Hopefully I don't end up in the "Things you see in an RV Park" thread

[mikeysotp]

As you may have seen in another thread, I am taking my daughter's soccer team camping. We are going camping for the weekend of October 21st but the rest of the girls are just coming up for Saturday night. Another couple is staying with us to help manage the mayhem and there are at least 10 kids coming so we can't fit everyone in the camper. The plan is to have the girls all sleep in tents. My concern is depending on the wacky New England weather it could get really cold overnight. I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on how I could easily pipe my furnace out to a couple of tents and more importantly would it be 100% safe to do that? My camper is a 2015 Sabre QBOK.

[AGFazio]

Just use a small electric heater in the tent.

[Terier]

I'll let the others comment upon it being safe or not. Maybe you could bring a table top electric heater that can be used outdoor (not sure about in the tent) that they can hang around if they get too cold.

[Shawn.O]

I've tent camped in October in New England and my advice is extra warm PJ's and lets of blankets... it's probably the safest and easiest way to keep warm...

good luck...

[Mrs Evans]

More than one person under the same blankets helps a lot, no joke.

[Buck1032]

Use isolation mats in the tents. They will stop the transfer of body to the ground. Line the tent bottoms, a few blankets down and a few blankets to cover up with will get the kids warm and toasty.

[ependydad]

I wouldn't put heat into a tent with someone who isn't a regular camper just from a safety perspective. Especially someone else's kids.

[B and B]

Coming from a Scout Leader and Camp Quartermaster.

Lay a tarp on the ground under the tent, plastic sheet as well. This will provide a moisture barrier and thermal break between the ground and inside the tent. we have used this winter camping in Snow.

Make sure everyone has clean clothes, changed just for sleeping. Sleeping bags for everyone and extra blankets underneath the bags if you don't have a pad. Air mattress is a no no. The air will make them colder. You can use Yoga mats or sleeping pads inside as a thermal break as well. This should work for everyone.

Do not add heat as others have mentioned, this would make it more dangerous.

[TakeItEasy]

I have had good luck sleeping on top of electric blankets. They do a pretty good job of keeping you warm when tent camping on cold nights.

[stevejahr]

Done quite a bit of tent camping with Boy Scouts...

Anticipate that at least some of these kids will never have been camping before. Thus they will arrive completely unprepared and likely with entirely wrong gear.

Your job is to head off that disaster so their first camping experience is not so bad that it becomes their last camping experience. Start the preparing now and communicate with the parents/kids of what/why/etc.

They will need good sleeping bags truly rated below possible low temperature. Mummy bags are better as they have less volume to keep warm. They can also be closed up around head and shoulders to keep from "Breathing" and losing heat out the top. Sleeping bag liners can be good to gain a few degrees help here.

Others have mentioned ground tarps and insulating pads under sleeping bags and tents. The sleeping bag insulation gets compressed under the body so it does not work so well there thus making the pad even more important. What has not been mentioned is using Reflectix foil faced bubble wrap as a sleeping pad. There are three ways we lose heat and the foil really does reflect the radiated heat. Every try a "space blanket"? You can feel the effect. Plus the added air space of the bubble wrap provides a barrier for conductive heat loss.

It has been mentioned about buddy system... but this is really no joke and multiple bodies inside a tent will keep it warmer than a single body. Fill up every tent with no solos. Fewer big tents are likely better than more little tents.

Sleep wear should be a base layer rather than PJs. Just like going out in the snow. Sleep wear should also include a beanie as the body loses a majority of its heat through the head. Can also add an insulation layer over the base layer.

Moisture and cotton are the enemies. Cotton, especially when wet, serves as a very good heat sink. Forbid it in favor of wool and synthetic fibers. Note that our bodies radiate a lot of moisture so, contrary to what you may think, ventilation in the tent is required. Have you ever gotten wet inside a rain jacket? Same deal here in that sealing up a tent just accumulates radiated moisture and reflects it back. Also kids can be very active, maybe more so with boys, and will generate heat/sweat that clothing must handle. This is why the earlier recommendation of fresh clothes for sleeping: to make sure the clothing is dry when they go to bed.

