Dakota Firepit observations

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Bushman5

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Oct 31, 2007
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Over the last few months I have gotten out and built a few of these, most of them outside of the Lower Mainland BC, because i hate the MAN sticking his nose into my business.

Dakota firepits are often touted as high heat, rapid burning and most of all, smokeless.

With that in mind I thought they would be perfect for "stealth fires" in areas where i do not want to be found.

I could not have been more wrong.

Our forests here in BC, are, wet. Extremely wet. The ground structure is often deeply rooted, full of wet or damp layers of rotted wood, leaves, moss, forest duff, roots etc. Right off the bat its one hell of a chore to dig a Dakota pit.

Once one digs said pit, and puts in their tinder, small kindling, and finally larger sticks, and lights it and gets it going.........., one realizes very quick that these Dakota pits are ANYTHING but smoke free - IN THIS REGION.....

there is a massive amount of smoke and steam, despite the use of dry wood. Due to the extremely high amount of humidity in air, that smoke LINGERS and drifts everywhere, and DOES NOT dissipate. Again, the fire is roaring hot and burning very well......but there is major smoke being produced and the moisture from the side of the pit walls is turning into steam/

YMMV, but i do not see myself using this method again in BC, at least not on the WET COAST. Perhaps higher up in our desert region (yes we have desert up here) near Lilloet or Lytton i would use this method

:thumbdn:
 
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That makes sense. I always wondered about that, when the ground is wet.
 
Yes, I have to agree. In the coastal forest region of British Columbia, this type of fire is not very useful.
 
I've heard several people tout the DFH. The guy at survival topics just flat digs them--no pun intended.
I don't see how it can keep you warmer than a good old reflector fire. I also don't see it being much safer in forested areas where the soil is mostly decaying plant matter--like here. High heat + powdery tinder = FUBAR-in-waiting.

Your wood more than likely had a little moisture in it too, from the humidity. Was it a little punky?

Fire making has a lot of variables to it...and I've never seen one that is smokeless, or that stays that way.

The DFH seems like one of those things that was mostly used for the plains where the wind can cause your fire to get out of control quickly and easily.

IMHO, of course.
 
KEmSAT-Survival said:
I've heard several people tout the DFH. The guy at survival topics just flat digs them--no pun intended.
I don't see how it can keep you warmer than a good old reflector fire. I also don't see it being much safer in forested areas where the soil is mostly decaying plant matter--like here. High heat + powdery tinder = FUBAR-in-waiting.

Your wood more than likely had a little moisture in it too, from the humidity. Was it a little punky?

Fire making has a lot of variables to it...and I've never seen one that is smokeless, or that stays that way.

The DFH seems like one of those things that was mostly used for the plains where the wind can cause your fire to get out of control quickly and easily.

IMHO, of course.
Click to expand...

our ground oozes water.
 
I've only made a couple of them, and they were here in California where the ground is dry, but they really didn't smoke much. Yeah, they did smoke, but not as much as a normal fire. I would guess that's due to the heat: they did burn hot. Like I said, I've only made a couple of them, because they involve too much work unless you're going to stay in one place for awhile. Actually, I probably wouldn't have made the second one, except I was showing someone else how they were made and used. Waste of time: she wasn't impressed.
 
you can do things like line the hole with branches to make it (effectively) less damp down there. - that's kind of a funky arrangement though. - better to make yourself a small wood gas stove if you want to be sneaky and efficient IMHO.

in rainforests as most of us here know, you usually build a fire next to a tree, to break up the smoke, and you also fan the smoke to make it dissipate faster so IR doesn't pick up a heat column if they are looking for you that hard.

as to dakota fires keeping you warm, you just sit on top of a small one, sometimes with a kettle of water over the hole. - 'works like a candle under a poncho, and you always have purified water.


vec
 
pretty much mirrors what I have found here in Florida, when I tried to make/use a Dakota fire pit.
For me, its easier to just fire up the Pocket Rocket to boil some water.
 
I have been wanting to try and make one... Good feedback. Good on all of you for at least trying. I keep getting lazy and whipping out the Trangia.

Here in SoFla, it too, is difficult to make a small fire somewhere without someone to remind you that it's 'prohibited'.
 
Maybe that’s why they are called a Dakota fire pit and not a BC or Florida fire pit. :)

I made one in my backyard this last weekend and have been experimenting with them. It does burn cleaner and very hot. It works really well for boiling water. It seems to burn the fuel very quick because of the confined space that has great air circulation. Because of this I think you need to cook things that cook fast or you will end up using about the same amount of fuel as a normal fire.

At night they do hide the flames and the light from a fire well.

Thanks,

Geoff
 
Maybe that’s why they are called a Dakota fire pit and not a BC or Florida fire pit. :)

I made one in my backyard this last weekend and have been experimenting with them. It does burn cleaner and very hot. It works really well for boiling water. It seems to burn the fuel very quick because of the confined space that has great air circulation. Because of this I think you need to cook things that cook fast or you will end up using about the same amount of fuel as a normal fire.

