Originally Posted by KC
Originally Posted by Ed_T
KC is also either not impartial or has never used a modern tipi with wood stove. If they didn't work better, I wouldn't have spent the last 30 years camping and hunting with them.

I own a Go-Lite Shangri La 5. I bought the nest and had it made into a half nest. Works pretty good. You can sit in your Crazy Creek chair in the vestibule and run your Whisperelite in the rain and wind and stay comfortable. Life is good. I have setup a small wood burning stove in the vestibule but it's a PITA that I don't want to mess with. That tent gathers dust in the store room.

When I need a winter tent I use a North Face VE-25. The tent in this photo is an old one. Hilleberg now makes a better tent.

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Unlike others in this debate, I have no profit at stake in this discussion. You can gauge impartiality from that.

KC



The amount of money I make from wood stove sales wouldn't get me very far. What really bugs me is when people make statements without experience.
If someone has extensively used a tipi and wood stove; it doesn't matter whether it is an SO, Kifaru, Ti-Goat, Wyoming Lost & Found etc and if they don't like it, I have no problem. But when you make blanket statements without experience using a product, that is different.
I advise a lot of people on gear. If they are camping above timberline, I often recommend something like a Hilleberg.
I own or have owned tents from The North Face, including a VE24, Sierra Designs, Bibler, Marmot, Big Agness, Mountain Hardware, Tarp Tent, MSR, Kelty, Terra Nova, Mountain Smith, Kifaru, GoLite, Seek Outside and I am sure I am missing a few.
Most were good tents. I don't think I would say any of them sucked for what they were intended.For my use a tipi with wood stove works best.
The store where I work sells Mountain Hardware, SD, Kelty, and Seek Outside. We will likely be selling Hille and possibly Crux in the near future. My guess is we will still sell more SO than the others because that is what our customers are looking for.
If someone were to ask me about elk cartridges, I could give them my opinion on the 300 H&H, .308, 30-06, 7mm-08, .325WSM, .338 Federal, .243, as I have killed elk with them all. I could also relate my experience in being with others that have killed elk for probably another half a dozen cartridges. But if someone asked me about a cartridge, I had no experience with, I would refrain from offering an opinion, except to state what has worked for me and why.
One other point. The SO BT2 tipi sells for less that $300 with a stove jack.

Ed T