Setting up Hot Tent

This season, I am testing the Luxe Outdoors Hercules hot tent. It is an eight person dome style tent with a built in stove jack. There are two ways to heat up a hot tent: wood stove or propane heater. For my main source of heat, I will be using the Pomoly T1 Ultra titanium wood stove. This stove is built for heating a space for three to six people and features two windows, a foldable body, and a weight of eight pounds, including the stovepipe.

I set up the stove already, so I need to setup my bedding and food prep areas. My winter sleep system for this season consists of four items. First, I am using the REI Magma 30 sleeping bag. This bag is rated down to 29 degrees F at a comfort level, and 18 degrees F for survivability. The camp pillow I am using is from Teton Sports and seems to be pretty comfortable. I got a new sleep pad I am testing this season. It is the Exped DeepSleep Mat 7.5 Sleeping Pad in the long extra wide version. It has an R value of 8.5, making it suitable for extremely cold climates.

As for my food prep area, I am using a small table covered with a Peruvian tablecloth. I have a cutting board, my pans, knife, and tea kettle on the table as a little prep area. In a tent this size, it is nice to have a dedicated food prep area. Also, I live in an area without bears, so I can prep and eat food in the tent.

Be sure to watch the video below so you can see the setup process. Also, Adventures in Jennyland is viewer and reader supported. When you buy through the links on my site, I may earn an affiliate commission at no additional cost to you. Cheers!

The post Setting Up Hot Tent Interior first appeared on Adventures in Jennyland.

The post Setting Up Hot Tent Interior appeared first on Adventures in Jennyland.

Today I set up my Pomoly T1 Ultra titanium wood stove in my Luxe Outdoors Hercules hot tent. I did a first burn of the titanium wood stove a few days ago. A first burn is important because you want all the chemicals, coatings, and oils from the manufacturing process to be burned off before you use the stove in an enclosed space. Now that the wood stove is burned in, it is ready to be installed into my hot tent.

Hot Tent Wood Stove Install

First, you must open the stove jack. The tent I am using, the Luxe Outdoors Hercules hot tent, comes with a stove jack preinstalled. Open both sides of the stove jack (interior and exterior zippers). Next, I lay down a half inch piece of plywood. You can pick up a 2×2 piece of plywood at any Home Depot or Lowes. I like to lay down the piece of wood because it provides a solid surface for the wood stove. The ground may melt from the heat of the stove and cause the stove to not be level. The plywood prevents this from happening.

Next, I covered the plywood with a fireproof mat. This will prevent any burns to the plywood or tent floor if an ember or spark comes out of the wood stove. I put another piece of plywood down for my wood pile.

Next it was time to bring in the fire box of the wood stove. I centered it on the plywood as well as I could. Next, I put the spark arrestor and guylines on the stove pipe. I loosened the guylines before I stuck the stovepipe down into the tent through the top of the stove jack. I go inside the tent and connect the stove pipe with the stove and make adjustments. Finally, I staked the three stovepipe guylines to the ground to provide stability in high winds and snow.

Time to Use the Wood Stove

The hot tent wood stove is installed! Time to make a fire and cook some food. Check out the video linked above to see the wood stove install and be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more camping and outdoors videos.

I am not sponsored by either Pomoly or Luxe Outdoors, I just like their gear

The post Setting up Hot Tent Wood Stove first appeared on Adventures in Jennyland.

The post Setting up Hot Tent Wood Stove appeared first on Adventures in Jennyland.

It’s a beautiful day to do a first burn in my new titanium wood stove, the T1 Ultra by Pomoly. I am not sponsored by Pomoly, I just love their products. I used a Guide Gear wood stove last winter camping season. This season, I needed an upgrade. And boy, this T1 Ultra is a hell of an upgrade. I went with the 9 foot stove pipe because I ran into some issues last season burning a couple of holes in my hot tent. I think a taller stove pipe will help with that.

