Keeping warm in the tent

[Hilldweller]

What's everybody use to stay warm at night? I don't intend to stay home for weather unless the roads are too icy.

Our trailer is the Conqueror Compact with one 107-ah battery; I'm considering:
1- 12 volt electric pad -- nominal 3 amp draw, 6 amp at start.
2- propane catalytic heater in the vestibule area; flameless but still hot.
3- chemical warmpacks in an 8-pocket vest.
4- thought about using my Aerostich Kenetsu electric vests but they each draw over 4 amps and have no t-stat.

Wife and I have an "Adam & Eve" lightweight tent that we'll augment with blankets and 44-lb dog.

:REOutIceFishing:

 

[WJinTRSC]

NALGENE Bottle

When you're cooking dinner, fill a Nalgene w/ boiling hot water. Put this bottle inside your sleeping bag. When you're ready for sleeptime, your bag will be nice and toasty for you. As you get in, just push the bottle down to the foot of the bag. Your feet will stay toasty all night. If you need a little more warmth, the two main areas to keep warm are your chest and your head. Wear a hat and if needed a warm FUZZY/insulating top of sorts; long underwear or something. Not just a cotton t-shirt or Underarmour. You need something with some insulation to it. Think "big on the cuddle-factor". Tell the wife/GF/girls to put a hand warmer in their bra/cami/equivalent top. I know it sounds weird, but as I said, keeping the chest warm is EXTREMELY helpful and I have several friends/ex-gf's that still swear by it.

Eat a big meal. Keeping your body warm burns calories, so a fatty good meal helps. Also, drink warm fluids before you go to bed. Alcohol/tobacco reduces your body temp. I love a good cigar and few drinks, but there's a time and place. I also love sleeping warm at night too.

Too keep from having to get up too much, keep an old gatorade bottle or something close by for when nature calls. It's a long walk to the nearest tree when your cold and sleepy. Plus you'll let less heat out of the tent/sleeping bag. Good luck! Hope this helps.

 

[tdesanto]

In the tent, I use a good 0* sleeping bag. I have yet to get cold using it in cold weather.

Outside the tent, good outer layers including hat and gloves, and maybe the occasional camp fire.

 

[Bergger]

In our AT Chaser with our Eezi Awn we have camped in temps down to 20 degrees and have had everything freeze over on the outside of the tent. We used a warm sheet on the mattress and a 20 degree bag opened up to cover both of us. That coupled with flannel pj's with the pant legs tucked into some thick socks and a winter hat on and we were warm. Until it was time to get up in the morning. For that we do use a catalytic tent heater with a small electric fan on it to warm it up. They work fairly well but once you start getting up in altitude they don't work as well. After our last trip we decided to get a large 0 degree flannel/canvas sleeping bag for the few trips we do when it does get cold up here. The 20 degree temp pushed out current bag to its limit. Just remember that whats under you is just as important as what you have on top keeping you warm.

 

[Mayne]

I use a portable buddy heater. Works good in both my fathers tent, during hunting season, and my tent the rest of the year. Both tents are 100sq ft of floor space or better. Fire it up before bed and shut it off before sleeping, warms everything up, repeated in the morning to take the chill off. The other trick is, a good bag rated for the conditions. Mine -10deg bag, and I carry an old military wool blanket to cover that. I'm toasty down to a tested 17deg. Remember the rating on the bag is only tested for survival, at what temp will it keep you from pop-sickling, not comfort.

Mayne

 

[Honu]

one of those dual tank Mr Buddy heaters the thing warmed our tent up in no time and was so toasty up top I had to go down and turn it down

since we have a 4 year old that likes to climb out sleep on top toss and turn etc.. I try to keep her in the bag but in the morning the heater was nice to have for those cold mornings as our family slowly got going get up lay around lounge and chat with our little one about the day and open up the side flaps so she can check things out

sadly I am the one that has to jump down and turn it on though

since our tents are the same setup I kept mine setup on top of a box on the floor area one of those double flap storage boxes
as the heat coming off it was quite hot on the tent floor itself I had to put it up but the box never really got that hot ?

on full I would say 5 minutes we were very warm and 10 minutes it was sweating hot so my routine was get up crank it for about 5 minutes then turn it down to one burner and we could get up and change and feel very warm ? how warm ? no clue but I would say about 75 or so inside the tent when the outside temp was maybe 40 or so

I was going to get a diesel type heater and plumb it in but ended up getting our heater on our trip !! since it got to cold for us in the mornings

 

[rusty_tlc]

What's everybody use to stay warm at night? I don't intend to stay home for weather unless the roads are too icy.

