Weighing Frenzy!

The real "looks" come from the guys in the store when you bring your scale shopping with you – I'm a celebrity at my local outfitters.

"I wanted to share this with some people who would appreciate it and not give me looks like I have mental problems."

We only stare (in disbelief) at folks who pursue ultralight hiking — but don't own a scale and haven't a clue about gear weights. :)

BTW, you must have gotten your new tent, etc. by now. How are you liking your new Seedhouse SL tent? No buyer remorse, right?

I set it up in the living room on Monday. It definitely needs guylines! As others have said, the walls are saggy w/out them. 2 Prolite 3S's just fit side by side w/out guylines. I plan to set it up on the lawn Tomorrow or Friday night and sleep out. The stakes it came with are weird. I'm planning to pick up some Ti stakes from Gossamer. I'm pleased so far. Beats my Alps Mountaineering 5lb "solo!"

I'd really like to know what it really weighs complete (I work in a lab, too, 5 decimal points is fine). I'm been interested, but have seen confusing data in the sales literature and haven't actually found one in a store to check out (yes, I carry a balance to stores as well and get funny looks).

Margaret:

I use 9 stakes for the Seedhouse SL2 — and generally bring 8 UL titanium shepherd hook stakes plus one tougher aluminum stake — which I use with a heavy rock to pound holes in tougher grounds.

9 stakes: 4 at the corners, 2 at the sides, 1 at the back, and 2 at the vestibule.

Richard:

The 2 lbs 14 oz published minimum weight (i.e. weight of tent, fly and pole) is accurate.

Those nine stakes must add about another 2-3 oz.

Thanks for the confirming info.

hah i think i might be the lone ultra-lighter out there without a scale. my personal opinon is just to carry the lightest things i can without a huge investment and still be cozy. i carry a MLD poncho tarp, zip pack, toroslite, heine mug etc etc, and i minimize in everything else i can (food fuel clothes etc)i really dont know what anything weighs, but i know its light :D(as long as i dont have to carry thiers.)
mike!
sorry if im stealing your thunder Margaret!
and i hope BPL doesnt strip away my 1.93 rank for this hearsay. :D

I get all kinds of weird looks when carrying my scale to varius stores. The best memory I had was when an individual with big, long, huge dreads came up to me (I happend to know this person by face but not by person) and said "dude that is one killer scale, I could sure use a scale like that. My reply "Oh yah, well you can get one at xxxxx store. It works great for really helping me decide between the same gear items I want, but can't make a full decison, plus I can tally all my weights and input them into a spread sheet for later useage, when I am getting ready to head out on a trip." He smiles and says "Uh, huh, er, um, I would be using it for different things, speaking of which, later dude I gotta head peace out man" I simply smiled and reminiced a bit, but then forgot what I was thinking about, and then forgot why I was at the xxxx store and why do I have this scale sitting next to all these cups and Ti mugs :-)

And if you think you get weird looks now, wait until you are setting up you tent in a rain or snow storm and the neighbors yell across the fence, "hey don't you know were supposed to get 6inches tonight" Your reply "ya I know perfect time to test out some new gear and see if my shelter will hold up. Plus I needed to test out this clothing"

Have fun with your new scale, and welcome to the club, ther is no going back.

I set up my SL2 in the lawn today and can't seem to get the fly taut on the sides. It doesn't make a difference if the fly is clipped to the tent body or not, I just cant get the darn thing tight. It looks like if there were 2 guy out points at 1/4 points rather than just 1 in the middle I wouldn't be having this problem. Does anyone have insight or experience with this occurrence?

Another thing: The zippers on the vestibule appear to have been put on backwards. On a ski jacket the zips open from the top & bottom, so does the vestibule. What gives?

My SL2 pitches drum tight, without my having to do anything 'special'… Maybe post a photo of your set up?

I think I got it figured out. The side guylines were at too steep an angle. The fly's 2-way zipper still mystifies me, though.

You can zip both zippers toward each other near the top and leave a couple of inches gap for fly ventilation. Otherwise, I usually just leave one zipper pull right at the top end — not using it at all — treating it as a spare zipper pull just in case the other one should fail (not that it has in 4 years of use).

Hey guys, which model scales do you have, and where did you get them? I've weighed when I needed to at the post office (brought half my gear closet in a big duffel close to closing and all the postal workers thought that I was completely insane).

What is an ideal weight range for a general purpose gear scale?

My scale has a digital readout and it can measure from a fraction of an ounce to 30 lbs. — in 0.1 ounce increments.

I would recommend that folks getting a new scale should get something like the above. Now, if you also have a digital bathroom scale, then you can have a gear scale that weighs stuff up to 5 lbs — and use your bathroom scale to weigh anything heavier than that.

I bought mine from Ebay (just type "digital scale" in the search box — watch out for shipping charges when bidding):

I got mine at target in the kitchen section ($25). Digital and reads on 0.01 oz increments or grams. It has a clock and a timer, too. I use it for cooking more than gear weighing, even though I bought it for gear! It has a 72oz. limit.