Kifaru or seek outside shelters for young family

[Jerry P]

this past season was my first experience using a kifaru 6 man with a medium stove. I have read tons of posts on here about having to stoke the stove ever 15-30 minutes. I found the hardest seasoned wood near my campsite and used my Wyoming saw to cut it into lengths that would fit in the stove. I had an axe so I split anything that would not fit in the opening of the stove. once the fire got hot, I loaded her up with as much as I could fit in there, closed the dampers and got 3 hours at least. turned in about 9, stoked round 12-1, and again about 4 or 5. didnt have a single issue and absolutely love the setup. I hauled that whole setup 5 miles deep and will do it again!
good luck
john

I have to say I was a little jealous that night as I would hear the stove making "Popping" sounds from the burn throughout the night as I lay there in my BA Copper Spur UL2.

 

[Kevin Dill]

A thought....

I'm not sure where you are/were camping, but it sounds like maybe you were burning good seasoned wood. Obviously a large solid round or half-round of dense wood is a much better fuel than most softwoods. In Alaska I look for standing dead birch and small spruce as that's all I have to choose from where I hunt. I saw to length and split to various sizes so I can get the best burn. Even with the best of this wood and loading (banking) the stove I'm not able to get much more than an hour or maybe 90 minutes before it's dead. Those woods don't sit and hold coals like more dense woods. They burn down to ash and a few embers rather quickly, and if you don't keep the stove fed on schedule it won't retain enough coals to ignite another load of wood.

 

[ChrisS]

I have the HPG stove and spent a week in November in the Adirondacks with it. Even with plenty of dry & seasoned maple, ash, and beech, I wouldn't rely on it keeping a fire going for more than an hour or two without having to add wood or stoking it. In fact, I kind of wish my hunting partner would have just left the damn thing alone after turning in for the night. Instead, every 90 minutes or so I would wake up to him fiddling with the stove (they're not quiet) and if I didn't wake up to the noise of him loading up the stove again, I would start sweating in my 0F bag. The best use for the stove is for drying out and warming up after being outside in the cold all day hunting before going to bed and warming up the tent to get dressed in the AM.

I also agree that having young children around the stove is dicey. There's not a ton of room in these tipis/tents and the stove is red hot, small, and low to the ground.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Just a thought, my family camping rig is a cheapo Colman pop up. Car camper special. Lots of headroom and floor space. Effectively a throw away after a few uses. It will shed light rain and is reasonably comfortable.

The reasons I went cheap are (1) my Ole lady wouldn't let me go in too deep in the woods when the kids were young and (2) she wasn't going to let me stay in weather that was any worse than the Coleman can handle. I'd never get her on the trail again if I made my wife stick it out in the woods through some nasty weather no matter how good a tent we had.

 

[Wrongside]

The LBO Base+Tarp+Base will definitely work for a family of 3. We are 4- my boys are young teens now- and that setup is plenty of space for us.

As for light stoves, my only experience is with a older EdT roll up. It works great for what it is, but does require lots of stoking. Fantastic to dry out and warm up at the end of the day, or crawl out of a sleeping bag into a warm shelter on a subzero morning... But not something I'd plan on burning all night... Personally, I'd just bring extra warm clothing and sleeping gear for the baby. Maybe start up the stove for diaper changes...

As the others have mentioned already, there will be other challenges camping with young ones or infants. Don't let that stop you though!

 

[mlob1one]

I'm a big fan of the seek outside. Don't have experience with the Kifaru, but the modularity of the lbo base+tarp+base is amazing.

 

[SHTF]

This is not really a hunting question as much as an ultralight backcountry camping question. We recently had a baby boy and it has changed everything. My wife and I would normally do multiple back country trips in the mountains together. Now she is worried about the baby being too cold.
I'm thinking that a floorless shelter with a stove might be the answer. I was looking at a Sawtooth or the Cimmaron. I have never seen either in person and have no idea where to even start on stoves.
The catch is that I will be carrying everything on my back since she will be hauling the boy up the mountain. I'm thinking a EE quilt for two and new ultra light thermarest pads will do for bedding but I have no idea about the shelter. Any help or advice would be much appreciated guys and gals.

Qfrog, Saw this tonight and immediately thought about your situation

https://denver.craigslist.org/bab/5396571819.html Didnt know they made this lol.

 

[Qfrog]

Thanks for the advice everybody! I ended up ordering a seek outside LBO with large stove. In the mean while we have been beating around the old RV. Thank god for Wiggys bags. More than once we got caught in some serious down pours and returned pretty drenched despite rain gear and ponchos. My boy did fine but my wife was freezing. She would jump in the bag with her wet clothes and the kid. When I was done cooking dinner she was dry again. I can't say enough good things about them. Just wish they didn't weigh almost 5 lbs.