So the cost of the tents from China is $130 per tent - for the tariff duties, shipping, etc. So that's why I did not go ahead with this. Still it was fun to chat with the female worker in Tianjin.
Tonight I discovered two tents - both are available directly from China - at half price of what they cost via their Western "pass through" name brand versions. In other words - the Chinese factory offers you to be able to put your "brand name" on their tent. But the funny thing is that everyone buys the Brand Name version without having any idea they could also just buy it directly from China. Literally the ONLY difference is that a "brand name" is stamped onto the product - in China by the whole sale production factory.
So the Pyramid sets up easier than the Tipi - both SilNylon tents (super light but don't breathe well).
So meanwhile the Westerners are going on and on giving critical reviews of the product - or RAVE reviews - without realizing they paid a 100% mark up (DOUBLE the price) just to have the luxury of the product supposedly NOT being a Chinese whole sale product. Hilarious.
I'm not gonna name names.
I mean if some Westerner wants to make their living just by putting their "brand name" STAMPED onto a Chinese wholesale product - then who am I to blame them. The idea then is the product is shipped en masse to the West and so stored in a warehouse here. That cuts down on Chinese shipping costs.
But in the mean time there ARE new websites enabling direct purchasing from China as long as the buyer is willing to wait for that individual item to be shipped over. So the logistics are a bit more technical I suppose.
TOP!-Outdoor Camping Pyramid Tent Ultralight Large Sun Shade Shelter Teepee with Stove Pipe Hole for Backpacking Hiking Fishing
So this very generic sounding tent sells for TWICE the price via a UK company and has tons of reviews and videos on youtube and Amazon - and I've seen only ONE person actually figure out to just buy it directly from China without the 100% mark up!!
I noticed that person - that was several months ago - so I didn't notice them tonight.
So I tried ordering this - I think it will go through.
Another tent said to contact the wholesaler for a "sample" purchase. So I sent in a contact order - but no payment yet. The whole saler has to contact me first. And that tent is bigger and heavier. It's made of the same material I use for the tarps - the polyester cotton canvas blend that is coated with silicone.
So last winter I bought a tarp of that material and tried making an A-frame. The wood stove was too small and I froze. haha. Well the tent was too small also. So the key is to have enough insulation below - and also to be able to close off the tent properly. I had one end OPEN and it was the north side. Oops. No - that wasn't going to work.
It would have been better to just build an igloo - an ice "cave" - or snow - for insulation.
Onetigris tent stove jack cover, REVIEWING & FIRE TESTING, DOSE THIS STOVE JACK COVER BURN OR MELT ?
So here is the stove jack that fits this tent....
wouldn’t like that either. You know, if you have a Cooking Supply Store, one that sells baking sheets, baking mats, utensils etc.. My point is, I saw a Baking Mat that was fire retardant that you could cut an “X” into it, and then slide it over the pipe .
So I already bought the silicone cooking sheet! haha.
I sewed an extra flap on top which diverts the rain from coming into the tent
Right - so even if you buy the "stove jack" that fits the "stove jack hole" then you still need to McGyver it a bit.
So some of these Independently Designed "tipi" or "pyramid" Silnylon tents are SUPER SUPER expensive. I'm talking TEN TIMES MORE than the mass produced Chinese wholesale tents.
So as much as we can respect people starting their own companies based on this design of tent - at some point - the mass production of the tent at ten times less the cost - it just over rules any kind of different in quality.
Of course the Chinese workers are slave-wage jobs - working in horrendous conditions.
But globalization is based on the assumption that the lack of jobs in the West will be made up by us by the cheap products of China. So it's a kind of catch-22 situation.
So on the one hand you have a Western company just buying from China and doubling the price. On the other hand you have an "original" product that was designed in the West and made in the West but costs TEN TIMES the price! And then you have the chinese wholesale product that is a spin off.
Seam sealing is super easy.
Floorless has never been a problem for me other than condensation if there is any snow on the ground. Clear all the snow you can and it helps to cut that down.
Have gotten some pinholes in the top from falling ash from the stove but have patched them with silicone and still going strong.
I'm just saying I see no reason to buy from a Western company just because they are Western even though they themselves are buying from China and just doubling the price on you!!
And if the Western company has the price as TEN TIMES more then I also have to question if they are just simply over charging to support some sort of glamorous lifestyle.
But there is no storm flap over the zipper to prevent water leaking in the rain!!!
So if you find that problem on the super fancy Silnylon tipi tent - then of course the same problem is on the tent that is ten times cheaper. BOTH require a McGyver Mod to fix it.
