Seek Outside Cimarron: An owner's unbiased review

Backfire reviews the Seek Outside Cimarron Tipi Tent with the medium stove and carbon fiber pole. Overall, this is a really well-made tent and a good option for many hunts since it's so lightweight; however, the tipi shape also has quite a few drawbacks that not enough people talk about.

[working_to_hunt]

I have a Recliff (big brother to the Cimarron), and a SXL stove. I use it for cold weather hunts. A few tips: use rocks/gravel/dirt/snow on the tipi skirt. I bring a silky saw and cut wrist size branches, so they burn longer. I also purchased the improved dampener for between the pipe and stove. Get a hot fire rolling then dampen the front vent and the pipe dampener so the fire is just smoldering. This gives off heat for about 4 hours. Halfway thru the night I'll wakeup, open the dampeners, add more wood, and go back to sleep for 4 more hours.

[RT-gvus]

Very honest review. I have the Cimarron as well and the Large stove (which is the next size up from yours). The issue of burn time is pretty closely tied to the quality of wood being used. Two things you can do that will help: Try to plan on arriving earlier before you plan to hunt so that you can spend a little more time on wood prep. Larger and thicker pieces of quality wood burn longer that little sticks and twigs. I have a lite weight saw that I carry that can be used to cut larger pieces. Also, if I know exactly where I am going to be camping I will backpack in a week or two beforehand and spend an entire afternoon cutting and prepping wood and then cover it so that it is protected from rain. I realize that I run the risk of having someone else find my wood, but if you pack back into the lonely spots I do then that is not much of a risk. Finding quality wood is key.

[hardcoreish]

It is so great to see a real review for the Seek system instead of the usual fanboys talking about their superior hard coreness and grit etc. Keep up the outstanding content!

[thevoyageur]

Thanks for the reveiw.
Looks like the stove door is at the wrong end, should be opposite the pipe?
Would burn better that way.

[philipnovak]

Carbon monoxide from a wood stove isn't an issue. If there's no smoke in your tent, there's no CO; the combustion products go out the stack.

[sqdr]

Thank you for discussing the realities of the tent after the honeymoon stage is over. The second sober look is refreshing.

[Stykbow]

When the IT guy does a backcountry tent review 😂

[jameshurd]

I think the true beauty of a hot tent is the ability to dry out all of your gear!!

[nicholaspost]

hey man. the stove pipe goes in the back.

[hoser]

Thank you for identifying the issues homestly as well.

[vincentdimick]

It was recommended to me to go one size up the suggested size stove for the shelter.

[alfoutdoors]

Your firewood burns too fast? Well perhaps it might help if you put the top of the stove on the right way round! The stovepipe goes to the back of the stove, not the front!! Did you never wonder how you are supposed to cook on it with the stovepipe in the way? Also that is a really stupid place to put a stove jack on a hot tent...While it gives you more floor space around the stove it also puts the stove far too close to the centre pole...Once that stove is burning properly, and starts going red hot, it can put enough heat out to burn your CF pole! The stove jack on my Longeek 4 person tipi hot tent is over a foot lower down one side which keeps the stove over a foot away from my CF pole, which is completely safe.

[crosshairs]

Well camping on top of a barren ridge like that is not ideal for this setup. Draft will be huge and stove will not perform as well. Plus they’re not supposed to last all night, it’s not a 500lb cast iron stove

[CamDee]

So this year before I paid $800 dollars for a tipi tent i wanted to see if i even liked the whole floorless/stove combo thing as ive never tried it, so I did buy an expensive stove from Lite Outdoors the bigger cylinder stove but I got one of the cheap no name brand 4 person tipis, on my 9 day elk hunt in rained the majority of the time and that cheap 200 dollar tent did not leak at all, hardly any condensation, it kept the heat it, didnt let a draft in, the zippers all held up, didnt tear, it basically performed flawlessly. The only negative is the stakes are rather cheap and I bent one. but thats it. So now im very happy I didnt waste 800 dollars on a tent and it confirmed my suspicion of the high dollar tipis being gimmicks.

[seth]

Good review. I have the large uturn stove and can get a good 2 hours of comforting heat out of it but I get it rolling before and load it up. And the two hour mark it gets cold pretty quick. Also you have the stove pipe in the wrong side. It should be opposite of the door and intake, helps pull air through the stove and out the pipe.

My biggest complaints with the tent are: 1. It’s a pain in the ass to setup sometimes. 2. Some things are just overbuilt and unnecessary and could save some weight(the zipper cover is a little much, and the zipper itself is overkill compared to other ultralight tents I’ve used or seen.) something I’d love to see from seek is a lighter tent fabric something like 20d and some accessory loops to hang a lantern inside and maybe dual vents one low one high so you can pitch it lower with less worries.

[jesselost]

Seek can factory seem seal if you pay extra. It actually kind of evens out in price vs doing it yourself. You have to have that dyneema fabric version too, otherwise it isn't worth it via the weight in my opinion. Get the largest stove as well, the medium stove won't cut it.

[jonathanclark]

Those stoves are not intended for overnight sustained use. They serve a couple of purposes: Dry out wet gear, warm you up a bit in the evening/morning when you're getting in/out of your sleeping bag, boil some water for meals/coffee. Outside of that if you want an overnight burning stove, you're not going to accomplish that with a small backpacking wood stove.

[larrypezza]

Check out the Peax tipi tent easiest and nicest I have seen

[GostoFan]

Any issues with condensation with three people in it? I’m worried about touching the sides with three people and a stove?

[sspice]

These stoves are game changers. I think your review was done with little experience using them