Lmao, id bunk in that log behind your tent, rofl, id probably find a snack in there too!
Shelters
- Thread starter curlygoth
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Btw, whats the weight of that tent?
A nice fat grub or two for breakfast, nice way to start the day !!
5 lb
I have a north face 3.5 lb but it's not big enough for three an gear.
Im trying to figure weight out if i could hike a tent + my bob. Itll be easier with that Alice pack cuz of the frame, but my pack atm weighs about 60+lbs if not more, and im far from done, + i have to figure in im probably gonna be carring 1 or more of my kids........ *sigh* im thankful im a big guy lol
Shelter first my friend, especially with kids. It gives a sense of security which will be much needed. A 3 season should do you fine. If you like i can look around a bit an send you some options.
Nope, with me, finding a water source and setting traps for food will come first. We could sleep on the ground and live, but not w/o water or food. Besides, id hate to set up shelter right away just to find out i/we need to haul ass outta there and leave my tent behind. Then i/wed have no food/water/and wed lose the tent/shelter too.
Right off the bat itll probably take me time to really trust the spot i pick, wondering who/what may be coming or around the corner.
Right off the bat itll probably take me time to really trust the spot i pick, wondering who/what may be coming or around the corner.
Do
Don't you have food in a B.O.B for like a week at least ? Your locations should have water right ? I am going 30 day minimal. To each his own, thats what makes the world go around.
well that would depend on everyones knowledge, and thier familiarity to natural environment.
30 day min food and water, is going to be a very large b.o.b.
Dont plan on carrying it on my back.
Colt, and Krime both have brought up good points, you should be prepared, and if you are, you should never need to know how to build a shelter at all. yet, I believe that we should be prepared for anything. incase every plan we had goes to ****. Noone plans to be bushwacked for thier possetions and have to start over with nothing, so i will continue.
So lets go over some basic building component termanology, these are the terms used in most places in us, your area may be different, I will try to list all of them because as we go down the long list of diff types of shelters they will become relevent. I realize this will be boring to some, and for them I opologize, but I think one must start at the begginning, so a car salesman that has never been in the woods, nor has any building experience can understand.
ridge pole is any pole that makes up the ridge of the top of a structure, what everything else rests on. it needs to be strong enough to hold the weight put on it, or it needs to be braced.
rafter is any material that spans from the top of the wall to ridge pole, or from ground to ridge pole, and is strong enough to take weight.
litter is any natural substances that you can use to insolate you from your environment, or ground
chinking is any material that you can use to fill gaps between structural components
studs are any material that can be used vertically, spanning from ground to ceiling, and strong enough to support weight.
column is anything that stands verticle, self supprted, and can take weight
bracing is any material that keeps something else from either folding up, or falling over.
Lashing any material that can be used to tie 2 things together
now for other relevent terms
heat transfer
radiation direct light tranfer of heat. the heat you feel directly from the fire
convection the heat you feel that is in the air from the heat source, like what comes out of your homes vents, or radiators
conduction the heat that is tranfered through a object like the outside of your coffee mug
ventalation is the amount of air that can be traded between the inside and outside. This will be covered in detail because it is very important. this part of any shelter, second to keeping you dry, is the part that keeps you alive. heat with too much ventalation is useless because it cannot be trapped. if this were the case a fire alone would keep us alive. but everyone knows that on a cold night ( or day) a fire only helps the side facing it. without trapping heat, you lower your chances to survive. You can have 2 little, you can have 2 much ventalation, Not only does ventalation allow you to limit/control the amount of heat trapment, it also has to allow for smoke/ moisture to escape your shelter, as well as brings in fresh air for you and the fire. Any oxygen using heat source will change the amount of ventalation you need. as the heat source warms the air, it causes warmer air to rise. along with it, the smoke from the fire. as this warm air goes up and escapes, that air must be replaced, if it is replaced in a planned route, then you will be more comforatable in a area opposite the intake. we will cover this further as we go on. but as I said before it is the 2nd single most important elemental concept. Your own body makes heat, if you can get it into a ventalation low, insolated environment.
