Review: Kifaru's Ultralight 6-Man Tipi and Wood Stove

luke moffat said:

Agreed Dave! I wish they would as well! Good review Matt! Glad you enjoyed your experience in the Kifaru tipi! Stout shelters no doubt!

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Bushcraft said:

People make a big mistake when they buy one of these without a liner. Particularly anyone that's going to use it in a cold, wet environment. Without the liner, you are really just buying half of the benefits of the shelter system.

This will no doubt be a shock to some people out there, but ALL single wall sil-nylon shelters will gather condensation on the inside, particularly if you are running a stove inside and the ground has a lot of moisture in it. Unless you live in a high and arid climate and set up on dry ground, there is just no way around the condensation issue unless you have a liner. Period. End of story. Anyone that says anything to the contrary probably either hasn't spent much time in them or doesn't know what they are talking about, or more likely…both.

I’ve seen it rain inside tipi’s that weren’t running stoves or liners. The condensation gathers on the inside and wind and heavy rain knocks it off the walls and onto you and all your gear inside. That sucks. Makes you wonder why in the hell you are spending your valuable vacation sleeping inside a bivy sack inside a tipi.

You can keep the condensation rain forest thing at bay if you are running a stove and no liner, but you’d better have your bag in a bivy sack because you are eventually going to go to sleep, the fire is going to die down, condensation is going to form on the inside of the tipi and it’s going to get wet inside if/when the wind starts honking or if it starts raining. Again, that’s just the nature of single wall shelters like these in cold/wet environments.

Now, if that doesn’t sound appealing to you, get a liner.

Problem solved.

The liner very effectively keeps all condensation off you and your gear. You are not going to get wet when you stand up and rub against the wall of the tipi. Any condensation simply gets funneled to the edge of the tipi. By trapping a small amount of air, it also acts as insulation of sorts and dramatically reduces the drafty feeling and evens out the temps inside the tipi. Plus, over time, the ground is going to dry out inside the tipi with the stove blasting out heat and your temperature swings will be even further minimized.

Regarding cots in tipis – Simple geometry tells you that full size cots are going to eat up a ton of space in a tipi in a hurry. The 8-man is the first in the line-up that you can actually run a couple full size cots without being too jammed up against the stove. I wouldn’t attempt using full sized cots in a 6-man, especially without a liner because you are constantly going to be right up against the wet or frozen tipi walls the whole time. We use smaller, ultra-lite type collapsible cots in the 8 man and they work great.

I've slept in every Kifaru shelter made from the tarps all the way up to the 24 man, except for the Sawtooth. They will shrug off high winds, brutal cold, heavy snow loads, torrential never ending Northwest rain and last a long time if you take care of them. My favorite minimum size for a designated base camp is an 8-man with a liner for 2-3 guys. At 4 guys I’d step it up to a 12 man and…you guessed it…a liner.

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mauidiver said:

I've always wondered about this kind of set up and the functionality of the idea. Just learning about this site has helped me so much with all your postings. My first reason for thinking of this style was honestly to bring back my childhood memories and create new ones for my son. The open flooring does make me think. Most of our hunting is done in Texas, so we got a bunch of Rattle bugs around that would love the inside. Also, have any of you used this in the heat? Yes, we got some heat here in Texas and would definitely think it would be warm. I've looked at the prices and actually very surprised at the pricing. For me a full time student and father of a hungry 16yr old, money is tight. So this route is not looking like a possibility unfortunately. But If I see a used one or something similar, i at least know what a solid top of the line product one looks like. Man, this would be fun. Thanks for the write up and experience here guys.

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