Floorless Tepee or 4 Season Tent

[BuckRut]

I need to make a choice and it's turning out to not be an easy one. I know it would be best to have multiple shelters for different applications but if you had to pick one type for all the seasons in Montana which are you going with?

 

[Voyageur]

Take this opinion from someone who does not live in MT, but has used both floorless tipis (for 18 yrs) and numerous floored shelters for much longer.....if it will definitely be used all seasons and you can only have one shelter I say go floorless. If the floorless setup bothers you during the warmer months when you don't need the stove you can always add a liner/nest.
Just my opinion and worth not a penny more than what you paid for it.

 

[hcaudle]

Floorless. I have a 4 season tent that hasn’t left the house in 3 years since going to floorless with a stove. The stove is worth its weight in gold.

 

[*zap*]

Pretty sure both have a place for use that suits them well. Make a pro/con list for both and compare to you needs list.

 

[Wrench]

For all seasons, I'd go 3 season tent and a buddy stove for cold mornings.

For cold seasons, id go tipi and stove.

Tipis suck for cross ventilation and keeping bugs at bay. They make up for it by being able to dry out with the stove.

There's no way to have a single shelter that's the best at everything......unless you're Cameron Haynes, then you just grow bigger balls and sleep in a ziploc bag.

 

[rayporter]

the eureka outfitter 6 man tent has no cross ventilation and only 80 sq ft. or lets say it has the same ventilation as a tipi.

at 6 ft high you can almost stand. it weighs at least 25lb and is a bundle about 3ft x 1 foot.
you can carry at least 2 12 man tipis for that weight and for the volume at least 3 maybe 4 12 man tipis.
a 12 man has 300 sq ft.. and if you have netting on the doors you can zip the netting and open the doors for ventilation. on both ends.

the six man tipi can vent the same way and has 150 sq ft. and you can probably carry 5 or 6 of them for the wt of a eureka if you are willing to cut a pole for the tipi.


my eureka has been stored since i got my tipi in the mid 90's and i go where there are bugs. lots.

yes you can take a smaller and lighter dome tent but you have to crawl into it and it wont hold all your gear inside. my crawling days a done, i am walking into my home away from home.

in other words the choice is a little more complicated that just "floor"

 

[mlgc20]

I will pick a tent any time I don’t absolutely have to have a stove.

 

[*zap*]

 

[Mansfield Outdoors]

The floor vs. floorless question doesn't have to be an either/or choice. Tentipi's Nordic tipi tents come floorless for the lightest configuration, but offer many different floor and inner-tent options which provide a great deal of versatility to the user.

There are times when car/truck camping where weight is rather unimportant. In these situations a full floor can be nice, an inner-tent even nicer. Tentipi's floors have "O", "V", and U" shape zipper opening configurations built into them which enable the use of a wood stove (or open fire) inside the tent, while simultaneously enabling the vapor barrier and moisture protection of a floor covering the bedding areas.

Check out the full line of Tentipi tents - including optional floors and inner-tents at www.mansfieldoutdoors.com.

 

[mtwarden]

a "4 season" tent means it can (should) be able to withstand high winds and snow loads, ie if you do a lot of winter camping and/or mountaineering- you probably want (need) a "4 season tent"

a real "4 season" tent really means one season- winter (or extreme weather up high, very high)- they usually don't offer enough ventilation to be used in other seasons- this is because they have to be pretty well sealed for very rough weather and the reason most three season tents don't cut it in harsh, winter weather

A floorless tipi (mid) will be more useful over a wider range conditions (and seasons) and for the similar volume- it will weigh less than a "4 season" tent. If designed properly and has a lot of guy out points, it will do very well in all but the most extreme weather. A mid also opens up the option of hot tenting, which on longer, wetter hunts/outings can be a godsend

don't let the idea of no floor stop you, almost all mid manufacturers offer floor and netting options- or simply get a sheet of Tyvek cut to the size of your shelter for a cheaper option

and if a tent is the way you want to go, there are plenty of good 3 season tents that would fill the bill for hunting season, from early to late

<--- lives, works, plays, hunts in Montana

 

[Rwatwood]

Floor less for the win. Big fan of my Luxe hiking gear Tipi’s. I have a 2p and a 6p, both with stove jacks and I have a Seek Outside stove for late season. I love it

 

[Rokwiia]

Were I in Montana, I'd go tipi for sure. You can stand up, move around, and a wood stove is easier to use. Having said that, in my area it's much more convenient to use a 4-season.