Admittedly I had a hard time rolling the stove pipe the first time. It is not as easy as the instructional videos make it out to be! So I went to Home depot and bought two 4.5 foot lengths of two inch diameter PVC pipe. I had them cut it into 4.5 foot lengths to make it easier to store. There is no shame in using PVC pipe or a pool noodle to roll up the titanium wood stovepipe. Just use whatever will help you get that stove pipe rolled up correctly without crinkling it too much. I also had some guylines on hand in case it got windy out, but I didn’t end up needing them for the first burn on the wood stove.

How to do a First Burn in your Wood Stove

Before you use any wood stove in an enclosed space, be it a tent, van, or tiny home, you want to do a first burn outside to burn off any chemicals and coatings from the manufacturing process. You don’t want to breath that stuff in. First, you want to assemble the Pomoly. That is super easy because it is a foldable titanium wood stove. Fold everything up and place it outside on a hard surface. I used my back porch, which is stamped concrete.

Next, fill the wood stove with hard wood. Soft wood like pine will create a lot of black smoke, causing the windows of the Pomoly to blacken. The carbon will burn away, but in the mean time it will block your windows and that defeats the purpose of having windows in your wood stove.

After you have the stove loaded with hard wood and kindling, light that sucker! I like to do a long first burn, between three and five hours. That way, everything is burned in and seasoned correctly. Make sure to flip the stovepipe over one time so that both ends get a good first burn in.

I burned a fire for five hours. The titanium went from looking brand new to having this nice multicolored patina. That is totally normal for a titanium wood stove. I let the fire go out naturally and cleaned out the ashes the next day. This wood stove is ready for a hot tent!

The post First Burn Wood Stove: Pomoly T1 Ultra first appeared on Adventures in Jennyland.

The post First Burn Wood Stove: Pomoly T1 Ultra appeared first on Adventures in Jennyland.

It’s the first snow of the season and I wanted to take this opportunity to show you some of the hot tent camping gear I will be using and testing this winter camping season (links in this article may be affiliate links, if you purchase an item through these links I may earn a small commission that helps support the channel).

First, I’ve purchased a new tent. I chose the Luxe Outdoor Hercules Winter Tent. It’s an eight person dome style tent with a stove jack. I used the Luxe Outdoor Megahorn tipi tent last season but needed more room. I’m really looking forward to using this tent and testing it in the field. I will be testing it in my backyard for a few weeks before taking out into the wild.

Next, a wood stove upgrade. Last season I got the Guide Gear outdoor wood stove so I could experiment with winter camping. It was a cheap, entry level stove, and I got a lot of use out of it. But, it was time for an upgrade. This season I am using the Pomoly T1 Ultra titanium stove. I put a lot of thought and research into this wood stove selection and can’t wait to try it out!

Next, I was curious about propane heat, so I will be trying out the Mr. Heater buddy propane heater! How will it compare to the wood stove? I’m really curious about this test, be sure to keep an eye out for that video in the future.

So we’ve got the stove, we’ve got the tent, now for the bedding. I am testing out the Exped sleep pad this season. It has an R value of 8.5 and should hold up to some extreme winter camping. I also got this little camp pillow from Teton sports. A good pillow is hard to find, whether at home or camping. Here’s hoping this pillow from Teton sports will do the trick!

Next, we have my winter sleeping bag. This is the REI Magma 30. I got this sleeping bag at the end of last season so I didn’t get any thorough testing in. It is rated to 29 F / -2 C degrees comfort rating and 18 F/ -8 C degrees lower limit. Paired with the sleeping pad, I should stay nice and toasty this winter camping season. We will soon find out!

Now that the snow has arrived, I can get started with some winter camping! Looking forward to this season and hope you are too. Check out my video linked above to see more details about my hot tent camping gear for 2022. Cheers!

The post Hot Tent Camping Gear 2022 first appeared on Adventures in Jennyland.

The post Hot Tent Camping Gear 2022 appeared first on Adventures in Jennyland.

I wanted to do some more hot tent testing before I headed out on my first camping trip. We had a blizzard in the forecast, so I geared up for a great day of hot tent testing (links in this article may be affiliate links, if you purchase an item through these links I may earn a small commission that helps support the channel).

