Canvas tents

[Oddcaliber]

Lately I've been looking at tents for shtf shelter. Kodiak tents make a great one all be it rather pricey. I'd only need a cot and a few other furnishings to go with it. Down side is longer setup and takedown time and I'd have to find a level spot that's clear. Up side is they last a lot longer than a cheap tent and it's a 4 season tent. Any thoughts on this?

 

[Dracos]

When I was working out of Houma I would park my motor home along some bayou and spend a night or two, when I wasn't offshore. I could not have done it without an air conditioner. Anyone who could sleep in a tent during the summer in Southern Louisiana has a power I do not.

 

[Oddcaliber]

It does get a bit humid down here. LOL

 

[Schattentarn]

There are plastic tents and the older canvas tents. The story is plastic tents do no breathe so condensation coats them in the morning from your breath while canvas tents allow some of this to escape.

 

[GaRp58]

I have only one canvas tent, in orange. It breathes much better than the nylon/plastic materials. You must keep another material over the tent to keep the sun off (white/sand- light colors) and reflect the heat. Under trees is not always easy and bird crap or sap from the tree is not easy to get off the tent either. Much heavier to carry, more space to pack, lasts longer, harder to damage, heavier zippers and materials are better, just the absolute need to be dried for 3-4 days and absolutely dry before packing or it will rot within a month...needs to be treated to be more waterproofed and do not touch it inside if it is already wet from rain, it'll start to drip too. If you have no waterproofing, it helps a bit to soak the tent in any type of clothes softener from the wash machine type. Let dry and re-pack. Fixing tears or holes with a sewing machine and waterproof again is easy as in replacing the zippers and tent stake loops. Seldom used but a preferred tent to bug-out with. Gary

 

[Mountain trapper]

A good USA made canvas wall tent would be ideal. You could add a wood stove with a water jacket for cooking and have hot water. If its going to be permanently set up build a wood and plywood floor to keep it off the ground.
Check out Davis tent, Denver tent company and Montana canvas.

 

[Dracos]

I bet our friends to the south would ask. "What is the purpose of putting a stove in a tent?"

 

[Mountain trapper]

I bet our friends to the south would ask. "What is the purpose of putting a stove in a tent?"

Yeah, I guess there are parts of the country where they aren't butthole deep in snow for 6 months of the year.

 

[Dracos]

I think, as you know, my northern friend, the savages are going to kill themselves off, a long time before they want to fight us, and winter too.

 

[Oddcaliber]

We do occasionally get snow and it does get very cold down here sometimes. A tent stove can be used for cooking although it will be hot inside the tent.

 

[Dracos]

We do occasionally get snow and it does get very cold down here sometimes. A tent stove can be used for cooking although it will be hot inside the tent.

Define very cold to me and arctic dude

 

[Oddcaliber]

Define very cold to me and arctic dude

Anything below 35 degrees! But that would be spring temperatures for you up north. LOL

 

[MOS0231]

I think, as you know, my northern friend, the savages are going to kill themselves off, a long time before they want to fight us, and winter too.

Yes, there is something to be said about the higher latitudes. When your winters average 20ft of snow, single and even negative digit temps are not uncommon, tends to keep the rif-raf out.

Majority of us up here have some kind of wood heating source.

If my Amish neighbors can survive it, so can everyone else. Just takes some getting use to.

I have been to more than a few gawd awful HOT places, courtesy of the USMC. I dont sleep so well, listening to myself sweat. Up here, I can always add another layer.

 

[Dracos]

Anything below 35 degrees! But that would be spring temperatures for you up north. LOL

Oh, look woman its warm enough for snow to freeze when snow runs off the roof.

 

[MOS0231]

One thing about canvas tents, you can Nikwax them to improve the waterproof characteristics and add a level of UV protection too.

But you can do the same to other material tents.

 

[Dracos]

You can always build a fire, I hope. But only a few of us will be able to build an air conditioning system. With filtration

 

[Mountain trapper]

You can always build a fire, I hope. But only a few of us will be able to build an air conditioning system. With filtration

We call that a pond or creek.

 

[Mountain trapper]

Anything below 35 degrees! But that would be spring temperatures for you up north. LOL

35 degs? That's an August morning here.

 

[Dracos]

It is very rare here to see a morning above 50 degrees here even in August.

 

[Schattentarn]

I made a tube tent for SHTF rapid deployment but it was made out of a plastic tarp. It sets up on an angle with my head at the high point so condensation is at a minimum. A plastic tent is better in the rain but they say canvas is better set up as a kind of lien-to with a fire in front of you. Canvas is less damaged by embers shooting out of an all night fire.

 

[Mountain Dragon]

I use different tents, depends the situation. I got an Eureka Solitaire if i'm on tour with the motorbicycles because it's light and small packing. Then there is an Coleman Darwin 2 Plus, just nice size for myself and not to heavy.
But my favourite is my 80thies canvas house tent and my absolutly prefering Swiss Army Mountain Tent (made from canvas too). I don't have in any tent an such nice climate like in the canvas tents. The only problem is the weight with those tents - freaking heavy. The house tent is around 28kg, the army tent is 11kg. Nothing really to go hiking with. But especially the Army Tent wil not even move by storm - and it's an 4 season one.

 

[Mountain trapper]

I have quite a few canvas tarps, of various sizes, left over from when I had pack horses. These can easily be made in to shelters or tents in an emergency. I dont like tight places so many times I'd just lay a tarp out next to a fire and sleep out side. Even in a howling blizzard with temps way below zero. Just build up a wall of snow so the wind passes over and keep some fire wood within reach. The first time I did this I was trapping marten in the high country and my tent and sleeping bag blew away in a storm. After that I quit packing a tent, except for when I had pack horses.
Now that I'm old a good wall tent and a cot is pretty nice to have.

 

[lonewolf]

I havent seen a decent canvas tent since my Boy Scout days!

 

[simpleman]

I have several tents. Me and the Wife went camping once and I packed the canopy instead of a tent, ooops, so we had to buy one that night or sleep in the car. Then, if my Wife see's one she likes, she has to buy it! But I do have an Old canvas tent, not even sure when or where I got it, but it reminds me of when my Dad was alive and he would take us camping or just set it up in the backyard! It IS heavy and I take and set it up once a year and just sit in it and smell it! Wife doesn't like the smell, so we never take it camping. Waterproof every 2 years or so, fold and wait until next year.

 

[GaRp58]

I dont like tight places so many times I'd just lay a tarp out next to a fire and sleep out side.[/QUOTE
On my trip across from CA to TX when I was 17, all I had as a sort of cover for 9 months was a piece of canvas about 6 ft long and 4 ft wide which I had sewn loops on each corner made of military belt material for tent peg loops and the bottom was stretched out flat against any possible wind and the top was only held up with a piece of wood I would find each time I even used the tarp and after crawling under the tarp, I would us a foot long peg to hold the entrance up for air. If it rained, my hair would even get wet, my backpack got wrapped in a piece of plastic to stay dry, hung up in the trees away from bears and other critters and that was it.