Campfire / Baker Tent Review
History
Firebreather wanted a campfire tent but did not want to pay the huge prices these seemed to command. the solution was to make one of his own (the advantages of having a wife who was a seamstress). Once made he was justifiably proud of it. People saw the tent and asked about getting one made for them plus he started to think about modifications he would make if he made a mark 2.
Long story short these are now being made by firebreather and sold though his website [URL]http://www.campfiretent.co.uk/[/URL]. I was asked if I wold like to have a look at the first / prototype model and do a review. As this review shows I agreed. I am not getting paid for the review, I do not get to keep the tent and I have not been asked to give anything other than an honest review of the tent.
A little about me.
I tend to wildcamp using a tarp and hammock. I like a big living area and use a 4 x 3m tarp to give a big coverage. When I am using a tent is is the 7 man canvas Tentipi which I consider to be at most a 2 man and two children tent. I like my space and am no fan of a small tent on anything other than trips where all it will be used for is sleeping. for me a tent has to provide shelter and warmth to enjoy the evening or morning in comfort before the day paddling etc
The Tent's Specs
The bedroom area of the tent is 7 foot wide, 5 foot deep and 5 foot high at the front ridge. The canopy are is about the same size but can rise to about 5 foot 11 inches. The weight of the tent, including poles pegs bags etc comes in at about 9.5kg on my scales. The material is a light green cotton canvas.
Below gives an idea of pack size.
Setting up.
When set up with the canopy fully open it should end up looking like this
Inside I have put a very very large sleeping bag to give an idea of space.
Firebreather has a thread about erecting the tent ([URL]http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=14157[/URL]) but give a brief description and then some comments.
First peg out the four corners of the bedroom. Joint the poles. Slide the ridge pole through the loops. Attach the two end poles. Lift this "goal post" into position and peg out. Peg out the back of the tent and the bedroom part of the tent is pitched. Fit the front two awning poles and peg out. the tent is now fully erected.
Sounds fairly straight forward and it is. Once you have done this a few times you will only be a matter of minutes but there are a couple of points to note and a couple of improvements that can be and are being made to following models.
First this is really a two person job. You can do it on your own and indeed for taking the pictures with this review I did do it on my own but on a windy day it could be a bit of a faff solo. that said I am confident that I am now getting the hang of it enough that I should manage to pitch this solo in most conditions.
The initial positioning of the tent would be greatly helped by marking the bottom four corners with coloured tabs of the like. When you first unroll the tent because the floor and roof are all the same material it is difficult to tell which way up or round the tent is. I believe Greg (Firebreather) is considering this as a modification to the next models.
The front edge of the side wings have grommets fitted so you can tie these to the support poles. I formed loops with zip ties so I was just sliding the poles in and this made things much quicker and easier to adjust.
There are material tabs / loops for the ridge pole to go through
But the side poles of the "goal posts" on the model I have just had ties to tie the poles. My understanding is that future models will have tabs like the ridge pole and this will be an improvement as it should help ease erection of the tent.
Workmanship
Let me not mince works. The workmanship on the tent is first class. I worry with my tarps and tents that I will over tension things and rip out stitching etc. this tent is very well put together and I had no concerns about anything giving way.
The construction has been well thought out and this shows.From the rubbers on the guylines to help with tension, the overlap of the roof to stop drips down the side walls
To the back roof having a slight overhang to protect the back wall and the use of reflective guylines throughout you can tell there has been thought and care put into the design.
Flexible Set Up
The selling point of the campfire / baker tent is that you can have a fire in front of it to heat it and the wet up can be adjusted to suit the weather. So lets have a look at the options.
First the canopy set at full height with both side walls fitted. The canopy roof slopes back toward the ridge.
With a quick adjustment you can undo either one or both wing walls (this can be done with the canopy at any height.
You can drop one corner a setting to make it level with the ridge
Or you can drop both to the same setting so the canopy roof is level all round
Again we can drop one corner setting. This time creating a run from the ridge to this corner.
and again we can drop the other side to even up and balance the sides.
Again we can drop one side a setting
However here we see a slight problem. The hole for the pole is not quite where you would want it at this side and the wing gapes a bit at the top. The bottom edge of the wing is slightly lifted as well. This could all be reasonable easily resolved with the inserting of a new grommet on each wing wall. however there is an easy solution already when you drop both sides to the level. Bring the wing wall corners together and tie them.
You can see this would be a very sheltered option for strong wind and rain.
This would let water from the roof end up running down the side of the wing walls but in practise the roof water would tend to run to the middle front of the roof as this is the lowest point. My preferred option would be the inserting of the extra grommets anyway.
