Cabalas Outback Lodge 10'x10'

[Junior1942]

I'm seriously considering getting a Cabalas Outback Lodge 10'x10' tent for cool/cold/winter camping. I'll eventualy put a wood heater in it, so my questions are: how do y'all like this tent; and how hard is it to install a stove jack?

[Junior1942]

Bought it, still in the box. The river is too high, so I can't use the new tent.

[John Allen]

Junior, let me know what you think once you get it up. I am thinking of getting the same one.

[bruce drake]

Junior, great minds think alike. I was just talking to the wife about this same tent and having a stove jack put in it as well.

Bruce

[Hickory]

I lived in a cabin tent for 3 1/2 weeks in Colorado back in 1996 while elk hunting.
Never had an issue with discomfort. Showers were an outdoor affair-after dark.

[Junior1942]

Junior, great minds think alike. I was just talking to the wife about this same tent and having a stove jack put in it as well.

Bruce

My flue pipe is nearly horizontal or a circa 2" pitch in 6' to the rear, so I'm hoping the 24" walls will give enough room out the rear of the tent. I've researched stove jacks a bunch on the Internet , and none/zilch satisfy me. One stove jack seller and installer even shows pictures of their jack with its threads melted by a flue!

The first 4+ feet of my flue is a turned-down 18-wheeler steel driveshaft. It won't melt like a regular flue pipe will in a test fire. The hot spot in a plastic bottle/used motor oil test fire was about 12" above the stove. The regular flue pipe turned red hot in a circa 4" section of flue. My stove will never know such a fire again, but I know it can take it, which makes for worry-free sleep. My stove, by the way, is two freon bottles welded together.

But the key to my setup is a two-tin-can gasket at the tent wall. Wal-Mart coffee cans are 6" in diameter, same as home wood heater flue pipe available everywhere. I put the two cans together with a 6" male/male connector from Ace Hardware. Each coffee can has a hole in its bottom through which goes the horizontal steel flue pipe, which is inside a double-wall gas hot water heater flue pipe. The outside coffee can has beer-can-opener holes along its bottom edge. The inside coffee can has beer-can-opener holes along its top edge.

So when the can gasket starts getting warm, cold outside air enters the bottom rear holes and exits as warm air through the inside top holes; thereby cooling the cans. I simply seal the rear wall of my tent around the can gasket with duct tape. With a roaring wood fire in my stove the can gasket is barely warm to the touch.

Starting at the rear top of my freon bottles stove, a steel pipe exits up circa 6", then L's to a horizontal driveshaft, then enters a two-wall water heater flue in a slip-back-and-forth connection, which makes for easy overall pipe length adjustment, making sure the can gasket is centered with the tent wall.

Beyond the tent wall, the flue extends circa 4' then goes up circa 4' and is tied steady with wire to trees or sturdy limbs on each side of the pipe.

Starting with a new fire in the heater, it takes a couple of smokey minutes for a draft to start because of circa 6' of near-horizontal flue. But once the draft starts, it's good for the rest of the camping trip.

I have photos of all-the-above, but I have to find them.

Edit: A couple of points:

1. If you build something like this and don't test it at home in the tent and with a roaring fire, you're a fool.

2. Due to having to tie the outside vertical flue pipe to trees, etc., I have to pick a campsite with those trees, etc., available. Otherwise, I drive a steel fence post in the ground and tie the vertical flue to it.

3. My flue ID is only 1 3/4" to 2" especially near the heater. But it drafts just fine due to an only maybe 1sq inch air intake, all of which is the crack around the fold-up door. If I want more air intake, I can slightly open the door.

4. My duct tape seal of tent wall to can gasket has worked fine through several downpours. It dripped maybe a thimble full of water once, but that's all.

[Junior1942]

Pictures really are worth a thousand words. About a week after I took these photos, the river came up fast and got maybe 10' deep at this spot. All this stayed submerged for about two weeks. This is before-flood looking at the wood heater. You can see the driveshaft, the doublewall water heater flue, and 1/2 of the can gasket with beer opener holes in its top. That's 1/4" plywood beneath the heater. That's a baking pan/ash can in front of it.



Here's the rear outside looking at the outside 1/2 of the can gasket and duct tape if you look closely, the water heater flue, a Y support stick, and the vertical flue. You can't see the wires holding it steady in place.

