10x10 Kodiak Canvas Deluxe - first impressions (1 Viewer)

[eatSleepWoof]

Finally received and setup my 10x10 Kodiak Canvas Deluxe tent. First impressions are very positive: it seems to be very, very well built. Impeccable stitching, quality materials, lots of reinforcements, etc. Just the right size for us (two adults and a German Shepherd) - enough room to setup two cots, table, and not be crowded. Full standing height everywhere inside.

Very much looking forward to using it in the wild in a few weeks.

I've set it up inside the garage since we have sub-freezing temperatures and tons of snow on the ground. Will season the canvas right here in the garage.

I've also bought (but not setup) the vestibule, and bought two aftermarket camping poles to go along with my custom-made "ridge" pole, which creates that peaked roof in the awning. This gives a lot more height under the awning, and will keep water/snow from pooling in the middle (a common complaint). I'll install grommets for these poles/ridge shortly.

 

[JLH911]

There's something about the feel and smell of canvas that just goes hand in hand with camping.

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Installed the grommets I needed for the vestibule and my additional ridge/poles.

Also started spraying it down with water to season it. This thing beads water like nothing I’ve ever seen. I’m quite sure my LX, freshly waxed, absorbs more water than this tent.

Water practically bounces back off of it. I sprayed it for 10 mins and the canvas was only moist to the touch. A few hours later it’s bone dry.

 

[bajaphile]

I really enjoyed my Kodiak Deluxe 9x7. It did great in the wind and was extremely sturdy.

If you didn't know this already, go buy some 10" lag bolts and hopefully you have an electric impact wrench to drive them in to secure the tent base. I was having a hard time feeling that normal tent stakes would work in 80% of the areas I camped in (either loose, deep sand or hard pack dirt with cobblestones). Driving in the lag bolts and pulling them out were great instead of hammering away and trying to pry them back out to leave.

 

[eatSleepWoof]

I really enjoyed my Kodiak Deluxe 9x7. It did great in the wind and was extremely sturdy.

If you didn't know this already, go buy some 10" lag bolts and hopefully you have an electric impact wrench to drive them in to secure the tent base. I was having a hard time feeling that normal tent stakes would work in 80% of the areas I camped in (either loose, deep sand or hard pack dirt with cobblestones). Driving in the lag bolts and pulling them out were great instead of hammering away and trying to pry them back out to leave.

I've been using an impact and hex-head stakes for years now. Definitely a game changer!

 

[CO_Hunter]

Really nice tent, we had one for several years.

 

[skidplate]

Very nice, but you have way too many Septer fuel cans. You need to send me one.

 

[titanpat57]

Sweet set up...send some pics of the inside after the 1st trip!

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Sweet set up...send some pics of the inside after the 1st trip!

Came back from the planned trip yesterday, and sadly, we didn't even set up the tent.

We got to the destination, cleared out a 10x14' area that was under at least 2' of snow (hell of a workout), and the rest of our group showed up to let us know they pussied out of camping and rented cabins 5min drive away instead. We had just rolled out the tent at that point and were getting ready to stake it out. Packed it up and went to join them in another cabin.

I had spent months prepping for this trip, including:
- sourcing tent, vestibule and other items from the US (expensive as hell and very, very frustrating this time of year and w/ COVID in play)
- custom items for the tent, including carpet for the interior floor, and custom poles setup for a "better awning"
- sourcing diesel heater, building it into a custom, sound-deadened enclosure
- new cots
- new exped mattresses
- new sleeping bags
- custom storage options and cover for the crappy utility trailer

... and we only used the sleeping bags. I'm very, very bummed out.

Hopefully we'll get some good use out of this setup in the new year.

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Heading out of the campsite area:

Stock-size Blizzack tires on 20" wheels, street pressure, utility trailer in tow, about 1.5'-2' of snow, no problem.

 

[kirvesmies]

@eatSleepWoof , have you got any pics or a write up on that diesel heater dealio? oh, n your buddies who pussied out, tell 'em the crusty ol' fawker 4 provinces east says they can't call themselves canadians
i'm not a tent guy but that does look good

 

[eatSleepWoof]

@eatSleepWoof , have you got any pics or a write up on that diesel heater dealio? oh, n your buddies who pussied out, tell 'em the crusty ol' fawker 4 provinces east says they can't call themselves canadians
i'm not a tent guy but that does look good

I didn't intend to write up anything about the heater, but I'll show a few pics and details here (full blown thread derailment! )

First, this is the unit I bought: Amazon product ASIN B07YV2C3FP It's a "Vevor" brand sold by Happybuy on Amazon. They have good feedback in the "Chinese Diesel Heater communities", and a friend has owned one of these for a year with great success, so I bought the same thing. It worked just fine out of the box, however it was louder than I wanted, and most importantly, the diesel tank was/is only around 5L, which would result in 8-9hrs of runtime on max heat before running out of diesel. This runtime was an issue I wanted to solve, as in winter camping I'd want it to be able to run from dusk until well into the following morning without having to worry about fill ups.

