My 33 year want for a tipi became a reality due to my very loving wife. You see, I was 6 years old when I watched my very first western movie with my dad, and from that day forward I have always wanted a tipi.
I'm planning an elk hunting trip with a couple friends for 2014, and need to break up my big purchases to keep the homefront quiet. So, I finally got enough nerve to ask my wife if it would be OK, and her responce was "I'm not even going to try and understand it. If you want it, just get what you want." I was floored. I went on a 3 month research project and met many wonderful people along the way.
I only knew of one person that had a backpackable tipi like the one I wanted, but his tipi was up in Alaska on a long hunting trip, so alot of questions would be asked in lew of being able to see and touch the tipi.
There are some very well made tipies out there, and through research, there are also some that are best left in the box. I was in search of an 8 man tipi (sleeps 3 with gear comfortably, and 4 if you really needed to), and the price range of available tipies was $150-$2000 plus. After alot of phone calls, PM's and emails to a whole lot of people (I found anyone I could that either had what I was looking for, or knew more about them than I did, which really wasn't that hard). I found a company that was made in the USA, and from what I was able to decipher,they took the best part of all their competition and made the ultimate basecamp/spikecamp shelter there is available.
I bought what I believe was the best price to quality ratio that I could possibly have bought. My search led me to a Seekoutside.com 8 Man Tipi with a full liner and a titanium wood buring stove. The tipi and liner material are a SilNylon (silicone impregnated nylon), and couple with the carbon fiber center pole and carbon fiber stakes and titanium wood stove, the whole package weighs in at 11#.
As a size comparison, I'm 6'3" tall, and 220#
I was kinda skeptical on how easy it was supposed to be to set up, but I read the instructions 2 times before atempting the first pitch. I can honestly say that the first time took me 17 minutes from the time I opened the box till the tipi was fully erect. I thought I had missed a few steps, but everything was done like the instructions said to do it. The first time I set it up was this past weekend, and I was more concerned with getting it seamsealed during the warm weather we were having, than anything else. It was a great way for me to kill the afternoon at deer camp. The seamseling took me about 1 hour, and the whole time, I just kept looking at all the features that were included in the tipi. The back door for ventilation is a huge bonus, the rain fly on the main door zipper, the stake loops being made of webbing (not rope), and then there is the carbon fiber pole and stakes. I think that the carbon fiber is absolute genious.
I installed the liner the next day. The part of the country I'm from, almost guarantees condensation on the inside of the tent, so a liner was also on the order for the comfort factor. The liner was installed Sunday morning, after all the condensation had dried from the inside of the tipi, yes there was a lot. I was in no hurry to get this done, and it was installed in probably a 1/2 hour. I'm just going to leave the liner attached to the tipi, so that from here on out I don't have to hastle with doing both.
Complete breakdown and packed away took me 10 minutes and everything fit into one stuff sack the size of a plastic grocery store shopping bag, and the best part of them all, the tent/liner/woodstove all together weighs 11#. Yes I said 11 pounds. This is a huge bonus for the guys who want to pack in 5-10 miles and set up base camp there to hunt out of. It will get you in, where others only dream about.
I have not had time as of yet to do the initial burn of the woodstove, or cut the stove pipe hole, but if the stove is anything like the tipi, it is going to be a winner.
Topic: My New tipi (Read 1548 times)