. They are not tough to pitch per-se but they are putsy, no matter how skilled you are or how much experience you have setting them up, it just takes a little time and attention to detail. Everything starts with and rely's on the pitch / staking, thus ground conditions and appropriate stakes for those conditions play an important role.
So the Tipi Pyramid Tent is not as easy to set up. It's not "free standing."
So it's also important to have better stakes.
This tent has no bottom, no support poles and no structure at all. It is purely held up by 1 pole in the middle that does not connect to the tent at all. The only thing keeping it in form are the stakes. If the ground is soft in the slightest your tent can blow away or crash to one side. If you're using a stove this could potentially burn anyone in the tent or start a massive forest fire. I bought it to use as a mini sweat tent near my pool in the back yard. Even in the back yard in no wind conditions the stakes swivel just enough to let the loops come off the stakes unless you hammer them completely into the ground including the 90 degree angle head
What I find funny is that above critical view is from Amazon of a GENERIC version of the same "Name Brand" tent that has gotten TONS of reviews (and costs TWICE as much!!).
Didn't like how breath able it is because cold winds can penetrate. Love the design though.
So again it has to be water proofed more with silicone...and maybe also covered with a tarp - a breathable canvas-polyester tarp...
Both a sil-nylon and a canvas tent can ice up (usually overnight from your body heat and breath), but the vapour / ice melting back to water only goes one way in a sil-nylon, that is inside, down the walls etc. In a canvas, it will do some of the same but since the cotton canvas is air-permeable, vapour will escape through the fabric as well especially if you fire the stove back up in the AM. Good venting and technique is important in either tent both when running the stove and sleeping.
So an independent company tries to improve on the SilNylon design:
In 2016, we transitioned to a fabric that is considerably more watertight than what is typically used in the industry. Suter machine testing of this new fabric shows a new fabric minimum hydrostatic head pressure of 3000 mm. In other words, the pressure created by a water column 3000mm (9.84 feet) high pressing down on the fabric is the point at which a bead or two of water starts to come through the fabric when the fabric is new. This rating does degrade over time, but this is the best 1.1 oz silicone coated nylon fabric made. Period. It also has an unusually high tear resistance due to the silicone impregnation process and the high strength nylon 6,6 nylon used.https://bwca.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=forum.thread&threadId=1054897&forumID=116&confID=1
Sil nylon does not allow much moisture out. Venting helps keep that manageable. Using a floor helps tremendously with moisture management. I believe most moisture is not from breathing and cooking but from the melting of the snow on the floor and under the stove. A insulated floor really cuts down on condensation as the temperature is more even in the shelter closer to the floor. In real deep cold -20°F and below. condensation can freeze along the lower walls and you can peel if off in sheets and toss it outside.
here it is! Aricxi 4 Seaon Hot Tent - this guy bought it direct from China
Someone trying it out winter camping
OK the one I ordered is Six Sided while this one is eight sided
So you connect paracord to the loops at the ground connection - so you get more air under the tent...
If you had covered the tipi floor with at least a tarp or two as well as covered the sod skirt with snow outside as well as used full liners around the interior, I'm sure it would have been much warmer in the tipi.
right...
foam rubber type pads that are often used for standing on on hard floors to help foot ankle comfort. They are about 2 foot by 2 foot square and go together like a jigsaw puzzle. Stacked together when transporting they are not too bulky and they are very lite weight for their size.
So this is the "Bell" tent - that design I also tried to order direct from China. I don't know how much this costs - probably a lot. Probably five times more than the China one. Yeah it's over $700 but ... so it's more like three times more....
ingenious 5 sided design that requires no pole kit to erect - simply stake out the corners, and use available staves or poles from the envionment for a single center support. Packing in at a mere 6kg (13 lbs), the Arctic Fox 9x9 winter tent can be pulled in via a freight toboggan, but is light and small enough to be transported in a hiking or canoe pack.
So it seems like you'd need the canvas layer INSIDE the SilNylon...
double-wall tents are DRY due to the awesome inner tent body material that wicks moisture out of the tent, making it hard to leave when you wake up on a cold and wet day!
huge, bulky, double layered tent with a full floor and solid (non collapsible tent stove). The sight of these two hot tents and stoves illustrates the fact that whilst both are hot tent and stove combinations, they are aimed at different types of user. The Seek Outside combination is aimed at the person that carries their gear on their back and the Arctic Oven can only be taken by sled, snowmobile, other powered transport or pack animal. The Seek Outside tent would be greatly improved by the use of a liner and some floor coverings at these temperatures, which would also make the test more equal.
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