Ultralight tent stove mounting
This post is about ultralight tent stove mounting on ground, rocks or snow when used in the context of ultralight backpacking in winter.
Introduction to tent stove mounting
When camping on soil, a wood-burning ultralight tent stove can be simply sat on the ground. However, this can cause unpleasant smoke in the tent if soil organic matter under and around the stove slowly charrs and burns.
Metal legs are often used to provide a separation between the tent stove and the supporting surface. These, unfortunately, add weight to a backpacking load.
If camping on deep snow, the stove will be unstable and melt down into the snow. Even with metal supporting legs, they will warm and melt into the snow if not place on a ‘raft’ of wood or other insulating material.
If the tent stove can be raised up above the ground or snow surface on a found non-conductive material such as bush sticks, it avoids these problems. It also can allow the heat from the stove bottom to be utilized.
The raised configuration can provide additional advantages. It can provide better heat distribution and a compact fuel drying/storage zone beneath the tent stove.
Long stick legs can be used when a central snow pit is formed in a small tent. This can greatly improve the comfort in a small tent by providing seating and standing room.
It means that the hot stove can be mounted at a height that is well placed for cooking and good heat distribution.
This post considers some ultralight tent stove mounting options that have worked for me and have added to the pleasure of my winter ultralight camping experience.
Tent stove mounting
On ground mounting of a tent stove
This is simple and the most obvious method. However, the heat from the bottom of the stove will charr the organic matter on and within the soil below and around the stove and make unpleasant smoke in the tent.
Mounting a tent stove on an aluminium dish
In my early days of hot tenting, I put under the stove a large aluminium dish with a foam insulator pad beneath that to prevent this charring. “It appeared to work well at first. I was basking in the warmth and the vanity of apparent success when the characteristic hot smell of melting polyethene heralded its failure.”
Sooner or later the rising temperature below the stove and dish slowly melted the pad and the groundsheet below.
[Add a photo of the groundsheet with the round hole in it]
Tent stove rock mounting
A stone-age solution works well. Pebbles, rocks or preferably a rock slab can separate the stove from the ground. “The large slab is my favourite method when there is no deep snow and suitable rocks are available.”
The slab (the larger the better) can become a delightful luxury in a small tent. It will become quite hot and act as a hot table for drying fuel sticks and preparing meals and keeping drinks and meals hot. Other large stones can be uses to support and level the slab. This will mean that the space below it will become warm warm space for drying fuel sticks, gloves and socks etc.
Lastly, if the rock slab is very big, it makes a heat bank that will give out heat for some hours after the stove is allowed to run down.
While the rock slab will insulate well enough to prevent soil charring, the slab will transfer too much heat for it to be suitable as a deep snow mounting option.
Ultralight tent stove mounting on a pole
Supporting the stove up on a (found) bush pole seemed to me to be an obvious ultralight tent stove mounting method. It required a suitable insulating interface between the hot stove body and the wooden bush pole.
My first Downdraft ultralight tent stoves ambitiously used a single pole. It worked well enough when used in soil or deep snow.
The pole was connected to the stove by an articulated cylindrical welded stainless steel foil cap. To get a stable fitting, the pole top needed to be ‘square-cut’, thus requiring the use of a saw. It also needed to be the same diameter as the cap (or be paired down to fit). This was a bit tedious and the wet and frozen wood would eventually shrink as it dried, leaving a loose fit.
The single mounting pole supported the stove quite well. However, when the pole supported the weight of a load of fuel sticks on the drying rack plus a big dinner pot on top of the stove it lacked ideal stability. Consequently, for my next generations of stoves, I used more poles (Typically three) to provide excellent support.
Ultralight tent stove mounting on multiple poles
I tinkered with four pole mounts to maximize the wood drying storing rack that could form a rectangular shape.
Eventually, I settled on three legs as this was easier to set up the stove with a level stove top.
An open tent stove mounting clasp
I also changed the pole connection from a ‘precise fitting cap’ to ‘wrap around clasps’ so that they could fit a pole of any diameter and cope with shrinkage of the poles as they dried out.
Additionally, the pole no longer needed to be ‘cut square’ and the clasp could be adjusted up and down the pole to level the stovetop for cooking. “All this make the job easier when you are cold and setting up camp in the snow.”
Additionally, I introduced long high-tensile swing arms to connect between the pole clasp and the stove body. This provided thermal insulation. It also made the lateral fitting of the stove to the arms easy.
The large swing radius of the arms meant that the separation of the poles could be much wider than the stove body and the wood rack could be quite large. Very little precision was required in the location of the poles while setting up camp. The wooden pole legs and the wood rack become protectors in case of someone rolling over toward the stove in their sleeping bag.
When snow camping, I line the wood rack with thin cooking foil to reflect heat back from the bottom of the stove and prevent melting of the snowpit floor.
Lastly, a wide wood rack loaded with some long fuel sticks makes an excellent natural barrier for the hot stove. It provides a warning to a person who may roll in their sleeping bag toward the hot stove.
Ultralight tent stove mounting on bush poles combined with a central tent pole
To allow the tent pole to be used as a stove mount, I lined the pole clasp with studs of soft RTV silicone rubber. This enabled the clasp to grip securely when whipped to the smooth aluminium pole.
An improved tent stove mounting clasp
I found that the use of the yellow cord to whip the clasp to the legs was a little tedious. Also, if the pole is wet, as it usually is, it will shrink as it dries out and the clasp mat come loose.
My success with RTV silicone rubber glueing inspired me to try using a ribbon of fine silicone rubber to whip the clasp to the bush pole.
I found that this stretchy rubber whipping was delightfully quick and easy to use. It formed a strong and stable grip that was easy to adjust and was superior to any other attachment method that I have used so far. The glue that I prefer to use is acetic cure RTV silicone rubber (the type that you would use in a bathroom).
