What's your wall tent + entire camp setup time?

[Yaada_205]

So finally got our 14x16 Davis wall tent for my family of four! (13yr old son and 11yr old daughter).

We took it out in October... and Nov (last week). Each trip has been 3 nights, 4 days. We are preparing for my wife's elk hunt in December (7 days).

With all of us working together (i.e. delegating tasks and helping each other depending on what was a suitable, appropriate task for my kids) from completely unloading the wall tent, stove, furniture like COTs, tables and chairs, all the misc gear, etc.. off of the utility trailer to setting up everything to basically getting to bed... it took approximately 5 hours. And in the reverse order - yup, 5 hours. Wake up the day we are leaving, start breaking down everything, packing it all up, loading it up on the utility trailer and hopping in the truck to hit the dirt road.... 5 damn hours! Geez!

Now when its all setup...its so priceless and worth it!! The comfort, the space, the warmth, the memories with this setup are completely amazing!!

I can get in deeper in the woods instead of worrying about towing a camper and not having to deal with all the stupid maintenance issues with owning a camper. The heat from the wood stove is just so different than a heater from a camper makes all of it worth while.

My wife and I keep pondering ideas on what is it that we could do to make the setup time quicker, and asking ourselves what are we doing that is making it take so long.

But seriously - I would think this should all take no more than 3 hours! Maybe closer to 2 hours. Unless I'm being too optimistic?

Does the time frame sound about right?

For those of you that have experience with wall tents - how long is your complete wall tent, camp setup time?

 

[5MilesBack]

You must have a heck of a lot of gear to set up. For me......my 14x16, folding table, two cots with padding and sleeping bags, my tank top heater, my cook stove, and a lantern is under an hour, even solo.

A few years ago I packed out my bull the day before, and then woke up to pouring rain. Had my coffee and sat there waiting for it to let up. An hour later I said "to heck with it", and backed the truck up to the door and started loading stuff in and then broke down the tent in a downpour. Took me right at 30 min to be on the road.

 

[hh76]

I timed myself last year, and will again on Friday when I set up.

Parking the truck to having the tent up with fly, floor in, table set up, and stove set up was almost exactly 1 hour. That was me doing 75% of the work, then having my brother help spread the canvas on the frame and add the legs. That included about 10min to clear the area of sticks and rocks.

Once it gets to that point, it shouldn't take much longer than 30min to set up a cot and sleeping bag? Food and equipment don't really take much time, they can stay in their bins or cooler until needed? If everyone is responsible for their gear, it can really speed things up. Take down took about 50% longer, dealing with folding the tent and cleaning up a warm stove.

 

[Ross]

30 minutes or less to have fire goin…..I keep it real simple and used to setup and take down 10-20 times a year….8x10x5 cot stove bed roll typically no table bare bones keeping it simple..perfect for two and 3 in a pinch….two other buddies got them as well so easy to setup and take down alone sometimes won’t even stake it out if calm and for 1-2 days…the relite walls help to keep the weight down and dry time lots of good memories gone through two stove pipes with the stove

 

[ManyBullets]

About an hour to get the tent up and staked, cargo trailer unloaded and everything setup including the stove, cots, and kitchen. That's 1-2 guys and usually includes a beer break.
Usually we have the wall tent up in about 30 minutes but it takes a minute to get all the other crap unloaded and out of the way.

 

[go_deep]

I have a14x16 Davis wall tent with wood stove also. I can have everything setup in about an hour, but that doesn't include time for cutting firewood.

 

[ckrhtr]

I have a 14 x 17 Montana Canvas tent, between the wife and I we can have the tent, 2 double cots, stove, tables chairs etc. set up in an hour. I would personally rather deal with putting up the whole tent rather than putting together the bunk bed cots, they seem to be the most painful part of the whole process.

 

[BRTreedogs]

2.5 hrs

 

[Werty]

Cabelas bighorn 12x14 1 hour, solo. I tell people not to help me, it takes longer.

 

[LaHunter]

So finally got our 14x16 Davis wall tent for my family of four! (13yr old son and 11yr old daughter).

We took it out in October... and Nov (last week). Each trip has been 3 nights, 4 days. We are preparing for my wife's elk hunt in December (7 days).

