A quick reminder to those who may not have done camping in the cold, it's more importnat to have something between you and the ground when it's cold, then it is to have something over you. Make sure you keep something between you and the heat sucking ground. The law of thermodynaics state basically heat will move towards where there is an absence of heat. There is no such thing as cold, just lack of heat. You lay on ground, all your body warmth will go into the ground. Even if you have to put leaves, or branches or whatever beneath you, sleep on something in the cold. I cheat, I bought three glacier grade matress pads long ago, they still work fine and you can literally sleep on ice on them and stay okay. problem is, it costs money and they are bulky even when packed up.

Plus I can say from experience stay away from the Therm-a-rest inflatables and also air mattresses. While Therm-a-rest says it's insulated the air chamber gets very cold very quick. Because I use them so frequently I buy the $10 Wal Mart blue ones, they last a summer and do work quite well. I've had the top end REI $60 pads and they lasted 1 summer also, I can't justify the extra $$ when they keep you just as warm and last just as long. Another tip is NEVER EVER sleep without clothing on. Period. I sleep in sweats and my Alpaca socks, my clothes for the next day are stuffed in the bottom of my bag so they're nice and warm for the morning.

wulfin wrote:PS something I foudn which might help people is

There is a pink thin insulation which is like Styrofoam (about ¼ inch thick) and sold in 8 x 4 foot sheets which can be made to fold. I took a few of these, cut them into panels to fit the tent and then cut them into sections added duct tape to the cuts so they could be folded and laid out quickly and packed up quickly. This kept the tent toasty warm in the coldest of weather, in fact inside we would have to kick the covers off sometimes cause even in very cold weather, it got too warm inside with just our body heat. Others in the camp ground were freezing in their tents even with heaters and heavy sleeping bags. I suggest people do this if you are worried about cold weather.

Thats an awesome idea..I have tent for SHTF...since I am in one ofe of the coldest climates I can get that type of insulation..

I have also used that to insulate wondows in my home..I wrapped the sheets in Christmas wrapping paper and stuck it in the small parts of the windows(were they open) and even trimmed with door sealer to keep heat in the house...

Now that I an new house I should grab a cpuple of sheets for large basement wondows..I would use them in winter for windows and have them for back up in use of tent for SHTF

You can get the 1/4" foam Kelee? The thinnest I can find here is 3/4", I've questioned every hardware store from our little local ones to HomeDepot in town and every one of them told me that it is not code so they don't carry it. They said it is code in the warmer climates like TX, FL, GA, TN. So now I'd like to know who's full of sh!t, my hardware store owners or your hardware store owners since your obviously not semi-tropical.

a77ssii wrote:You can get the 1/4" foam Kelee? The thinnest I can find here is 3/4", I've questioned every hardware store from our little local ones to HomeDepot in town and every one of them told me that it is not code so they don't carry it. They said it is code in the warmer climates like TX, FL, GA, TN. So now I'd like to know who's full of sh!t, my hardware store owners or your hardware store owners since your obviously not semi-tropical.

I am in Canada..so our codes might be different then yours..and I am sure we can get 1/4 inch..we would use that to build oce huts and insulate our garages and sheds...today is a holiday in Canada,but as soon as I can I will get out and check see...

Did a quick search today for the insulation I was talking about, looks like they now only make in ½ " thick or thicker sheets. I had done the insulation on my tent in last 1990's, so looks like the thinner is not available, but still today if I was going to do it, I would use the ½" and perform the same method. It would be a little thicker, but what you get out of it, is well worth the extra bulk if you have to have something that will keep you warm.

The product is priced at 9.97 a sheet at home depot (looked up on their site). It is made by Owens Corning and is called Foamular@150 . It is rated at R-2.50 insulation factor.

Apparently you can now get it in 24" x 96 " or 48" by 96 ".

http://insulation.owenscorning.com is the corning site

wulfin wrote:PS something I foudn which might help people is

There is a pink thin insulation which is like Styrofoam (about ¼ inch thick) and sold in 8 x 4 foot sheets which can be made to fold. I took a few of these, cut them into panels to fit the tent and then cut them into sections added duct tape to the cuts so they could be folded and laid out quickly and packed up quickly. This kept the tent toasty warm in the coldest of weather, in fact inside we would have to kick the covers off sometimes cause even in very cold weather, it got too warm inside with just our body heat. Others in the camp ground were freezing in their tents even with heaters and heavy sleeping bags. I suggest people do this if you are worried about cold weather.

