Help needed on a small camp

Im wanting to set up a new small camp. My current camp is just to much for me to set up for short events (weekend events) as it takes me about 6 hours to set it up. Its also way more space than what I need for one person.
My current tent is a 14x14 strinz officers tent. Which is a 14 foot pyramid tent on 4 foot straight side walls and I also set up a 14x12 awning with walls.
I need help picking out a smaller tent/ awning or maybe I just need a tent and can skip the awning. I don't really care for pyramid tents, but might need to learn to like them. Diamond flys have some interest to me but would like to be able to close up the front during bad weather.
What are other doing. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Flatlander Kansas

Since I generally go alone, my 12x12 Diamond has become one of my favorite shelters. Its plenty roomy, easy up, easy down and packs away small in my vehicle. As far as foul weather its been through several toad stranglers and T. storms and I always stayed dry. Just in case of changing winds that blow rain in the open front, I always carry a piece of 8x8 canvas that can be draped over my Diamond, then roped and staked down on which ever side the rain might be blowing in from. Ive found that with the 12x12, its gotta be gusting pretty good in order to blow in far enough to get you or your gear wet if you crawl deep enough towards the back.
Another great choice might be a simple wedge, another easy up, easy down shelter.
Just a couple of thoughts.

A small wedge tent and awning will give you all the protection, function and privacy one person needs, ....while being easy and quick to set up.

Here is a small example.
https://youtu.be/nAsF8OyFNEI

Panther primitives has some nice selections and good pricing. I'm working on scaling down camp for solo events as well.

Thinking a 10'x10' diamond for myself. A friend swears by a 7'x7' but that seems so small to me.

Thank you I watched the video and looks like a good option.

Note:...There are many good tent makers that make wedge tents....
RK lodges
Tentsmiths
Panther primitives...Etc....

Look around, read some old topics here on the forum, wait for more people to reply...


Here is a picture of a wedge with an awning.

A wedge tent gives you full weather protection, it allows you to stand in it and with the addition of a cot, you can sleep off the ground.
A stove jack can also be added for 4 season camping.

If the tent has doors at both ends you can open it for good cross ventilation in hot weather....or you can open it like this....although it works better with small wedge tents.

I have just a bell back wedge now, but that open sided wedge it is very handy and I used one for over twenty years. You can carry sectioned poles and fit your camp in a car trunk. The one problem is cooking. Cooking for your self is easy, making a potluck can be a pia. Every time I plan to go to an event I think what will I make for Saturday nights?
I’ve went with foodstuffs that never have to be kept chilled and is mostly hc. I get dark beer so I can drink it warm :wink:

A wedge tent gives you full weather protection, it allows you to stand in it and with the addition of a cot, you can sleep off the ground.

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It Does?


FlatlanderKansas,

I have two standard 18th century, bell backed, wedge tents, and you cannot stand up inside if you are 5-08 or taller, and I use a 2x2 ridge pole, so if you used a 2x4 ridge pole, then definitely, no way are you standing up in them.

The slope on the sides is too steep and unless you bend over aka stoop, your head is going to hit the sides of the tent near the peak, and bang into the ridge pole if you're 5-10 like me. :shocked2:

Standard wedge tents were/are meant for sleeping only, as they are meant for 5-6 men to sleep out of the rain in bad weather. :wink: The rest of the time the men were not meant to be inside them.

While they are easy to erect..., Unless you are playing the part of a soldier, you should consider something in an oversized wedge (some companies call them monster wedge tents), which is a wedge with at least an 7' tall ridge. Tentsmiths calls it the American Civil War 3, and that should give you room to sleep on a standard cot plus room to move. IF you want a little more room then there is the American Civil War 4 . There are even bigger wedge tents called "museum wedge" tents, or a factory tent, but that's getting into the really really big range.

Another option for about the same price range is a Walled Tent with 2' walls. Basically it's like the ACW3 tent, but the 2' walls give you better use of the enclosed space and the angle of the roof is better for head room too. A bit more complicated to set up, but not a huge task for one guy. The low walls don't put the tent up high enough to catch that much wind either. :wink:

(I used Tentsmiths as a reference because their website is easier to use when offering a visual example, but Panther Primitives offers a similar variety of Wedge Tents. :wink: )

I like to use a diamond shelter for my fly, instead of an official awning. It gives me an extra "shelter" that I may use as a fly or something else if needed.

DON'T use metal tent pins in your upright tent poles, no matter what tent you get. Use hardwood dowels cut to length. IF while you're at an event, it's damp, and the ground softens, and along comes a wind there's a good chance the tent stakes may come loose and over your tent will go. Now the wooden pins will snap or sheer, and all you need then do is cut two more from a long wooden dowel (kept just in case) and you're back up in minutes. A metal pin, however, will often break the ridge pole at the hole if the tent is toppled by a sudden gust of wind, and may make re-set-up of your wedge tent a huge problem and pain with that broken ridge pole. :shocked2:

LD

It Does?

