Lil’ Bugout Shelter Review

[Stephanie Jordan]

Companion forum thread to:

Lil' Bugout Shelter Review

[Kenda Willey]

Thank you for your thorough review of the LBS! I recently stumbled upon it (via BPL forum), and was disappointed at the dearth of reviews and videos for Seek Outside products. The company website isn't exactly forthcoming with info, and I haven't found any good setup videos.

[Kenda Willey]

My previous comment was kinda unclear: The review was great, it was the lack of information otherwise that was disappointing. This review remedies a lot of that. Now, if Seek Outside would provide some setup videos…

[MFR]

I'll echo Kenda. I originally looked at the Seek Outside Bug Out versions, but there were so few pictures and the descriptions largely incomplete that it was difficult to tell what they even had put together. This remedies much of that (though, more clear, sunny pictures would be really helpful still, especially given all the options the shelter apparently has).

Second, thanks for applying your usually rigorous analysis to this piece. You've given me a lot of good ideas for a possible large 'mid I've been thinking about sewing up in the future. Question, though: with a wood stove, how much space do you usually reserve around it? From the pictures, it seems an 18" radius about covers it, but I've only spent one night in a hot tent–an 8 man Kifaru with only two of us–and we had as much room as we could want. It was a bit difficult to gauge the needs for a more backpackable shelter.

[Kevin @ Seek Outside]

There are some overview videos on our site and YouTube channel. IMO those provide a pretty solid overview. but if they don't please provide the feedback of what information you are looking for and we will try to address. The LBO itself has several reviews floating around , there is a testimonials page on our site, which had unsolicited reviews, as well as the product reviews in our shopping cart.

Regarding setup, we try to give advice on it, but because it can be pitched and used a million different ways its hard to reign in a right vs wrong. Suffice to say, the 2 bases together is a super easy mid pitch, adding in the tarp is almost exactly the same. The 3 P vestibule is a little tricker geometry and we can do a better job with that. The base by itself, you can pitch it a lot of ways as well.

We have done a couple product updates to the LBO. One is we include a vent now in he base units. As Dave alluded unzipping under the beak is way more effective but not always practical. We also added a sod skirt standard as the rest of our shelters have them and overall it makes it a nicer more capable shelter. We build things a little different than a lot of the UL market and spend a little more time on reinforcemt and stress distribution to handle really unsettled weather.

Thanks for the feedback, feel free to reach out to us anytime. You have to realize , we have a very different view than a potential customer that is new to us. All you need to do is reach out and we will try to resolve or point you in the right direction

Sent from iPhone so if there are errors please understand

[Eric Blumensaadt]

I've never been a fan of mid shelters, particularly for winter. But THIS modified mid has me interested, especially with a lightweight, collapsable wood burning stove.

Thanks for the thorough review Dave.

[David Chenault]

I'd say 18" is about right.

[Author]

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