Conditions of Testing

After having my hot tent set up in the backyard for a couple of days, it was time for some more testing. It had already endured a major snowfall and was performing great. We got another eight inches of snow this day. The snow piled up on the sides of the teepee and caused it to sink in, but the tent stayed standing. I had to tighten up the straps after I cleared away all the snow.

What was Tested

I tested the integrity of the tent in a heavy snowfall. I chopped a bunch of wood so we could get a good fire going in the camp stove. For this test I used the Guide Gear outdoor wood stove. I wanted to use an inexpensive camp stove before I committed to a more expensive titanium or stainless steel stove. Check out the full review of the Guide Gear outdoor wood stove here.

To get the fire started, I tested some new fire starters. They worked out really well! The only problem I ran into was they might have caused some burn holes in my tent. The stovepipe is only seven feet tall so I think that contributed to the burn holes as well.

I wanted to test a wood stove fan to distribute the air in the tent. I was surprised at how fast it started spinning! Next, I used a whetstone to sharpen my hatchet. Then, I took out my carbon monoxide detector and put it close to the camp stove. Finally, it was time to cook a meal on the camp stove!

Using a ten inch cast iron pan, I cooked up some chorizo and beans. It turned out delicious! Cooking on an outdoor wood stove can be difficult because there are hot spots, but if you pay attention to what your cooking it will turn out great.

Final Thoughts

I am a strong believer in testing your gear at home before you head out to the field. This was the second eight hour day of testing before I headed out for my first hot tent camping adventure. I am glad I tested out the stove and the tent especially because they can be a bit tricky to set up. After some trial and error, I feel like I am ready for my camping trip. Be sure to check out the video of this backyard test by clicking the link above!

The post Hot Tent Testing first appeared on Adventures in Jennyland.

The post Hot Tent Testing appeared first on Adventures in Jennyland.

Also, I wanted to mention that I am not sponsored by Guide Gear or Sportsman guide. I just wanted to share my thoughts on this stove. This is the first camp stove that I’ve owned. I wanted to start with something inexpensive and this was the cheapest hot tent stove that had the best reviews.

Specs, Assembly, and Curing

I purchased the Guide Gear camp stove on Sportsman’s Guide.com for $108 plus tax and shipping (Dec 2020). It is currently $149 on Amazon. The stove was packaged well and relatively easy to put together. It weighs 43 pounds and is made of galvanized steel. Here are the specs:

• 2mm thick galvanized steel fire box with high-temp finish
• Cast iron door with adjustable vent
• Five interlocking stove pipes connect to form 6.45’h. chimney
• Cool-touch coiled handle
• Adjustable damper
• 10×8″h. door opening
• 11″w. x 17″d. x 8″h. firebox
• 12.5″w. x 19″d. x 7.75’h. overall
• Weight: 43 lbs

You must cure the stove before you use it in a tent, so I burned a fire in it two nights in a row on my back porch for about 3 hours each time. The instructions said it would turn a gray color, but I didn’t notice that. There was a chemically smell at first but that is normal as the paint and coating are curing. I left it outside on my back porch and it got snowed on, so it started rusting pretty quickly.

After curing, it was ready for use. I set up my hot tent in my backyard so I could test the stove. Installation was easy. Getting a fire started in the Guide Gear camp stove is also very simple. You have to make sure you are cutting the wood to fit into the firebox, but other than that starting a fire is a breeze.

Testing the Guide Gear Camp Stove

I spent two days testing the stove in my backyard. I cooked two meals on it and burned a fire in it for 8 hours each day of testing. If you would like to check out the first day of testing, click here. I cooked chicken fajitas in a cast iron pan on the first day and chorizo and beans the second day.

The stove was ready for some real action so I booked a campground for some winter camping. We got lucky and were able to camp during a blizzard. We ended up getting 8.5 more inches of snow on top of the 8 inches we had from the previous week. It was a great opportunity to test this Guide Gear camp stove. We burned a fire in it for 10 hours while camping. Check out the video of that camping trip by clicking here.