Ultralight tent stove ground mounting without a tent
This is slightly off-topic, but the story would not be complete without its inclusion. A tent stove can in good weather be used outside the tent for gentle cooking. A stove such as the KISS Stove can simply be mounted directly on some cleared ground where there is some provision to stabilize the flue pipe.
There is no need to fit the stove base and aluminium cover. Instead, the ground becomes the stove base and the soil and accumulated ash becomes an effective insulator that allows more heat to be distributed to the stove cooktop.
The stove base rim can be sealed by covering it with some soil. Any smoke that is made from charring soil organic matter will rapidly dissipate.
The video below shows the stove gently simmering the pot that the stove ‘lives in’ while backpacking.
Alternatively, the stove bottom can be fitted normally and then it can be sat on some rocks to ‘leave no trace’ cooking.
This stove has inspired me to press ahead with an even lighter infinity stove, so please subscribe to get the latest newsletter.
Tim
Addendum 1
In response to Christopher’s comments below about less fiddly stove legs, I have made some ultralight wire clasps that could be permanently whipped to thin bamboo, balsa-wood, basket-willow poles or similar. Fibreglass or carbon fibre tubes should also work well. They are designed to work with the simple ‘swing wires’ shown above.
The clasp legs can be wrapped around the mounting pole, using RTV silicone rubber as glue and can be further whipped with cotton thread that is also impregnated with the glue.
[Add a photo of whipped clasp with swing wire fitted.]
Love the idea of this stove! On question: does the aluminum foil not melt or burn? I’m assuming that’s alu foil holding the baseplate to the stove body
Hi Rudy, Thanks for your interest and question. Your assumption is correct. The aluminium foil holds a thin stainless steel base disk in place. The crimped foil also act as an essential seal against excessive air entry around the stove base while still allowing the storage of stove fittings inside the fire dome while backpacking if required. My earliest stoves of this type did not have the stainless steel base plate (just the aluminium) and the aluminium never melted. I use a layer of soil or ash as a thermal barrier. I also used a small sheet metal pan to retain the ash just below the burn tube where the combustion of the charcoal creates combustion temperatures in excess of 1,000C. With these protections the aluminium never melted. It would be a disaster in a tent if this happened, so to be safer, I decided to use the thin SS foil disk plate as an extra protection. I describe this cautious evolution in the individual stove posts if you are interested.
To be certain, the stoves can melt aluminium! In the current post please look at the fourth photo under the heading ‘ULTRALIGHT TENT STOVE MOUNTING ON A POLE’. You will be able to see shiny patches on the base of the otherwise dull titanium stove pipe surface. These are the remnants of aluminium cooking foil that has melted and bonded to the titanium while I was making a special effort to ‘burn-in’ a new stove pipe. From a chemistry point of view, it is interesting to think that the similarity of the two metals that are each protected by a natural oxide film can bond so well like this without the use of a fluxing agent! I hope this makes sense and that you have safety and success if you use a similar design.
Also, you may be interested in my latest post Micro Oil Heater For A Small Tent.
Tim
Have you tried making actual metal detachable or foldout stove legs like most box or other stoves might use? I like a lot of these but there are times when at the end of the day one can be pretty beat and tired and I suspect I wouldnt mind carrying a little extra weight if it meant a faster deployment.
Definitely interested in these developments though!
Hi Christopher, Thanks for a very good question (They have stimulated some new ideas for me…please see below). Yes, I have tried but the disadvantages of weight and bulk of such legs really spoil the ultimate concept of the project. I set out to make sure that the whole’400g kit-and-kaboodle’ would fit within a light and strong one-litre dinner pot. Hinged legs of any strength would not fit.
If camping on the ground or thin snow where the snow can be scraped away, then direct mounting on the ground, gravel or stones, metal plate with scrunched foil, sand, ash are all quick and just fine, providing organic matter is removed so that it will not make smoke in the tent.
When deep snow camping is a totally different challenge on many fronts and is usually where the extra warmth is most needed and preferably very quickly. Melting down into deep snow is a problem for ALL tent stoves that are not mounted on driven poles as I suggest. Even your suggested folding legs need to sit on a ‘raft’ of wood to stop them from melting in. So there is another job to do when you are ‘pretty beat’. An aluminium pie dish with a thick pad of scrunched aluminium cooking foil, soil, ash etc will do the trick with my stove, providing it is sat upon a suitable wood raft. Such an arrangement does not provide convenient stick storage/drying below the stove or the heat shielding either.
If I was shifting camp daily while trekking over deep snow on skis or snowshoes, I would be tempted to use very skinny sticks for legs and leave the little clasp things attached to the legs, held tight with the rubber ribbons. The swing wires could be removed to a safe place. Also, I would leave the stove assembled and inefficiently store the minor tent stove components in a bag or similar.
An alternative to bush poles. Your questions have stimulated me to think of alternative lightweight poles that could be carried for quick deployment. With three legs they can be quite thin and yet strong enough. I could bond the swing wire mounting sockets with epoxy resin/fibre whipping. The poles could be three thin low-tech bamboo poles or alternatively thin hi-tech carbon fibre tubes made from a broken telescopic surf fishing rods so that they could fit inside each other and hopefully inside my telescopic tent pole. If legs are carried from camp to camp, that should make your set-up quick and easy even if you are ‘beat’. The only chore left is the rollout of the stove pipe and that is the case for all ultralight tent stoves. My special methods make that pretty easy (when you learn how) when camping on snow in bad weather:
Improved stove pipe rolling
…. gee thanks for stimulating these ideas. You can expect some details in this post if the snow falls don’t entice me away first.
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Tim