Tent Failure Tales

[AKDoc]

On the flip side...a tent success story, and...

On a September moose hunt in western Alaska one year we had to hunker-down for a three-day residual typhoon with winds recorded +80mph. In over thirty-years living in Alaska, it was the most intense wind/rain I'd ever experienced in a tent!

We had gotten an advanced alert/warning and moved our tents to a nearby slightly recessed willow thicket/moose bedding area for some cover. Our Hilleberg Staika's were the MVP's of that hunt, as always...and they held up just fine. We always use cyclone tent stakes on the tundra...and they worked great. We preventatively dropped the center-pole of the tipi (our day shelter) and anchored it down before the storm hit...and it stayed put.

The day after...

...and on that same day after the storm, we took a nice 64" bull, who had also been hunkered-down for a few days and needed to move.

 

[longrangelead]

A buddy went to take a dump and came back to his Cimarron in a flaming pile with all his gear inside. lost everything!
was set up on an old road bed in timber, no wind.
he suspects the carbon center pole got to hot being to close to the stove and either collapsed or caught fire and spread.

 

[tttoadman]

I had a copper spur 2P go down with about 3” of wet snow. It was the only tent I had. These are too flat on top to take any reasonable snow.

We broke the small MSR aluminum pole with a cimarron. We believe the wind in this canyon was gusting up to 80 or more. It was pretty spooky. We got the large diameter MSR pole. Never had issues after that. I have the same large diameter 3 pc pole for my Silvertip. I have had this setup in pretty heavy snow with no issues.

 

[mrbillbrown]

Not a failure with my Tut tipi but….. a small pin hole (from my poor seam sealing skills) allowed a drip on me one trip. Having no tube of seam sealer with me I had to string my Sheep Tarp up as a liner to stay dry. Otherwise that floorless shelter has been perfect for all my needs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Beendare]

If 40+ mph winds are in the forecast I don’t plan on sleeping in a tipi .....

I would disagree with that comment.

I've had my tipi in some crazy windy weather, multiple times in Alaska and that is one of the best designs for bucking the wind as long as you keep it tensioned.

 

[Dos Perros]

December deer hunting in Kansas had a windy night in one of the old JimmyTarps. The wind had the stove pipe riding up and down and it sawed through the stove jack. Also the zipper on that tent failed. Now I wrap stove pipes in welders felt at the stove jack.

My buddy had another silpoly tarp come apart in Montana on a September elk hunt, just very windy. My silnylon Seek Outside survived. I won't own a silpoly tent I need to keep me alive ever again.

 

[Skerhunter]

I would disagree with that comment.

I've had my tipi in some crazy windy weather, multiple times in Alaska and that is one of the best designs for bucking the wind as long as you keep it tensioned.
View attachment 912737

You disagree with the comment - I don’t plan on sleeping in a tipi with high winds .

I didn’t say they are guaranteed to fail or anything!

 

[thegrouse]

I had a North Face Wagon 6 in Moab one Spring, I had every guy out point staked out. Nasty thunderstorms pulled a stake or two while I was out and snapped a pole. I did a field repair and finished the trip.

Big Bend Texas one March I had my REI Base Camp 6 out. Every guy out point staked in the ground. Nasty wind over 70mph. This wind toppled an RV and ripped canvas off a popup down the road. My tent didn't flatten, but it bent a pole I bent it in the field for another night and replaced when I got home

Northern AZ monsoon season went out with just a tarp. The wind and heavy rain was too much for the 9x10 tarp. There was no pitch that would keep me dry. Managed to make it through the night and almost never use a tarp now unless I am in the desert during the dry months.

 

[Olympics777]

Actually my last trip here a few weeks ago I had my first tent failure. I bought a Big Agnes tent in maybe 2014-15 ish and I went to use it this summer and when I went to set it up the bungee holding the poles together was so brittle and not stretchy that I had to cut the excess and try to just stick the poles into each other with no tension. It sucked but it worked. Now I’m shopping for a new tent, I’ve become a tarp or bivy guy but sometimes the bugs are too bad for those…

 

[NRA4LIFE]

My worst was in SE MT about 35 years ago. We had erected 2 tents, one an old military canvas unit and one POS old Coleman. They both succumbed to the ferocious winds one night and both were destroyed. Ended up sleeping in the trucks the rest of the trip. Bought a camper the next time going out there.

 

[Beendare]

You disagree with the comment - I don’t plan on sleeping in a tipi with high winds .

I didn’t say they are guaranteed to fail or anything!

I'm just saying, I had my tipi pictured on Kodaik in 50-60mph and on the Alaskan peninsula in 60mph plus and that design sheds wind like it's nothing.

In fact the 2 best packable designs I've seen for shedding wind is the Tipis and the Hilleberg or Stephenson Tunnels.

If you are talking surviving anything you have to move up to a Arctic Oven- those suckers will handle just about anything...but they better be they are over 70# and $3k.

 

[AKDoc]

I'm just saying, I had my tipi pictured on Kodaik in 50-60mph and on the Alaskan peninsula in 60mph plus and that design sheds wind like it's nothing.

In fact the 2 best packable designs I've seen for shedding wind is the Tipis and the Hilleberg or Stephenson Tunnels.

If you are talking surviving anything you have to move up to a Arctic Oven- those suckers will handle just about anything...but they better be they are over 70# and $3k.

^^^Agreed^^^

I've been amazed at how well my SO 4-person (used as a day-shelter) has handled the wind through numerous tough nites...many mornings as I got out of my Hilleberg, I expected to see the tipi in some damaged state or totally gone, but it was always standing, undamaged. BTW...in the image I posted above I dropped the center-pole before that typhoon because I had a carbon center-pole...probably would have dropped it regardless in that situation.

I have used my tipi as a primary/sleeping shelter on several 10-day remote floats covering over a hundred-miles...moving camp every day. My only negatives are (1) finding a large enough footprint in some locations, and (2) a tipi is a condensation monster, and if a sudden wind hits out of nowhere it's a rain shower inside...gotta have those liners for extended use.

...I also agree, the Arctic Oven IS for sure a true bomb-shelter...I don't own one because it doesn't fit well with my outdoor activities, but everyone I know who uses them absolutely swear by them.

 

[Poser]

I was traversing a range one summer, doing some scouting. It was a phase where I was using a super light and very small, minimalists tarp. During some high winds, I tried reinforcing one of the seams with my trekking pole and split the seam from top to bottom. Made it through the night.

Next day, I jumped basins and ran into this rather good lookin' gal who was doing an ambitious backpacking trip. We ended up getting the map out, gave her some beta and then we had a 2+ hour conversation, ate dinner together. A little bit of chemistry was popping off.

It started getting dark, she had a 2 person tent set up, I had a busted tarp, things were looking promising. Then it started raining lightly....

She then says, "Just so you know, I'm married", jumped in her tent and zipped it up. I spent the night in my UL bivy sack which isn't fully waterproof, trying to get as much cover as I could from the willow.