Wall Tent 2011

[JAG]

I've got a Herder Tent, from Davis.  Love it.  Set up is easy for one person.  Have side windows, back door, and a slot for an a/c, for summer use.  Also have one of their big Boy cots.
Great folks to deal with.  Kep  hinting about a sponsorship.
Johnny/JAG

[DeerSpotter]

I thought about the Herder Tent , but I went with a 12X14 3 windows & screen door & valley stove & a tent fly

Carl

[Bryan Bondurant]

OK, Typing from wall tent now. The tent and cots arrived a couple days ago so I promptly set up the tent at my shop and refuse to sleep indoors    sleeping well on the cot too, very well.

If your packing in the light weight poles are good if you don't want to have deal with cutting poles on location. I plan to order their fittings and cut conduit for a quick easy and portable set up. Here at the shop I wanted to experiment a bit and go for a more heavy duty set up. I had a bunch of 2'x4's laying around so I made a top rail by splicing them to 16' making a 4'4' beam with 2 4'x4' poles. I hand chiseled out holes in the top of the pole and holes into the beam so a 3/4 inch piece of pipe will fit so you can get it up. Like that its pretty tight then I just climbed up and used a drill to screw another piece of board to both pieces. Barring a tornado, knock on a stave, it seems pretty bomb proof. We have already had some pretty good wind and it was quite steady. My only serious concern with this type set up is sustained rain which would soften the earth and let my stakes slide out which would let the beam collapse. The nails supplied by Davis are great but being I can do a little blacksmithing I will hammer out some serious stakes later, something you would see used on a circus tent.

For side poles I just grabbed some conduit and large nails with washers. Stick the pole up to the hole and then slide the nail including washer through a knot in the rope, put the nail through the grommet and into the pipe and your good. Later I will make some more camp looking side poles, I have a few ideas in my head already.

Of course the guys over around my shop think I'm a complete nutt, lol. I was trying to explain to one guy that Im getting ready for the fall hunting season now, he kept agreeing with me like you see on those comedy movies where the guys are talking to a shrink, shrink keeps agreeing. IMHO its much better to learn about this tent here and now where if anything happens I can just go in out of the weather than to be a unhappy hunter learning about new equipment during hunting season.

I will try to get up some pics and more notes pretty quick. A couple points, I plan to use this tent for the entire hunting season set up on a wooden platform, that's why Im experimenting with dimensional lumber like 2'x4's. One thing that was fairly simple and warned from Davis is all tents are unique, meaning you will need to fit poles to each individual tent. In this case slightly longer poles were fixed by digging down a couple inches, problem fixed so now all the grommets are touching the ground. I set up on a nice pad of gravel too, no floor, and I will round up some more gravel to lay on the sod cloth to seal up the tent. Time for a couple hours sleep, weather is calling for rain in a few hours, FUN!

[VTer]

Yea, i need pics to go along with your descriptions. I'm not picturing the beams or your side pole attachments. Sounds like your "livin' the dream" though!
 

[Autumnarcher]

How is it we have 2 pages of wall tent discussion, and not 1 single picture????

There is nothing more cozy that residing a a canvas tent, with the wood stove cranked up.

 

[LKH]

INDESTRUCTIBLE STAKES

because we often camp on river rock, our tent stakes are 12" heavy spikes w/washers welded 1" below the head.  need claw hammer to pull.

[awishanew]

A very good feture to have on your wall tent is double zippers on both the door and bug screen. Also, instead of reloading the mouse trap there is an automatic type. Get a 5 gal pail and put 3 to 4 inches water in the bottom. Put a hole in the bottom of a pop or beer can. Put an arrow through the can then put the thing across the top of the bucket. Lastly, put some peanut butter on the side of the can. Put a ramp up to the can. The mice jump out on the can and revolve around and fall in the water. I caught 8 in one night in the back of a pickup box that a friend was sleeping in.

[Bryan Bondurant]

Living the hillbilly dream! And a city boys worst nightmare! Had to snake check the tent tonight, they are crawling now.

The reason we don't have many pictures is most of us can barely get a email sent    Will try to get some pics up in a day or two.

Great mouse trap, will have to try that one out.

[Autumnarcher]

Another way to do the mousetrap is to fill it with water to a couple inches from the top, and then pour sunflower seeds in it. They float on top, the mice think they can walk on them. They jump in for the seeds, and game over. Same ramp do they can get up to the bucket. Works great.

[DeerSpotter]

Got the word today !But

Mine should be here in about 2 weeks            


Carl

[Bryan Bondurant]

Update, we had some heavy weather come through, gusts of wind and sideways rain 70 MPH plus. It hit hard here so I went in the shop for an hour to find my hand crank radio for weather reports. Hundreds of trees came down and several people were killed that night, tent held strong and contents stayed dry.

After the initial storm blew through we had sustained winds from 15 to 25 MPH for maybe 20 hours or more. I lost one of the corner poles from wind whipping but fixed it in a minute, no big deal.

At this point the only thing I know I will change is to make some heavy duty tent pegs, something at least 18 to 24 inches with a with a swivel of some type so the rope cannot jump off the stakes.

Overall I'm very impressed with the tent.

[Bryan Bondurant]

Update 2014, if anyone is interested in tents, guessing a few people are. After I got my tent from Davis I ended up camping in it for an entire year. Went back to civilization for awhile, hated it and went back to the wall tent for another 6 months, then a camper, now looking for a tipi.

