Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting New Tents from Seek Outside

You guys try to make it sound like these tipis are blower-door rated super-insulated houses. It is a damn tent. Put a hot stove in it and it'll suck air inside, guaranteed.

I'm not trying to make it sound like anything. Just want to know how they work. I'm interested in them because they are light. I'm not interested in adding a stove to them. That defeats the lightweight advantage and it is a space hassle, both on my back and when set up. Liner sounds reasonable but then we are back with the weight of a more conventional tent perhaps.

If these are really only functional with a stove, fine. I'll stick with a more conventional tent with a fly. But maybe there is more too them, and if so, I'd like to know. That okay with you TAK?

Hi Kevin-

You'll have to forgive my confusion. I'm sure you get frustrated answering the same questions all the time, but there is some conflicting info so far...

4 man website weight - Base: 4 lbs 6 ounces all inclusive
4 man website weight - Full: 5 lbs 8 ounces (includes screen doors)
KIS weight, from your earlier thread reply - "take the minimal weight and subtract about 3 ounces" (what is "minimal weight"?)
Your later reply about weight in this thread - "The canopy of a 4 person weighs well under 3 lbs."

Just trying to get an honest weight figured out here for the tipis. Thanks for all the informative responses you provide us on this forum.

I second that ;-)

Base weight and full weight are all inclusive weights which include our carbon pole and and a set of aluminum ground hog style stakes.
Canopy weight is the weight of the canopy only. The carry weight will depend on what pole and stakes you use. For instance, if you go wall tent style and cut a pole and fashion stakes from tree branches, you will have a carry weight of the canopy weight. If you took a steel pole, the weight would be much higher.

These weigh about 3 ounces less than the current base tents, when coupled with our pole and stakes. Using your own pole or stakes the number will vary depending on what you use. For instance the 4 man weighs about 44 - 45 ounces on the canopy.

Liners weigh 13 - 18 ounces depending on model per half, and create a double wall shelter.

Or just stay away from the edges, which is easy to do as they are so much larger than traditional backpacking tents.

With weather coming later this week for my quick elk hunt I called and placed an order this morning. We were going to just use a basic 6-man dome tent, but with the chance of being really wet and cold I want a stove.

Angie is overnighting it to me and I'm pretty stocked, it wasn't in my budget, but the fun stuff never really is. I guess I need to ditch my Big Agnes Seedhouse UL to offset the cost.

Yup, if you are camping anywhere that wood is reasonably available, a tipi/stove combo, is SO nice in that sleety, rainy, just above freezing weather that is so frequent in the mountains.

I am slowly, but, surely saving the coin for a camo version, want that heavier fabric and am not quite settled on an 8 or a 12 man size.

I have a Four Dog Ti large stove and figure that an 8 man might be a bit too small for that, but, in real cold, this should keep me toasty and even my wife will be happy on any trips we take.

I have experienced severe 2-3 day snow storms in June, July and August in the BC mountains and that can be REAL miserable. So, as soon as I have the $$$$ in hand, I am buying one.

IIRC, Bear in Fairbanks has a Ti 4dog and a 12man, PM him about it.

I've run a 6 man kifaru, with and without liner at times for a few hunts where its below freezing at night, sleet and snow and such. We have a stove just in case. But we've never felt the need to use at yet...

Just FYI.

I'm the opposite. I tend to use mine when it's not even necessary. Even if its not that cold, it's kind of nice to just knock the chill off for awhile.

A pretty good special on everything, including packs specials

Good until Wed.

Also a bit of commentary and some alternative places to go if you were planning on visiting a National Park

Enjoy

I spent decades using only the rain flys from two of my dome tents as a "tipi" or just a tarp in all types of weather - they were small and cramped but workable. I have rode out bad weather numerous times but it was always very uncomfortable and miserable. This summer I splurged and bought some new gear which included a Seek Outside 6 man tipi with their medium stove. That would turn out to be a smart decision!

Last month my son and I backpacked in 7 miles to our favorite elk place in the most miserable weather conditions I have ever experienced. The trip coinsided with the massive rain event and flooding we experienced here in Colorado. The weather had been bad for many days prior and was ominous and closing in again at the trailhead - but against my better judgement, we went in anyway. After seven long cold wet miserable miles, with lightning dancing above our heads, we arrived at our destination as a couple of soaked through dogs. I've never been in rain/hail that heavy. I've never been completely soaked that water was running under my clothes. And I've never been that cold either - I had hail 3 inches deep between my neck and my pack. My boots were like sponges soaked with water, and to make things more "interesting" the temps were now in the mid 30's. It was a serious situation - 7 miles in, I was totally spent, my son's knee was giving him problems and we were both hypothermic.

We set up the tipi in a hard downpour and my son searched for the driest wood he could find while I got the stove set up. With a little fire starting paste we had a warm fire going in a few minutes. We caught a fifteen minute break in the weather and gathered as much "dry" wood as we could find and stuffed the tipi full of it. The rain came back with a vengence while we sat comfortably dry and WARM inside! What a freakin' difference that tipi/stove made as we had to sit the weather out for several days.

This type of setup whether it's a tipi or another type of shelter that SO sells, coupled with a stove, is a game changer. This equipment turned an otherwise miserable, possibly life threatening event into comfort. The comfort of sitting in the tipi, with the stove going, in shorts and tee shirts warm and dry cannot be accurately conveyed.

This picture was taken after days of contiuous rain. The tipi fabric is soaked but inside it was dry and warm.

Seek Outside makes a great product, many thanks to Kevin and Angie!

Reminder , the shutdown special is still in effect. It ends when the shutdown is over which could be today, or drag on for eternity. Anyway, it's a good time to get a good deal

Seek Outside special

Thanksgiving Special

A couple of notes. We are having thanksgiving bundle specials this week where you get a half liner for free.

We also have brought back the popular true timber camo fabric as a purchase option and are adding one medium weight fabric as well.

Any questions, please let us know

Any plans to make a 12 man KIS??

Actually, we are in a way. We took the KISS tents, and the standard tents and sort of melded them together changing and improving the venting. The cut is the same as our standard and Kiss tents but the venting is improved (Basically, there is more venting options, and the vent can be totally closed if desired). We have basically moved all the tipi's to the KISS Purchase model where you choose the options you need or want when purchasing. This can save a significant amount of money.

A couple other notes, we have added a few more fabric choices as well. You can choose an Ultralight fabric, a lightweight fabric, or a medium weight depending on your usage. This provides good options, as customers that purchase a 12 man for instance primarily for horse packing, can choose a heavier fabric if they desire.

The dimensions on the xxlarge stainless stove are 11* 13* 16*.
13 wide 11 deep 16 long? or??

16 deep, 11 tall , 13 wide in the fire box

Thanks I'll run this by the mules.