SO Guardian First Overnight - tips needed

[ccoffey]

Had my first overnight in the guardian to test it out with the stove in the low teens before heading to Montana this fall. Learned a lot and overall was a great upgrade!

I have a couple questions I was hoping some of you could help with.

1. I feel like I’m fighting the pitch and trekking pole height. I can’t seem to get the the ridge of the shelter to pitch flat. The low point just always seems to be between the 2 trekking poles. Am I pitching it too flat or out of square?

2. Where do others place the stove? I have a standard stove and with the location of the stove Jack the stove has to be very close to the trekking pole. Due to the snow melt, the stove shifted towards the trekking pole and melted a couple pieces of it. If the stove pipe was on the other side of the top of the stove it would probably help.

Thanks in advance!

 

[MTN BUM]

Probably not the answers you are looking for but;

1) I had a SO with the same exact problem, never did get a good feel for how to pitch it well on anything other than flat ground. Anything unlevel at all produced a noticable center "drip". Cant help with the stove problem, mine didn't have one so I have no experience there.

2) Since lots of folks will probably see this who are looking at shelters- Do your homework on who your dollars support in the hunting space. If you must have SO buy a used one so the DB who owns seek doesn't make money off of you. Or dont lol- you do you. But at least now it has been mentioned.

 

[LionHead]

No guardian use, but in my experience with 5 different seek outside and 2 different Kifaru floorless shelters is they all seem to benefit from the use of line locs or bar tensioners that allow you to pitch off the ground a bit. This let's you adjust for uneven terrain and also helps with condensation.

A simple length of 2ft of 2mm guy out cord with a taught line hitch to each stake will also work but the line loc3's allow easier adjustments from inside the tipi/tent.

As for the other commenter I couldn't guess at what he's referring to. I've had nothing but great experiences with seek outside, in person and on the phone.


These aren't the greatest pics but the megatarp was pitched to the ground and shows some sag in the middle. The LBO and Redcliff have Lineloc3s on each stake loop with 2ft of Lawson's 2mm cord for adjustment. This is what works for me, I get a great taught pitch every time with minimal fuss.

As for the stove and pipe, I guess you could rotate the stove box 90 degrees, not sure if that would help but the placement has never been an issue for me but my trekking poles are aluminum and steel. The taller tents seem to have enough gap not to interfere with the carbon fiber poles

Ymmv

 

[whiskybiker]

Setting the trek poles, so the lower end is in slightly-instead of straight up and down will get rid of most of that sag. You can then use the door cordage to tension and remove any more of it.

It can take a few times of setting it up and playing with adjustments including pole height to get it dialed.

 

[Hussar]

The Guardian can be finnicky to get a good pitch. A couple things that have helped me:

• Have the stakes for the door as close to the bottom of the door as possible. You don't want any excess cordage between the bottom of the door and the stake.
• Angle the trekking poles out a little bit so they're leaning out towards the doors.
• The flattest spot you can find, the better. Even if it's sloped a little bit, as long as it's all on a relatively flat plane, that will make things easier.

Based on your stove, I'd probably try rotating it and pointing it to the right side of the pole. The heat shouldn't be too bad, even with the trekking poles that close. I use a lite outdoors stove with the baffle, so my stove box ends up running back towards the door. This puts the stove door just beside the pole.

 

[sndmn11]

@RyanSeek43

 

[ccoffey]

The Guardian can be finnicky to get a good pitch. A couple things that have helped me:

• Have the stakes for the door as close to the bottom of the door as possible. You don't want any excess cordage between the bottom of the door and the stake.
• Angle the trekking poles out a little bit so they're leaning out towards the doors.
• The flattest spot you can find, the better. Even if it's sloped a little bit, as long as it's all on a relatively flat plane, that will make things easier.

Based on your stove, I'd probably try rotating it and pointing it to the right side of the pole. The heat shouldn't be too bad, even with the trekking poles that close. I use a lite outdoors stove with the baffle, so my stove box ends up running back towards the door. This puts the stove door just beside the pole.

Thanks! The door stakes makes a lot of sense.

 

[RyanSeek43]

Had my first overnight in the guardian to test it out with the stove in the low teens before heading to Montana this fall. Learned a lot and overall was a great upgrade!

I have a couple questions I was hoping some of you could help with.

1. I feel like I’m fighting the pitch and trekking pole height. I can’t seem to get the the ridge of the shelter to pitch flat. The low point just always seems to be between the 2 trekking poles. Am I pitching it too flat or out of square?

2. Where do others place the stove? I have a standard stove and with the location of the stove Jack the stove has to be very close to the trekking pole. Due to the snow melt, the stove shifted towards the trekking pole and melted a couple pieces of it. If the stove pipe was on the other side of the top of the stove it would probably help.

Thanks in advance!

The best thing you can do in order to get rid of that sag in the middle is using the tensioners on the top of the zipperless door. That being said, the guardian is designed to almost have 2 peaks where the trekking poles are. This is for wind resistance. They are there to make up for when you are not on flat ground.

As for the stove, is that a large stove?

 

[ccoffey]

The best thing you can do in order to get rid of that sag in the middle is using the tensioners on the top of the zipperless door. That being said, the guardian is designed to almost have 2 peaks where the trekking poles are. This is for wind resistance. They are there to make up for when you are not on flat ground.

As for the stove, is that a large stove?

Thanks Ryan, it’s the medium standard stove.

 

[RyanSeek43]

Thanks Ryan, it’s the medium standard stove.

I would tweak your trekking pole a little bit so that it is not straight up and down ( make it taller to make up for the lost height) which will give the stove a little bit more space.