[Junior1942]

Unless something happens to change my plans--again--I'm talking the 10x10 Outback Lodge tent to the river bottom in the morning. Taking my 10" 7mmTCU Contender, too. Might take the 150 gr Hunter and might take the 137 gr Soup Can. Decisions, decisions..... Wish I was taking a redhead.....

[reloader28]

So how did the trip go Junior?

[Junior1942]

So how did the trip go Junior?

It didn't go. High water and doctors. My Outback Lodge 10x10 is still in its sealed box. Looks like the next chance is October for muzzleloader deer and maybe muzzleloader squirrel. I may move my camping spot to the high-ground primitive campground at the Little River Wildlife Management Area.

[jsheyn]

Just purchases a 12X12 last night. Put it up to see how easy it was ....WOWZER....pece of cake.

got a trip coming up July 25-28....it's either going ot be swletering hear or a downpour....I'll report on back

[Junior1942]

Just purchases a 12X12 last night. Put it up to see how easy it was ....WOWZER....pece of cake.

got a trip coming up July 25-28....it's either going ot be swletering hear or a downpour....I'll report on back

Well,??????

[1Shirt]

Junior, Think that high ground has got to be a priority for ya!
Good luck!
1Shirt!

[Junior1942]

Junior, Think that high ground has got to be a priority for ya!
Good luck!
1Shirt!

Here's why! Check out the small black object on a limb above and to the right of my wood heater flue. It's a charred chunk of wood from my campfire. It floated there. The tent was under water about two weeks. It was a slimy stinkin' mess inside.

[reloader28]

Holy Moly!!!
Whats the story behind all the water??

We aint had the chance to do any camping at all this summer. Just been too darn busy. I have went fishing once.

[Junior1942]

Holy Moly!!!
Whats the story behind all the water??

The campsite is in a hardwood bottom near a river. I've seen the water rise 10 ft overnight. I use another, higher campsite more often, but I simply liked this location and got caught by not paying attention to the river level. Soon as the weather cools, I'm headed to the higher ground spot. But I still have to watch the river level. Here's me casting bullets at that campsite. That's an oxbow lake in the background. The river is about 1/4 mile to the left.


PS: a good thing about the flooded tent campsite is almost no current in the backwater. All my firewood stash was within a 75 yd circle, spread out if you can believe it. This campsite has a river current when it floods. My firewood stash floats off and winds up in New Orleans I suppose.

[reloader28]

I went to New Orleans once. 6 months after Katrina we went down and cleaned houses for 10 days. That water was mighty deep in spots. We went to a house in Miss. that is 10 miles from the gulf and the water was up to the peak of his stilt house. I think he said it was about 17ft deep.

Its a little different country down there than it is here.

[Junior1942]

I went to New Orleans once. 6 months after Katrina we went down and cleaned houses for 10 days. That water was mighty deep in spots. We went to a house in Miss. that is 10 miles from the gulf and the water was up to the peak of his stilt house. I think he said it was about 17ft deep.

Its a little different country down there than it is here.

I'm 200 miles north of New Orleans, but I'm only 90 ft above the Gulf. IOW, an 89 ft rise in sea level and I could launch a sailboat and go cruising.

[jsheyn]

Well,??????

Well the tent performed flawlessly and was super roomy. Set up was a breeze.....It took WAY more time to guy it out then it does to set up. The amount of guy wires is kind embarrassing...but hey not a drop of water and it rained.

My only beef is the door. It's built solid and the zippers are great except it's tilted back with the shape of the tent. I learned a valuable lesson that the guy wire above the door should be done first then work my way around left/right then back. Otherwise when you open the door during rain it goes strain onto the floor.

I think there are two things that would make this tent super awesome. First I feel they should have sewn in some kind of an awning/vestibule over the door and second a stove jack. I have a custom canvas person i know locally that does my boat canvas. I plan on seeing if cannot accommodate both those items.


in short I am happy with the tent and would recommend.

[Junior1942]

When I said 90 ft above sea level I meant my house. The campsite beside the oxbow lake is only 60 ft above sea level. The flooded campsite is barely 50 ft above sea level.

jsheyn, thanks for the info and the picture. I think I'll rig a tarp over the center pole and cover the entire door. In addition to lots of backwater here, we also get lots of rain water. Usually if it isn't raining it's about to. I also fully intend to install a stove jack and run the flue horizontally out a side just below a 24" side-seam.