Tarps, Fire & Wind

[bilmo-p5]

I don't do fires very often as the smoke flays me, but I may be having one before so long and I have a little query.

If you were to set a couple of similar tarps as lean-tos or wind-sheds, opposite each other, with a fire between them, how would you pitch them in relation to the prevailing wind, eg wind squarely against the back of one, on the quarter, straight down the gap, or what?

 

[ocean1975]

I think it would be better for the wind to be blowing horizontal to you're tarp set up with the fire in the middle,this will keep the smoke away from you but you will still feel the benifit of the fire.Hope that made sense lol.

 

[crosslandkelly]

I've only done this twice Ian, but both times with the wind blowing between the tarps. Taper the tarps slightly away from each other at the foot end. with your head toward the wind to maximise shelter. Wind shed or Diamond fly worked best for me. Bear in mind that you will still get some smoke if the wind eddies or changes.

 

[Philster]

I have fires a lot when "two tarping" it - the best (read "not being smoked") way is to have the fire in between the two tarps with both tarps side on to the wind. The wind blows between and removes the smoke. A lot of the time we'll set tarps up at ninety degrees to each other from a single tree - the smoke always curls back and gets ya!
Mind you - it is worth checking the weather forecast for wind direction as it often changes as the evening progresses round our way. What was a perfect set-up soon becomes a smoky one

 

[santaman2000]

I've only done this twice Ian, but both times with the wind blowing between the tarps. Taper the tarps slightly away from each other at the foot end. with your head toward the wind to maximise shelter. Wind shed or Diamond fly worked best for me. Bear in mind that you will still get some smoke if the wind eddies or changes.

This is what I'd do. Even back in my Boy Scout days we were taught to pitch our tents in a semi circle. Obviously with only two tarps, this such vee is as close as you can get to that.

 

[Jaeger]

Tried this set-up back in Feb ahead of an outing with one of my offspring to test how close I could pitch a pair of opposing nylon bashers to a small open fire without damaging them. (I usually use SAT/Hexe/N07 stoves).

The bashers look closer together in the image (due to the camera angle) than they actually were - prob about three feet at the fold-over.

An infrequent light wind was blowing from the right almost at ninety degrees to the basher.

Only an occasional waft of smoke came inside the right hand shelter during initial lighting stage, after that hardly anything.

Flame height was never higher than shown - mostly much lower and the heat spread sideways when heating food up in a mess tin.

The bashers survived intact.

In the event I didn't run the fires overnight for warmth - our doss-bags etc were ample for the conditions.

Note the windbreak on the right and the abundance of bracken beneath the ground ins mat!

Now if it had teemed it down -

 

[Tigger004]

A video well worth watching is one b shelter"y "far north bushcraft and survival" called a " less smokey camp shelter" this guy talks from real life experience and lives in Alaska

Sent by Tigger from my Tablet

 

[crosslandkelly]

The link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE2fI3V-c0A

 

[bilmo-p5]

Thank you for the link, Colin.

It makes sense but I'm not sure how practical the reflector would be in a 2-tarp setup.