Pros and Cons

Time to outline the pros and cons of the Guide Gear camp stove. After over thirty-five hours of testing, these are the things I noticed most.

Pros:

• Inexpensive
• Easy to assemble
• Burns hot and easy to start a fire
• Easy to cook a meal on the surface

Cons

• Heavy
• Rusts quickly (could be because it was sitting out in snow)
• After about 5 hours of burn, it gets smoky when you open the door to feed the fire
• Door design is garbage (click the video above to hear more about this issue)
• Top warped within 3 uses (although this could be because of the extreme variation in temps)

Rating the Guide Gear Camp Stove

I am going to rate the stove in 3 categories: construction, ease of use, and overall impressions.

Starting with construction: The stove is definitely solid at a whopping 43 pounds. It was easy to put together, except for the door handle. Also, the door locking mechanism is horrible. I don’t know if I had a faulty handle or this was just an issue on my camp stove, but it drastically reduced my rating for the construction of this stove. Instead of an interior latching mechanism, I think it should be on the exterior so you don’t have to fight with the stove to open the door. For construction, I would give this Guide Gear outdoor wood stove a 5 out of 10.

Next is ease of use. It is very easy to get a fire going in this camp stove. The 17.5 inch length of the stove allows you to use long pieces of firewood, which is awesome. Since the stove is so heavy, it can be a bit cumbersome to lug into place. Again, the door ruined this stove for me. There were several occasions where I latched the door completely and couldn’t get it open without some serious effort. I started just using a log to hold the door shut, so once I did that, it was easier to use. Cooking on this campstove is great! There are always a few hot spots, but that is just the nature of a wood stove. For ease of use, I would give the Guide Gear outdoor wood stove a 7 out of 10.

Finally, my overall impressions. I knew purchasing this stove that it wasn’t going to meet all of my expectations. It was a cheap and easy option so I could experiment with hot tent camping. I think it’s a good starter stove. This is definitely not something you could take backpacking as its far too heavy. I don’t like how fast it warped and rusted, but that could be my fault. The thing that really killed this stove for me was the door latch. It may sound a little nitpicky but it’s a big deal. You need to have easy accessibility to feed the fire and make adjustments, so if you’re burning yourself and fighting with the stove every time you have to open it, that is a huge flaw.

Final Thoughts on the Guide Gear Camp Stove

Overall, I would give the Guide Gear camp stove a 5 out of 10. Not the worst, but certainly not the best. My next camp stove will be a light weight titanium folding option, I researching it now. So, be sure to subscribe to my channel to see what stove I review next! That’s it for the Guide Gear outdoor wood stove review. Let me know in the comments if you have any questions!

The post Guide Gear Outdoor Wood Stove Review first appeared on Adventures in Jennyland.

The post Guide Gear Outdoor Wood Stove Review appeared first on Adventures in Jennyland.

First Winter Camping Trip

We finally made it on our first hot tent camping trip! We decided to test the hot tent at a campground right down the road. The weather forecast for the weekend called for a lot of snow, so we prepared ourselves to do some hot tent camping in a snow storm. How will this hot tent perform in blizzard-like conditions?

I had tested the Luxe Outdoor Megahorn hot tent in my backyard for several days prior this trip. I had also seasoned the Guide Gear camp stove and used it in my backyard experiments. Now, it was time to use the two pieces of equipment in the field. Thankfully, the snow held off while we erected the hot tent and got everything set up.

The Luxe Outdoor Megahorn hot tent is a four person tee-pee style hot tent that comes standard with a stove jack. It has two doors that both have screens. If you would like to check out the specs, here is a link to the website. It ranges in price from $250 USD to $325 USD. As far as size, I think it can comfortably fit two people, not four. The stove takes up quite a bit of space. I just finished a review of the Guide Gear camp stove we used on this trip. If you would like more info on that stove, click here to check out my review.

After set up, we built a fire and boiled some water to prepare a dehydrated backpacking meal as a snack. It started snowing soon after, so we moved into the tent. Be sure to check out the video linked above to see the entire adventure!