You can of course continue and take the front edge of the canopy right to the ground. Perhaps with a wing wall taken away to allow access but I did not photograph this option. You can also take away both wing walls and tuck the canopy out the way but I do not see many cases where this will be the desired pitching option.
Improvements
There are of course many ways you can change the tent to make it more waterproof, lightweight, wind resistant, insect proof but I will ignore those which I consider to be taking this away from the campfire tent ideal. A nylon geodesic tent with an inner tent will be dryer, stand up to stronger winds and weight a fraction of this tent but they are not comparable and so as I would say if you want a campfire tent that will perform like a "modern" tent then you would be best to buy a modern tent.
That said there are improvements that could and perhaps should be made to this tent. First some sort of waterproof ground sheet should be used in the bedroom area. I suspect a hard wearing cheap tarp cut to an inch or so smaller than the tent footprint and slipped under would be the best option but having it inside the tent would probably be okay as well.
Insect netting as an option. A curtain of insect netting over the entrance to the bedroom area would give you a safe haven from insects in the summer when the woodsmoke is not driving them away. My understanding is Greg is already working on this as an option in future models.
I also think it might be an idea to have a vent fitted somewhere in the back wall of the tent to allow air to circulate a little when the tent is battened down for bad weather.
Conclusion / thoughts
This tent is a faithful rendition of the campfire tent as described by Bill Mason and as such is a tried and tested design. Size wise I would tend to think of this as a solo tent. I like the people I go camping with i do not want to be squished up next to them when I am sleeping. If you are a couple camping then this will not be an issue. Certainly there is plenty of room for gear for two and as said I use a 7 man tentipi for two or three people so this probably says more about me than the tent
I guess the obvious question is will I be buying one. Well no but that is simply as I am a hammock camper when wild camping and a tentipi user when campsite camping. I see this tent as being the halfway house between a tent and tarp set up. The benefits of a tent while maintaining the connection with the scenery that you get with a tarp.
In essence what I am saying is if you like the campfire / baker tent option this is the best value option I know of. Of course if you are the sort of person who likes a modern enclosed tent or the complete open living of a tarp then you will not enjoy this tent as much. I make these comments as I expect criticism of this tent to revolve around what it is not. It is a campfire tent and in my opinion you cannot fault it as an example of that.
History
Firebreather wanted a campfire tent but did not want to pay the huge prices these seemed to command. the solution was to make one of his own (the advantages of having a wife who was a seamstress). Once made he was justifiably proud of it. People saw the tent and asked about getting one made for them plus he started to think about modifications he would make if he made a mark 2.
Long story short these are now being made by firebreather and sold though his website [URL]http://www.campfiretent.co.uk/[/URL]. I was asked if I wold like to have a look at the first / prototype model and do a review. As this review shows I agreed. I am not getting paid for the review, I do not get to keep the tent and I have not been asked to give anything other than an honest review of the tent.
A little about me.
I tend to wildcamp using a tarp and hammock. I like a big living area and use a 4 x 3m tarp to give a big coverage. When I am using a tent is is the 7 man canvas Tentipi which I consider to be at most a 2 man and two children tent. I like my space and am no fan of a small tent on anything other than trips where all it will be used for is sleeping. for me a tent has to provide shelter and warmth to enjoy the evening or morning in comfort before the day paddling etc
The Tent's Specs
The bedroom area of the tent is 7 foot wide, 5 foot deep and 5 foot high at the front ridge. The canopy are is about the same size but can rise to about 5 foot 11 inches. The weight of the tent, including poles pegs bags etc comes in at about 9.5kg on my scales. The material is a light green cotton canvas.
Below gives an idea of pack size.
Setting up.
When set up with the canopy fully open it should end up looking like this
Inside I have put a very very large sleeping bag to give an idea of space.
Firebreather has a thread about erecting the tent ([URL]http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=14157[/URL]) but give a brief description and then some comments.
First peg out the four corners of the bedroom. Joint the poles. Slide the ridge pole through the loops. Attach the two end poles. Lift this "goal post" into position and peg out. Peg out the back of the tent and the bedroom part of the tent is pitched. Fit the front two awning poles and peg out. the tent is now fully erected.
Sounds fairly straight forward and it is. Once you have done this a few times you will only be a matter of minutes but there are a couple of points to note and a couple of improvements that can be and are being made to following models.
First this is really a two person job. You can do it on your own and indeed for taking the pictures with this review I did do it on my own but on a windy day it could be a bit of a faff solo. that said I am confident that I am now getting the hang of it enough that I should manage to pitch this solo in most conditions.
The initial positioning of the tent would be greatly helped by marking the bottom four corners with coloured tabs of the like. When you first unroll the tent because the floor and roof are all the same material it is difficult to tell which way up or round the tent is. I believe Greg (Firebreather) is considering this as a modification to the next models.
The front edge of the side wings have grommets fitted so you can tie these to the support poles. I formed loops with zip ties so I was just sliding the poles in and this made things much quicker and easier to adjust.
There are material tabs / loops for the ridge pole to go through
But the side poles of the "goal posts" on the model I have just had ties to tie the poles. My understanding is that future models will have tabs like the ridge pole and this will be an improvement as it should help ease erection of the tent.
Workmanship
Let me not mince works. The workmanship on the tent is first class. I worry with my tarps and tents that I will over tension things and rip out stitching etc. this tent is very well put together and I had no concerns about anything giving way.
The construction has been well thought out and this shows.From the rubbers on the guylines to help with tension, the overlap of the roof to stop drips down the side walls
To the back roof having a slight overhang to protect the back wall and the use of reflective guylines throughout you can tell there has been thought and care put into the design.
Flexible Set Up
The selling point of the campfire / baker tent is that you can have a fire in front of it to heat it and the wet up can be adjusted to suit the weather. So lets have a look at the options.
First the canopy set at full height with both side walls fitted. The canopy roof slopes back toward the ridge.
With a quick adjustment you can undo either one or both wing walls (this can be done with the canopy at any height.
You can drop one corner a setting to make it level with the ridge
Or you can drop both to the same setting so the canopy roof is level all round
Again we can drop one corner setting. This time creating a run from the ridge to this corner.
and again we can drop the other side to even up and balance the sides.
Again we can drop one side a setting
However here we see a slight problem. The hole for the pole is not quite where you would want it at this side and the wing gapes a bit at the top. The bottom edge of the wing is slightly lifted as well. This could all be reasonable easily resolved with the inserting of a new grommet on each wing wall. however there is an easy solution already when you drop both sides to the level. Bring the wing wall corners together and tie them.
You can see this would be a very sheltered option for strong wind and rain.
This would let water from the roof end up running down the side of the wing walls but in practise the roof water would tend to run to the middle front of the roof as this is the lowest point. My preferred option would be the inserting of the extra grommets anyway.
You can of course continue and take the front edge of the canopy right to the ground. Perhaps with a wing wall taken away to allow access but I did not photograph this option. You can also take away both wing walls and tuck the canopy out the way but I do not see many cases where this will be the desired pitching option.
Improvements
There are of course many ways you can change the tent to make it more waterproof, lightweight, wind resistant, insect proof but I will ignore those which I consider to be taking this away from the campfire tent ideal. A nylon geodesic tent with an inner tent will be dryer, stand up to stronger winds and weight a fraction of this tent but they are not comparable and so as I would say if you want a campfire tent that will perform like a "modern" tent then you would be best to buy a modern tent.
That said there are improvements that could and perhaps should be made to this tent. First some sort of waterproof ground sheet should be used in the bedroom area. I suspect a hard wearing cheap tarp cut to an inch or so smaller than the tent footprint and slipped under would be the best option but having it inside the tent would probably be okay as well.
Insect netting as an option. A curtain of insect netting over the entrance to the bedroom area would give you a safe haven from insects in the summer when the woodsmoke is not driving them away. My understanding is Greg is already working on this as an option in future models.
I also think it might be an idea to have a vent fitted somewhere in the back wall of the tent to allow air to circulate a little when the tent is battened down for bad weather.
Conclusion / thoughts
This tent is a faithful rendition of the campfire tent as described by Bill Mason and as such is a tried and tested design. Size wise I would tend to think of this as a solo tent. I like the people I go camping with i do not want to be squished up next to them when I am sleeping. If you are a couple camping then this will not be an issue. Certainly there is plenty of room for gear for two and as said I use a 7 man tentipi for two or three people so this probably says more about me than the tent
I guess the obvious question is will I be buying one. Well no but that is simply as I am a hammock camper when wild camping and a tentipi user when campsite camping. I see this tent as being the halfway house between a tent and tarp set up. The benefits of a tent while maintaining the connection with the scenery that you get with a tarp.
In essence what I am saying is if you like the campfire / baker tent option this is the best value option I know of. Of course if you are the sort of person who likes a modern enclosed tent or the complete open living of a tarp then you will not enjoy this tent as much. I make these comments as I expect criticism of this tent to revolve around what it is not. It is a campfire tent and in my opinion you cannot fault it as an example of that.