At night they do hide the flames and the light from a fire well.

Thanks,

Geoff
 
How about a variation if you're up for some digging?

PICT1279.jpg
 
I used them a lot when I was a kid because potheads would occasionally set the woods on fire so you would get the fire department called on you if you had a campfire that was smokey. I used to go up in the woods with a can of Campbell's Pork and Beans or just cook up some freshly picked mulberries in a GI canteen cup and had to split because someone called the trucks over nothing. Put the fire out as well, don't worry about that... :D

I had a hide down in a field of stickers and wait-a-minutes and there were several of these growths of nasty ground vines and stickers and they formed a natural 2 - 4 person dome shelter. Some you had to clear out, others just formed that way. I loved that thing and used it for several years!

There was swampland/soup to the northeast of that area and you couldn't build one as Bushie pointed out, they just suck in that type of environment.

Getting back to that natural shelter, if they have a name, I wish I knew it. But I used one in that and then as I learned more, I found a five gallon metal paint bucket and made a Hobo Stove out of it and put that in my little hide. They would be a PITA to carry around but if you are returning to one area or whatever or can scrounge one in an area, I highly recommend them. A little less smoke and the metal heats up nicely and radiates heat very, very well.
 
Bushman,

Good stuff! It is very important to know what works for what climate region.:thumbup:

Ground moisture and moist kindling will always steam out initially. After an hour or two the smoke should reduce, and if you are drying kindling as well, it will reduce further.
Another note, drier kindling will always be the dead limbs still attached to the trunk above the ground.

If the ground is too boggy or moist, I'd also consider an elevated fire.

I have read of fire pits dug in cold, wet climates that are warm and somewhat less smokey: utilizing dead wood snapped from trees, shave it all up. Line bottom and fill the pit with shavings, ranging from finer to coarse. Essentially a tinder/sawdust/shavings filled hole, much like pottery firing, as it yields high heat and less smoke....
It can burn a cone starting from the center and going deeper to the bottom, which is lined with coarse shavings. Fill as necessary with more shavings...

I have not tried this technique but have heard it is useful for cold or wet climates where dry wood is scarce... Shaving it helps to reduce smoke, and augment heat flare...



As for pits in drier climates, something to consider is underground root fires. Dry roots can slowly char and smoke for days, spreading, creating some damaging ground fires. It is always good to line them with clay or rocks if dry root presence is high.




Ramm,

Sweet cooking setup!
 
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I've used several while in the service and after.

They do work best in sandy loam and dry loam soils. Fuel has got to be dry and usualy not more than a thumbs width in diameter (1 1/4 - 1 1/2 inches).

I'm with Doc while they do work I prefer a hobo stove.

For packability there was a recent thread on making a gasification stove from a paint can and a soup can. Those work fantastic generating lots of heat and using small fuel.
 
Bushman5 said:
Over the last few months I have gotten out and built a few of these, most of them outside of the Lower Mainland BC, because i hate the MAN sticking his nose into my business.

Dakota firepits are often touted as high heat, rapid burning and most of all, smokeless.

With that in mind I thought they would be perfect for "stealth fires" in areas where i do not want to be found.

I could not have been more wrong.

Our forests here in BC, are, wet. Extremely wet. The ground structure is often deeply rooted, full of wet or damp layers of rotted wood, leaves, moss, forest duff, roots etc. Right off the bat its one hell of a chore to dig a Dakota pit.

Once one digs said pit, and puts in their tinder, small kindling, and finally larger sticks, and lights it and gets it going.........., one realizes very quick that these Dakota pits are ANYTHING but smoke free - IN THIS REGION.....

there is a massive amount of smoke and steam, despite the use of dry wood. Due to the extremely high amount of humidity in air, that smoke LINGERS and drifts everywhere, and DOES NOT dissipate. Again, the fire is roaring hot and burning very well......but there is major smoke being produced and the moisture from the side of the pit walls is turning into steam/

YMMV, but i do not see myself using this method again in BC, at least not on the WET COAST. Perhaps higher up in our desert region (yes we have desert up here) near Lilloet or Lytton i would use this method

:thumbdn:
Click to expand...

I have been studying the same things here in this temperate rain forest for years. One thing that will help is to dig the hole bigger than you want it to be and then line the fire pit burning area with stones (the more layers the better) and collect all of your fuel from dead branches off the ground. The dry dead wood will put off less smoke and steam than wood collected off the ground or green wood. One thing though...steam does not travel as far as smoke before it evaporates into the air. So even burning damp dead wood if it is misty, rainy, and foggy or heavily clouded and you are a good distance from civilization you won't be giving your position away as much as it looks like from where you are standing.
 
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