What did you use to secure it to the walls of the tent?, or did they fit well enough where they didn't need anything?
cool idea.
Lost

The tent I was using was a Wedge type tent, the sides and ends staked down into the ground to give it a semi-ridged form. A wedge tent has two end poles and a ridge pole, that's it. It does not need guide lines to keep it's form or to stand up to high winds and heavy rain, because the stakes in the sides and end of the tent keep it firmly rooted to the ground. Also with my modifications , even the kids could set their tent up in a about 15 minutes and have it right every time and solid, not that I did not double check it all, without letting the kids know I was doing it..

To modify my tents, this is what I did.

I set the tent up in the back yard and measured and cut two ground covers made from waterproof tarps for my tent. One to go below the insulation form I made later, and one to go inside the tent.

The bottom ground cover was large enough to give about 4 inches overlap on the outside of the tent. I cut holes in the ground cover and put in large brass grommets to allow the tent stakes to fit through it so I could set the tent up over the bottom ground cover. This served two purposes, it gave a waterproof foot print to the tent (as mine had no floor) and it kept things form poking up through the bottom and poking holes into my gear and me.

Next I measured and cut out the insulation foam, into a form that fit the tent. I cut small holes to allow the foam to have the tent states go through the foam so I could set my tent up over it. I reinforced these holes with what I call 100 mile and hour tape, a very sturdy military duct tape. I put 4 layers around the area the stake would go through so if the stakes moved, they did not destroy the foam insulation. I then cut the foam where I wanted folds so I could fold it up pretty small for packing (okay it's not real small, but compared to carrying sheets of the insulation that does not fold, it saved tons of space and really was not that big since the tent had to be vehicle packed anyway) and then put duct tape on the foam at the places I wanted to fold, giving it enough room so it would fold easily (this means you have to give it about ¼ to ½" space where the folds will be and then tape it down with several layers of duct tape).

Finally I cut the upper ground cover made of waterproof tarp large enough to fit the whole inside of the tent and the edges would roll up over the inside walls of the tent, so if a few inches of water outside the tent would not come into the tent. This came in real handy many times in really bad weather.

Now I had a comfortable, warm and dry tent. The end poles which held up the main ridge pole for the tent just stood on the ground covers inside the tent at the two entrances (the back one I normally kept closed and tied off).

It also made set up easy, because I knew exactly how big a foot print my tent needed by laying down the bottom ground cloth and could clean and trench the area my tent was going to be and could plan my entire camp very quickly.

I did the whole creation of the ground clothes and foam pad in one day, it is not very labor intensive and was fairly cheap. It also helped keep my gear padded and stopped glacier pad punctures, etc form happening.

I had chosen the Wedge tent design, because I knew it had been used for over 1000 years in many areas of the world. That told me one thing, it worked, it was proven technology and it was durable. All things important to me.

Experience taught me, that if the kids and wife were not happy and comfortable as could be during a long camping trip, no one was going to have a good time or be happy. As I said, I had used that tent and others like it for many years (I still have all of them and would not hesitate to take them out of the shipping boxes I made for them and use them now in a SHTF scenario for long term.


Hope that helps explain it all better.

I've also learned no matter what the $$ for the tent the seams leak. The first thing I do is put a coating of Cabelas seam sealer on every seam before it even goes into the back country.

Thanks for the explanation, I bet that works really well. I looked at those style tents as well for ease, and speed of setup and very few pcs and I think you could make any of the 3 poles from things around you if one of them failed which seems unlikely. I have spare parts for my eureka tent but still, theres still alot that could break. We use gorilla tape instead of the gray 100mile an hour tape, it's alot better.
I just redid all the seams in my eureka tent. It's been a good tent and breathes really well and is always dry in the morning even with the fly on it, I'm gonna want more outside storage(vestibule) when I get a new one,not alot, but I have almost none now.
Thanks,
Lost