So I bought a 15L diesel tank from a local fella (plenty on eBay, Amazon, etc.) and took apart the "all in one" case the heater came in, to build a new enclosure.

I used scraps of existing materials to put this together, and it's mostly 3/4" plywood, with 1/2" in one or two spots.

This is the general layout:

I used the existing "base" from the "all in one" unit, and built around that. I also installed as much mass loaded vinyl (MLV) sound proofing as I could reasonably fit.

I added a removable, drop-in "shelf" with extra sound deadening; it also fits the output hose for storage/transport. The angled "box" on the side is basically sound deadening for the pump that's inside/under it. I later turned this box to a different angle.

I wanted to keep as much "inside" the box as possible, and only have the exhaust sticking out, so the intake for combustion air is left inside the box (it's that black cylinder).

To finish things off I painted the entire thing in a "rocker panel guard" product found at the local Canadian Tire. It's basically a rubber~ish paint. And then added some aluminium trim to the corners that'll be taking the grunt of tie-dows, banging around, etc.

This is the back side of the finished unit:

The hole at the top is simply fresh air for the combustion air intake. The bottom hole contains a 12v computer-case fan which I added to pump extra air into the box/unit and make sure there are no overheating issues. Immediately behind the fan is the heater's main air intake (for air that will be heated and pumped out). I suspect the 12v fan was unnecessary overkill, but it was $10 and about an extra two minutes of work, so no big loss.

The wiring hanging out is a quick disconnect I added in order to connect it to a matching connector that I hard-wired to the LX and strategically zap-strapped to the grille. I later made a ~6ft long, 8ga extension cable for this power.

One of the sides has the exhaust and muffler.

The unit sits on 2x1" 80/20 extrusions that I had laying around. This gives it the clearance necessary for exhaust routing, and keeps the base of the unit away from water/snow/etc.

I wrapped the exhaust in exhaust wrap to minimize heat transfer, and made sure there were air gaps everywhere. (Photo suggests the exhaust is in contact w/ plywood in one spot; it's not.) A piece of flat stock was bolted to the extrusion in order to keep the exhaust in the exact spot I want - off the ground, and about 3/4" away from the plywood.

The narrow hose visible in the photo is the fuel line from the fuel tank to the unit.

Here is how it looks w/ the power cable extension:

The front of the unit has the air output (I added that metal coupler/extension for easier hose mounting), and the original display/controller. This controller contains the thermostat, so if you intend to use the temperature-based settings, it makes sense to have the controller inside your sleeping quarters. I later added a ~6ft extension to this controller cable.

The output hose expands/contracts quite a lot, and in contracted form fits inside the box:

That's about it!

 

[titanpat57]

Soon as you see 9 ply bich you know someone has a clue...lol

Nice job on the heater...get some He-man friends ....

 

[kirvesmies]

I didn't intend to write up anything about the heater, but I'll show a few pics and details here (full blown thread derailment! )

First, this is the unit I bought: Amazon product ASIN B07YV2C3FP It's a "Vevor" brand sold by Happybuy on Amazon. They have good feedback in the "Chinese Diesel Heater communities", and a friend has owned one of these for a year with great success, so I bought the same thing. It worked just fine out of the box, however it was louder than I wanted, and most importantly, the diesel tank was/is only around 5L, which would result in 8-9hrs of runtime on max heat before running out of diesel. This runtime was an issue I wanted to solve, as in winter camping I'd want it to be able to run from dusk until well into the following morning without having to worry about fill ups.

So I bought a 15L diesel tank from a local fella (plenty on eBay, Amazon, etc.) and took apart the "all in one" case the heater came in, to build a new enclosure.

I used scraps of existing materials to put this together, and it's mostly 3/4" plywood, with 1/2" in one or two spots.

This is the general layout:

I used the existing "base" from the "all in one" unit, and built around that. I also installed as much mass loaded vinyl (MLV) sound proofing as I could reasonably fit.

