Have to replace a tent...

[ladyilsebet]

We have to replace our small mundane tent. It was maybe 8x12, dome, with fly. Not a lot of room inside, but we could fit in a queen air mattress, two doggie travel kennels, a playpen, and a couple of tubs of gear. It basically bit the dust this last weekend - it hadn't been taken out since our last Pennsic 3 years ago now, and is thoroughly icky, with holes in the walls that would let water through (thankfully no rain at the event this weekend!)

What we are debating is if we want to replace this with another mundane for the more "relaxed" events we attend, or if we want to get a smaller canvas tent instead. I'm asking for ideas here on the canvas tent idea - it would need to have a minimum of poles, and pack down fairly small (certainly smaller than our 14 x 16 wall tent!). It would be great if it could double as a shade source and look decent next to our wall tent at longer events, like Pennsic. Definitely would have to fit the gear I described above, and I would prefer the walls not be strongly sloped, and I would prefer the tent NOT be entirely round.

So what should I be looking for? My husband's persona is basically 14th century German, while mine rather floats, as I love garb period. We're starting to work towards a more period look for our camping presence, but haven't built anything specific yet...

[Kilkenny]

Not having strongly sloped walls kills my first two thoughts, both of which are good period solutions

The first is an A-frame (geteld or whatever name one chooses ) They're efficient in terms of canvas, poles and stakes, easily convert to a shade fly configuration. But, the walls drop straight down from the ridge..

The second is a Bell. One center pole, bunch of stakes, no ropes. Peel back the entrance panels and it's a shade pavilion. But, again, walls slope from the top of the center pole clear to the ground. And it's round.

Third option I would think of is a small wagon wheel. Some more poles, walls that actually fall straight from the roof to the ground, but round again

By eliminating both round and steeply sloping walls, you're left with a pretty limited set of options, I think...

[AndreasMorgan]

You could maybe try to blend the mundane/periodish. My wife and I have this canvas mundane tent. http://www.kodiakcanvas.com/12x9-ft-6-p ... xe-awning/ . We have been using it for about four years and it's still in excellent shape. It works well for weekend events and as well for long term camping like Pennsic. Our bed is a double and we have plenty of room for her make-up table and all our storage/garb boxes; I think a queen size bed would fit in it easily.

Cheers,
Andreas

[ladyilsebet]

I totally see your points, Gavin. The thing I'm worried about with strongly sloped walls, and rounds, is losing storage space, essentially. I also don't particularly enjoy waking up with my nose pressed to the side of the tent - we're not going to replace the air mattress (which died yet AGAIN this past weekend) and just start taking our slat bed to all events. It's pretty low to the ground, but not as low as a single air mattress would be.

Maybe we should just start saving to replace our Roman Wall with a proper pavillion :-/

[InsaneIrish]

You CAN set up a wall tent with only 2 uprights for poles. The rest can be done with ropes.
Like Kilkenny my first thought was a wedge. Easy to pack, can be turned into a onesided sunshade, and CAN be set up with just 2 uprights.

A small wall can be as well. Or if footprint is an issue, you can set it up with 4 wall poles and 2 uprights.

[brewer]

Well, wall tents in the overwhelming number of circumstances need a ridge pole as well as uprights. So do wedges, so that's fair. However, setting up a wall tent with no wall poles is, in my opinion, a douche-y thing to do, because it significantly and (more importantly) needlessly increases the footprint of the tent. Those wall ropes need to go out on the slope of the roof, which can double the effective footprint of the tent. Makes for unhappy campmates. So while it can be done, if you did that in my camp I'd tell you to be more considerate and get/make some wall poles. You don't need many. One at each corner will do it, with a long bar - think of it as a side ridge pole - to support the middle of the wall/roof junction.

ladyilsebet: Consider a Panther Primitives Regent. 5 poles, 8 ropes and some stakes. The walls slope, but nowhere near as much as a wedge. You still have a square floor plan, room to stand up, and plenty of storage. See:

http://www.pantherprimitives.com/catalo ... g20web.pdf

...and scroll down to page 28.

[Johann ColdIron]

I'd go with a smaller wall tent, maybe 12x12 or 10x10 with the corners unsewn but with ties. Panther is willing to do them that way. That would allow you to set it up as a day shade by rolling up the door ends and raising one side up completely.

I want one for events when I am traveling without my wife for fighting events. Our 12x18 marque is too much for that.

[InsaneIrish]

Well, wall tents in the overwhelming number of circumstances need a ridge pole as well as uprights. So do wedges, so that's fair. However, setting up a wall tent with no wall poles is, in my opinion, a douche-y thing to do, because it significantly and (more importantly) needlessly increases the footprint of the tent. Those wall ropes need to go out on the slope of the roof, which can double the effective footprint of the tent. Makes for unhappy campmates.

I didn't say there would not be consiquences.
But, honestly, it would not be any worse than someone with a big assed round tent. Probably better since you would only incure the footprint increase on the sides, while a round is 360 degrees.

For a ridgeless wall, you need a length of non-stretching rope that you can loop the ends and measure the length for a ridgepole. Set up the tent and use the ridge rope as your ridgepole. Now you MUST add 2 guy lines off the uprights to pull the uprights and ridge rope taught. You will end up with a slightly saggy roof line, but nothing to bad.

In the illustration the brown lines are rope.

[Kilkenny]

Not every camping event has Pennsic's restrictions on space. Depending on where a tent will be used, excess footprint may not be an issue. I still think a nice wedge is the optimal combination for what the lady is talking about

[ladyilsebet]

Well, after talking about it more with the husband, I think we're going to start trying to save up to just replace our wall tent, with probably a regent or double bell, with awning. We only have one camping event left for the year, and we'll be there 3 nights, making our wall tent the best option anyways. We'll just watch the sales and get a small mundane tent for oh crap purposes

[Sean Powell]

I was going to recomend the regent for a small, general-purpose, now pole count tent. Not the most historicly documentable but good.

Sean

[Derian le Breton]

I'd recommend a wedge over an A-frame. Far fewer poles!

-Derian.

[Balin50]

Burgundian from past tents it a rectangle with round ends. 2 upright poles break into 4 pieces then there are half wheel spokes at either end which go into a tinker toy looking thing on the uprights.

When i set mine up i need help with the uprights 1 person Once those are staked up i can do the rest by myself. I bought the regular sized one and it's HUGE. It opens like a bell wedges one wall can be lifted up and poles added and it becomes a porch with a fly.

[asbrand]

Heh...I ended up getting a wall tent because it was easier to set up than my Yurt. So my 10' x 12 wall is my "small weekend tent".

[Baron Alcyoneus]

http://midwesttent.com/catalog/product_ ... gcel1pn9s5

I haven't seen it set up yet (new in box) but the box it came in is smaller than 18x18x24. Not including any poles or hardwared of course.

[Christophe de Frisselle]

When we were looking, I wanted Geldt but we ended up with a wall tent.
Large Wall Tent
http://www.blockaderunner.com/Catalog/catpg31.htm