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21st Century Baker's Tent
141–150 of 172 posts
Re: 21st Century Baker's Tent
#142When I was a kid I went on a winter campout with the Boy Scouts. We had about a half-dozen canvas tents of that shape, arranged in a semicircle. The awnings were all stretched out and connected to tarps that enclosed the other half of the semicircle, and a wood stove was placed in the middle. I wouldn't say it was warm like inside a house, but it was much warmer than expected.
The scouts at that time had a -100 badge, you got it when the low temperature with windchill for each night you camped added up to -100 Fahrenheit. We all got the badge that weekend.
P.S. I never knew that style was called a Bakers Tent.
Re: 21st Century Baker's Tent
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my entire life, I’ve never heard of the need to clean and lubricate a zipper. Heck, I’ve got decade old jeans with a zipper than can be washed in harsh detergent, survive an accidental off in a bike, and still open and close. If your zipper needs maintenance every time you use it, you need a different zipper.
It’s common around water sports. For instance, sea kayaking.
Or bagpipes. Many pipers these days use a synthetic bag with a zipper, those need maintenance often. Much easier than the maintenance hide bags need though!
Re: 21st Century Baker's Tent
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder how much of the zipper failures are due to lack of maintenance. I use a tooth brush to clean them after each long trip and lubricate them with a little silicone grease. I bought my Jannu in 2007 and haven't had a problem with any of its zippers, ever. I've only had my Keron for 5 years so I can't attest to its longevity yet :)
I think very few people know to lubricate their zippers, however. Honestly, it's something I've never heard of.
I never knew about it, then I read the maintenance section of the owners manual of those tents ....
Re: 21st Century Baker's Tent
#145Modern backpacking tents have achieved an exquisite pinnacle of engineering and usability perfection. I am a UX baby (constant whining about almost every tool/service/product I interact with, sorry to everyone who has to be around me) and I love my tent. It is magical the degree to which it has been thoughtfully optimized in so many little ways. DIY tents like this one are interesting and fun if you are into geeking…
Interesting. But I often travel, only have the need for a tent for a few days and buy a "throw-away"-tent. And trust me, drunken vikings (speak Iceland) are pretty good in breaking your tent.
during Verslunarmannahelgi ?
Re: 21st Century Baker's Tent
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder how much of the zipper failures are due to lack of maintenance. I use a tooth brush to clean them after each long trip and lubricate them with a little silicone grease. I bought my Jannu in 2007 and haven't had a problem with any of its zippers, ever. I've only had my Keron for 5 years so I can't attest to its longevity yet :)
In my entire life, I’ve never heard of the need to clean and lubricate a zipper. Heck, I’ve got decade old jeans with a zipper than can be washed in harsh detergent, survive an accidental off in a bike, and still open and close. If your zipper needs maintenance every time you use it, you need a different zipper.
I do this after the tent has been out in the desert dust for a few weeks. Debris will accumulate in the zipper and will increase friction and grind down the plastic (tent zippers aren't made out of metal like you jeans zippers, for weight reasons).
Spending a few hours after a long trip to care for my gear is a great way to ensure it won't fail on the next trip. Especially with tent zippers, you don't want a failure in a storm as that could be unpleasant or even life threatening.
Instructions how to do this are in the owners manual in the maintenance section (although they recommend not using any grease, which I ignored).
Re: 21st Century Baker's Tent
#147That's going to be a condensation fest in there. Pretty sure The Outdoor Gear Review did a real world test of something very similar. They 'work' in that they do heat up, but they're a lot of work and get extremely sweaty when made from those non-breathable plastic survival sheets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJwvH90g3Yw For a more in depth look at using more 'appropriate' modern materials, 'Simon, A Bloke in the…
Furthermore, there are a lot of places where you can't even have an open fire and/or there isn't a lot of wood. Cool experiment but tents and other sleeping arrangements like hammocks are a pretty well-trod area where real innovations are mostly through using new materials--one disadvantage of which is that super-light gear in my experience is increasingly fragile.
I think this experiment offers a glimpse into an area that might deserve looking into.
For example, a breathable weave of that reflective coating on the inside of a tent might make it warmer rather you use a campfire or not and reduce condensation when compared to my garage built proof of concept made with off the shelf materials.
As to places where you can't have a campfire, I addressed that at the end of the post.
One of the things I didn't really talk about, but did show in the video a couple times, is that reflective bubble wrap I use for the floor of the tent.
That stuff makes a great pad for under your mattress pad or bag. It makes a huge difference when you're sitting or sleeping on cold ground and it protects your mattress from rocks and other small sharp hole poking stuff, folded up it makes an awesome pad to sit on, and it's pretty light.
Re: 21st Century Baker's Tent
#148Re: 21st Century Baker's Tent
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn't call that unreasonable, but it's not physically possible for a tent to even slow a bear down if it wants to get in. In my town, bears have gotten into houses and garages by tearing the front doors off their hinges, and by tearing through a house's siding and sheathing. I recommend car camping in bear country.
Bears can potentially open car doors. https://www.usatoday.com/videos/news/have-you-seen/2021/05/0...
The bear that tours our neighborhood opens car doors. If the car is locked he'll damage the handle, but if the car doesn't have food in it he won't damage the interior, so we leave our cars unlocked and make sure they're clean. I don't have a garage, otherwise I'd use that.
A couple years ago he broke into a neighbor's RV and tore the kitchen to pieces. IIRC the RV was totalled.
Re: 21st Century Baker's Tent
#150> All things considered this tent, at less than 3 pounds, is one the lightest 2-person, freestanding, tents around that can handle four-season conditions. 4-season tents are made to handle wind and snow accumulation, which this thing definitely would fail. It's a fun exercise for bushcrafting but don't kid yourself and think you can go 15k+ feet up a mountain and survive 50mph wind gusts like you could in a Hilleberg…
One of the Hillebergs I have is four-season and weighs 3 lbs., including the poles. I can have it up in ten minutes, tops. The tent in the article might weigh 3 lbs., but that doesn't include the tree branches one is going to have to scrounge for to make tent poles. So if, as you mention, one is at 15K feet then snow accumulation is the least of one's worries if you can't find any tent poles above the tree line. :-)…
In the first video I used my hiking poles in the front corners of the tent and I think I used two short sections of old tent poles, probably fiberglass from an old cheap tent, in the back corners.
In the 2nd video I didn't use any poles or sticks. I tied the upper corners to tree branches with string.
So, you're carrying two short poles and your hiking poles and string and pins to stake out the tent. That's not anymore than any other tent and less than some if you're carrying hiking poles too.
I'll also point out that in our Ozark forests you won't ever be 15k feet when backpacking and tree branches are abundant most everywhere here.
But, the real take away from this video should be that there's room to explore how these heat reflective materials might be used in cold weather backpacking clothes and tents. Not that a Bakers Tent is the best design, although it's a very good one for the Ozark forests and many other places, and for using that reflecting material.