tents regular vs 4 seasons

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the gimpey one

the gimpey one

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I have a Coleman 6 man that is nice but not a 4 seasons tent. Planning on camping January 17-19 in the Georgia mountains. Will be in a campground with access to power(hopefully)! I plan on bringing a electric ceramic heater. Heat loss is a issue. I plan on taking my wife and four kids so should i be on the look out for a better tent? Gear wise most of our stuff is rated around 45 degrees but i plan on taking several quilts and more than likely buying better bags before the trip.

Also should i just buy a buddy heater instead that uses propane?
 
If power is available, the ceramic heater will work just fine.

Four season tents (in my experience) have less ventilation or employ a ground hugging rainfly that blocks airflow and condensation is an issue to contend with. Propane heaters produce a lot of moisture as a result of the combustion. So propane heater and 4-season tent would not be a good combination.
 
I have been in a very similar situation before, camping in late December/early January with a Coleman dome tent. Had electricity so we had a small heater we used and a 0degree Teton sports bag. had some light rain/sleet as temps went from 30-20s. while there was no wind we were fine. Early morning though wind kicked up and was pretty constant. Made it pretty miserable in that tent due to the big mesh sections of it.

Wife and I were okay as we were only sleeping in the tent. If you want to spend any conscience time in the tent I'd probably get a tent with ground hugging rain fly or at least plenty of overlap between mesh and fly or maybe look at a canvas tent.

I ended up getting a Kodiac canvas tent as a result of that trip, solved my problems.
 
Only sleeping in it. Plan on some light wheeling during the day. Guess we shall see how things go.
 
The 4 season tents are better in the winter because they hold up to wind and snow loads better than a 3 season tent. They are also closed off a bit more for less wind penetration. They aren't going to be a whole lot warmer than a 3 season other than keeping wind out. If you are not expecting a foot of snow or a windstorm you should be fine with your existing tent. That is unless there is a lot of exposed mesh not fully covered by a rainfly.

Here are some things you should do....

- Sleep off the ground, winter rated sleeping pads or cots. The cold ground will suck the heat right out of you.
- Bring extra blankets to put underneath and over your 45 degree bags.
- An electric ceramic heater is going to be much safer in the tent at night, they burn up less oxygen.
- Mr Buddy is great but you have to be wary of burning oxygen, safest method is to turn it off while sleeping.
- Get a house style CO2 detector and hang it up in your tent. Families die every year from heaters in tents.

Optional
- Pee bottle, nothing worse than getting out of a warm sleeping bag to head outside to pee at night. Sorry ladies this one is hard for you to do!
- Try to get any female campers not to drink too much before going to bed.

****Can someone confirm with me if an electric ceramic heater does not burn as much CO2? I don't want to spread potentially dangerous misinformation. My gut tells me that since there is no open flame it burns less Oxygen.
 
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An electric heater consumes no oxygen and produces no CO. They are absolutely safe in confined spaces, unless you let something flammable touch one such that it catches on fire. In that regard, ceramic heaters are about as safe as it gets.


patrickfinley said:
- An electric ceramic heater is going to be much safer in the tent at night, they burn up less oxygen.

****Can someone confirm with me if an electric ceramic heater does not burn as much CO2? I don't want to spread potentially dangerous misinformation. My gut tells me that since there is no open flame it burns less Oxygen.
Click to expand...
 
Regardless of what tent you use, install the rain fly. This will give you a dead air space surrounding the tent, and will reduce heat loss from the inside.

Do not use standard air matresses. They develop convective currents, and this moves heat away from the body (higher heatloss). Either foam mattresses, or air mattresses with foam inside will work far better.
 
I have learned a lot from this thread. Will take some pics and let everyone know how we fair.
 
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