Final Thoughts

It snowed from 5pm that evening until we left at 11am the next morning. The Megahorn hot tent stood up to the snow storm! The stove worked pretty well, although we had some issues with the door not closing correctly. As far as a first camping trip with this hot tent, I would call it a success. We learned a lot and had a lot of fun. I would recommend hot tent camping in a snow storm to anyone!

As far as tips for hot tent camping, I would say make sure to test your gear close to home before you use it in the field. This especially holds true for winter camping because you are dealing with extreme conditions. Make sure you have enough wood to get you through the night. Also, be aware of the wildlife in your area. We were able to cook inside of the tent because we don’t have any bears nearby. But if you’re in an area that does, be advised that cooking in the hot tent is a terrible idea. If you don’t want to use a camp stove in your hot tent, there are lots of propane heaters available that can provide adequate heating.

Be sure to head over to my YouTube channel to check out more camping videos!

The post Hot Tent Camping in Snow Storm first appeared on Adventures in Jennyland.

The post Hot Tent Camping in Snow Storm appeared first on Adventures in Jennyland.

Be sure to click the video link above to head over to my snow fort camping video!

Childhood Igloos

When I was a kid, it snowed so much more than it does now. My little brother and I would play in the snow all day until our hands would be frozen in the cheap gloves we wore. My dad had this igloo maker from when he was young. It was a metal saucer that you laid upside down on the ground. Attached to it was a metal pole that could be adjust in length and ratcheted up on a pivot point. On the end of that pole was another metal saucer. You would start with the pole paralell to the ground and pile snow against the out side saucer. Then you would move the pole/saucer over to the right and repeat the process. Once the bottom layer of the igloo was complete, you would ratchet the pole up about 2 feet and repeat the process. You had to leave a spot open for the door, but other than that you just continued piling snow and ratcheting the pole higher.

We would also build snow forts out of piled snow. We had a picket fence in one corner of our yard and we would pile snow in the corner and then dig out the inside of the pile. Man, did we have fun as kids!

How We Built It

Cut to 2021: tons of snowfall in February and temperatures in the teens and single digits. We got a couple feet of accumulation over this first couple of weeks of the month. My brother and niece decided to build a snow fort! Using his snow plow, he created a giant pile of snow. Then began the work of digging it out! Over the course of the few days my niece and I carved out the snow fort and created my home away from home!

Camping Time!

It was finally time for a campout! I set up my sleeping bag and put lanterns in the little nooks I carved out. After gathering several sled-fulls of wood, I started a fire to cook dinner. I used the Wolf and Grizzly Fire Safe and M1 Grill. On the menu was a sirloin steak, roasted brussel sprouts with garlic, and green peas. As the sun went down, the temperatures dropped, and it was time to curl up in my snow fort! Be sure to check out the video linked above.

Thoughts and Final Impressions

I have to say, camping in a snow fort was frickin’ awesome. It was a little chilly but once I got into my sleeping bag I was perfectly comfortable. It was getting a little drippy on the inside so I was a little freaked out, but I got over it quickly. In the morning I noticed a lot of light shining through several sections of the snow fort, so Im glad I was able to get one solid campout in it. All in all, I highly recommend snow fort camping! Just be sure your snow fort won’t collapse on you and bring a warm sleeping bag!

The post Snow Fort Camping first appeared on Adventures in Jennyland.

The post Snow Fort Camping appeared first on Adventures in Jennyland.

I was sick of staying inside so I decided it was time to start testing my new hot tent and camp stove! I am a believer of testing your gear before you take it into the field. This is a Luxe Outdoor Megahorn III hot tent and a Guide Gear camp stove. I wanted to see how easy it was to set up this hot tent, get a fire started in the wood burning camp stove, measure the temperature differences inside and outside the hot tent when the camp stove has a fire in it, and cook a meal on the camp stove. Lots of tests for this gear, so this video was filmed over two days in January 2021.

