Seek Outside has been at the forefront of new textile utilization for several years with their Dyneema shelters, UltraPE and Ultra Grid hunting packs, and functionally simple designs such as their patented zipperless tent doors. In early 2024, after more than a few years’ hunting seasons worth of testing, Seek Outside launched the Twilight 3p tent. Having owned a Seek Outside Redcliff in the past and now a Seek Outside Courthouse and Cimarron, I was floored (no pun intended) to get a Twilight 3p in my hands to fill the size gap I have in my shelters.
Seek Outside Twilight 3P Tent
The Twilight 3p tent is a dual vertical pole design utilizing Seek Outside’s patented zipperless door system that can be used floorless as a canopy only or, with a new concept, attach/detach full floor. It is entirely Made in the USA. The modular floor system has an integrated liner that rises up the wall about a foot to prevent condensation issues. The floor portion connects to the tent’s stake-out loops, and the liner portion connects via a loop around a dog bone toggle on the tent wall. Additional condensation defense comes from a peak vent that is weatherproof, in my experience.
Tent Material
Taking in customer feedback, Seek Outside provides nine guy-out points at strategic locations and bias-cut panels to create nearly vertical walls and extreme weather resistance. Construction is of the tried-and-true 30 denier Cordura® 6.6 SilNylon, which retains more strength when wet than most other “ultralight” tent fabrics when dry.
Woodstove Compatible
The Twilight 3p is hot tent-ready, with the stove jack being standard. When adding the floor/liner, Seek Outside includes a loose stove mat that actually works and protects the floor from heat damage. Pro Tip: Velcro the stove jack flap down before setting the tent up…
Twilight vs Cimarron
On paper, the Twilight 3p is stated as the same exact canopy weight (2lbs 3oz) as the Cimarron Light. In practice, the Twilight 3p will come in a few ounces heavier due to having 3X the amount of guy lines. On paper, the Twilight 3p offers ~105sqft of covered area compared to the Cimarron’s 94sqft. When the Twilight 3p floor is attached, the floored area is ~80 sqft, and the unfloored doorway/vestibule is ~25 sqft.
Twilight Weight
The provided storage sack fits both the Twilight 3p and the attached floor/liner; with guy lines attached, I came up with a measured weight of 4lb 7oz. Adding a little under 15oz for the collapsable carbon poles (trekking poles can be easily used as well), about 4oz for ten regular stakes, and 10oz for six twisty stakes, the total trail weight ends up being a scooch under 6.5 lbs.
Tent Setup
The setup of the Twilight 3p is fairly simple. It takes me about 3 minutes to be minimally functional and about 7 minutes to have every tent loop and guy-out staked. The first step for set up is to stake out the orange-colored loops in a taught “square” (more on this “square” later”), followed by installing the two vertical poles. Next, staking out the front zipperless door cordage and rear guy-out will have the tent standing and minimally functional. From there, simply staking out the remaining tent loops followed by the guy out points (if desired) are all that is needed to have a shelter worthy of any non-crazy person weather.
Interior Space
The MASSIVE differentiator between the Twilight 3p and the Cimarron is the usable space/headroom that the many well-placed guy-outs provide. Set up next to my Courthouse and Cimarron, the Twilight 3p is the perfect middle ground despite the three tents’ similar footprints.
Usable space right up to the edge of the footprint is easy to accomplish due to the nearly vertical walls and two-pole design. I’d venture to guess that there is nearly double the FUNCTIONAL space of the Cimarron, and I tried to show that off in the above picture set. I have the tripods set up in the vestibule area to show how much height is available for storing items by matching the tripod heights to the slope of the vestibule when closed. The dogs are intended to show some scale.
Ultimately, everything shown in each photo would be covered when the door of each tent was closed. With a 7’ sleeping pad well away from the back of the tent, there is around 2’ of floor left, more than enough to lay down a backpack or other gear. The length of the un-floored vestibule is around 3’ and could house a bunch of firewood, boots, etc.
Field Use
Within a few days of receiving the Twilight 3p, we were blessed with one of Colorado’s regular heavy and wet snow storms in April. This was the perfect chance to test the ¼ wall liner concept and learn if the Twilight 3p will shed snow WITHOUT the use of the guy lines. Surprisingly, the tent shed the sticky, wet snow well, and the walls didn’t collapse. I slept with my face as close to the roof/wall as possible to force condensation, but any moisture rolled right down the wall, past the liner, and into the ground. Success, and color me → impressed. However, the downside to the door being a part of the sloped portion of the tent is that any snow that isn’t knocked off fully from the zipperless door has the potential to fall into the vestibule area.
The Twilight made it out to the mountains of Colorado one night every weekend (except Mother’s/Father’s days) until early August to scout and set cameras. As luck would have it, there was zero remarkable weather, and the most appreciated feature of the Twilight 3p through the summer was the floor keeping my gear clean and making it easy to find dropped stuff rather than feeling through the grass.
I did learn that the front edge of the floor can be turned up and attached to the tent to provide a front “bathtub” should water or wind start to move in from under the zipperless door.
Comfortable for Up to Four Adults
When mid-August rolled around, Cindy had a pronghorn tag, and our mutt puppy progressed to where she could come with us. The Twilight 3p swallowed up two adults and an intermediate-sized kennel easily, with plenty of space above the kennel (think headroom) and ample floor space for twice as much gear as we brought. There’s no chance this could have happened in the Cimarron, and I am confident two more adults could have fit.
Wind Resistance
September didn’t bring any notable weather until the puppy and I hit the sage flats of Wyoming. According to the weather websites, we saw a handful of days and nights with steady 15mph wind and nighttime gusts in the 25-30mph range. The many guy-outs did their job with merit, and there was minimal wall collapse or buffering in these gusts. Even more impressive was that the strong gusts in the video below were coming from the door end of the tent, which seemed the most vulnerable to me, but we didn’t get any noticeable breeze or dirt whipping underneath the door. Success again.
I again used the Twilight 3p one more night in October, camping out in Wyoming for upland birds without any taxing weather. For rifle seasons, I planned to use the Twilight 3p towards the end of each hunt as others headed home before me, but the folks I was helping all shot their animals on opening day. I am pleased that I decided to take advantage of that April snowstorm!
Setup Tip
Previously I mentioned step one in setup to stake out the orange guy loops in a “square”. I continually found that when doing so, I would end up with slack fabric on each side of the zipperless door (shown below where I am pointing). I tried raising and lowering the poles, staking the zipperless door out closer and further, and a few other things. The solution was to ignore the four orange loops making a square and to set the two orange loops that are closest to the door about 8” further apart than “square. ” Doing so brought the slack fabric tight and made the zipperless door side of the tent as windproof as any other part.
Conclusion
Overall, I love the Twilight 3p. It will cover 90% of my tent needs for the next decade, and the versatility it brings to the table lets me cover any season with a stove and from a light base camp at the truck to a spacious backpacked shelter. There’s a shocking amount of headroom, allowing me to get dressed easily near the wall rather than shrink myself into the center pole. The number of stakepoints and guy-outs makes it genuinely a “bomber.” Lastly, it is competitively priced AND entirely MADE IN THE USA. It wins all around, and this tent will be a part of many family memories over the next several years.
Price Breakdown
- $465 Twilight 3p (canopy, stakes, guy lines)
- $149 2-piece Carbon Pole Set
- $199 Twilight Floor/Liner with fire mat
Comment or ask Kyle questions here.
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*Seek Outside is a Rokslide advertiser.
