Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting 20 seasons with a Kifaru tipi.

Our 8 man tipi gave out with the snow here in Colorado last weekend. Fortunately I was just using it to keep some llama hay dry at a camp site for a few days before first season opened. Our conservative estimate is more than 500 nights of use, all at high altitude and often with lots of wind and snow. I’ve been meaning to get a new tipi but hadn’t gotten around to it...good thing we weren’t depending on it for backcountry survival. I think the failure was from UV damage, as the seams held but the fabric ripped along 2 different seams, causing one side to collapse.

All in all I think this tipi performed spectacularly well and we more than got our money’s worth out of it. Does anybody know what the normal expected lifespan of tipi fabric is?

My task now is to select a new tipi. Lots more options on the market now than 20 years ago. I’m leaning towards a Seek Outside.

20 seasons is sure impressive , i'd guess 500 days on the lifespan of a Tipi .

Id' sure buy another kifaru tipi, seems like the one you got did super well and it's nice to dance with the one that brung ya this far.
Can't say a bad thing about any of my kifaru products.

That's great...

20 years and 500 days is phenomenal. Curious how often you seam sealed the seams?

Purchased my first Kifaru (8-man) 15 yrs ago and probably around 200 nights of use and many times in harsh conditions. Have also been using a super tarp w/annex and the Sawtooth for the past 10 years. Not inexpensive shelters but well worth the money. Never been let down, except that time a rabid skunk crawled in and chewed on my hand.

I started with an 8 man kifaru and got a 12 man soon after. I got about 150 nights out of each before they each started to get UV 'failure'. I sent them both back multiple times for repair and Kifaru repaired them for free. That said I did retire both tents and moved on to Ti goat and Seek outside teepees. Currently I use a cuban fiber (DCF dyneema) seek outside tent and it has been outstanding. My impression so far is that dyneema is more resistant to UV. Patrick

Any noticeable weight diff in the 3 tipi brands?

Ti Goat is the lightest - but not sure if they are making teepees at this time. DCF fabric teepees are lighter than the sil nylon ones. Ti goat and Seek outside both make DCF fabric tents. My current seek outside DCF tent sleeps four with gear (just did this on an elk hunt) and we had a stove running inside too. Not sure of the exact weight but stove and teepee all together weighed around 6 pounds. The stove is a TiGoat medium Wifi.
Patrick

Careful and thorough seam sealing one time, when new. Light second coat several years later. Then occasional touch up of seams and holes from sparks.

Good deal. Our first NorthFace was a rock that performed similarly. Actually the tent is still fine, but UV eventually consumed the fly and replacements are not available. Same with the first Cabelas dome tent we purchased. I think there would be a niche out there doing replacement flies for the Cabelas units.

That's a great idea,,I'd take 2 Six Man flys for sure!