Lavvu or not to lavvu

[Johnnyboy1971]

I have been thinking about getting a lavvu but not sure which.
Its probably only going to be used by me, maybe my daughter when she is old enough to go with me.
I also want something that is packable to take walk with and not just car camping.
I have seen the Helsport Lavvu light and wondered if anyone could give me an honest opinion as to good and bad about them.
I would like to put a small woodburning stove but pretty sure you cant with the material used.

 

[rik_uk3]

You can use a woodburner regardless of the tent material so long as you fit a stove jack to insulate the hot flue from the tent material and perhaps a rear foil reflector should the stove itself be very close to the tent fabric.

 

[Shewie]

What you need to think about is the fuel you'll be burning John, it doesn't matter if you have a spark arrestor on your flue or not, if you're burning coniferous wood you're gonna end up with holes in a nylon lavvu.

Most of my wild camping in Scotland is near to plantations so that's what we use for fuel, I know if I took my Bergans and burnt pine in the stove it would come home looking like a colander. It's not so much of an issue if I'm in the canoe or car camping as I can take some bags of hardwood logs which don't spit, that's the reason I got the canvas hot tent setup.

Now I've got the option of either buying logs or taking the canvas tent and burning what's available.

When I took the Bergans up to Comrie last month I used some split pine to get the fire going the first time I used it, literally within five minutes I had a hole in the brand new tent, and that was just from a small handful of kindling. After that I switched to hardwood logs and didn't get another hole for three days.

Nylon is easier to pack and carry but you're restricted by the fuel you have to burn.

 

[MartinK9]

I have been thinking about getting a lavvu but not sure which.
Its probably only going to be used by me, maybe my daughter when she is old enough to go with me.
I also want something that is packable to take walk with and not just car camping.
I have seen the Helsport Lavvu light and wondered if anyone could give me an honest opinion as to good and bad about them.
I would like to put a small woodburning stove but pretty sure you cant with the material used.

Speak to Cliff, IIRC, he used to have a Lavvu Light.

 

[gabrielsdad]

Ive got a tentipi vagge. The only reason i havent got a helsport is i didnt want to wait. You will not regret it. Go for it.

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

Cheers for that gents.
Will have a word with Cliff if he makes it next weekend.

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

Does anyone make a similar sized one to the Helsport light but out of canvas.

 

[rik_uk3]

If your car camping and your stove is up to the job take a sack of coal along, I do.

 

[Shewie]

Does anyone make a similar sized one to the Helsport light but out of canvas.

I think the Tentipi Onyx, Safir or Zirkon 5CP are the ones you want bud

 

[Twodogs]

The lavvulight is a very good tent but with limitations its designed as a three season lavvu that isnt made in the flame resistant fabric as the rest of the helsport lavvu range so wasnt made for a stove ,

Having said all that stove have been fitted ,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70eUUkZJsHU

But lets be honest a lavvu comes into its own in winter with a stove and if your family is in to tow look at the Helsport varanger , OK its a bit heavier but its a full on vinter set up ,

A 4/6 Varanger can be carried just the outer , cut a pole to suit and change the pegs and as a set up its fantastic .

Use a small woodburner for heat and light , , wonderbar ...........

The one Pauls selling is a bargin .

Twodogs

 

[ex-member BareThrills]

The fourman lavvu light is still 2.3kg with pole and pegs John. Im going to use a golight shangri-la 5 with stove jack and titanium folding stove for pretty much the same weight as the helsport with no stove. hopefully ill get some weight back on carrying a lighter sleep system too. I will only use that setup if walking is involved and am very happy with helsport for car camping.

 

[Andy BB]

A range of very lightweight tipis - designed from the start to be used with portable wood-burning stoves - has developed over the last few decades, primarily for winter hunters in sub-zero temps in the USA. Two of the best manufacturers are Kifaru (kifaru.net )and Seekoutside (seekoutside.com). (and by light, an 8-man tipi -diameter 16ft and height 8'6" without flyscreens - is around 6lb including pole, and large ti stove and 10ft chimney around 2.5lb) Interestingly - re sparks - both of these manufacturers' stoves have spark arrestors at the base of the chimney, just above the stove body, where they can be easily accessed for cleaning. Many "normal" wood stoves seem to have their spark-arrestors at the very top of the chimney, and tents seem to suffer more spark damage from them.

There may possibly also be some correlation to the heat retention. Traditional iron stoves retain heat in their thick metal body for much longer but take a while to warm up, whereas the portable ti and stainless stoves put out a fierce heat almost immediately, but will cool more quickly. Again, the portable stoves tend not to have an "end-cap or rain-shield" which I would have thought would deflect sparks back down towards the tent, but thats purely guesswork on my part!

 

[Twodogs]

Or make you own like this gezz look at the Vid of it in use in Finse ,,, cool ,

http://www.mytproject.de/

 

[MartinK9]

Or make you own like this gezz look at the Vid of it in use in Finse ,,, cool ,

http://www.mytproject.de/

Nice one, I like the hole dug inside the tent.

 

[davyowens]

You can use a woodburner regardless of the tent material so long as you fit a stove jack to insulate the hot flue from the tent material and perhaps a rear foil reflector should the stove itself be very close to the tent fabric.

That's another one of my questions answered - having just made a tent stove, I wanted to know how I might go about using it in the extended porch of my
force ten mk4 cn (the porch is the green nylon & extends the tent by an additional half of it's original length) - I can adapt the porch & make a stove jack.

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

If your car camping and your stove is up to the job take a sack of coal along, I do.

Thanks for the tip Rik, i dont have a stove as yet but working on one and also get a free supply of coal.

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

I should have bought the Kifaru Andybb was selling a little while ago.

 

[Shewie]

I should have bought the Kifaru Andybb was selling a little while ago.

I thought the same thing John

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Shangri La ?

Nice wee hot tenting video here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WspXn9_A6ZE

 

[Johnnyboy1971]

I ended up with the Shangri-la5 and TiGoat stove.
Muck lighter than I expected and the tent is a good size without needing loads of room to pitch.
Thing is now I'm able to go lighter on the sleep system and saves space in my pack.