Tent recommendations

[quidditys_shore]

just ordered myself this from argos

tent



only £15 if in stock or £21 delivered. it gets good reviews & is also know as a tiger paw tent.

i wasnt thinking of touring but at this price i am now! now just have to find somewhere to camp that i can manage to get too! LOL (only doing 5 miles each way for commute at the minute!)

 

[Crankarm]

I've picked up some great advice today here... (spent the last 5 hours just reading!)

...as for the tent advice, I'm a tight fisted northerner and any tent that costs more than £50 is way over the odds.

How about the (currently named), Highlander Glen Orchy (they say 2 man it's a one man really), under 50 qwid, packs up to 45cm x 17cm (ish) wieght = not much, available at amazon, got one this summer and am happy with it (i'm 6'2"). Just be aware that the thicker your matress/mat, the less foot space yet get!

Quick to pitch and it opens at each side, so those hot summer mornings, instead of getting out of the tent at 6am coz the sun is too high, just open both sides a tad and a nice through draft you will have... tent bliss!

If money is tight or like me, you just begrudge spending loads of dosh on a couple of poles and some nylon and a few bits of string that you're going to use maybe twice a year for few nights, it's worth every penny.

BTW, Hello!

Top post.

 

[Crankarm]

Why not have both a light tent and a light bike? Lighter bikes usually like to be loaded more lightly in any case. Of course there is a comfort level I would not want to go below (a Terra Nova Laser is not really for me), but 1.5-2 kg gets you a sufficiently roomy tent for one (Helsport Ringstind Light 1 or 2, MSR Hubba HP or Hubba Hubba HP, just to name some examples. If you take less, you do not need as large a porch. I need a porch for wet raingear, shoes, and maybe one bag. The other bag can go inside the tent.
Willem

Of course the law of diminishing returns applies.

The Weight Police might also catch any blatant offender ........

 

[HelenD123]

just ordered myself this from argos

tent



only £15 if in stock or £21 delivered. it gets good reviews & is also know as a tiger paw tent.

i wasnt thinking of touring but at this price i am now! now just have to find somewhere to camp that i can manage to get too! LOL (only doing 5 miles each way for commute at the minute!)

I bought one of those last year as an introduction to touring and wasn't disappointed. It's a fantastic buy for the price. I hope you get out there and tour with it.

 

[smeg]

As for stove recommendations I need to look into that as well. Alcohol fuelled is the only sort I fancy unless someone has a compelling argument against. I like simple and easily available. Are you saying I could use a Clickstand burner with the trangia pots etc and the windshield in a sort of mix and match arrangement which would work out lighter than the Trangia 27 kit (which I think was 720g for the lightest version from memory with the mini being 330g ). Sorry to be thick about this but I've only ever stayed at youth hostels with the bike and done no camping so I really haven't a clue!

Hmmm 720g for the lightest version? My gas stove weighs around 75g. Liquid fuel is heavy, there's risks of it leaking, gas canisters are compressed = more fuel for weight. Gas is safer, more control over it, would you want to use an alcohol stove in your tent porch in nasty weather? I certainly wouldn't. If the wind was blowing I doubt you could even light it to begin with. I've used an army hexi burner before (solid fuel blocks) they're crap as well + being heavy. They stink and make your pans black n' all

 

[willem]

That weight was including windscreen, two pots, and the frying pan. I think the Trangia is a very safe stove, because the fuel cannot explode, and the stove is extremely stable. I would not use any stove inside a tent, as they all give off quite a bit of carbon monoxide. At least the Trangia cannot easily be tipped over. The Trangia's advantage is its extremely good bad weather performance (I don't think there is anything better, and I have used many types), ease of cooking, and availability of fuel in many countries. The extra weight is in the 262 grams of the upper and lower windscreen. The burner itself is 110 gram. So in comparison to a gas cannister stove, think of it as a 300 gram windscreen. If you need cold weather performance, your light gas stove will not work, and you will need a heavier liquid feed one with a pre heating loop. These mostly weigh some 200-300 gram. The Trangia gas burner (with pre heating loop for cold weather) is 178 grams, which also rather closes the gap: 178+262=440 gram. A liquid stove gas stove like the Primus Easy Fuel Duo (for both tyes of cannisters) is 368 grams, plus windscreen. A Primus Spider is lighter, at 198 grams, plus windscreen.
So the differences are not nearly as large as you thought. They are largest (i.e some 250 grams) if you compare the spirit burning Trangia with top of the stove stoves.
Willem

 

[smeg]

Yes but my titanium pot and cup doesn't weight much. As for using gas in cold weather, how cold are we talking about here? Well below freezing obviously, I've use mine around zero degrees and just below.

I'd like to see you light a Trangia stove in a 50mph+ gusting wind up a mountain in the freezing cold & pouring rain!

 

[willem]

The weight of the Trangia pots is similar to many Ti pots: 80 grams for a 1 litre pot, and 80 grams for a 19 cm frying pan. In addition, aluminium disperses the heat much better (your steak will not get carbonated quite so easily), and uses significantly less fuel. Gas stove performance decline depends a lot on fuel composition. There are various mixes, and some are better at lower temperatures than others, but it is generally thought that liquid feed becomes interesting just above freezing. A spirit burner also has problems at such temperatures, but not as much. In addition Trangia do a preheating cup that solves much of this until much lower temperatures. In really cold weather only a petrol stove will do. Of all the stoves I have used in my life, the Trangia was the easiest to light and operate in bad weather. Its biggest drawback is the extra (windscreen) weight. There is no doubt that upright cannisters stoves are the lightest stoves. However, they also have their drawbacks, just like meths stoves.
Willem

 

[ontheroadtofrance]

Coleman Kraz X1 1 Person Lightweight Tent!