I am sure I have missed some things, I am just rambling from my head.........................alright then class take a smoke break
So lets go over some basic building component termanology, these are the terms used in most places in us, your area may be different, I will try to list all of them because as we go down the long list of diff types of shelters they will become relevent. I realize this will be boring to some, and for them I opologize, but I think one must start at the begginning, so a car salesman that has never been in the woods, nor has any building experience can understand.
ridge pole is any pole that makes up the ridge of the top of a structure, what everything else rests on. it needs to be strong enough to hold the weight put on it, or it needs to be braced.
rafter is any material that spans from the top of the wall to ridge pole, or from ground to ridge pole, and is strong enough to take weight.
litter is any natural substances that you can use to insolate you from your environment, or ground
chinking is any material that you can use to fill gaps between structural components
studs are any material that can be used vertically, spanning from ground to ceiling, and strong enough to support weight.
column is anything that stands verticle, self supprted, and can take weight
bracing is any material that keeps something else from either folding up, or falling over.
Lashing any material that can be used to tie 2 things together
now for other relevent terms
heat transfer
radiation direct light tranfer of heat. the heat you feel directly from the fire
convection the heat you feel that is in the air from the heat source, like what comes out of your homes vents, or radiators
conduction the heat that is tranfered through a object like the outside of your coffee mug
ventalation is the amount of air that can be traded between the inside and outside. This will be covered in detail because it is very important. this part of any shelter, second to keeping you dry, is the part that keeps you alive. heat with too much ventalation is useless because it cannot be trapped. if this were the case a fire alone would keep us alive. but everyone knows that on a cold night ( or day) a fire only helps the side facing it. without trapping heat, you lower your chances to survive. You can have 2 little, you can have 2 much ventalation, Not only does ventalation allow you to limit/control the amount of heat trapment, it also has to allow for smoke/ moisture to escape your shelter, as well as brings in fresh air for you and the fire. Any oxygen using heat source will change the amount of ventalation you need. as the heat source warms the air, it causes warmer air to rise. along with it, the smoke from the fire. as this warm air goes up and escapes, that air must be replaced, if it is replaced in a planned route, then you will be more comforatable in a area opposite the intake. we will cover this further as we go on. but as I said before it is the 2nd single most important elemental concept. Your own body makes heat, if you can get it into a ventalation low, insolated environment.
I am sure I have missed some things, I am just rambling from my head.........................alright then class take a smoke break
I have 4, 40' storage containers that I was able to buy for 3k and I am about to buy 4 more in the next couple of weeks. I have been slowly digging out the side of a hill on the back side of my land to put 4 side by side and the other 4 on top of them....then cover them all with dirt. They will all be welded together and I will insulate the inside. I will have plumbing and electricity ran to this shelter and I have a 5kw military diesel generator for now.....I am in the process of trying to find a reasonably priced LP generator...I am looking at a 25kw generator right now and will probably get it in the next few months.
I too have several 40' conexes, and i too have chose to bury them. I buy several more every year. I chose to make several different locations for mine. Sort of a all my eggs not in one basket deal. just incase i need to exit and fight my way back into my own main complex LOL.
I chose to run lines a far distance from it. So if i have to bounce, while they sleep in my bed, or just loot it, I can run carbon monoxide in on them
I can also lock it up from afar with air lines, trapping people in that shouldnt be. if they dont know how to unlock from inside. cant do that much work, and noone notice, so a few traps are in good order. and secondary ways out are a must.
Ummm, just getting back to the original topic. For building shelters, as has been stated here many times, it depends on soooo many things. Your location, how much time you have, what materials are available. My suggestion is this. Go to Barnes and Nobel and buy The National Geographic survival handbook. I know it kind of sounds silly, but I was looking through it and after a few moments bought the damn thing and gave it to my girlfriend. Most of us on this site have some kind of working knowledge for survival but this book weighs like 13 oz and doesn't need batteris and is a useful reference. And I paid like 8 bucks brand new for it. I was trained for survival in the Army SF (which is all I will say about what I did in the Army so don't bloody ask cause I won't answer) and I know how to do a lot of stuff in survival situations and this book is still a great reference.
Now, getting off topic, I kind of cheated and built myself a bunker. I'm a welding engineer and a damn good one so I bought up the metal from scrap yards and built my own, at least the shell. I had contractors from out of state come and do the interior and wiring and the stuff I had no idea how to do, and right now I'm in the final stages of finishing it up. Lets put it this way, anyone getting into my bunker will have to have explosives cause I've seen some bank vaults that are as well done up as the doors to my bunker. All told it's 4500 sq ft, with an NBC filtration system for the air, two 25,000 gallon water tanks. A 25,000 gallon waste tank, and enough storage for food, water, and essentials, including weapons, that I will be set for at LEAST 6 years if I decide to stay in it that long. Well away from people and on my own private land, with an entrance built right into the house I have on the property. The house looks like crap but then, I'm not living there am I?
Now, getting off topic, I kind of cheated and built myself a bunker. I'm a welding engineer and a damn good one so I bought up the metal from scrap yards and built my own, at least the shell. I had contractors from out of state come and do the interior and wiring and the stuff I had no idea how to do, and right now I'm in the final stages of finishing it up. Lets put it this way, anyone getting into my bunker will have to have explosives cause I've seen some bank vaults that are as well done up as the doors to my bunker. All told it's 4500 sq ft, with an NBC filtration system for the air, two 25,000 gallon water tanks. A 25,000 gallon waste tank, and enough storage for food, water, and essentials, including weapons, that I will be set for at LEAST 6 years if I decide to stay in it that long. Well away from people and on my own private land, with an entrance built right into the house I have on the property. The house looks like crap but then, I'm not living there am I?
Those earth shelters are pretty nice. I wish southern Louisiana was a good place for those storage containers to bury. There is a reason there are not that many basements in south Louisiana for a reason.
Why? Don't worry about containers then and sink a waterproof pod. Hell, I could build you one that would last under the swamp that could last forever, or near enough. Ain't complicated or difficult, maybe just a little time consuming.
Big storage containers like these are what I was thinking about. http://www.gauthiersrental.com/onsite-storage.html This would be perfect because they are waterproof too. I would be interested on how to make that waterproof pod though. Thanks for the suggestion.
The pod wouldn't be that difficult. You just have to figure out how large to make it. Basically you take a form of metal that is anti-corrosive (ie: Aluminun or Stainless steel. You can aslo galvanize regular steel) Build the framework in the shape of a sphere large enough to hold you and those you want to protect as well as your supplies and most definately water. Cover the frame with the metal you choose, bending it to fit the frame as needed. Weld the ******* together. Build an outer shell around your existing one and seal the ******* again. Make sure you place your escape hatch at the top so you can get out of course. Then just finish the inside however you would like. Something like this would need to be rather small if you were just wanting to have it for hurricane survuval or a tsunami. It would float once shut up tight. For something that is in ground you would do the same thing, just a LOT bigger. The Spherical shape gives it more strength since the pressure is equally distributed.
Thanks for all this information. Sorry I haven't said thanks before now. This is much appreciated.
I am still wanting to get this! Adult legos!
the camper pods snap together like legos
dig a hole for a fire pit. it'll warm the ground your sleeping on, give the fire some room, and you still less volume to heat.
sorry hades ,I did something wrong and somehow screwed up your post. sorry guys dont blame him
Blame him for sure, he is gone !!
somehow my thoughts got added onto his it looks like. That could really suck sometimes. I stick my foot in my mouth enough without someone elses help. sorry again
I know the feeling. I will fix it for you.
thanks man
