Ceneter pipes in a small teepee

[timdaman]

After losing my previous winter tent (It fell off the car while I was unloading the toboggan at the end of a trip) this season I am going to be using a new Seek Outside 4 person Teepee for the first time.

In my previous tent I put my stove jack in the middle of one of the wall panels. Since my stove baffle puts the chimney in the front side of my stove this pushed the back of the stove in the "knee" space and left me with a fair amount of the "tall" space in the tent. From the top of the tent pole I would dangle all of my big gear (coats, pants, etc) to dry.

In the Seek Outside teepee the jack is pre-installed just off the center taking up a significant amount of the "tall space". I seems like I won't be able to hang anything big or heavy off the center pole without risking it contacting the chimney.

Am I overthinking this or is this design (center chimney) poorly suited for 4 person teepee?

I can imagine this is less of an issue when in teepees that are bigger(8 or more person) as there is more standing space and more ability to make use of the walls to dry clothes.

I have a few ideas on how to handle it
1. Cut a new stove jack hole further out. I would rather not do this to a new tent for some reason.
2. Add a angled junction to the pipe and poke it out the center hole on a outward angle (so it doesn't bump the tip of the teepee fly.). This can open up the center and also leave more pipe in the tent to add heat.
3. Add guard that maybe attaches to the center pole to prevent things hung up from swinging into the chimney. I am not sure how much this will interfere with normal tent life.

One note, I use a roll up style pipe so I won't be able to clamp to it directly.

Has anyone else run into this sort of issue?

Yes, I know, many will say get a 8x10 SnowTreker, I used one before and it is super nice. I would much rather deal with a 6 lbs setup that fits in a small dry bag than a 20-30lbs setup. I do significant distances every day including up an over portages almost every day.

Thanks for any ideas or experiences.

[snapper]

Don't really know anything about the 4 person but I used to have an 8 person teepee from Seek Outside. On that shelter, there were attachment points sewn into each seam around the side walls in the upper portion of the teepee where you could run cord to hang/dry items. I realize that doesn't answer your questions but it might give you a place to dry out items at the end of the day.

That's all for now. Good luck in solving your dilemma and until next time...be well.

snapper

[Scoutergriz]

I use a prospector style, but I've seen others use elbows to angle the pipe so that it follows the contour, usually they're attached by some sort of fireproof wire or light chain on tabs sewn into a seam. The best setup I've seen was a guy with an old canvas bell tent who had cut 4' pipe in half and bolted the sections to one side of his 3' stack to create a reflector and heat shield, they also prevented scorching if the wind slapped the canvas against the pipe. He added 2 lengths of bead chain to each of the bolts holding the reflectors. He simply brazed S hooks to the chain so they slid into loops on the tent.
That way he was able to push the stove back towards the knee wall, while still keeping the exit somewhat vertical and the canvas protected from the heat. The chains looked like this- \o/ and were spaced about every 2'

[4estTrekker]

I'm no tentologist, but maybe my $0.02 will be helpful. My synthetic tipi has the stove jack offset just as you described with your older tent, and I run my folding stove with roll up pipe identical to yours. I've often wondered what the benefit may be of having the stove jack more centrally located, though. I think at minimum you'd get a more efficient burn and pull more heat from the stovepipe having more of it inside the tent, especially with the smaller pack down stoves used with these types of tents. (The baffle certainly does wonders for efficiency and control, too, eh?) Not sure if having the stovepipe more centered allows for better use of footprint of the tent or not, but I could see it both ways. In terms of hanging stuff to dry, I did as Scoutergriz mentioned and attached a few adjustable lines running from the hang loop at the interior peak down to the stake out points (which have interior rings included for attaching a liner or floor). I added prussik loops along these line to attach lighting, clothing, etc. Trek on.

[timdaman]

Update, I used the tent on a trip for a night with the factory center pole position. True, it was night one with the new tent so there was some "getting to know you" but I am highly confident the center pole position is not for me.

I cut a new stove jack hole in my brand new tent about 1/3 of the distance from the pole to the stake out. The factory installed jack is still there if I change my mind.

I was able to take advantage of the tent door design. The zipper doors have a "fixed side" and a zippered side. I moved the jack from dead center between the doors to closer to a zipper on one side. This way the door can not swing into the stove and the other door is much too far away to reach it as well.

I am headed out this weekend for 11 days, I will have a field report about my decision when I get back.