Floorless Shelter Failures??

[grfox92]

I've spent many nights in a Seek Guardian in the Wyoming wind and never had it fail.

I think a lot of the failures with the floorless shelters come from improper set up. If you dont set that Seek guardian up in the order they tell you to set it up in the instructional videos, it will fall apart. Set it up as directed and it will survive about anything.

 

[Steve O]

My 8man Kifaru went thru a hurricane on Kodiak. I did spend 6 hours standing up against the wall to keep it from touching the center pole. At one point it was spitting tent pegs 50’ and I ended up using my trekking poles driven into the ground at the cardinal points. Made it thru with no damage.

I also had a moose step on it and put a hole in it while we were hunting above the Arctic Circle. Really let me down




My Sawtooth has been thru some pretty rough weather all over Alaska and the west and I trust it completely.

 

[EdP]

There have been a series of influencer deaths recently as the influencer was engaged in the pursuit they propose to influence. I prefer not to be influenced in that manner.

Although I have one of the floorless tents (with nest) and it works for me, I greatly prefer an integral floor design. There are several reasons for my preference, not least of which is that the integral floor makes staking out/set-up much easier in my experience.

 

[Jimss]

Picking a good location for floorless set up is one of the biggest factors for success/failure. Sure failure of any floorless can be expected if set up in a low spot during torrential rain. If you add wind and blowing snow/rain in the mix there is even more room for failure.

This past moose season here in Colo I set up a small floorless on a small knob with drainage on all sides prior to a super long rainstorm that lasted around 6 hours. If I would have set up in a flat or low spot my gear and I would likely have ended up soaked around 6 miles from the nearest trailhead in hyperthermic conditions. Another no-no is to set up under trees that may have major drippage during torrential rain....learned from experience!

A lightweight section of painter's plastic or footprint may come in handy to keep dirt/wet from getting on you and gear.

 

[Lawnboi]

Had the flue pipe cut into the stove jack on my Kifaru 12 man tipi during a windy night.
I repaired the cut with some stove jack fabric and made a sleeve that fits over the flue to eliminate the issue. View attachment 1055321
View attachment 1055322
View attachment 1055323

Did the same thing to a 6 man.

Good reminder to take your pipe down in the wind. Tall pipe and wind will tear up any stove jack.

Seek uses a slightly denser rubber style jack that seems to work a little better.

I have a 10 year old cimmaron that has well over a couple hundred days in the field on it. Has sustained 60 mph wind. Bent trekking poles holding it up and it’s just kept kicking. I do wonder if I should update the tent due to fabric degradation. I’d buy another without hesitation.

 

[Beendare]

If condensation freezing to the material and raining down during a nasty wind storm....I suppose I've experienced a "failure".

Yeah, I've had my homemade Tipi in 60 MPH plus, snowstorms, etc. Condensation has been the only issue. IME, These tipi tents shed wind better than any other shelter.

Ryans first post sounds like operator error to me.

Maybe the guy let it go really slack and didn't tighten guy lines- which is a thing with these shelters. Slack with a lot of loose fabric and they can catch the wind instead of shedding it.

I've also seen guys put the stove pipe too close to the center pole turning it into a spaghetti noodle from the heat. Or not using a spark arrestor burning holes in the tent. All operator error.

 

[Wrench]

I've considered adding some fastex buckles before I go to Alaska just incase of zipper failure. Anything else I can typically prevent with experience.