Thread: Tahr base camps

We decided to have a 4 man sleeping and cooking tent.
So, quite a bit bigger than the 2 & 3 person MIA.
Our mate designed and made one. He checked out the max length for poles in the chopper which was 2 metres.
The frame is steel poles tensioned together with tape tiedowns and it was very rigid when set up.
It was also very heavy, needing many man loads from the ute to chopper pad.
Also somewhat expensive but my mate would be happy to build one for you for a quid or two, now he's got the plans.

Here's the inner tent:


For a stove, he bought one off the internet.
Once he got back he bought a better one but this was fine. It weighed about 20kg and folded down pretty flat.
We stacked stones under it to retain some heat.
He used a fireproof grommet in the roof. A standard item apparently.
We burned some wood and some coal.
It was great for drying clothes and we were never cold in the tent.
You'll need a couple of big plastic sheets to cover all the ground inside.


Over the top, I had a fly which was the largest toughest tarpaulin at Mitre 10 I think. Cost about $200. Guys were pretty solid kernmantel type nylon rope in generous lengths from a marine shop. Tensioning the poles and ridge rope was again done with tape tie downs. We were never able to get enough tension to lift the fly up away from lying on the inner tent ridge. You need some big ReBar pegs and a small sledgehammer to place them in.
Wooden tomato stakes came in handy to hold the edges of the fly up from the tent
The hole for the chimney was cut with a knife on the spot after setting everything up. Too hard to plan its location and get it just right under stress. A bit of rain did come through the hole but not a problem the tent itself was waterproof.