Camping was from Arkansas to Florida, ending up in Key West. The worst weather was a tornado in Arkansas, it was a few miles away where it hit but the tent held up to huge winds. I had a widowmaker come through the roof at one camp, do not camp under trees, seems like it would be common sense but its a huge temptation and many state and even national parks have tent sites under huge trees, limbs and lightning are serious issues when they happen. Sure one can get lucky but its not worth it. No matter how hot it is, a tent will cool off after dark.

The tent stood up to days of hard weather on the ocean. The most was around 45 mph sustained, which is an incredible pressure on a tent. I watched more than a dozen tents rip to shreds while the wall tent held up. Its at the end of its life now and the plan is to recycle it into bags and packs.

For a ridgepole i ended up taking 2 16 ft 2x4s gluing then screwing them together. This sat on 2 7ft 2x4s also glued and screwed with standard metal L joints all screwed together. I have a five gallon bucket full of spikes, dozens of tie down straps, and for the ridgepole I had wenching 2 inch wide cargo straps from the ridge to the ground on all four corners.

A couple observations, as Dick Prenoke advocated,gravel floors cannot be beat. Spill a gallon of water, no worries, it goes away. Heavy rain storm, eventually the water goes. With a canvas floor, you are subject to rot and the floor can pond too. The other option is a wood
 floor. Of course in a short term camping situation you set up camp on the ground, grass, dirt, mud, or whatever.

In high winds I chose to not set up a rain fly just because it flaps and makes a bunch of noise. The sun will kill the tent faster and you can have pinhole leaks but its all a trade off. In normal weather a fly is probably best. Also, I do not advocate staying in a tent when the wind gets over 30 mphs, that might seem a bit crazy but in big tents thats where I find them to get a bit spooky. Even if you are anchored for extreme wind, the ridgepole can break, then there is other flying debris which can fly right through a tent wall.

Currently I'm in Key West with plans to hit some 3D shoots hog hunting here in Florida.

[LB_hntr]

Awesome review and tips.
Thank you.
I have a davis wall tent and love it as well. I really enjoyed this thread.

[njloco]

What kind of tipi are you considering, meaning a real indian type tipi or one of the more modern types made from silnylon ?

Good right up, and way to travel through life.

[Bryan Bondurant]

Originally posted by LB_hntr:
Awesome review and tips.
Thank you.
I have a davis wall tent and love it as well. I really enjoyed this thread.

What tent do you have and what do you like about it?

I got the 12 ft x 14 ft with one door and and one window with screens. I got the tan canvas which I have really liked, its about the color of smoked moose hide.

One thing about tent color. If you are going to go to rendezvous and period reenacting gatherings and such, its best to stick with white tents. I'm looking into going to a muzzleloader shoot next month in Florida and the color of the tent is a question mark.

When I got the tent the plan was to use it at a bow hunting camp in Arkansas in winter. Because of that, I got the tent with one door, then I went south and camped in the heat, two doors with two screens would have been much better. However, if one is going to winter camp, one door is better and a bit cheaper.

In Alaska, White is a better color because it lets light in. The amount of light coming in is maybe the biggest consideration as far as color. In Florida, you can find yourself out in the middle of a field with the sun beating down on you so a colored tent gives the effect of shade, is may last a bit longer too. Bedouins used black tents in the desert. When you add color pigments to thread, it acts as a barrier to protect it from the sun. White socks always breath better than black socks, black canvas will last longer in the sun, brown or tan is compromise on both.  

12x14 is about the biggest tent one guy can get up by himself fairly easy. If I was to buy one now I would probably get a 10x12 just because your putting up a smaller sail if the wind starts blowing. Your ridge pole is a couple feet shorter on a 10x12, a little bit more manageable for moving your camp.

[Bryan Bondurant]

Originally posted by njloco:
What kind of tipi are you considering, meaning a real indian type tipi or one of the more modern types made from silnylon ?

Good right up, and way to travel through life.

I am looking at real tipis, not the sheep herder types. Im just getting started, so looking at websites and going to a big gathering next month that will have a couple dozen tipis. That way I can talk to people and see what they like or dont like about theirs.

I have considered making one and may end up doing that. You got any ideas?

Oh, I ordered a few books on tipis too, so will read them before I buy one.

[ChuckC]

Bryan.. why not throw a dark fly over that tent (of any color) to give shade and protection from the sun ?
ChuckC

[K.S.TRAPPER]

I thought about making my own Tipi many moons ago, then stumbled on to a steal of a deal on new ones from Reliable Tents and Tipis in Montana. They run a spring sale every year I think in March and I picked up my 14ft Sioux Tipi, not long after my brother and my sister and her husband bought there's there too. Here's mine set up at Wooloroc in Oklahoma.

   

I got mine in 2005 and paid $400 total for cover, door and liner. I went with the cheaper natural canvas but treated and water proofed it my self saving money. After getting one and looking at what i would have had to sow, I was very glad I spent the money and bought one instead plus I couldn't have doe near as good of a job sowing it either. I still have it and use it and in great shape. I cut my own poles and that saved me a bunch of money too, This spring I need to go cut some more finally, I've broke a few and there getting old but lasted a long time for softwood trees. I wish we had lodge pole pines around here but we don't. Check out Reliable I think my Tipi cover is still like $360 so it hasn't gone up that much.

I've been thru storms with 70mph winds and hail when other tents were blown to shreds, snow and 100f temps and had no problems, I love my Tipi!

Tracy

[wooddamon1]

That is cool.

[Sockrsblur]

That Tipi is beautiful!!!