Tipi, Tent, Makes & Models

[Ticklicker]

My 20 year old backpack tent finally gave up the ghost and I need to get something else before a September backpack hunt. Have been drooling over tipis for 10 years or more...1) Any major reason I should NOT get a tipi (I have already read about the condensation issue) 2) Straight round tipi or one of the alternative floor shapes 3) Need it to be big enough for 3 people gear and stove 4) I know Seek Outside and Kifaru have stellar reputations, how about experiences with Luxe-Hiking 5) What size stove for September-October Western Hunting. Any help on any of these points would be much appreciated!

 

[Jimbob]

I have had a go-lite hex 2 for many years and it has been amazing. I love the no floor and the lightweight. I am in the same boat as you and need to add a larger option. I have looked at specs on the internet and here is what I found. I have no experience with any of these shelters, only research.

Options: Kifaru, Seekoutside, Liteoutdoors, locus gear

Kifaru - sawtooth not big enough, price gets crazy for larger shelters
Liteoutdoors - not big enough
Locus gear - no stove jack (could be added though), Soris is too big and expensive (very cool looking shelter though), Kahfra is too small

Seekoutside - Redcliff is perfect. Reasonably priced. Can fit three with stove and gear or up to 6 in a pinch with no stove.


So for me and my needs (3 people hunting, wife and 3 kids backpacking) I think the redcliff is the way to go.

 

[sodaksooner]

I can only add the experience I have of course but my brother and I have a BearPaw Wilderness designs Luna 6. 10' x 10'. about 6' center height. We have slept 3 and the stove but not much room left for gear. 2 people, stove and gear is about perfect. Seems decent to me.

 

[AK Troutbum]

12 person SO with 2 half liners and XL titanium stove...done. Plenty of room for 3 with stove and gear, super well made, and has the optional pitch of an 8 person footprint if needed. If you’re on an extended trip with two other people, and the weather goes south, there’s nothing like having ample space to be able to easily move around in your warm/dry shelter, while having access to all your stuff.


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[jmden]

Another, albeit heavier option, because is has optional complete double wall with integral floor, would be the 4+ TipiTent by WildSide Systems. Little to zero condensation issues, much warmer and lots of adjustable ventilation and bugproof with inner wall/floor. Or zip out inner wall/floor and go floorless. Whatever worx for your adventure at hand.

 

[Ticklicker]

Thanks for all the ideas and input. I have never set up a tipi but is it true that models like the Seek Outside Redcliffe are easier to pitch because of the floor shape?


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[reaper]

Seekoutside redcliff or a 8 man tipi should be good.

Kifaru 8 man but their shelter prices have no sense to me.

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[Beendare]

I went the home made route....but I can tell you I wouldn't go smaller than 12' diameter of useable space for 3 men. Mine is about 12.5' with short walls and its fine for 3.

Factor in the taper of the walls on any tent/tipi...as some swoop down low to the ground and make that perimeter space un-useable.

 

[colersu22]

I used the cimarron last weekend with 3 plus stove but we didn’t have gear in the tent, it was pretty tight. I have been looking at getting the redcliff for when it is three plus gear.

I have only set ups round tipi 2 times and I like the way you pitch the cimarron and redcliff better just since it is easier to get everything tight. I’m sure with practice the Kifaru 8 man would have been fine but me and my other buddy had never set it up prior to our trip and the guy who’s tipi it was couldn’t remember how they did it so we just kind of went for it.

 

[rayporter]

did you have the stuff sack for the 8 man tipi?

 

[Blacktail_Packer]

Don’t forget the Tigoat Vertex’s

 

[reaper]

Don’t forget the Tigoat Vertex’s

Ya but i don't know if they still in business since the Owner passed away.

Really like my 6.75

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[Blacktail_Packer]

Yeh I haven’t checked the sight sense the first time I saw the message, I was just hopeful they would stay in business.

 

[Ross]

The Cimarron is super easy to pitch and awesome for two but three can work in a pitch but with no gear inside and no firewood....you would want the next size up but these tents are great

 

[Ticklicker]

Looks looks like the Redcliff is the way to go for me. Is there sweet spot on stove size...weight vs wood size vs heat generation vs burn time. Thanks for the input... very useful information!


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[LionHead]

Coming from experience with some of the smaller offerings from kifaru and Seek outside I'll throw in my 2 pence

After buying new kifaru packs and shelters in 2010 I've sold and bought different setups on the classifieds. As of now almost all my gear is used and it's held up well, there's something to say for the durability of the higher quality gear.

Kifaru super tarp (new) was good solo, not so much with two, to include my GF even though she's petite and I'm a blocky cave troll. First night out I kicked her in the head on accident turning around in the shelter. Musta knocked something loose cuz now she loves sleeping outside.

Traded up for the megatarp. I've used it with the two of us but really it's my solo bivy hunt shelter. At 52" it's so short I have to crawl to get into it. Upside it only needs trekking poles to pitch. Downside is no sodskirt like the seek outside offerings.

Found a great deal on the now discontinued Seekoutside BCS2 which is a modern variant George tarp / psuedo Sawtooth/ predecessor to the Redcliff. And similar to Redcliff size.

1. Me At 5'10" and shelter at 6'10" it's a stand up/walk-in shelter. That standup space is only at the center pole. I can walk in a circle with one shoulder touching the pole and my other shoulder brushes the tarp. So it's not standup and dance room but it's " get dressed like a man room."

