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wall tent camping necessities list?

If possible, leave your tent set up in the sun for a few days before your trip. The fire retardant and mildew inhibitor in the canvas has an unpleasant smell, especially when the tent is brand new. I store mine with dryer sheets in the folds, smells great every time.

When you stake out your tent bottoms leave the door side looser than what you'd do on a normal tent. The material will shrink from moisture in the air even if its not raining and the door will not zip up.

Get extra rubber caps for the bottom of your wall poles, a snow load on the roof will punch the poles through your floor and sod cloth. I use rubber pole caps and a plastic pads. Similar to a furniture coaster but shaped like a round rebar cap. If you can't find anything that fits your poles, pm me and I will 3D print you a set

If you plan on setting the tent up by yourself, tape each "pole to connector" joint one wrap with stucco tape or any other tape that doesn't leave a residue behind. The wall poles like to fall out when you lift the roof assembly, thank me later😅

Label your tent & fly roof ridge ends F & B with a paint marker, the canvas is a bitch to man handle by yourself after its been unrolled so you might as well start it pointing in the right direction.

Get a tarp larger than the foot print of your tent , when you leave you are able to lay out the tent on the tarp, brush it off and have a clean surface to fold the tent on
 
I just looked up Kodiak tents and nothing I wrote previously will apply to your situation, I thought it was a traditional canvas wall tent..the only thing I can suggest for that tent is either attach solar lights or reflective tape to those guy lines
 
Spark arrestor for the stove pipe, leather gloves, wire brush for cleaning the arrestor. Pine residue builds up pretty fast on the mesh.
 
Say what you will about this but if I’m driving to where I’m going I bring the fake logs made out of compressed sawdust. They burn way longer, hotter and cleaner, stack nice and I don’t have to dick around with cutting firewood. It’s hard to find a place that sells them in less than pallet quantity. They are like $1 each or less.
 
Say what you will about this but if I’m driving to where I’m going I bring the fake logs made out of compressed sawdust. They burn way longer, hotter and cleaner, stack nice and I don’t have to dick around with cutting firewood. It’s hard to find a place that sells them in less than pallet quantity. They are like $1 each or less.
Have you ever broke one open while they are burning?
 
A strong tarp under the tent floor. Cover that floor, it is stout but easily damaged. Carpet scraps, take 'em out and shake 'em. Under cot legs, under table legs, all walking surfaces. I have totes that fit under my cot. A single pole centered under the door tarp drains moisture that otherwise pools there. The factory vestibules are nice. My Coleman fuel 2 mantle lantern heats my 10x10 Kodiak through September, then I use a propane tanktop heater, never while sleeping. Dry tent thoroughly before storing, to avoid canvas-ruining mildew. A well protected and maintained Kodiak flexbow can be handed down to next generation of campers. I have a 2# one hand sledge hammer, works great to drive all those stakes. A folding table inside is useful. Since I switched from framed wall tent to a flexbow, I've never wanted any other kind of canvas tent.
kodiak tent interior.JPG
 
A strong tarp under the tent floor. Cover that floor, it is stout but easily damaged. Carpet scraps, take 'em out and shake 'em. Under cot legs, under table legs, all walking surfaces. I have totes that fit under my cot. A single pole centered under the door tarp drains moisture that otherwise pools there. The factory vestibules are nice. My Coleman fuel 2 mantle lantern heats my 10x10 Kodiak through September, then I use a propane tanktop heater, never while sleeping. Dry tent thoroughly before storing, to avoid canvas-ruining mildew. A well protected and maintained Kodiak flexbow can be handed down to next generation of campers. I have a 2# one hand sledge hammer, works great to drive all those stakes. A folding table inside is useful. Since I switched from framed wall tent to a flexbow, I've never wanted any other kind of canvas tent.
View attachment 246859
That's quite the bag of meds you have in the corner. Is this elk camp, Woodstock, or Burning Man? Lol

In all seriousness, I like to use multiple heavy rubber perforated commercial kitchen mats and place them outside the tent or porch area. They are insanely durable, Damn near 3/4" thick ..You can stomp the snow,mud,horseshit , etc off your boots or tent shoes without clogging or loading up before entering the porch.(pic attached)

Add a boot scrubber attached to a decent log and you've eliminated 90% of the filth. Even after both those steps I still keep a pair of "tent only" slip ons just inside the door.

I've never had good luck with propane in cold temps, are you wrapping the bottles or how do you keep them from freezing?20221027_203944.jpg
 
Pretty good run of items.