Our trailer is the Conqueror Compact with one 107-ah battery; I'm considering:
1- 12 volt electric pad -- nominal 3 amp draw, 6 amp at start.
2- propane catalytic heater in the vestibule area; flameless but still hot.
3- chemical warmpacks in an 8-pocket vest.
4- thought about using my Aerostich Kenetsu electric vests but they each draw over 4 amps and have no t-stat.

Wife and I have an "Adam & Eve" lightweight tent that we'll augment with blankets and 44-lb dog.

:REOutIceFishing:

???
We have the Adam and Eve sleeping bag from Cabellas, is that what you are refering to? That thing keeps us warm even with no heat. That and a bienie hat.

 

[KevinNY]

Why this subject comes up in forums always perplexes me, BUY A GOOD SLEEPING BAG PEOPLE! How do you think mountaineers stay warm? I assure you it is not with electric sleeping pads and propane heaters etc. You can sleep toasty warm in sub zero temperatures while camping on a frozen pond with a good bag and a closed cell foam pad. If you are cold, get a bag rated for the temps you will encounter, don't fudge it with flannel PJ's, they will kill you in real cold.

 

[JIMBO]

:archaeolo When it is gonna be cold, or there are signs of predators (!!)

we slide outta the tent into the Xterra and it's warm in there, with the hatch closed, besides the sleeping bag and the OBVIOUS

The toilet is mobile

:safari-rig: :safari-rig: JIMBO

 

[BriansFJ]

I'm surprised nobody's suggested the "dutch oven" sleeping bag warming method:sombrero:

 

[Honu]

Why this subject comes up in forums always perplexes me, BUY A GOOD SLEEPING BAG PEOPLE! How do you think mountaineers stay warm? I assure you it is not with electric sleeping pads and propane heaters etc. You can sleep toasty warm in sub zero temperatures while camping on a frozen pond with a good bag and a closed cell foam pad. If you are cold, get a bag rated for the temps you will encounter, don't fudge it with flannel PJ's, they will kill you in real cold.

just to clarify where I am coming from and how I read this is not only sleeping which I agree is a proper bag but also just keeping warm as you get in and when you get up ! those are two times we can keep warm

we have a great sleeping bag so keeping warm in the tent for me is also about waking up with my family and not freezing while getting dressed and getting the little one dressed and doing the morning pett/potty break for our little one
my wife does not want to do the I am a tough guy freeze get dressed in the sleeping bag thing nor does our 4 year old she likes it warm as I do

having spent over 3 years of my life living out of a two man tent I love having a huge tent I can stand in keep warm in get dressed in etc...

just trying to make sure one does not think I mean not having a good bag and proper ground insulation is important and also in our tents since we are sleeping on our camper roof I still also have a 3 inch thermarest type setup under our main pad for even more comfort

 

[socaljeeper]

I use the Zodi tent heater. I have been looking for one for the last year or so. They stopped making them for some reason. Finally found one on Ebay for a good price. Works great and is safe! Here is my set up.

 

[IH8RDS]

I have toyed with the idea of putting a small rv type heater in my M416 with ducting to the tent. Small water heater (5 gal) too.

 

[socaljeeper]

I'm surprised nobody's suggested the "dutch oven" sleeping bag warming method:sombrero:

I tried it, but my wife did think it was warm enough!

 

[Hilldweller]

I lived in Florida for 20 years and haven't had to consider this since I was a kid in NJ. Our Adam and Eve bag is the summer weight one; we were cozy to the 50's the other night.
The buddy heater sounds like a good idea to warm the vestibule and general back-up. But I suppose I need a dedicated winter bag too.

We used to ride our motorcycle in any weather but we had the liberty of plugging in electric vests and socks...
It was 14 degrees in this photo and it was a 400 mile day: