How to Build an Outfitter Tent Stove

Choose an outfitter tent stove designed to serve your specific purposes -- many models and styles are marketed by numerous manufacturers. Factor in burn time, the maximum size tent the manufacture suggests the unit can heat, and whether the fuel you expect to use will mandate an integral spark screen. Decide whether a round, octagonal or rectangular firebox shape will be most valuable. While larger, heavier units create more heat than their smaller cousins, carrying them effectively limits the location of your camp to being fairly close to an access road.

Install a dedicated stove flap into the roof panel above where you wish to locate the stove. Often called a “stove jack,” this specialty panel helps prevent hot embers and radiated heat from damaging the fabric. Choose a stove jack rated to withstand the maximum heat that could be created by the fuel you intend to burn; fabric gaskets resist far higher temperatures than silicone gaskets. A stove jack with a weather flap that keeps out rain when the stove is not in use is recommended.

Create a nonflammable base for the stove to stand on. Thin metal trays are useful, given their ease of portability and extreme resistance to accidentally dropped coals or cinders. The base need not typically be of a material that insulates the tent floor -- the “groundsheet” -- from radiated heat, because most tent stoves are on legs.

Assemble the tent stove according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Typically this only involves threading the legs into the leg inserts on the bottom of stove and hand-tightening them. Doors, gaskets and ash containers are normally integral. Always place the stove in its permanent desired location before burning, and check that it is entirely level. Adjust level by twisting the legs in their threaded receivers.