This post describes an improved and simpler stove mounting device that can be fitted to any bush stick using some wire. They can be used when camping on soil or sand and are particularly suited to mounting a tent stove in a snow pit while camping in deep snow. One of the mounts can be attached to a tent pole if require to take the place of one of the three legs.
Introduction
I often use bush poles to lift my tent stoves up to a suitable height above the ground or snow for convenient cooking and good heat distribution within a small winter tent. Some examples are shown in the photos below.
On a deep snow surface, a snow pit, within a tent, greatly adds to the amenity of snow camping, particularly in tipi or pyramid type tents. With suitable snow steps formed, it makes for easy ‘walk-in- entry. It also greatly increases the useable space and makes sitting around the hot woodstove comfortable and enjoyable.
Particularly long stove legs are required for this and the area below the stove becomes a natural place for the tidy and efficient storage and drying of prepared fuel sticks for the evening and the next day if the weather is bad.
For many years I have used ‘hinge’ or ‘clevis’ fittings with removable pins to connect between my tiny tent stoves and the bush poles. The fitting terminated in a light metal cap that fits over the ‘square-cut’ end of the bush pole.
These fittings worked well enough but were too exacting with regard to the shape and size of the top of the bush pole (I needed to carry a saw to cut the pole). Also, the delicate cap could not be hammered to adjust its height, to level the stove cooktop, without doing damage.
An ode to lateral thinking about simple solutions;
What could connect a wooden leg to a red hot fire?
That is without catching the damn thing on fire,
Could it be titanium or Tim use your cranium,
It could just be ubiquitous farm fencing wire.
Consequently, I came up with a simple alternative stove mount bracket and mounting fittings. They are simpler, more robust, required less fiddling & tools and would fit any stick (or tent pole). The design also would allow ‘jury-rigging’ of alternative mountings made from tent pegs if the formal fitting was lost or left behind.
The stoves have three mounting brackets welded to them around the middle of the wall of the fire dome. They form short tubular round holes for simple stove mounting.
They are deliberately simple, crude, sloppy fitting and cheap so that all stoves will be fitted with them, regardless of whether or not they are intended to be used. Almost any piece of wire could be fitted into the brackets.
[Photo closeup of the mounting bracket]
The wire mounting fitting between the bracket and the bush pole is shown in the photo below. It no longer has a cap but has a ‘wrap-around’ stainless steel sleeve that can be bound tightly to the pole. It is designed to fit any bush pole. It has two shallow ‘teeth’ protrusion within the sleeve to enhance its grip on the wood pole. It also can have a strip of silicone rubber in it to enhance its grip if attached to a tent pole as a substitute for one of the wooden legs.
This improved fitting also allows the bush pole to protrude above the sleeve so that the pole can be hammered to adjust the height to level the stove cooktop while the stove is in place. The top of the pole can be any size and does not need to be square cut as for the previous ‘cap-style-mounts’.
[Add photo of simple stove mounted on soil on new wire legs with a wood rack]
[Add photo of simple stove mounted on deep snow on new wire legs with wood rack within a snow pit ]
More to come……
Tim
