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SINGLE WALL TENTS VS DOUBLE WALL TENTS

I think there are more benefits and fewer disadvantages when using double-wall tents vs single-wall tents with wood stoves.

Single-wall tents are significantly lighter than double-wall tents and weight is a primary concern for anyone who does more than the occasional casual backpacking trip. But moisture will condense on the inside of a single-wall tent unless you use a stove to keep the interior warm. If you don’t use a stove inside, the condensation will get everything inside the tent wet, even if it’s dry outside. By the time that you add the stove and ground cloth, the entire assembly is as heavy, sometimes heavier, than a double-wall tent.

I own several single-wall tents and one is a small ultra-light that I use for solo backpacking. It’s ventilated some and when you can leave the windows down condensation is not too bad. If it’s cold enough that you have to zip up the windows, condensation is a problem. I keep a cotton bandanna readily available and the first thing I do in the morning is grab that bandanna and wipe the condensation off of the inside of the tent. It’s small enough that I can reach the entire ceiling without getting out of my sleeping bag and the process seems to work OK. But it’s not so easy on a bigger tent.

I do a lot of camping in places where there is no wood available. In that situation wood burning stoves are superfluous extra weight











Double-wall tents do a better job of keeping out insects than single-wall tents without floors. There have been times when the vampire mosquitoes would have eaten me alive if I had been sleeping in a single-wall tent. One can employ methods such as repellent and staking the walls tight to the ground, to reduce the insect problem inside a single-wall tent, but it’s a lot of trouble and never quite as good as a double-wall tent. It’s much easier to keep out insects when using a double-wall tent.

Some people like the warmth inside a single-wall tent with a stove, in cold weather. That’s hard to disregard but that warmth comes with a price. Since single-wall tents are lighter than double-wall tents, you can carry a single-wall tent with a bigger floor area than a double-wall tent for the same or less weight. But the stove presents a hazard that must be accounted for. A good way to ruin a sleeping bag is to roll up against a hot stove while you’re sleeping. So you have to give up some floor space to the stove and the end result is the same or less usable floor space for the same or more weight. However, even with all that taken into consideration, it’s real nice in the middle of a snow storm to be able to lounge around inside a heated tent.

The small, lightweight, collapsible stoves require constant work to keep them going. You can only use small pieces of wood so you have a big pile of twigs and you have to keep feeding them into the stove to keep it working. If you go to sleep, which is of course what you’re hoping for, the stove will go out. The tent will get cold inside and moisture will condense and freeze on the inside of the tent wall. In the morning when you restart the stove all that frost will melt and things will get just as wet as if you had no stove at all.

I guess in the final analysis I just don’t want to have to deal with the stove. I usually wait until last light to setup my tent and settle in for the night. By that time I’m usually pretty tuckered out and I just want to get inside my sleeping bag and get some rest. I don't want to have to collect a bunch of firewood and break it into pieces small enough to use in the stove and I don’t want to have to mess around with a stove inside my tent.

When I rent horses for an extended trip, I take a big standup dome tent and a small propane space heater. I run the space heater for short periods of time to heat up the tent. The effect is about the same as using a wood burning stove because both heaters are running when you’re awake and they’re not running when you’re sleeping.