The Best Portable Fire Pit.
Okay so fire pits seem pretty straight forward right? At first glance, you’d think our fire pit is just like all of the others on the market that have pieces that slide together. This is true at a very basic look at our fire pit, but there is a lot more to it. Let me explain:
This is our 5th version of the fire pit, and the first 4 didn’t make it to the market because it didn’t hold up to our standards of quality. Building a high quality fire pit like this takes a fine balance of strength, weight, and design. We tested each previous pit and it didn’t pass our standards for at least 1 of these qualities.
4Link4WD Portable Fire Pit ready for chilly fall evening.
The most important feature is strength, or in this case, a resistance to warping from temperature changes. Of course a fire pit gets extremely hot, which can cause the material to warp. What you may not consider is that dousing your fire with water before bed or before leaving a camp site is an even more aggressive change in temperature of the material. A sudden quench to the steel is almost a guarantee to cause warpage, unless it is designed correctly.
Our fire pits simply do not warp. The first few variations did, but with each revision to the design we found better ways to prevent this. One way to help prevent warping is to simply increase the thickness of the steel plate being used. We never even tried this because that would dramatically increase the weight of the firepit and it would no longer be very portable. You’ll see some fire pits online made from 3/16” or ¼” steel and I’m sure you wouldn’t take that on more than 1 trip because it’s just too heavy.
The majority of the slide-together portable fire pits on the market aren’t made of very thick material, and that is great for weight! However with their simple flat designs, they are bound to warp with use.
Our current portable fire pit uses light weight ⅛” mild steel parts with a series of strategically-placed bends. These are the key to making our fire pits hold up to extreme conditions without warping, time and time again.
We have had flames 6 feet high in our test fire pit in the summer and winter. We’ve had the entire thing filled with orange glowing coals. We’ve even broken out the leaf blower to “supercharge” the fire with forced oxygen- making it so hot you have to double check that your face is still there. From there, we doused it with cold water, and repeated this process many times. Every piece of the fire pit remains straight as an arrow, which means no struggling for you to pull it apart or put it together!
So we’ve covered rigidity and how we designed our fire pits to hold up to the abuse, but we can’t forget to talk about the airflow design! Fire’s need fuel and oxygen. Our fire pit air flow design is different than any other on the market. It has a grate inside on the bottom that has 37 slots and is 35% open to allow for adequate air flow. Beneath that grate are two large holes on each side of the fire pit, and more many slots below the grate on the two bottom pieces. This design lets air flow in the bottom of the fire pit from all 4 sides and get drawn up through the bottom grate and into the fire itself. As long as your wood is dry, you’re guaranteed to have a hot fire! This air flow allows the fire to breathe and start making hot coals at the bottom which help keep the fire going, and are great to cook over top of. Adequate oxygen also leads to less smoke!
A convenient addition that we include standard is an ash pan. Yes that’s right. There’s no need to have ash all over the place and make for a longer clean up, so our light weight 18 gauge steel ash pan will always be included with your fire pit purchase. The ash pan simply slides one direction to drop out of the bottom of the pit, and reverse to reinstall it.
We incorporated multiple cut-outs into the sides in order to shed weight off of it. You can see this on the legs where our “4L” logo is cut out, and also the sides where there are 12 holes cut in it (which double as vents to draw fresh air up through the outside of the fire).
Alright so we covered the majority of the fire pit itself, but we also offer a few options to add on. If you love cooking on a fire, you’re in for a treat. We offer steel grill plates that you could place right on top of the fire pit, or you can purchase our grill plate risers that attach to the sides. These allow you to raise or lower the grill plate, which essentially is a way to regulate the heat going into your food. Raise the plate up higher to put less heat in it and cook slower.
You’re able to buy additional grill plates and risers, so you could technically fit 2 pairs of risers and up to 6 grill plates on the fire pit at one time! The grill plates are made from mild steel which is pre-washed with soap and water, and given a coating of cooking oil before it’s shipped out. It should still be given a quick wash and oil again after it is received, to wash off anything from the shipping process. After that, it gets treated the same as any cast iron cooking equipment! They are safe and easy to use.
We offer an option for a high temperature black grill paint to be applied to the outside surfaces of the fire pit. This protects the outside surface from rusting. The inside does not get painted because that would risk contamination of the paint chemicals into any food that you may cook. With that said, the grill plates and risers don’t get painted either.
Lastly, each fire pit comes with a carrying bag to make it easier to handle and keep your vehicle clean when transporting the fire pit to an overlanding or offroad adventure.
Well that covers most of the fire pit. If you still aren’t convinced on the quality, click here to order one and test it yourself!
