Tent heater ?????

[Walleye_GFA]

Have not camped much into colder weather, anyone ahve any experience with keeping tents warm at night, or at least not dangerously cold ???

I am thinking about putting a bar heater or space heater on a couple milk crates and a board...

We have a big 20' x 10' with the vents at teh top taht you can close, but their is still a ton of ventalation with them closed...

Any ideas would be great... Im not going to go gently into winter this year, it will drag me kicking and screaming all the way !!!!

Wally

[IFallsRon]

It's not the cold during the night it's the cold getting up in the morning. Back in the precamper days, we used an electric blanket and a small electric heater. That works if you have electricity. I wouldn't chance anything that that gives off exhaust.

[Walleye_GFA]

Well, its my kids ages 13 to 10... old enough to camp when cold, but I dont want to risk them flopping out of sleeping bag when its 40 degrees...

Wally

[CamperJack]

Walleye I would use a couple coleman catalic heaters.One in each end of the tent.Get the largest BTU heater you can get,you can always turn it down if it gets to hot.
CamperJack

[redhooks]

I do a fair amount of winter camping and a few tricks that might help is to buy some polarfleece blankets at kmart and sew them up into some bagliners- very cheap and it really helps. An airmattress like a thermarest is key to a goods nights sleep because it cusions your body and insulates you from the cold ground. I also wear a stocking cap/facemask to bed because lots of heat is lost from your head. Hope that helps
redhooks

[Maxwell]

Use a normal egg carton roll under the thermarest if you are going to use a thermarest. I do about 20 nights a year winter camping. it is great no bugs to contend with. If you need mroe info let me know or any winter gear since I have an abundance of it.

[Walleye_GFA]

Cool thanks, alot of good suggestions... I think we will get some good 0 degree tents ($29.00 on end of season sale at FF) and use our cheap electric heaters for a while...

Weve got coleman air mats, and will also get some fleece...

Thanks for the ideas... brrrr

But at least we will have the best camping (almost) all to ourselves !!!!

Wally

[Walleye_GFA]

Here is what I have found...

Its gonna take about two heaters to heat my 20X10 tent...

I can use a propane heater that has teh LOW O2 SHUTOFF so we dont die from CO2 poisioning...

Its important to not shut off the vents with propane since it produces water as a vapor (byproduct of heating)... if you close tent too much it will sweat and be clammy in the am...

FleetFarm has 5 degree rated bags for $29.00 through next week... decent ones...

I plan on using two electric heaters each at 1500 watts this is the biggest I have found for the money... some folks said to use baseboard heaters, but they are 1500 watts or less and the floor models I looked at all have little fans to blow heat out...

I plan on using pastic under the tent fly to block some heat loss, but more over Im just wanting the heaters to keep it from getting dangerously cold for the kids...

We are going next weekend, Ill let you know how it goes !!!!

If you or anyone else wants to meet at camping let me know... we are thinking of Independece next Friday, Sat come home Sunday... Me, wife, and three boys... 13, 12, 10.

Later !!!!

Wally

[Muskieguy]

We use a Sunflower w/ propane type heater for our portable fish house and keep a one of the zippers open for ventilation. Could this be done in a tent also? Would it be too dangerous while sleeping with the CO2 released from the sunflower, even with ventilation? Would the ceiling of the tent melt from the heat rising? Does anybody have experience with the Coleman Power Cat 3,000 BTU heater? (would that heat up a 6-8 man tent?

Thanks all,

Muskieguy

[Redlantern]

Walleye_GFA, I hope you have some luck with the $29.00 tent or bags. I'm all for saving money but I have a feeling that you might be disappointed with the quality. If you do get into camping in the cold, I suggest a Wiggy's bag and a good pad. You might be able to get a used setup from an outfitter that specializes in wintercamping. EMS used to have an option to rent gear and if you liked it, apply the rental fee towards the purchase. I'm not sure if any one else offers that anymore. Some salesmen will try to get you to buy down. While I agree it's warm, light and compresses well, it doesn't do anything for you when wet and this is Minnesota. We get wet. Synthetic is the way to go. Particularily if you take a dunk in the lake through thin ice.
I'm not a fan of stoves in the tent. I worry that I might wake up dead. I think eating well and good gear will keep you plenty warm. Remember to empty your bladder before going to sleep. I know it sounds basic but a full bladder takes more for your body to heat than an empty one. A pee bottle helps for us that are getting on in years.
Have fun and enjoy the solitude, lack of bugs and being able to eat real food.

------------------
Erik

[IFallsRon]

This weekend I'm testing a DeLonghi SafeHeat heater in our tent camper. It has variable settings and oscillates. We have a very good furnace but I'm hoping that this heater will keep the temp consistent. Forecast is for low 40s. This time of year we get alot of condensation with the furnace so this heater should also help with that, too. We use several in our office space and they work great.

[irvingdog]

I use a typical small, lightweight summer tent and use that to capm out of for the entire pheasasnt season. I like to stay at state parks (cheap). My secret is a HeatBuddy, a Springer, a GWP, a thermarest pad, and a good quality sleeping bag. (if you can fit the mutts in there, so much the better)

[IFallsRon]

Think I'll pass on sleeping with the dog. My daughter, then age 6, picked up a deer tick at St. Croix or Kathio two years ago. It took the crack St. Cloud doctors five weeks to figure out she had Lymes. By then she needed to wear a pump that gave her meds 24/7 for another four weeks.

I ran the SafeHeat Friday night at Kathio. It was a good test because the temp was down to 40 or lower during the night. It worked nicely but the furnace kicked on, too. Saturday night was warmer and we went without the heater and turned the furnace off. We've got pretty heavy bags so stayed plenty warm.

We'll be at Itasca this weekend to close out the season.

[Walleye_GFA]

OK guys... so you think that two 1500 watt electric heaters would reasonably heat a 10' X 20' tent ???

THanks !!!!

Wally

PS we got some good bags...

[hksbh]

Make sure you have two seperate circuits to plug into or you will pop the breaker with 3000 watts going at the same time

[koochiching]

I've used a lot of different heaters in my portable ice fishing houses, and in a pyramid tent with an 8'x8'attached canvas floor. I can't remember how many gloves and mittens and parkas I've burned holes in...

I've never found a heater that I trusted to leave on while I'm sleeping. I always turn the heater off before I turn in.

This fall I bought a $40 Coleman heater #5033/5099, with electronic ignition. The box said it was safe to use it in tents, and it is a nice heater to use in a crowded space. I've used it about 6 nights when tent camping.

In the mornings, I stick my arm out of my sleeping bag, turn the propane on, and push the red ignition button... no more fooling around with a lighter or matches!

It gets hot enough, that if I knocked it over, the hot metal would burn a hole in my tent, or my parka. But I don't think it would start a fire. And I won't try to sleep while it's on...

It only has one setting, and the box said a single 16.4 oz propane cylinder will last 8 hours. I haven't had to change the cylinder yet...

[RogersResort]

The biggest problem with no n vented propane heaters (besides burning up all the oxygen) is all of the moister that they give off, that combined with you breath is what makes getting the tent back in the original bag almost impossible.

[MNmikew]

I used a 10x20 canvas tent for deer hunting. We heat it using a couple sunflower heaters and it heats it up nice and toasty. We NEVER sleep with these going though, warm sleeping bags, sometimes several. When alarm goes off in the am, crank up heaters again, warm in 10 mins.

I retired the tent this year and used my popup tent trailer with a Mr heater heater buddy heater in it. Its rated for indoor use and I ran it all night no problems. I think its 3-9,000 btu. Worked quite well in 10 degree weather.