I have received my Bison Laavu this morning and ran to the nearest woods to put up and scrutinize.
First I had to find a spot to put it, it's bigger than I am used to and wow what a tent.
Those members who have bought the 8 or 16 man good luck finding the right sized pitch in woodland that's all I can say the 4 was hard enough for me!
This thing is huge but is quite heavy, I never go car camping always backpack so I was looking at angles of saving some weight.
The pegs seemed pretty heavy but they do take a lot of strain and although you could not replace them with regular pegs you could fashion some from wood.
The center pole is well designed but again it weighs a fair bit, it is possible though to use a shaft of wood instead due to the apex having a good design.
It was raining when I put it up which was pretty straight forward, it was like a palace compared to the basha or hammock camping I've relied on in the past, it dwarfed the millets tepee I have been using recently.
The water was beading off pretty well and during the four hours I had it up I could not detect any ingress of water. The quality of workmanship also looks pretty good, amazing for the price really.
Here are a couple of pictures
Bison Laavu
Apex
Inner Doors
The stove in the first photo is a modded fan assisted Kifaru medium wood burner with the 6man stove pipe if any one is interested and the dog is called Buzz.
I liked the door setup and the basic tie system works well, there are hanging points all the way around the inner which are a bonus.
I originally looked at Bison after I realized I had missed the group buy, but I am very pleased because I ordered one week ago and paid a total of £155 inc postage.
For that price this tepee cannot be beat IMHO, very pleased, plan on testing it for a week at the end of the month.
First I had to find a spot to put it, it's bigger than I am used to and wow what a tent.
Those members who have bought the 8 or 16 man good luck finding the right sized pitch in woodland that's all I can say the 4 was hard enough for me!
This thing is huge but is quite heavy, I never go car camping always backpack so I was looking at angles of saving some weight.
The pegs seemed pretty heavy but they do take a lot of strain and although you could not replace them with regular pegs you could fashion some from wood.
The center pole is well designed but again it weighs a fair bit, it is possible though to use a shaft of wood instead due to the apex having a good design.
It was raining when I put it up which was pretty straight forward, it was like a palace compared to the basha or hammock camping I've relied on in the past, it dwarfed the millets tepee I have been using recently.
The water was beading off pretty well and during the four hours I had it up I could not detect any ingress of water. The quality of workmanship also looks pretty good, amazing for the price really.
Here are a couple of pictures
Bison Laavu
Apex
Inner Doors
The stove in the first photo is a modded fan assisted Kifaru medium wood burner with the 6man stove pipe if any one is interested and the dog is called Buzz.
I liked the door setup and the basic tie system works well, there are hanging points all the way around the inner which are a bonus.
I originally looked at Bison after I realized I had missed the group buy, but I am very pleased because I ordered one week ago and paid a total of £155 inc postage.
For that price this tepee cannot be beat IMHO, very pleased, plan on testing it for a week at the end of the month.