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I was taking into account the larger tents...not a soldiers tent. I was also comparing it to a diamond fly....I also did not account for basketball players or folks wearing cowboy hats... :haha:

thank you for the information

....I also did not account for basketball players or folks wearing cowboy hats.

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Nor did we discuss sergeants who suspend their muskets from loops on the ridge pole (keeps the musket away from the damp ground) who then returns late at night after having consumed a few adult beverages...the ridge pole is already low, and that butt plate on the Bess is then hanging even lower. OUCH :cursing:

:rotf:

LD

In Miller’s paintings it looks like some of the wedges are pretty tall. A civilian could have had an oversized wedge. (Please note: some of Miller’s horses are as tall as tipis...also please note some of the photos of tipis show wide low tipis about as tall as a horse.

Also keep in mind that the average human adult male height is now about 4 or 5 inches taller than 150 to 200 yrs ago.

tenngun said:

In Miller’s paintings it looks like some of the wedges are pretty tall. A civilian could have had an oversized wedge. (Please note: some of Miller’s horses are as tall as tipis...also please note some of the photos of tipis show wide low tipis about as tall as a horse.

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Yes, very innacurate. I get muchly irked :cursing: when some here use Miller's paintings as documentation for how things were back in the day. Nobody else ever hear of 'artistic license'?

I second or third the wedge and small fly....easy to set up for one person, and all the privacy, and protection you need...

I currently use a 9x9x6 troopers wedge, and an 12x12 fly out front...

Also keep in mind that the average human adult male height is now about 4 or 5 inches taller than 150 to 200 yrs ago.

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Well that back then depended a lot more on the population providing the sample. For example the lower classes of England, and thus a lot of the English soldiers (especially those from cities who were likely pressed into the army from jail) were a on average a few inches shorter than their American colonial cousins or their Germanic neighbors....better diet for the colonials who for the most part came from agrarian communities. Same for the Germans. The Highland Scots tended to be much larger, one due to genetics, and two due more so from also being mostly farmers. Englishmen from coastal areas too tended to be a few inches taller, again to better food. So country regiments might have bigger guys than those that pressed men into their ranks. The German's didn't "press" convicts into military service, a thus weren't inducting people who grew up poor and malnourished into their ranks.


I don't think the tents were nearly as "standardized" as they were in the next century when speaking of 18th century tents.

Here is a link showing men lying within a tent , which is very short by comparison. While here is another period piece of artwork and one can see that these tents Appear to be tall , perhaps as tall as 8 feet in height. It is possible that the average British repro wedge is actually wrong, and that they should be closer to 8 feet tall.

Here again, the Tents in this artwork look tall, plus there is an odd "domed" tent...wonder what that is..., then there is a wedge to the left, rear in this piece that compared to the rider looks like it's at 6 feet in height.

LD

Rifleman1776 said:

tenngun said:

In Miller’s paintings it looks like some of the wedges are pretty tall. A civilian could have had an oversized wedge. (Please note: some of Miller’s horses are as tall as tipis...also please note some of the photos of tipis show wide low tipis about as tall as a horse.

Click to expand...

Yes, very innacurate. I get muchly irked :cursing: when some here use Miller's paintings as documentation for how things were back in the day. Nobody else ever hear of 'artistic license'?

Click to expand...

I do think Miller painted what he saw, with some artistic liscence. I also think he painted what people wanted to see. I THINK that most MM dressed like most working men one could see in the ware houses, boat yards, blacksmiths or carpenters lot. However no one wanted to look at paintings of the working class guy next door. Boots, shoes, cloth clothing etc make up a large part of the merchandise going west, yet it’s not the focus of Miller or Bodmeirs paintings.
I look at the Trapers bride, she looks like an Indian girl, she is barefoot and has dainty feet. People that spend a lot of time barefoot or in moccs will tend toward wider less danty feet. Women in photos of Indians and modern amozonian people who are pretty slight tend to wider rougher feet. Not hobbits for sure, but not the feet of a princess. However Miller painted her as the classic Indian princess.
And no, I don’t have a foot fetish only pointing out how Miller sanitized and concentrated on what his audience wanted, or what he thought they would want to see.

for solo camps I gave up on the tent and have gone with a 'bivy' and tarp. Advantages abound. Most signifigant is that it allows you to use the terrain/vegetation/forest to advantage. Lets you take advantage of naturally dry and/or naturally comfortable and/or naturally kind of protected from at least one side from bears. Beats trying to find a piece of earth that conforms to your tent needs. In most of the natural world it is hard to find just the right place for even a modest tent. Much easier to find the perfect 3 foot by 7 foot slice of heaven. Being able to set up 'camp' in the 10-20 minutes before dark, from the roll on your back and never want or suffer really is a joy. Get it dialed in right and you will find yourself going for a solo night out in the real dark and real quiet just to get a decent nights rest!