tldr: vestibule was worth it, roof protector worked well, get the floor protector, get a tarp that fits the entire footprint, and don't get the 13x27 unless you have more than 6 people or are going to be in it for a long time. 
I few months ago I started planning a trip with 5 of my buddies. One of them has a family plot of land on the NY/PA border that's a little over 200 acres surrounded by 7000 acres of PA game land. Having done some winter camping growing up, we decided to go then when we knew we'd be alone, and after hunting season when there wouldn't be anyone in the game land hunting, and of course for a bit of an adventure.
The land consists of a few (hay) fields, a bunch of woods and a rock quarry, no buildings or structures, but a few logging and tractor trails. My buddy was planning to bring up an old Avion camper he had fixed up as a permanent lodge, but we were unsure if we'd be able to actually get it there in the wintry conditions, as getting to the upper field involved a fairly sketchy stream crossing and some large, somewhat ice covered, hills along with a few inches of iced over snow on the ground. We had 3 Jeeps and an off-road can-am side by side, so figured we could get the trailer up there even if we had to do some winching, but also did some exploration of the quarry and trails on the land for fun.
Given that, we needed a tent that could fit 4-6 of us, the extra 2 in case the camper didn't make it. I had originally planned on getting the Crua Loj, but knew there was danger of not getting it in time (ship was estimated at mid Jan but we all know how that goes and now it's due in March), so my backup plan was to grab an Alaknak from Cabelas if the Loj didn't ship in time. Of course, it came down to the wire so I actually had to get the Alaknak on the way to PA the night before the trip - the Hamburg Cabelas is massive and had multiple of each size in stock. I grabbed the 13'x27', because bigger is better (right?), along with a vestibule and roof protector for the wood stove. There were two or three mistakes made there, but I'll get to that later.
We knew we'd need a wood stove to stay warm, so one of the other guys picked up a large sized Winnerwell camping stove along with oven and double walled chimney section to protect the tent. This would work with either tent, but turns out it was a little small for the large Alaknak, though it worked fine as long as we kept feeding it wood.
Getting the tent the night before was a little dangerous as I usually don't like to take stuff like this out without setting it up first, and I had bought a few other things with the slightly smaller (19'x14') Loj in mind. After surprisingly little drama getting the old Avion up to the camp site in icy and ~30-35 degree weather, we started setting up the tent. I laid down a tarp and outdoor carpet underneath, with part of the carpet extending into the vestibule to provide a kind of door mat. It took a little over an hour to get everything set up, a little less than that for the tent by itself, but 20 minutes or so to figure out the vestibule. Now that I've done it that could easily be cut in half. Most of the time on the tent was spent on the spikes as there are a bunch of them that had to be pounded into frozen ground, the rest was super easy. The vestibule was tricky as there were a bunch of snaps and fasteners to the tent that you had to figure out a bit by trial and error, but once done once could now be done in a few minutes. The roof protector for the stove was easy, just have to put it on before raising the tent.
After that, we moved in, set up the stove and cranked it up. First impressions were really good, and that the tent is humungous. It dwarfed the 25' camper, mostly due to being almost 5' wider. The stove worked really well, and the oven actually was maybe the best part of it - not only was it always hot and ready to cook, but it acted as a radiator for the tent, so instead of the heat escaping out the chimney it hit the bottom of the oven, which we left open unless cooking, creating a second radiator along with the body of the stove. By the end of the weekend, we had set up our chairs around the stove and at night folded the chairs up and put our beds near it - partly for warmth and partly so it'd be easy to shove more wood in. With a 6' table in the center of the tent, we mostly only used around 2/3 of the tent. In retrospect, the 12'x20' would have been better and easier to keep warm - that was mistake one. Temps got down to 12 degrees on day 3 so we had to pump a lot of wood into the stove to keep it warm. We had supplemental propane, but that gives off too much moisture so we only ran it for an hour and then shut it off. The stove could keep up, but would have required less wood, and importantly at night, less loading if we had the smaller 12'x20'.
