Lavvu

[Gwhtbushcraft]

Since November I have been saving up my money for a 5 man lavvu. I am tempted by northern lavvus traditional feel (Northern Lavvu ), But if this is not practical because of transporting the poles I would be tempted to get a Tentipi (Tentipi ).
All suggestions welcome

 

[SMOKOE]

Hi This is my first post so bear with me.
I dont know much about them technically, But I'm with you on the tentipi, I've fancied one of the Arrans for a while now, just never seem to get the dosh together without it being squandered on household items !
Really like the idea of having a stove and doing some winter camping.

 

[godfather]

Sorry to add another to the list but take a look at the Helsport Lavvu too. I really like the look of them and may just invest in one.

 

[SMOKOE]

They look a nice tent with some good features, but I cant work the price listings out. If its Euros they appear quite pricey

 

[ggfh666]

there are some nice threads with reviews etc.

do a search for Bison for example.

 

[SMOKOE]

Just had a browse on Bison , its a good site, the prices seem to be on a par with Nordic outdoor

 

[KAE1]

I know I have mentioned it before but check out dutch bell tents or look at www.tentsplus.co.uk.
I should be buying tentipi or bell tent this/next year for same reasons - Autumn/winter camping.

 

[antwerpman]

I own a 9 person cotton polyester tentipi varrie. Looking at the bell tents , my first impressions are:
Tentipi is a lot more expensive
The Bell tents are very havy
Tentipi will be quicker to set up, and has a better ventilation system.
The weight would put me of. If Tentipi would be to expensive I'd rather look at the Bison tents , mentioned here.

 

[Gwhtbushcraft]

Thanks for the input I will check the bison site. Not so sure about the bell tents because as I am partly Norwegian I feel I should get a lavvu.

 

[andyn]

I think ggfh666 was refering to the Bison Lavvu's rather than the Bison Bushcraft store. The Bison Telt Lavvu's are great for the price, the Tentipi's have a few more features but you pay a lot for them imo.

There was a group buy ran on here for the bison telt lavvu recently. As ggfh666 suggested do a search in the forum for "bison" and there are a lot of pics and comments for them.

 

[big_swede]

Sorry to add another to the list but take a look at the Helsport Lavvu too. I really like the look of them and may just invest in one.

I've used helsport products a lot. They don't stand up to any harder winds. I've experienced 3 different tent models getting bust in high wind. All three had their poles broken and 2 of them got the fabric ripped. This was their tunnel tents though, but still, I feel it says something about the quality.

I will not use helsport again. period.

 

[Gwhtbushcraft]

I considered the group buy but I decided not to. On hindsight I wish I had.

 

[sandbender]

I've been living in one of the larger tentipi tents for the past month (varrie 9cp), it's very tough, very well made and very well designed. The more expensive fabric although heavier does a much better job of shrugging of sparks from a fire.

Last winter I had a bad experience with tentipi's own brand of stoves (the bottom fell out during the night) so opted to buy a Helsport Oven from www.tamarackgroup.co.uk, However I'm none too happy with how this little box stove works and am awaiting delivery next week of a Zeltofen stove from www.feuerzelte.de which I hope will do a better job.

I purchased my Lavuu from these guys...

http://www.stunningtents.co.uk

 

[antwerpman]

Hello Sandbender, about your Tentipi stove, did the bottom fall of or did it burn through ? I hope you have more luck with the Feuerzelt stove . I have seen the Tentipi stove in action and didn't like it too much. One of the Dutch dealers of Tentipi imports tentstoves from Sweden that look very well ,have a look at
www.moosecamp.nl

 

[big_swede]

Hello Sandbender, about your Tentipi stove, did the bottom fall of or did it burn through ? I hope you have more luck with the Feuerzelt stove . I have seen the Tentipi stove in action and didn't like it too much. One of the Dutch dealers of Tentipi imports tentstoves from Sweden that look very well ,have a look at
www.moosecamp.nl

those cast iron ovens are very solid, but they weigh a lot. Good if you have a boat, canoe or snow scooter. For trekking they're completely useless.

 

[sandbender]

Hello Sandbender, about your Tentipi stove, did the bottom fall of or did it burn through ? .....have a look at
www.moosecamp.nl

Well truthfully it wasn't my stove or my tent, there were twelve of us spread between three varrie 7's all using Tentipi stoves, at three in the morning the base of the stove fell out in one of the other tents, it may have been that whoever was on firewatch at the time may have been hammering firewood into the top of the stove a little too enthusiastically, it wasn't a burn through, the base just fell out.

Happily the tent didn't catch fire (the stove was sitting in the cold well) but at -35 the temperature inside the tent dropped instantly and the four chaps inside took the decision to head back the 500m to their hut. At least they had that option, trying to put a red hot stove back together and get a fire on again wouldn't have been much fun

The stoves from Houtkachel look superb, I'm not moving my lavvu around so much so a cast iron one would be ok, food for thought.

 

[antwerpman]

the tentstove(houtkachel=woodstove in dutch) is not entirely made from cast iron. Most of it is in 2 mm steel plate, but the cover on top(for cooking) and the door are made from cast iron, to prevent warping I suppose. I bought a woodstove from www.campfirestove.de
because I liked the design. The way the chimney comes into the stove prevents sparks coming out . It is made from non corrosive steel and the total weight is 11 kg. It works very well, but the ones from moosecamp are nice and the price is ok.

 

[sandbender]

....It is made from non corrosive steel.....

Yep, the ease of rusting is one of the problems I have with the helsport stove

 

[Gwhtbushcraft]

I have looked at some stoves on an American website. www.aaoobfoods.com seem to have good deals and a good range, not sure about shipping though.

 

[Gwhtbushcraft]

Turned into a poll