I've had both (SO tipi) and no longer use a floorless. Where I go, there are Timber Rattlers and lots of mosquitoes. Three seasons a year, you have the potential for incessant bites from bugs or a potentially horrible bite from a rattlesnake. Both could be avoided if you used a nest inside the floorless tent although that's not easy when you add a few people. During warm months, a tipi is no fun to be in. Too warm and no enough air flow.

Also, where I go, it is thickly wooded and not very easy to find a piece of ground large enough to accommodate a tipi's footprint. I'm sure that is not a problem in Montana. With all that said, no one piece of equipment can do everything well. I have a number of tents and could never see a time when I didn't choose the tent for the specific season and activity.

Best o f luck in whatever you choose.

 

[Benchleg66]

Floor less tipi. Can add a stove for those late season hunts.

 

[JeffRaines]

I’ve been trying the floorless thing for awhile and I’ve gotta be honest, I’m probably gonna end up selling my tipi, nest and stove.

It’s a cool novelty, but having to fight condensation SUCKS... and it’s a fact of life where I do most of my hunting(the cascades). The pitch is fiddly, the stove is fiddly, getting the nest set is fiddly... and I like to hunt, not try to find the perfect place to set up my gear or work on making it perfect.

People rave about how much room you have in a floorless shelter, and it’s true in a sense - until you realize that without a stove the walls are covered in condensation. Pitch it up they say - yeah I tried that, still condensation. So all that room around the edges is nearly useless. Add a nest/liner they say - adding either one is just piling more weight on. A ground tarp? Same thing. More weight. At what point does it make sense to just bring a three season/double wall tent and call it good? I got one that’s a 3p that weighs about as much as the cimarron does with stakes, and it has an almost equal amount of “usable” room.

Maybe for the people who live and hunt in drier environments it makes sense...

This isn’t knocking SO in any way - the shelter and stove are well put together and quality. Just my experience.

 

[shoeshineman]

I’ve been trying the floorless thing for awhile and I’ve gotta be honest, I’m probably gonna end up selling my tipi, nest and stove.

It’s a cool novelty, but having to fight condensation SUCKS... and it’s a fact of life where I do most of my hunting(the cascades). The pitch is fiddly, the stove is fiddly, getting the nest set is fiddly... and I like to hunt, not try to find the perfect place to set up my gear or work on making it perfect.

People rave about how much room you have in a floorless shelter, and it’s true in a sense - until you realize that without a stove the walls are covered in condensation. Pitch it up they say - yeah I tried that, still condensation. So all that room around the edges is nearly useless. Add a nest/liner they say - adding either one is just piling more weight on. A ground tarp? Same thing. More weight. At what point does it make sense to just bring a three season/double wall tent and call it good? I got one that’s a 3p that weighs about as much as the cimarron does with stakes, and it has an almost equal amount of “usable” room.

Maybe for the people who live and hunt in drier environments it makes sense...

This isn’t knocking SO in any way - the shelter and stove are well put together and quality. Just my experience.

I think this is a great perspective. The optimal shelter is very dependent on climate, geography, season, situation, etc. What works well in coastal Alaska in November is different from what works well in Louisiana in August is different from what works well in SW Colorado in September.

One shelter for Montana, my vote would be for floorless.

 

[rayporter]

there is no optimal shelter.

really, you need more than one.

 

[CO-AJ]

Like many, I too have both a floored free standing tent and a tipi. I absolutely love the space in my tipi which is a Seek Outside Cimarron, and I put a LBO nest inside which gives me more gear and movement space. Also, when I put the stove (not yet purchased) inside I like the fact the nest is a bit smaller and may be a bit further from the stove. Both setups are run single man, so condensation isn't really an issue. I would say look at when you are going to use it most, and buy first for that scenario and environment. Then maybe you can buy cheaper or used for the other times you want to camp.