Outfitter tent on ice

[newell]

Has anyone ever set up a outfitter tent for ice fishing with a wood stove, to be honest I am not a big ice fisherman mostly due to my lack of success with minimal effort😄
Every year over New Years we spend 4 days quaffing and skating and hanging out in the ice. I keep thinking it would be nice for the kids to have a hangout with hot chocolate and table and chairs for games. What do you guys think about putting up the wall tent and wood stove for this purpose? Would the ice on the ground just get slushy without a floor

[SD1797]

If you shovel the snow out of the where the tent will be it won't get slushy but it will get slippery. I've often thought of setting my outfitter tent on the ice to fish in but as I don't have the internal frame it would be quite the process to set it up so I have never gotten beyond the thinking part haha

[iversong]

We have camped on the ice. An insulated tarp on the floor will keep the floor from melting, we put an RV mat over our tarp to make it less slippery.
A small block of wood under the poles if you have internal frame, will keep them from melting down into the ice. Tie it down with screw stakes, in case wind comes up. Have fun

[Tfng]

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so these three should save a bunch of typing.

Day 1,2,3. Beautiful right? +8c not a breath of wind. Mid March way northern Sask.



Day 4 Travel day and headed home. Woke up because it sounded like there was a hurricane going on. -28c plus 80km wind gusting over 100. Pull all your wet gear which used to be hanging nice and dry from the ceiling out of the puddles on the floor.



This is what was left of the frame after we managed to get the 14x16 tent off the frame. Luckily we didn't tear the tent. The only thing that saved it was I had buried logs in the snow to anchor the fly and the fly caught the tent. The screw in pegs holding the tent pulled out.



Moral of the story is for me I'll set my tent up in a more sheltered spot because the weather can change quickly. I really thought my tent was going to blow away that day. It was all the three of us could do to get it balled up enough the wind couldn't get it. I had taken a bit of ribbing about the lengths I had gone to get the fly very secure, I'm glad I did.

[Kurt505]

Originally Posted by Tfng

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so these three should save a bunch of typing.

Day 1,2,3. Beautiful right? +8c not a breath of wind. Mid March way northern Sask.



Day 4 Travel day and headed home. Woke up because it sounded like there was a hurricane going on. -28c plus 80km wind gusting over 100. Pull all your wet gear which used to be hanging nice and dry from the ceiling out of the puddles on the floor.



This is what was left of the frame after we managed to get the 14x16 tent off the frame. Luckily we didn't tear the tent. The only thing that saved it was I had buried logs in the snow to anchor the fly and the fly caught the tent. The screw in pegs holding the tent pulled out.



Moral of the story is for me I'll set my tent up in a more sheltered spot because the weather can change quickly. I really thought my tent was going to blow away that day. It was all the three of us could do to get it balled up enough the wind couldn't get it. I had taken a bit of ribbing about the lengths I had gone to get the fly very secure, I'm glad I did.

Hohohooooo man! Am I glad I saw your pics, I was considering doing the same thing, with the same size tent.

The shtuff we do for fun sometimes..... makes life quite an adventure!

[Tfng]

Originally Posted by Kurt505

Hohohooooo man! Am I glad I saw your pics, I was considering doing the same thing, with the same size tent.

The shtuff we do for fun sometimes..... makes life quite an adventure!

Yep, we've been to some crazy places and have some great stories but unfortunately I've also destroyed a lot of good gear. We got very lucky, most of our gear was wet and we had taken snowmobiles in there. I was never more happy to see the truck.

And yes the fishing was great!

[iversong]

3 days on the ice, no puddles in tent due to insulated tarp on floor, also Northern Saskatchewan in March.

[Tfng]

I'm glad it worked out for you Iversong! I had a very different experience, if that huge wind hadn't come up it would have been better.

You're just using a normal insulated tarp?

If I had anchored the tent the same way as I had the fly we could have just waited it out. With the tent folding up around us we had no choice but to pack it up.

[Mike_W]

I was thinking 12 by 14 tent with 6 sheets of half inch plywood would work slick!.....Bring a jig saw and put some holes in the floor when all set up.

[Dean2]

We used a 10x12 and a 12x14 on ice for quite a few years. We used long lodge pole or poplars to make the tent frames, far easier to set up and take down than the internal frame versions and way sturdier in the wind. Three poles on the back (Tepee style), three poles on the front (tepee style), one ridge pole tied to the two tepees and then tie one rear and one front tepee pole together with a long pole down each side. Use ice anchors to tie the side poles to the ice and do the same for the third pole on each of the front and rear tepees ( do this to the poles which are not tied to the side pole). No matter how windy the tent will not fall over.

If you want a dry floor 3 or four pieces of 3/8 plywood with 3 2x2 struts screwed to them on the length, one at the edge, one in the middle and the other at the far edge. Keeps the ice frozen, your feet warm, and you make holes in the plywood to fish through.

With that set up you can have heat on full time for up to two weeks and everything stays nice and dry, tent is even pleasant to sleep in as it isn't high humidity. One other suggestion fro mexperience, cover the holes at night so someone doesn't fall in one in the dark. You can use one for a pee hole at night if you don't like getting cold.

[Tfng]

You guys are going to talk me into doing it again. Thanks for that lol.

In all seriousness there's been some good advice given and I really am starting to get the itch. I like the insulated tarp idea, hauling plywood behind a snowmobile doesn't sound like much fun.

We have talked about building a floor out of plywood and styrofoam insulation but with a 14x16 that's a lot of material to haul. We have enough issues packing light as it is. A smaller tent would be handier sometimes. I'm getting the suspicion wall tents are like boats and you need to own a few different sizes.

[Dean2]

We drove trucks so the plywood was no problem. If u want to pull it behind a snow mobile all you have to do is make one piece the tobbogan and then u can load everything else on top. A few screw eyes down each side to hook straps to or holes and you are set. To make the first piece a toboggan put a stringer across the 4' width with a 45 degree angle on the front. Screw on an 18" x 4 foot strip for the front of the boggan. Use that piece against the rear wall. Then the cot over top means u dont stumble on thw tie downs

One other thing. Always setup with the rear walll facing direct into the prevailing wind.

[newell]

Lots to think about
Thanks for all the great info guys

[iversong]

Yes a normal insulated tarp, ours was white, I do not think colour will matter inside the tent. We also do not fish in the outfitter tent as flood water can be an issue, we bring our small fishing tents and fish out of those. Good luck

[jpohlic]

We've set ours up a few times on the ice and its been a gong show almost every time. First time I didn't have an internal frame so I drilled a couple holes 20' apart but only half way thru the ice, set a 12' 4x4 post in each hole with a wire rope running between the two for a ridge line. Did the same thing with 6' posts for the sides. Actually it worked pretty good, just took a while to set up.

The second time we set it up the same way but one of the 12' poles cracked and we had to get a new one. It was beautiful during the day but the winds picked up overnight and caused havoc. We only screwed the corners down but hadn't secured the bottom edge of the tent so the wind came right thru, blew the chimney off the wood stove, tent filled with smoke...good times!

Third time I had a frame for the tent. Everything was fine until the chimney flap came undone and started smouldering against the stove pipe in the middle of the night, tent filled with smoke...good times!

I may use it on the ice again but there is a hard sided, insulated ice shack in my future.

[diamonddave]

http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/showt...ight=wall+tent

Love it!!!