Dave Pearsons' interior tent kiln (no, really... check it out)

[SJStuart]

Many of us know of Dave Pearsons' videos on his YouTube channel (Reallybigmonkey1). I know this because almost everyone I've spoken to on this community and mentioned them to already knows them all (it's a good ice-breaker, at least).

Well, Dave recently made himself a custom tent he called "The Dakota Pit Tent". Even more recently, he decided to "improve" on it by eliminating the need for the "Dakota Pit" part, replacing it instead with an air induction pipe, a "fire bowl" and one of his infamous custom grills (this one actually included an oven, which was a nice touch).

Having made a nice small fire with very little kindling and wood for fuel, Dave then decided to surround the fire using Carbon Felt, believing that this would slow the burn and prevent his shelter from overheating (like it did when he first tested it and discovered it was more sweat lodge than shelter).

Very shortly after he surrounded the fire with the Carbon Felt, everything went horribly wrong. Air was being sucked in from the outside (through the induction pipe) at way too high a rate, turning his little fire into a flame thrower far hotter than he'd ever expected.
Naturally, this completely destroyed his tent.

Fortunately, Dave wasn't hurt... but you should check out the video because it's interesting to watch, and the damage is a stark reminder that you should never ignore the physics of fire!

[video=youtube;rQNhrarswj0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQNhrarswj0[/video]

 

[bopdude]

Very near miss, yeah, I've seen a few of this guy's vid's, some better than others if I'm honest, lucky guy though, if he wasn't outside changing cameras he wouldn't have seen the flames coming out of the chimney and the lot could have come down on him, lucky guy.

 

[spandit]

When we have the door on our woodburner open a fraction it goes into turbo mode - to damp the fire down you need quite a tight seal. Glad he wasn't hurt

 

[TurboGirl]

Sealing it up at about 26mins in sealed his and his tarps fate, didn't it! If he've had a cap to seal the end of the airfeed underneath, he'd've controlled it.... I think the thing most pertinent to me is how much the set back rocked him... a nice, positive guy, completely dejected by his failure initially... and this was in gentle conditions, nowhere near survival when you can laugh and go for a cheeseburger afterwards He IS Forrest Gump though!

 

[SJStuart]

If I knew how to get them to him, I'd replace the materials so he could have another crack at it, as well as send him a schematic to modify that stove of his and instructions on how to control it properly.
Not entirely his fault, but he really should've thought just a little more about how the fire would behave in those conditions.

I guarantee it's a mistake he'll never make again though

 

[maddave]

It's a shame.. I subscribe to Daves channel (Reallybigmonkey1) and he is one of the good guys. He gets out there and does it. Yes he has the odd setback but he also has some cool ideas and he videos everything. His boy Nick does a lot of the filming too.

 

[bambodoggy]

Not seen this guy at all before....but I like him, ok he messed up but I liked his honesty and willingness to share his mistake.

Hope to see more of him in the future.

Cheers,

Bam.