Mistake two was not getting the floor protector or an outdoor carpet cut to the size of the tent. We shoveled out an area for the tent but there was a layer of ice underneath which made the floor very cold even with the tarp and carpet underneath, which were slightly undersized as they didn't cover the whole footprint (see mistake one). This then gradually turned to water over the weekend, but the floor was remarkably waterproof so didn't let it in, even though in places it felt a little like walking on a waterbed. The floor protector would have made the floor a lot less cold and would have made cleanup super easy. Over the weekend we tracked a lot of moisture in as we stopped taking our shoes off after day 1. The floor was too cold and the carpet outside got soaked, not leaving a good area to change shoes, and one of the only weaknesses of the tent showed up, that being condensation. Before packing up I had to 'mop' the floor with some towels, where with the floor protector I could mostly just remove that and most of the dirt and moisture with it and then fold up the tent.
Weather went from mid 30's and rain on the first evening/night with 20+mph wind gusts, to a very cold 12 degrees in the morning on the 2nd night, to sunny and mid 30's that day, to 3-4" of snow over the final night. The tent weathered it really well and the stove kept up if we pumped enough wood into it, the 3rd night we had it up to 65-70 in the tent. The vestibule was a great purchase as you wouldn't get a gust of wind into the tent when entering or leaving and made it unnecessary to zip/unzip the door if you had to run out to the car or go to the bathroom quickly - you could just attach the velcro so it wasn't wide open.
So in short - vestibule was worth it, roof protector worked well, get the floor protector, get a tarp that fits the entire footprint, and don't get the 13x27 unless you have more than 6 people or are going to be in it for a long time. For a short 4 day stay with 6 people hanging out in it (4 sleeping), it had a bunch of unused space. Given the weather, we spent a few hours each day in the tent and it was comfortable and a great place to hang out. The oven made food preparation extremely easy, we got a set of 5x7 pie tins that would fit two per shelf (for 4 total) and cooked everything from buffalo chicken dip to veggie packs to hash brown patties in them. If anything it made it too easy so we ate too much.
As to the Loj, I'm doubly disappointed it didn't come in time as I think would have been absolutely perfect for us - it has a vestibule built in, built in extended ground sheet and floor insulation along with insulated sleeping area which would make the stove much less important at night. I didn't cancel my order so will give that a try when it comes in.
I few months ago I started planning a trip with 5 of my buddies. One of them has a family plot of land on the NY/PA border that's a little over 200 acres surrounded by 7000 acres of PA game land. Having done some winter camping growing up, we decided to go then when we knew we'd be alone, and after hunting season when there wouldn't be anyone in the game land hunting, and of course for a bit of an adventure.
The land consists of a few (hay) fields, a bunch of woods and a rock quarry, no buildings or structures, but a few logging and tractor trails. My buddy was planning to bring up an old Avion camper he had fixed up as a permanent lodge, but we were unsure if we'd be able to actually get it there in the wintry conditions, as getting to the upper field involved a fairly sketchy stream crossing and some large, somewhat ice covered, hills along with a few inches of iced over snow on the ground. We had 3 Jeeps and an off-road can-am side by side, so figured we could get the trailer up there even if we had to do some winching, but also did some exploration of the quarry and trails on the land for fun.
Given that, we needed a tent that could fit 4-6 of us, the extra 2 in case the camper didn't make it. I had originally planned on getting the Crua Loj, but knew there was danger of not getting it in time (ship was estimated at mid Jan but we all know how that goes and now it's due in March), so my backup plan was to grab an Alaknak from Cabelas if the Loj didn't ship in time. Of course, it came down to the wire so I actually had to get the Alaknak on the way to PA the night before the trip - the Hamburg Cabelas is massive and had multiple of each size in stock. I grabbed the 13'x27', because bigger is better (right?), along with a vestibule and roof protector for the wood stove. There were two or three mistakes made there, but I'll get to that later.
We knew we'd need a wood stove to stay warm, so one of the other guys picked up a large sized Winnerwell camping stove along with oven and double walled chimney section to protect the tent. This would work with either tent, but turns out it was a little small for the large Alaknak, though it worked fine as long as we kept feeding it wood.
