Tent Heating

[jacko1066]

Good evening peeps,
Time for me to sqeeze the sponge of knowledge on this fabulous forum, it has proved to brilliant so far and no doubt it will be again this time!!


After seeing all of these wonderful wood burning heaters that some of are building it has got me thinking about the age old problem that I suffer whilst car camping with the missus and rug rats, and that is the cold!!!


Its mainly late in the evening she suffers bless her!!

Im looking for some sort of way to heat up my Outwell vermont xl tent, its quite a big thing and has a sown in ground sheet and stuff!!


I have tried the portable electric heater which is good but I think this year we are going to be camping at a few more remote campsites which may not have electric hook ups, plus we want to do some winter camping in a smaller weekend tent we have.

I would love something like the heaters I have seen being built on here but with a 20mnth old baby around Im not so sure it wuld be a great idea!!

Any ideas would be gratefly recieved as always!!
All the best
Steve

 

[Bucephalas]

You could always try fitting one of these,
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/entry.php?b=11

I adapted a caravan gas heater for mine. It runs off bottled propane and a 12v battery powers the blower. The heater itself is outside the tent but inside the entrance canopy and it has a 6 inch pipe fed into the tent which pumps in hot air.
The exhaust pipe for the heater is 5 ft high and is fixed to a pole outside. We have a CO alarm as belt and braces but it's 100% safe anyway.

This is the ultimate, but only available across the pond and very expensive.
http://www.adventuretrailers.com/heaters.html

 

[ex member pyrophil]

A 2 person sleeping bag should he able to get nice and hot in one.

 

[jacko1066]

You could always try fitting one of these,
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/entry.php?b=11

I adapted a caravan gas heater for mine. It runs off bottled propane and a 12v battery powers the blower. The heater itself is outside the tent but inside the entrance canopy and it has a 6 inch pipe fed into the tent which pumps in hot air.
The exhaust pipe for the heater is 5 ft high and is fixed to a pole outside. We have a CO alarm as belt and braces but it's 100% safe anyway.

This is the ultimate, but only available across the pond and very expensive.
http://www.adventuretrailers.com/heaters.html

Thanks for your reply mate, the link to the forum post, the pictures are not working for me for some reason, the adventure trailers one is the nuts though!!
Im starting to think that I may be able to adapt a diesal powered lorry cab heater!! But god knows how!!
Cheers
Steve

 

[jacko1066]

A 2 person sleeping bag should he able to get nice and hot in one.

Lmao, I have suggested this many many times lol

 

[ex member pyrophil]

one of these better than a cab heater http://www.kuranda.co.uk/components...ge/product/Newport_Diesel_H_4ed39494bd2bc.gif drip fed so no power needed, keeps a boat nice and warm.

 

[tinderbox]

In my experience small tents work much better than ones. A tarp and a camp fire will take care of a living/insect free area.

 

[rik_uk3]

You can fit a woodburner in a nylon tent safely so long as you fit a good silicon stove jack for the flue to go through. To be honest a gas heater is the easy option for you but remember that a by product of burning gas is the water produced so you will get a lot of condensation in the tent. I burn coal these days in my stove, one sack easily lasts a weekend and it takes up far less space than wood and produces more heat.

For family camping I use a Coleman Coastline 8, only got it last year and have used a couple of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PORTABLE-...972?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item19b816decc The gas is about £1 a can and lasts a little over two hours. Start off using two then knock one off and find one keeps the temp up fine certainly for spring and autumn evenings. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/28-BUTANE...456?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5d2e4974a8 They take up next to no space in the boot.

When 'bushcraft' camping I use Vapalux lanterns and they throw out a lot of light and about 1Kw of heat, two of those and the coal burner meant last winter we were sitting in tee shirts in the shelter while it was below freezing outside

 

[Hetzen]

Is it when sleeping that the cold is the problem? I've found that cotton is not a good fabric to sleep in, as body moisture tends to cling to it and get cold around 2-4am which is difficult to get warm from again. Tresspass do some great his and hers fleece thermal leggings and top for £15 which I can recomend as a great camp base layer. My wife swears by them. Also a warm sweet drink in the evening stokes up the internal body temperature as well as a hot water bottle if needed.

I can't say I'm a big fan of tent heaters, and have never had the pleasure of a tent stove to comment on them. But most campsites will tollerate a BBQ fire box which you can sit around in the evening.

When backpacking, I have an Ulco candle lantern which gives off a little warmth (probably more psychological than BTUs), but I'm more reliant on my sleep and clothing systems to maintain heat.

 

[Squidders]

Coleman black cat... They won't make a big tent warm in cold weather but one will take the edge off.

 

[mrcharly]

Hot water bottles

 

[ged]

Hot water bottles

+1 to that. Put her in a Jerven bag with a couple of hot water bottles and she'll be warm as toast. She'll probably drop right off.

 

[bilmo-p5]

Something like this:

3kW at the touch of a button. Butane or propane. Economical, clean & easy.

The dogs chuck out a fair bit of heat, too.

 

[ged]

... 3kW at the touch of a button. Butane or propane. Economical, clean & easy. ...

But it also produces about a third of a litre of water per hour, which has to go somewhere.

 

[bilmo-p5]

Never had any condensation problems using it in flysheeted Icelandics & patrol tents.
As far as I could make out it went through the tent canopy and condensed on the flysheet.
The Outwell Vermont may not be so comfortable in this respect.

 

[jacko1066]

Thanks for all the input guys, I have actually been doing some research on diesel fuelled hot air blowers similar to what they put in lorry cabs and boats, anyone have any experience of that??
CHeers
Steve

 

[greensurfingbear]

I've been looking at the frontier stove for my Bell Tent.....anyone done a review of it yet??

 

[kiltedpict]

Aye, Craig did one... I'll see if I can find it....

Ok, can't link to it but if you do a search for "frontier" then CBJ's review is the hit under the members reviews section. Hope this helps.

 

[Paul_B]

Not sure what your tent is but I was wondering if there was something suitable for a Vango tent with those extended porches. Not sure which one as I've not decided if I'll get a 2 or 3 man version but it is those ones with 3 poole tunnel tents that has a built in groundsheeted large porch that you could get chairs in but isn't high enough for most men to stand in (well the average men's height of about 5'10 or 11" that is).

Would this area be easily heated with those tent heaters like Coleman make that use gas cans?? I know a place that does good deals on the car camping / caravanning / campervan type kit.

 

[ex member pyrophil]

Thanks for all the input guys, I have actually been doing some research on diesel fuelled hot air blowers similar to what they put in lorry cabs and boats, anyone have any experience of that??
CHeers
Steve

eberspacher are the most used in boats and vans for blown air, not cheap the main unit will set you back around £1300 for the smallest one then your need the ducting, fuel tank, pump, battery a car battery would not last the night. best way would be to fit it in your car if you put your tent next to it and run the ducting to it. be better buying everyone a £350 sleeping bag each and have money left over. have you ever tried a pressure lamp like a anchor lamp, they put out a lot of heat.