Since I mentioned it, you may consider space blankets. My experience is these will keep you warmer outdoors. But they will also do a great job of collecting water: sealed barrier, radiated moisture, cold surface == condensed water. I was quite warm for half the night and semi-miserable for the other half the night when my sleeping bag and toes got wet.

The body needs fuel to keep its heat pump running over night. Use this as an excuse to sugar them up before bed. This will make you quite popular as well

I would generally avoid heaters and such in the tents. Too many ways for that to go horribly wrong with fabrics that can melt/burn and not much free space. What you *may* be able to do is put a *sealed* hot water bottle inside the sleeping bag for a bit of a boost. This will help comfort for a while and help going to sleep.

[Mrs Evans]

@stevejahr - best comprehensive advice given thus far 👍

[mikeysotp]

Thank you for the replies, I really appreciate it!

[Mainframe]

I would look into renting a camping cabin for the kids, also if my kid was going I would take her to sporting goods and get her an artic sleeping bag. I am not sure but a heater in the tent might be dangerous, I would rent a camper or cabin for the night, I bet you are not going to keep them warm otherwise.

[MilCop4523]

if you're looking at camping next weekend in the north east state of maine. DON'T!
Weather predictions are over 200 mm of rain from this Hurricane MATTHEW storm coming up the sea board.
I remember camping in the white mountains in NH and waking up in a 4 inch deep puddle - our kids air mattresses were floating in the tent.
we had to move to the car which was a HYUNDAI Pony.

[redcloud1]

I would use a small ceramic heater in the tents I have used them for years when I was tent camping without any problems.

[mike.t]

Haven't slept in a tent where it was really cold in a long time(Idaho 1979) Wish i had of known about all these great suggestions. Great work folks.

[raytwntrvlr]

Googled this subject and found:
When it comes to wrapping up on a cold winter's day, a cosy hat is obligatory. After all, most of our body heat is lost through our heads – or so we are led to believe.
Closer inspection of heat loss in the hatless, however, reveals the claim to be nonsense, say scientists who have dispelled this and five other modern myths.
They traced the origins of the hat-wearing advice back to a US army survival manual from 1970 which strongly recommended covering the head when it is cold, since "40 to 45 percent of body heat" is lost from the head.
Rachel Vreeman and Aaron Carroll, at the centre for health policy at Indiana University in Indianapolis, rubbish the claim in the British Medical Journal this week. If this were true, they say, humans would be just as cold if they went without a hat as if they went without trousers. "Patently, this is just not the case," they write.
The myth is thought to have arisen through a flawed interpretation of a vaguely scientific experiment by the US military in the 1950s. In those studies, volunteers were dressed in Arctic survival suits and exposed to bitterly cold conditions. Because it was the only part of their bodies left uncovered, most of their heat was lost through their heads.

[flagstaffman]

Have you given a thought of renting a cabin for the night. If your campground has cabins sometimes they only coat $60 to $70 a night. This would eliminate any concern from a safety standpoint.

[mike.t]

Harvard health letter.
" As a result, even if the rest of your body is nicely wrapped up, if your head is uncovered you'll lose lots of body heat — potentially up to 50% of it — in certain cold-weather conditions. What's more, a cold head can trigger blood vessel constriction in the other parts of the body, so it can make your hands and feet feel cold even if you are wearing mittens and warm socks and shoes.

The solution, of course, is a hat and, if it's really cold and you want to really stay warm, maybe one of those face-covering balaclavas (check out our website for more information about balaclavas). Wool is a good insulating fabric because it traps air, but not if it gets wet. These days, warm hats are made of polyester fleece that repels water. Some of the warmest have some protection against the wind around the ears but allow moisture to evaporate through the crown"

[lacamastraveler]

Though tent camping days for my family and me are long over this question resulted in some very goodd responses. Love this forum.