I added a removable, drop-in "shelf" with extra sound deadening; it also fits the output hose for storage/transport. The angled "box" on the side is basically sound deadening for the pump that's inside/under it. I later turned this box to a different angle.

I wanted to keep as much "inside" the box as possible, and only have the exhaust sticking out, so the intake for combustion air is left inside the box (it's that black cylinder).

To finish things off I painted the entire thing in a "rocker panel guard" product found at the local Canadian Tire. It's basically a rubber~ish paint. And then added some aluminium trim to the corners that'll be taking the grunt of tie-dows, banging around, etc.

This is the back side of the finished unit:

The hole at the top is simply fresh air for the combustion air intake. The bottom hole contains a 12v computer-case fan which I added to pump extra air into the box/unit and make sure there are no overheating issues. Immediately behind the fan is the heater's main air intake (for air that will be heated and pumped out). I suspect the 12v fan was unnecessary overkill, but it was $10 and about an extra two minutes of work, so no big loss.

The wiring hanging out is a quick disconnect I added in order to connect it to a matching connector that I hard-wired to the LX and strategically zap-strapped to the grille. I later made a ~6ft long, 8ga extension cable for this power.

One of the sides has the exhaust and muffler.

The unit sits on 2x1" 80/20 extrusions that I had laying around. This gives it the clearance necessary for exhaust routing, and keeps the base of the unit away from water/snow/etc.

I wrapped the exhaust in exhaust wrap to minimize heat transfer, and made sure there were air gaps everywhere. (Photo suggests the exhaust is in contact w/ plywood in one spot; it's not.) A piece of flat stock was bolted to the extrusion in order to keep the exhaust in the exact spot I want - off the ground, and about 3/4" away from the plywood.

The narrow hose visible in the photo is the fuel line from the fuel tank to the unit.

Here is how it looks w/ the power cable extension:

The front of the unit has the air output (I added that metal coupler/extension for easier hose mounting), and the original display/controller. This controller contains the thermostat, so if you intend to use the temperature-based settings, it makes sense to have the controller inside your sleeping quarters. I later added a ~6ft extension to this controller cable.

The output hose expands/contracts quite a lot, and in contracted form fits inside the box:

That's about it!

nope, it's not derailed, you mentioned the diesel heater nice by the way. but damn, that's pricey plywood.

 

[Jarred]

That looks totally nice!

 

[Skniper]

I didn't intend to write up anything about the heater, but I'll show a few pics and details here (full blown thread derailment! )

First, this is the unit I bought: Amazon product ASIN B07YV2C3FP It's a "Vevor" brand sold by Happybuy on Amazon. They have good feedback in the "Chinese Diesel Heater communities", and a friend has owned one of these for a year with great success, so I bought the same thing. It worked just fine out of the box, however it was louder than I wanted, and most importantly, the diesel tank was/is only around 5L, which would result in 8-9hrs of runtime on max heat before running out of diesel. This runtime was an issue I wanted to solve, as in winter camping I'd want it to be able to run from dusk until well into the following morning without having to worry about fill ups.

So I bought a 15L diesel tank from a local fella (plenty on eBay, Amazon, etc.) and took apart the "all in one" case the heater came in, to build a new enclosure.

I used scraps of existing materials to put this together, and it's mostly 3/4" plywood, with 1/2" in one or two spots.

This is the general layout:

I used the existing "base" from the "all in one" unit, and built around that. I also installed as much mass loaded vinyl (MLV) sound proofing as I could reasonably fit.

I added a removable, drop-in "shelf" with extra sound deadening; it also fits the output hose for storage/transport. The angled "box" on the side is basically sound deadening for the pump that's inside/under it. I later turned this box to a different angle.

I wanted to keep as much "inside" the box as possible, and only have the exhaust sticking out, so the intake for combustion air is left inside the box (it's that black cylinder).

To finish things off I painted the entire thing in a "rocker panel guard" product found at the local Canadian Tire. It's basically a rubber~ish paint. And then added some aluminium trim to the corners that'll be taking the grunt of tie-dows, banging around, etc.

This is the back side of the finished unit:

The hole at the top is simply fresh air for the combustion air intake. The bottom hole contains a 12v computer-case fan which I added to pump extra air into the box/unit and make sure there are no overheating issues. Immediately behind the fan is the heater's main air intake (for air that will be heated and pumped out). I suspect the 12v fan was unnecessary overkill, but it was $10 and about an extra two minutes of work, so no big loss.