Items I keep beyond those mentioned and the usual knick knacks.

images

  • Whisk broom
  • Kindling Hatchet
  • Specific plastic totes sized to slide under cot(s) and side by side, between center and outside legs. They work great for storage routing to/from and mini tables to slide out, as needed.
  • spare duraflame log - never know how useful until it's found useful.
  • Comfortable camp seats though figure that's already in the cards.
  • Sharpie to mark up your walls by you and those with you -memories build and make great silent moments later in life.
Edit added as my post popped in after millerkiller's comments:
commercial kitchen mats
Sounds like a decent thought. No space taken as they can lay on the truck bed w/o interference with items stacked on top(?).
 
Last edited:
Pretty good run of items.

Items I keep beyond those mentioned and the usual knick knacks.

images

  • Whisk broom
  • Kindling Hatchet
  • Specific plastic totes sized to slide under cot(s) and side by side, between center and outside legs. They work great for storage routing to/from and mini tables to slide out, as needed.
  • spare duraflame log - never know how useful until it's found useful.
  • Comfortable camp seats though figure that's already in the cards.
  • Sharpie to mark up your walls by you and those with you -memories build and make great silent moments later in life.
Edit added as my post popped in after millerkiller's comments:

Sounds like a decent thought.
Pretty good run of items.

Items I keep beyond those mentioned and the usual knick knacks.

images

  • Whisk broom
  • Kindling Hatchet
  • Specific plastic totes sized to slide under cot(s) and side by side, between center and outside legs. They work great for storage routing to/from and mini tables to slide out, as needed.
  • spare duraflame log - never know how useful until it's found useful.
  • Comfortable camp seats though figure that's already in the cards.
  • Sharpie to mark up your walls by you and those with you -memories build and make great silent moments later in life.
Edit added as my post popped in after millerkiller's comments:

Sounds like a decent thought. No space taken as they can lay on the truck bed w/o interference with items stacked on top(?).
I put the mats and runners in the trailer last , on top of everything else before tying down ..they conform to the load, and weigh everything down nicely , they are first thing to come out so nobody is tracking mud/debris inside during the tent set up.

The whisk broom is more useful than a full sized broom, added to my list. Thank you.

The duraflame log really perplexes me. Have you poked one while it's burning? Or even worse, broke one open?

If you sharpie the walls of my tent you'll definitely get an experience that lasts a lifetime, not a pleasant one either...
I like to leave a note about something stupid or memorable in the cot pockets, saddlebags, etc.to be found the following season, or harmless camp comedy. I think one of the most memorable for me was "Shittens" they are full sized wearable heavy duty baby wipes shaped like oven mitts. My older son drew the short straw and had to use them for a week, good times. Btw, they are actually really heavy duty.119738.jpeg119743.jpeg
 
You can cut a pine or cedar branch to use a a brush for cleaning your pipe. That’s what I’ve done anyway.
 
I must be thinking of a different product. Are you talking about the fake logs in a paper bag, duraflame or what not?
No, they are compressed hardwood bricks made from sawdust, not the duraflame stuff. I have some in my garage, I’ll get a pic later.

They burn really good and slow. Just don’t get them wet.
 
The duraflame log really perplexes me. Have you poked one while it's burning? Or even worse, broke one open?

spare duraflame log - never know how useful until it's found useful.
Breaking one open defeats the duration of the burn. It's mostly sawdust, shell fibers, and wax that keeps the fire going longer (for one dense stove log). Less smoke/soot than regular firewood.

I always have a spare for the first eve if ugly weather played a factor upon arrival and too late to mess with drop/quarter a standing dead. Burns fine in my steel wall tent stove. Dries wood staged alongside the stove for morning.

I've used both, the sawdust only logs and they're good also though my main source is the standing dead quartered.
 
Dang I'm going to need to put this all down in complete list so I can see how much some of this is going to cost me...actually I have most of the basics but there are good things that I haven't considered. I'll likely go big on sleep comfort stuff first. I'm definitely getting a ground tarp to put down and some sort of boot cleaning and storage. I also need to figure out how big of a tarp I want to get for a fly.

First burn on the Camp Chef went ok. Door is definitely leaky and pushed smoked out before the flue got warm enough to draft. Looks like some 1/4" gasket rope is in the future. The amount of smoke that comes off these things is obscene. I'm not even sure I got the chimney hot enough to cure so I'm doing it again this evening with some smaller chunks of wood.

Kodiak says I need to set up the tent and hose it down and allow it to dry so being that it's 20 degrees in the morning I'm going to have to figure out how to dry this thing quickly. I'm going to call them to see if I can run the stove inside to speed the drying process.
 

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