With all of us working together (i.e. delegating tasks and helping each other depending on what was a suitable, appropriate task for my kids) from completely unloading the wall tent, stove, furniture like COTs, tables and chairs, all the misc gear, etc.. off of the utility trailer to setting up everything to basically getting to bed... it took approximately 5 hours. And in the reverse order - yup, 5 hours. Wake up the day we are leaving, start breaking down everything, packing it all up, loading it up on the utility trailer and hopping in the truck to hit the dirt road.... 5 damn hours! Geez!

Now when its all setup...its so priceless and worth it!! The comfort, the space, the warmth, the memories with this setup are completely amazing!!

I can get in deeper in the woods instead of worrying about towing a camper and not having to deal with all the stupid maintenance issues with owning a camper. The heat from the wood stove is just so different than a heater from a camper makes all of it worth while.

My wife and I keep pondering ideas on what is it that we could do to make the setup time quicker, and asking ourselves what are we doing that is making it take so long.

But seriously - I would think this should all take no more than 3 hours! Maybe closer to 2 hours. Unless I'm being too optimistic?

Does the time frame sound about right?

For those of you that have experience with wall tents - how long is your complete wall tent, camp setup time?

That time sounds reasonable to me when you include ice chests, tables, food, etc. As your kids get older, you should be able to cut that time considerably. I have a 12X14 Davis tent with a 1" conduit internal frame and it takes me a few hours solo from the time I start to the time I am 100% complete setting up, or taking down, my camp. This includes a rain fly with awning along with the loose full floor. I am also using 3' sticks of rebar to stake out my tent guy lines too.

 

[sndmn11]

Half hour to get the tent and floor up, and thirty to and hour to get stuff settled and polished off.

5 hours is longer than it took to make the tent!

 

[cnelk]

Not very long to set up - way less than an hour

I like to use an 'A Frame' with dead trees - much faster than an internal frame
(I stash them back in the woods so I can re-use them)

 

[mavinwa2]

as SOLO, my 10x12 Rainer Wall tent, interior alum frame, complete camp-gear takes me 4 hours.
And that is without cutting a min 6 days/nights of wood for the woodstove, collecting 20 gal of fresh creek water.
But then I'm in my early 60's age, so take my time with a few 5 min breaks.

see my Deer-Elk base camp set up video here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6RCLnTyEgP5ek42WUVgs5g/videos

see video: 2021 WA ST Elk Camp Tour

 

[hh76]

Timed it today.

14x16, internal frame. Truck was parked at 9:15, about 75yrds from tent location.

Between my 81yr old father and I, we cleared brush and sticks, had the tent, fly with awning, loose floor, stove, and table set up by 10:30.

 

[schmalzy]

30 minutes or less to have fire goin…..I keep it real simple and used to setup and take down 10-20 times a year….8x10x5 cot stove bed roll typically no table bare bones keeping it simple..perfect for two and 3 in a pinch….two other buddies got them as well so easy to setup and take down alone sometimes won’t even stake it out if calm and for 1-2 days…the relite walls help to keep the weight down and dry time lots of good memories gone through two stove pipes with the stove

This has me seriously considering one as a mostly solo with son occasionally joining tent.

Conduit frame? Ever wish you went 10x12? Which brand?

Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Fatcamp]

Wife says it takes us about an hour start to making coffee and lounging in bed. But, we have done it a few times and have a pretty polished camp.

 

[swampthing]

Just finished a solo trip. It took me 45 minutes to set up my 12x14 wall tent. I was damn near 3hrs to finish up everything else which included hanging lights and setting up the generator

 

[Ross]

This has me seriously considering one as a mostly solo with son occasionally joining tent.

Conduit frame? Ever wish you went 10x12? Which brand?

Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Montana canvas relite walls are super lite dry quick and durable…..never needed anymore size as 90% is two of us and have squeezed 3 in when needed for sleeping…..as noted conduit frame and qwikkk camp joints will last you forever and only get rid of if expand hunting party it has seen many good hunts and memories with itbought a large ski bag to store it in, the poles go in a $30 skis bag and painted the poles and joints to setup at night….have recoated the top twice and dry in my furnace room to prevent any mold before storage……two of buddies picked them up as well and Im sure you will find us in them in our 70s

 

[Brando']

Not very long to set up - way less than an hour

I like to use an 'A Frame' with dead trees - much faster than an internal frame
(I stash them back in the woods so I can re-use them)

Good setup

 

[MHWASH]

It takes two of us right at two hrs. It is very windy where we hunt, plus the ground is real rocky. We use 12” rebar stakes, so it takes time to beat them in.