 

[Ticktockmy]

The weight of the Trangia pots is similar to many Ti pots: 80 grams for a 1 litre pot, and 80 grams for a 19 cm frying pan. In addition, aluminium disperses the heat much better (your steak will not get carbonated quite so easily), and uses significantly less fuel. Gas stove performance decline depends a lot on fuel composition. There are various mixes, and some ar ebeter at lower tem,peratures tahn others, but it is generally thought that liquid feed becomes interesting just above freezing. A spirit burner also problems at such temperatures, but not as much. In addition Trangia do a preheating cup that solves much of this until much lower temperatures. In really cold weather only a petrol stove will do. Of all the stoves I have used in my life, the Trangia was the easiest to light and operate in bad weather. Its biggest drawback is the extra (windscreen) weight. There is no doubt upright cannisters stoves are the lightest stoves. However, they also have their drawbacks, just like meths stoves.
Willem

I use now only two stoves, a Colman’s F1 which is a nice little stove, which so far has worked well in most environments, it only drawback is it is unstable, so need to be handle with care, but great weight wise.
My other stove is a MSR II which is about 12 years old, still working well, seems to run on anything, even cooking Oil, but sounds like a jet engine when running. I have used most types of stove during my adventures, including most of the Trangia range the only problem is the fuel tastes awful . However my favourite stove of all time ha to be my pocket primus, which I still have, but so hard to get hold of the Paraffin (Kerosene) in small amounts these days. and the fuel make everything taste Uggh that it comes in contact with.

 

[Crankarm]

The weight of the Trangia pots is similar to many Ti pots: 80 grams for a 1 litre pot, and 80 grams for a 19 cm frying pan. In addition, aluminium disperses the heat much better (your steak will not get carbonated quite so easily), and uses significantly less fuel. Gas stove performance decline depends a lot on fuel composition. There are various mixes, and some are better at lower temperatures than others, but it is generally thought that liquid feed becomes interesting just above freezing. A spirit burner also has problems at such temperatures, but not as much. In addition Trangia do a preheating cup that solves much of this until much lower temperatures. In really cold weather only a petrol stove will do. Of all the stoves I have used in my life, the Trangia was the easiest to light and operate in bad weather. Its biggest drawback is the extra (windscreen) weight. There is no doubt that upright cannisters stoves are the lightest stoves. However, they also have their drawbacks, just like meths stoves.
Willem

Steak ?? On the side of a mountain ....................

Aren't Trangia stoves Duke of Edinburgh recommended kit?

 

[andrew_s]

If an alcohol stove is required, get the proper Trangia 27 (or 25) - the UL HA version is best.
The heat output of a meths burner is relatively modest, so an efficient wind shield is important. If you use gas you can just turn it up to full blast if the wind shield isn't good enough, but with a Trangia mini or one of the lightweight meths options that's not an option.
The only other meths stove with a good wind shield is the Caldera Cone, but that limits you to a single size of pan (various versions of the stove are available), and it requires care when carrying.

Meths itself is a heavier fuel than gas. Plastic bottles are lighter than empty gas canisters, and you only need to carry what you are going to use, but even so gas is lighter if you are carrying more than 5 days or so of fuel.

A liquid feed gas stove (i.e remote canister with preheat tube, used with the canister upside down except when lighting) works well in low temperatures, and does not suffer any fall off in performance as the canister gets used. It's pretty much essential to use liquid feed if the temperature is below zero (otherwise you'll never get to use the 2nd half of the gas), and it's advantageous any time the temperature is below 15 or so.
The Primus Easy Fuel Duo is a new one to me, but the Edelrid/Markill adapter is only 75g, so it's still lighter to use the Spider even if you do want to be able to use Camping gas canisters.

 

[andym]

Meths itself is a heavier fuel than gas. Plastic bottles are lighter than empty gas canisters, and you only need to carry what you are going to use, but even so gas is lighter if you are carrying more than 5 days or so of fuel.

Yep there's no point comparing the weight of the stoves and windscreens when these are relatively minor compared to the wieight of the fuel.

Somewhere on the web there's a comparison of the relative efficiencies of different fuels. alcohol did surprisingly well - in that it's only after a fairly long trip that it's relative inefficiency starts to count against it.

As with everything else it's horses for courses. Short trip then probably alcohol has the advantage. Longer trip then maybe gas. But I wouldn't go further than 'maybe'.

 

[sgw]

Somewhere on the web there's a comparison of the relative efficiencies of different fuels.

Here's one :- http://zenstoves.net/Fuels.htm


The whole site is very informative and very comprehensive :_

http://zenstoves.net/ :-

 

[Crankarm]

Here's one :- http://zenstoves.net/Fuels.htm


The whole site is very informative and very comprehensive :_

http://zenstoves.net/ :-

Thanks for the stove link. Superbly written .................