Day One of Testing New Hot Tent

Day one was about getting the Megahorn III hot tent set up and getting the camp stove installed. It was a chilly 36 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. My backyard is on an incline, so finding a suitable spot to pitch this tent was a problem. I ended up settling on a spot with a slight incline towards the back of my yard. After two attempts, the tent was set up.

Installing the Guide Gear camp stove was much easier. The only issue I ran into was creating a level surface the stove could sit upon. I ended up using a level and some quarter inch plywood to get the stove level. After that, I laid out a fireproof mat and attached the stove pipes.

Day Two of Testing New Hot Tent

Day two of testing involved testing some new products and cooking another meal. I testing a wood stove electric fan, a carbon monoxide detector, a reflective blanket to use as ground cover, and I sharpened my new axe. The meal I cooked was chorizo and beans with onion and bell pepper.

I ran into a couple of issues on this second day of testing, including burning two little holes in my hot tent and problems with smoke inside of the tent. I was able to find some tent repair patches in a similar color to the tent on Amazon, so that was an easy fix. The smoke issue turned out to be a little more difficult.

What’s in Store After This Test?

We had a campout planned for the following weekend at a local campground. I’m glad we had practiced setting everything up beforehand so that we were better prepared in the field. Check out the video of our campout here.

Also, if you would like to know what goes into our camping kitchen box, check out this video!

How to Sharpen an Axe with a Wet Stone: https://youtu.be/0SP-vGwTaFU

The post Testing New Hot Tent in Backyard first appeared on Adventures in Jennyland.

The post Testing New Hot Tent in Backyard appeared first on Adventures in Jennyland.

Everything You Will Ever Need for Your Camp Kitchen

When Goran and I go tent camping we like to be comfortable. Our camping kitchen box is always ready to go. It has a home on our camping shelf in our garage and I restock it after each trip. Everything in the camp kitchen box is specifically for camping. Nothing ever leaves this box if we’re not camping. Check out the video linked above to see you can see everything that goes into it!

Why Should You Pack a Camping Kitchen Box?

You should pack a camping kitchen box because it makes getting ready to go camping so much simpler. If you have to pack this box up every time you are getting ready for a trip, it will be a hassle. We love to cook, especially over a fire. But we also like to be comfortable and have everything we need to do it right. Everybody is different, so it is important that you pack a camping kitchen box that will suit your needs.

Goran and I could definitely cut this box in half as far as supplies go, but we would rather have everything we need to make our camping trip as enjoyable as possible. Also, for the time begin, we are using a plastic storage container box with a lid as our kitchen box. But, there are amazing options out there as far as boxes and bins that are custom made for this purpose. You do you and find a box that works for your needs!

What Goes Into a Camping Kitchen Box?

Here is everything we have packed in our camping kitchen box. Again, we leave this box packed and stored in the garage at all times. This allows us to just grab it and go whenever we get the urge to go camping.

• Camp plates, bowls, cups, and utensils kit stored in the box
• Knives for cutting meat and veggies
• Cutting board
• French press
• Small camp container for boiling water
• Small cast iron pan
• spatula
• garbage bags
• plastic wrap
• Aluminum foil (heavy duty)
• Dish rags
• One large towel
• Egg holders (only work for medium sized eggs)
• A few different tongs
• Two heavy duty pot holders
• Knife sharpener
• Knives
• Garlic power
• Onion powder
• Steak seasoning
• Salt
• Pepper
• Four small Tupperware containers
• Dish soap stored in a plastic bag
• Gallon sized plastic bags
• Quart sized plastic bags
• Insulated coffee mug with lid
• Plastic bowl for mixing or salads
• Metal holder for utensils
• Olive oil
• Avocado oil
• Griddle plate to go over camp fire
• Kitchen scissors
• Scrub brush
• Can opener
• Bag clips
• Set of steak knives
• Silicone handle grip for cast iron pan
• Tablecloth
• Clips for table cloth to keep it on picnic table

Check out Some of our Camping Videos!

Here are some links to our camping adventures!

The post What’s in my Camping Kitchen Box? first appeared on Adventures in Jennyland.

The post What’s in my Camping Kitchen Box? appeared first on Adventures in Jennyland.