current tents or in a screen tent I'm considering. Light weight, compact and should run a while on a 11 or 20 pound propane tank. We usually carry propane for  lights and stove anyway.

Gun Runner,  thanks I'll check out Sportman's guide and see what they have. I've always been a bit wary of that outfit. Seems some of my friends haven't always been pleased with the service or products there. But I'll check them out.

thanks all for the suggestions, I may hit on a solution yet.

[snapcrackpop]

The more I thought about it, the more I think finding dry fire wood or keeping wet wood lit might be a hassle I don't want to mess with.

Then I have a good suggestion for you: Clarry Pellet Stoves
http://clarrypelletstove.com/
http://www.youtube.com/v/DirgMl03zdU
They burn a 40 pound bag of pellets in 8 hours via gravity feed and no electricity.
The down side is it weighs 65-100 pounds and you need to haul pellet bags.

[Dand]

Dear Snap not only are the pellets heavy, they are not available in my part of Alaska. By the time  I could arrange to have some here, I may as well pay some full service guide camp to take care of me.  thanks for the thought. 

 I checked out the video, that is a really neat stove if I was traveling by truck or pack string.  Might be a great stove for small cabins too.

thanks for the connection.

[snapcrackpop]

Yea it wouldn't be good if you were far from motorized transportation.    Good luck.

[Sourdough]

In my opinion the Arctic Oven is the only way to go.  Yes they are heavier than I like, but well worth it.  A Coleman lantern will keep it warm inside down to Zero.  In fact at 15 below we were fine with just the Coleman Double mantle lantern and my little single burner stove to cook on.  We sleep on cots and have a very comfortable camp with one.  At 30 below a small GI wood burning stove is too much. 

But nothing beats a cabin or big wall tent with a wood or coal stove.  Since people burn up any wood I leave at the cabin, I quite cutting it and leaving it there.  I have a stash of coal hidden close by, and there is a big deposit just upstream about two miles.  Easy to knock down into a sled or trailer to transport back to the cabin.  Lots of heat with little work.

[williamlayton]

That was a much bigger boat than I was thinking of---but I understand the concerns.
You boys have problems that are, at least, fun problems.
Let me ask a dumb question---well, I do that so well.
Am I stupid too suggest a three sided leanto? It aint that cold down here, however it is simple and, unless restrictions forbid, easy with all the available forrest up there.
Blessings

[Dand]

Wm,  much of my hunting is done on Native owned land. The group in our area is nice enough to allow nonmembers to buy a trespass permit if we live in the community. But they don't allow us to go whacking down trees and brush to make lean-tos and such.  We have to minimize our footprint. I'm so grateful they allow me to hunt on their land, I go to great lengths to respect their few rules.

Oh the big boat with a guy winching a moose aboard makes a comfy cabin and many around here do it that way.  But I don't have that.  Just an open 18 foot boat with 40 hp Honda. Maybe I should make friends with one of these big boat owners. Then there would be a hard roof, soft bunk, oil or propane stove, radios, some even have showers and video decks.  One guy builds a big platform that creates a shelter for any meat to hang and the top is a platform for glassing for moose and seeing over the riverside brush. Quite a deal.

[Two Bears]

Ive always partial to the Montana canvas wall tents that come in a lot of sizes and have/use wood stoves for heat.
They are heavy but built to last a lifetime.