Getting the tent the night before was a little dangerous as I usually don't like to take stuff like this out without setting it up first, and I had bought a few other things with the slightly smaller (19'x14') Loj in mind. After surprisingly little drama getting the old Avion up to the camp site in icy and ~30-35 degree weather, we started setting up the tent. I laid down a tarp and outdoor carpet underneath, with part of the carpet extending into the vestibule to provide a kind of door mat. It took a little over an hour to get everything set up, a little less than that for the tent by itself, but 20 minutes or so to figure out the vestibule. Now that I've done it that could easily be cut in half. Most of the time on the tent was spent on the spikes as there are a bunch of them that had to be pounded into frozen ground, the rest was super easy. The vestibule was tricky as there were a bunch of snaps and fasteners to the tent that you had to figure out a bit by trial and error, but once done once could now be done in a few minutes. The roof protector for the stove was easy, just have to put it on before raising the tent.
After that, we moved in, set up the stove and cranked it up. First impressions were really good, and that the tent is humungous. It dwarfed the 25' camper, mostly due to being almost 5' wider. The stove worked really well, and the oven actually was maybe the best part of it - not only was it always hot and ready to cook, but it acted as a radiator for the tent, so instead of the heat escaping out the chimney it hit the bottom of the oven, which we left open unless cooking, creating a second radiator along with the body of the stove. By the end of the weekend, we had set up our chairs around the stove and at night folded the chairs up and put our beds near it - partly for warmth and partly so it'd be easy to shove more wood in. With a 6' table in the center of the tent, we mostly only used around 2/3 of the tent. In retrospect, the 12'x20' would have been better and easier to keep warm - that was mistake one. Temps got down to 12 degrees on day 3 so we had to pump a lot of wood into the stove to keep it warm. We had supplemental propane, but that gives off too much moisture so we only ran it for an hour and then shut it off. The stove could keep up, but would have required less wood, and importantly at night, less loading if we had the smaller 12'x20'.
Mistake two was not getting the floor protector or an outdoor carpet cut to the size of the tent. We shoveled out an area for the tent but there was a layer of ice underneath which made the floor very cold even with the tarp and carpet underneath, which were slightly undersized as they didn't cover the whole footprint (see mistake one). This then gradually turned to water over the weekend, but the floor was remarkably waterproof so didn't let it in, even though in places it felt a little like walking on a waterbed. The floor protector would have made the floor a lot less cold and would have made cleanup super easy. Over the weekend we tracked a lot of moisture in as we stopped taking our shoes off after day 1. The floor was too cold and the carpet outside got soaked, not leaving a good area to change shoes, and one of the only weaknesses of the tent showed up, that being condensation. Before packing up I had to 'mop' the floor with some towels, where with the floor protector I could mostly just remove that and most of the dirt and moisture with it and then fold up the tent.
Weather went from mid 30's and rain on the first evening/night with 20+mph wind gusts, to a very cold 12 degrees in the morning on the 2nd night, to sunny and mid 30's that day, to 3-4" of snow over the final night. The tent weathered it really well and the stove kept up if we pumped enough wood into it, the 3rd night we had it up to 65-70 in the tent. The vestibule was a great purchase as you wouldn't get a gust of wind into the tent when entering or leaving and made it unnecessary to zip/unzip the door if you had to run out to the car or go to the bathroom quickly - you could just attach the velcro so it wasn't wide open.
So in short - vestibule was worth it, roof protector worked well, get the floor protector, get a tarp that fits the entire footprint, and don't get the 13x27 unless you have more than 6 people or are going to be in it for a long time. For a short 4 day stay with 6 people hanging out in it (4 sleeping), it had a bunch of unused space. Given the weather, we spent a few hours each day in the tent and it was comfortable and a great place to hang out. The oven made food preparation extremely easy, we got a set of 5x7 pie tins that would fit two per shelf (for 4 total) and cooked everything from buffalo chicken dip to veggie packs to hash brown patties in them. If anything it made it too easy so we ate too much.
As to the Loj, I'm doubly disappointed it didn't come in time as I think would have been absolutely perfect for us - it has a vestibule built in, built in extended ground sheet and floor insulation along with insulated sleeping area which would make the stove much less important at night. I didn't cancel my order so will give that a try when it comes in.
