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affordable baker tent

Joined
Jul 13, 2015
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Location
Saranac lake, ny
Yakima tent makes a quality canvas baker tent at a reasonable cost & beckel canvas makes a whelan in both canvas and nylon at a good price.
 
I just got a 10 x10 with an awning and side flaps for 640.00 in 10 oz. sunforger canvas. I had a bug screen put in for 125.00 and a stove insert added for 43.00. I think the price of canvas may have gone up recently because I think they were a lot cheaper last year. I got it through Mt.Top Trading Co. but it was manufactured by Redhawk Tents.
 
I just set my new tent up this weekend and it is definately not a tripping tent. I could set my old campfire tent up with 3 poles and 4 stakes, 6 stakes if it's stormy. It takes about 10 minutes or less. The new tent needs about 10 poles and a bunch of stakes. I don't know how long it would take to set up since I only did it once but it would be impractical to haul all of those poles around. It is fine for what I got it for, set up in the yard with a wood stove enjoying the view drinking margaritas and cooking on the grill.


If I were looking for another baker for tripping I would make sure it could be set up with only three poles and not have to be suspended from a pole frame like the more traditional ones used by reinactors. The beckel looks good to me, but you need the side flaps to be able to set it up to withstand high winds.
 
yes, the larger baker tents would only be feasible for a base camp that you operated out of for a few days , say for a hunting / fishing expedition. The whelan I mentioned packs very small, is quite light & serviceable while on the move. I utilize my canoe pole as a ridge on occasions I have it with me.
 
My Whelan tent is very useful, but quite fiddly, the Baker's as folks are finding out are even more so.

I find more times than not I am bringing just a basic tarp, using 2 adjustable poles and some grip clips and rope. I will utilize/hang it (either style) from nearby trees if I can, but I am an amateur compared to some setups I have seen.
 
...i find the whelans a little more versatile, and lighter than the campfire for almost the same amount of coverage. ideally, i think the baker/campfire is a 'better' tent, buttons down tighter, more configuration options, zip-up bug screen, sewn-in floor etc...

but practically,

for the canoe-tripping i do, mostly solo in north/central ontario, the whelen is perfectly adequate...and i mean perfect. can't beat the view and the ventilation/heating and the relative pack-size. just got in from 11 days solo up in temagami in the canvas whelan...the more i use these things, the more i love 'em...

the canvas feels more substantial than the nylon, tho it's 2x the weight and 4x the pack-size...biggest practical advantage is the spark-resistance in spruce country...

i hang 'em from a rope between trees, wouldn't mind poles for the campfire/baker, but i mind lugging them...i bring a couple 3xsections of poles from my timberline tents to hold the front edges up and out on the whelan and the campfire...and a couple single sections for the back corner of the campfire
 
I'd like to have a whelan for solo trips, the campfire tent is too much.My camfire tent was made by Horizons Unlimmited from Egyptian cotton, it's 7x7 and weighs a little over 15 lbs. without poles. I bring 2 uprights and the ridge pole.


Tump lion, you don't need the ridge pole for your campfire tent?


Southcove, I love fiddling with my campfire tent, there are so many options and it makes me feel good making something almost perfect even better. I have had my new baker up for almost 2 weeks and havn't fiddled with it much at all to my surprise.
 
i haven't got sectional poles for the campfire...if i had, i would probably use them. and i'm still looking. works okay with the ridge-line and a couple timberline sections to hold the front up and another couple in the back for a nice taught roof. tho, mine's canvas with a vinyl impregnated floor, and comes in around #25 without poles. bulky for solos...but a nice tent
 
I have a 10x10 foot canvas BT from Panther Primitives. It works great in cooler weather but requires some poles. The nylon Whelen is only 3 pounds by Bechtel Canvas and easier to set up for canoeing.
 
My 7x7 campfire tent works great with a woodstove in the vestibule area with the front open. If its colder and windy I lower the canopy to a peak in the middle about 40 inches high. I lower the stove by folding the legs up and set it right on the ground, the stovepipe goes out the opening on an angle. Unfortunately I don't take the stove on portages and I rarely get a campsite with the firepit in the right place so I rely on putting a tarp right over the fire, this really holds in heat and is probably warmer than the tent would be anyway. The tarps I use are green or brown "blue" tarps and they get holes and shrivel up near the edge where the fire is but they still last for years.


I think those style tents excell in hot wheather. I've spent nights in the Everglades that I would not have wanted to be in nylon.
 
Realizing I have shorted myself on the Whelan canvas shelter...got plenty used to a nylon tarp, grip clips and adjustable poles and ropes...too easy, too practical. Going to make more effort to hang the canvas during some short trips this fall, whether the campsites acommodate easily or not. And I might still try and sew up a (removable) bug netting set-up for it to use it even more. Be nice to have the fall warming fire reflecting back some heat and not worry so much about errant sparks and embers.
 
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i just hang one of these from the inside top of my whelan -- the top corners clipped together so it's upside down V shaped with extra material hanging limp in the middle -- i put small rocks, or gear, on the ground in the corners and mid-point along the sides to hold them out and away from my sleeping bag -- weights nothing, maybe not for peak-bug season, but some nights you need a little something just the same -- i tie one end and clip the other with a small bulldog -- just in-case i need to pull it off me quickly in the dark...not elegant, but effective and cheap...
 

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My son started with something like that and we kept modding it to try and give it more coverage on the sides...cut here, tear there, tape here...we really just need to buy some netting, some velcro and have at it...would x2 the usefulness during the summer season. Might make 1-2 nylon wind side curtins at the same time.
 
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