Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting DIY Invent-a-Tent

By the way, it looks freaking COLD there in your yard with those trees all frosted up!

You really wouldn't want a llama in there. Their hygiene isn't quite what I like in a house guest.

I'm not going to worry much about the wrinkles. Sewing these big pieces straight isn't all that easy on a home machine and laying it out on the floor can be a trick, too. The wrinkles are all home made. I've had a tent factory operating in the middle of the living room and my Chuckette is getting a little tired of the furniture being shoved against the walls.

Yesterday was the 1st time I've had it set up and we haven't had any wind yet so I don't know what it will do. Next time we have wind in the forecast I'll set it up to find out. If it wobbles too much, I can easily add another tie out at each corner and put 2 on each pole. I'm thinking I should add some webbing at the corners for extra strength anyway. There's a lot of stress on the nylon at those points. 4 or 5 oz of extra stakes & ropes would be well worth the weight if needed.

The footprint is only 10 sq ft bigger than the SL5. That's less than 1 sleeping bag. It just looks a lot bigger because it goes straight up instead of sloping. It's a lot more usable space, though, with the sidewalls and extra shoulder room. You can put a sleeping bag almost against the wall without getting wet.

If you cut poles in the hills, the total wt could be less than 6 lb with stakes & ropes. 2 guys could handle that & it would be a piece of cake with 3.

It's very easy to set up. Stake out the 4 corners, erect the poles, and then it's just staking the sides & slipping in the side poles. 1 guy can do it in maybe 15 min in good conditions...2 hrs in a blizzard.

You should see the frost on the trees now. We've had 5 straight days of freezing fog, day and night. We had a couple hrs of clear weather when I took those pics but a couple hrs later it was all frosted up again. It's been hanging in the 20's all the time. The tent is still set up as I need to bring it in to finish the sewing. I'm waiting for it to dry. Maybe in March.

About the wrinkles in the roof...to do the catenary roof, I just cut the topline of both sides into a slight curve and sewed them together. To do it professionally would take more shaping of the pieces. I'm not enough of an engineer to figure that out. Without the catenary, the top and sides would be just 2 long pieces sewed side to side, a single seam from ground to ground over the top. To cut the catenary to avoid wrinkles would entail a whole lot more cutting and fitting.

That's a big deficiency with the tipi. The outer 1.5-2 feet is pretty much unusable space for anything other than small gear so the footprint dimensions are deceiving. The added sidewall in your design makes the full footprint useable. Like you said, you can put a sleeping bag almost against the wall. Move it out a bit and you can sit up in it!
I'm just impressed as heck at the whole thing. Can't wait to hear a "trip report" in it.

I don't have the sleeping bag or stove for a winter trip so it'll be a few months before I can try it out unless we get a real warm spell so I can take a truck trip down along the river. I have a Buddy heater I was going to put in it this morning to find out what it takes to heat it but the catalyst in the heater seems to be plugged. It won't fire right. It's about their earliest model and I haven't used it in a couple years. It's probably full of dust. I guess I need to start looking at wood stoves. There's a lot of info here on the BP forum. I have an old sheepherder stove but it has a 4" chimney. I don't really want to cut out the stove jack for it when most new ones have 3" chimneys but it might not hurt it any.

Here's a hint for anyone who wants to make a tent: Silnylon won't stretch at all pulling along the threads. However, it's very stretchy when cut at an angle. Sewing an angle cut to a straight cut will cause a lot of puckering if you don't do it right. Put the angled piece on the bottom and use lots of pins. If the angle cut is on top, the pressure foot will be pushing and stretching it. On a long seam, say 5 to 6', you can end up several inches off at the end because of the stretching.

Very impressive! Where did you buy the silnylon from? Great job.

Fabric is 2d's from here: QUESTOUTFITTERS , $6.70/yd. I bought 28 yds to make the tent and a 10x10 tarp. Nowhere on it could I see a blemish. Another good source although a bit more expensive is Seattlefabrics.com. Both of them also carry a big assortment of zippers, hardware, etc.

Wind test:
It's blowing about 20 to 25 this morning. It's a long way from a hurricane but it does tell me a little. In these pics, it's coming from the back of the tent. It seems to be taking it just fine. I need to make some minor adjustments on the bottom stake loops. They're too big and don't hold the bottom down very well.

The stove is an old sheepherders stove that I've had for years. I won't be taking it on any pack trips for sure. I'm going to sell it and get a Ti stove of some kind. I'm just trying out the stove jack here. It works fine.

Well if Mrs. RC kicks you out you'll have a place to stay. Better stock up on firewood when you get a chance though, when I was out there trees looked to be kind of scarce in those parts!

Looks like it handled the wind pretty well.

That is One Cool Tent!!

Green with envy here. I don't know which I like better the tent or that black stormy cromer! Love cromers. always wanted a tent with a stove. very nice.

The Kromer is actually a deep blue, not that it makes any difference. We have a local farm store that carries them and I got that several years ago for around $15. US made, 100% wool. Love it.

I had a milsurp tent and an old sheepherder stove that I sold this morning. Now to decide which stove to spend it on.

Very nice Rock Chuck!