The wiring hanging out is a quick disconnect I added in order to connect it to a matching connector that I hard-wired to the LX and strategically zap-strapped to the grille. I later made a ~6ft long, 8ga extension cable for this power.

One of the sides has the exhaust and muffler.

The unit sits on 2x1" 80/20 extrusions that I had laying around. This gives it the clearance necessary for exhaust routing, and keeps the base of the unit away from water/snow/etc.

I wrapped the exhaust in exhaust wrap to minimize heat transfer, and made sure there were air gaps everywhere. (Photo suggests the exhaust is in contact w/ plywood in one spot; it's not.) A piece of flat stock was bolted to the extrusion in order to keep the exhaust in the exact spot I want - off the ground, and about 3/4" away from the plywood.

The narrow hose visible in the photo is the fuel line from the fuel tank to the unit.

Here is how it looks w/ the power cable extension:

The front of the unit has the air output (I added that metal coupler/extension for easier hose mounting), and the original display/controller. This controller contains the thermostat, so if you intend to use the temperature-based settings, it makes sense to have the controller inside your sleeping quarters. I later added a ~6ft extension to this controller cable.

The output hose expands/contracts quite a lot, and in contracted form fits inside the box:

That's about it!

Wow, impressive work. Next time leave those other fu---rs at home!

Nice home shop too.

 

[Fly Rod]

We have the 12x15 “cabin“ with an enclosure. That tent has seen some good duty including a fly in back country hunt where everything froze solid. The best thing is canvas doesn’t get hot on early season hunts. Canvas tents rock!

 

[thirdparty]

For the OP, what is the set of 3 awning poles you have to redirect the awning angle? That makes it much better in bad weather. For my KC tent, I've had multiple nights with water pooling on the awning. My solution at the time was just to shorten one of the corner poles and let water drain off one side.

Is this a set that KC sells? I didn't see anything on their site.

TIA

 

[eatSleepWoof]

For the OP, what is the set of 3 awning poles you have to redirect the awning angle? That makes it much better in bad weather. For my KC tent, I've had multiple nights with water pooling on the awning. My solution at the time was just to shorten one of the corner poles and let water drain off one side.

Is this a set that KC sells? I didn't see anything on their site.

TIA

I used two generic, Amazon special poles for the vertical pieces; the middle "ridge" one I "made" from an old, banged up, OZ Tent pole that I had laying around.

OZ Tent ridge and normal poles can be used for the same purpose, and they're sold individually here: Oztent Telescopic Poles - https://familytentcamping.com/products/oztent-telescopic-poles?_pos=1&_sid=0e46a9e20&_ss=r&variant=41071711715486

 

[eatSleepWoof]

Finally had a chance to break-in the tent this past week!

The good:
- Very high quality materials, excellent stitching, lots of reinforced bits, etc.
- Lots of room inside, especially for us taller folk.

The bad:
- Not being free-standing is a bigger deal than I anticipated it to be. We had to leave one camping spot simply because we couldn't get the (lag bolt) stakes to hold tight enough. The tent requires the pegs to be absolutely solid in the ground, and anything less than perfect gets ripped out when you tension the tent. Given that you have to drive in a whole BUNCH of stakes, this results in a high probability of there being problems with at least a few of the stakes. Even once we relocated to a different camping location with harder ground we still ran into problems: rocks. Stakes would start to go in, hit a rock, get stuck. And it's not easy to reposition the tent to adjust for that "problematic" stake location, because you've got a dozen other stakes to deal with.
- The fabric picks up smudges from bugs/dirt/tree sap very, very easily.
- The awning does not have any sort of hard/solid strip in the front edge, so rolling it up properly is very difficult for one person to do.
- Lack of "pass-through" openings for heater/hose/wiring is also an issue. Easy enough to remedy, but still.

I previously owned two OZ Tent RV4 models, and regretted selling each. When I was (yet again) shopping for tents this past autumn I only settled on the Kodiak because it would run me about $1500 CAD, vs. $2500 CAD for the OZ Tent + necessary accessories. If prices were equal, I would 100% recommend opting for the OZ Tent, because its stupidly quick setup, and freestanding ability is priceless. You still have to stake out and tie down the OZ Tent in a few spots, but you'll have endless flexibility for where those stakes go. Much, much simpler process. The fabric on the OZ Tent is "cheaper" in that it's a poly-canvas blend vs. pure canvas on the Kodiak, but that blend has some benefits too (such as being easier to clean).