2. the BCS2 front face completely zips off just like the LBO and allows base+base or base+vestibule configurations. If run 2 people or it's shitty wheather where I want a stove solo I run base+vest instead of the mega.

3. With BCS2 base+base (essentially a Redcliff) I have had 4 people with a SO large stove no problem. Granted we were not hunting, it was more of a chill cruise in the mountains trip, so minimal gear. But we had all of our packs inside the shelter with the stove going.

4. I'll never sell my BCS2 because I have all the components to go from solo+ stove, to 4+stove and have the nest/liner that gives me condensation and bug protection.

5. SO BCS2, Redcliff, LBO and Cimmaron are all modified pyramids so they are less complicated to pitch than a round/oval tipi. Please correct me if Im Talking out my arse (you tipi guys you) but there's not the offset and restaking and mathematical rocket wizardry invovolved in the above mentioned vs the true tipi.

6. The SO sod skirt is on point! When your up top and the winds are changing and blowing under your shelter turing it into a staked down parachute the sod skirt really helps midigate that effect. Enough so that I'm replacing my mega with an LBO based off previous experience.

Seekoutside has been amazing to deal with and I've enjoyed their shelters the most, their modified Mids are super fast to pitch.

On the stoves. My experience with the SO large is too get it cranking, make a coal bed, load up with big logs and dampen it Down. Im experiencing 1.5-2 hr avg. Heat output with coals lasting about 3ish hours. If I wake up to restoke (which I usually do to keep the woman-folk happy) the coals are enough to get it going again. I think 2 stokes will get you through the night.

I won't bring the stove solo unless I'm base camping and the sky's are dark. If your always 2 or 3 in a group grab the stove. If I knew I'd never ever carry it solo I would have gotten the sxl or xl stove for more burn time. I compromised for the large because of those times I do carry it by myself.

And on the trip we had BCS in base+base (i.e. redcliff) with the large stove I carried all of it, and I didn't die. So I guess I'm saying even if you had to hump all of it, Redcliff +stove it isnt impossible.

still wish SO offered the BCS2 it's a great setup. Email them and demand the super LBO... The big Bug-cliff, ...the back country bug-out... I dunno whatever they'd want to call it .

Hope this helps

 

[LaGriz]

Lionhead,
I may be all washed up but are you sure you shelter isn't the original BCS and not the BCS-2?
The original was modular like you describe. I have the BCS-2 with 2 doors straddling the stove jack. I could be mistaken, but I don't think my shelter can be modified to a base + base configuration. Wish I could attach my pictures.

It seems to me this shelter combined with a Ti stove is at the max weight of 7 pounds (+or -) and pack size for a solo hunter looking for a heated palace for a guy, gear, wood pile, with a dog. A petite girlfriend, wife, or child would be also fit. The Sawtooth is more costly to purchase and has a higher re-sale value from what I see on the classified adds. In places where it's tight, the foot print is probably easer to accommodate then a 6-man Tipi or a Redcliff. Getting it pitched correctly is still challenging for me as I don't do it often enough to get good at it. There is a 8" set back (similar to the LBO) for the tent pegs and I seem to often have one side of the shelter that doesn't pull out just right. +1 on the Customer Service I received so far from SO. I have received a line-lock extender kit that I'm yet to experiment with. With this option I hope to be able to pitch elevated and gain some height, space, and needed ventilation. It is a cool shelter.

LaGriz

 

[ScottH]

On the BCS-2 you can completely unzip the front vestibule (area with stove jack) from the main or "base" part of the shelter. Then if you zip another "base" to it you have a BCS-2 Grande. When it was available if you ordered a BCS-2 Grande one "base" had a stove jack installed.

 

[LaGriz]

Scott H,
Thanks for the clarification. Pretty lame that I didn't know this about my own shelter. It's been a good while since I seam sealed the tent and my memory is fuzzy on the path of the zipper attachment of the vestibule. Construction is much like a LBO, only with more height. These features make think it will fill a role many are looking for in a floorless shelter. The Cimarron it seems, has filled the segment pretty well.

While looking at an older thread comparing the BCS-2 to the Sawtooth, I saw a side-by-side comparison photo. These two shelters are probably as large as one might wish to go if backpacking solo. The Sawtooth is taller with walls that are more vertical. I read where a Sawtooth owner was able to use a standard cot in this shelter while camping at the trail head. On one occasion I managed just fine with a ultra-lite cot (4" height), but don't see a full size cot working out in my BCS-2. The SO shelter is lighter, has two doors, a sod skirt, and I'm now learning has modular options. At the time, I was struggling with the price point of the Sawtooth when I found the deal on my shelter. The purchase was less than have the price of the Kifaru product. No buyers remorse here. LaGriz

 

[Bullitt338]

I have a SO Cimarron, works ok for 2 but I’m 6’2” and already kinda tired of stooping/crawling to get out of the tent, especially when it’s wet. I’d go Redcliff or 8-man if I did it over. Without a stove in the way I love the room in the Cimarron, though. I’ve set it up a couple of times while hiking to wait out storms and loved the space. It doesn’t weight very much with the carbon pole. Especially when divided between two people. I have a large SO stove and it’ll turn the tent into a sauna when needed. But overall more room would be nice. Just depends on weight and intended use. SO tents are well made.