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Posted By: Powerguy Reliable Tent Company - 02/07/09
I am considering purchasing a Teton model made out of the FR material and incorporating a 2 Dogs woodstove(4 dogs company) for some winter camping and as a small base camp hunting tent setup.

Anyone have much experience with Reliable and what say ye?
Posted By: Scott F Re: Reliable Tent Company - 02/07/09
I can tell you the stove is vastly overrated. I bought the biggest 4 dogs stove. It is advertised to hold a fire for 14 hours, it falls about 10 hours short of that. You want it, comes with water tank. I used it one winter and kept sand in the bottom. Is is pretty good shape.

We got out tent, the one we live in full time, from The Tent Shop in Moscow, ID. We like ours a lot and it has held up well in rain, snow, freezing rain and even a little sunshine.

I am sending PM with my phone if you want to talk.
Posted By: SteelyEyes Re: Reliable Tent Company - 02/07/09
If you want a stove that holds the fire longer you're going to have to go with heavier ones like the cylinder stove and such. For a truck camp they would work out fine but I pack mine in and think that much weight for a stove is a waste of load capacity.

I have a lightweight one (19 lb.) made by Beckel Canvas in Portland. The stove is called the All Knight and is sheet metal with a cast aluminum door. I put a damper in the pipe sometimes and it will hold a fire for 6 hours or so, at least enough to get rolling again with a little kindling.

I bought a take down stove from the Tent Shop and I'm fairly happy with the quality of it, although it's heavier than it was advertised to be. I'm sure they make a stout tent.
Posted By: jackfish Re: Reliable Tent Company - 02/07/09
For good winter camping stoves: http://www.snowtrekkertents.com/portablewoodstoves.html
Their tents are very good as well. Designed just for winter camping.

I had a Reliable Beartooth tent made of XL-Tex. It was a good tent, but I got rid of it to get a canvas tent.

Buckstitch Canvas has really good spike tents with 5' walls. Very comfortable and easy to put up. http://www.buckstitchcanvas.com/detail.cfm?Category=47&ID=249&NavCat=1&Name=Spike+Tent+5%27+Walls&NavSubCat=47&Submit3=More+Info

I've got a 12'x12'x5' without the floor. We put five people in it on our Boundary Waters toboggan jaunts.
Posted By: Powerguy Re: Reliable Tent Company - 02/07/09
Jackfish, great links

I've checked out the snowtrekker tents, very nice indeed but they cost 2-2.5 times as much for a similar canvas.

I do like their stove offering. Where did you get your camping toboggan?
Posted By: TJAY Re: Reliable Tent Company - 02/08/09
A friend has one he uses for winter camping, northern Mn, hunting and ice fishing. He has a cylinder stove that works well. I have several Tents from Reliable and use cylinder type stoves and have never been able to keep them going as long as they are advertised for. Reliable Tent has always been a great company to do bussiness with.
Posted By: Powerguy Re: Reliable Tent Company - 02/08/09
What size stove would you reccomend for the 10x10 Teton tent?

Thanks, I appreciate the information
Posted By: rob p Re: Reliable Tent Company - 02/08/09
I had a Yodel cooking stove I bought for $50, sand blasted and gave a coat of stove black heating my 20 by 20 foot garage for a couple years. It did a great job until the building inspector noticed the chimney, walked in and told me it was illegal because it was made before UL listings. It's sitting in there waiting to be a camp stove, but it's probably the most widely available camp stove in the US, and I'm sure you could get one. They give a lot of nice heat. I know nothing about tents but do know a bit about stoves.
Posted By: RNF Re: Reliable Tent Company - 02/08/09
Powerguy

Here is a link to a small wood stove that I purchased. I sit it up in the yard today to burn for the first time. 3 sticks of dried hickory about 4" dia and a couple smaller ones kept a fire for almost three hours with coals still glowing after 4 1/2 hours.

I sit a pan with about a gallon of water in it on top to see if it would bring it to a boil. It never boiled but air bubbles were forming on the bottom and it was to hot to touch.

http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/cb.aspx?a=389662&kwtid=275722
Posted By: jackfish Re: Reliable Tent Company - 02/09/09
Originally Posted by Powerguy
Where did you get your camping toboggan?


I have a Black River 9' SnowWalker toboggan. Two of the people I go winter camping with have Cree toboggans they made themselves. One from these plans http://www.inquiry.net/images/Copy_of_Trailt1.gif and one made his at a workshop at North House Folk School.

I have the large snowtrekker stove and since most of us are in our fifties there is always someone up to keep it stoked. Remember to check out Leonard's spike tents at Buckstitch Canvas.
Posted By: TJAY Re: Reliable Tent Company - 02/10/09
Powerguy

I have three sizes of stoves. A small 12x12x24 sheepherders stove and two cylinder stoves, 11x14x24 and 13x16x28. All three will heat a 10x10 with no problem. The bigger ones will damper down and hold heat longer. I heated a 12x14 wall tent with small one for years. I just didn't plan on having heat all night. We still don't like having heat all night, its easier to use a good cold weather bag and just fire it up in the morning.
Posted By: TJAY Re: Reliable Tent Company - 02/10/09
Powerguy

My friend with the Teton uses the middle one listed above. He gets that thing up to sauna temps. even when its -20.
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