Gatewood Cape Pitching

PS, I do not know why the pics show up upside down. Coming directly from my camera roll on my iPhone. No, they are not upside down on my iPhone.

I have a 2009 Gatewood, bought new. It has seen a lot of use as a shelter. Only a little use as a poncho. A couple of years ago the zipper failed. SMD replaced it for a very reasonable charge.

1) Yes my corner guy lines are pretty short. Maybe 7 inches? With a loop tied in each end. The ones that came with it. They don’t bother me in poncho mode.  If I need to batten the shelter down tight in rough weather or cold I put the stakes through the corner loops and ignore the lines.

2) I run the zipper line inside. It seems to fit better that way. My model has a little hook attached to the line with a knot like a miniature prusik, to slide up and down as needed. It does not slide easily. Mostly I leave it where it is. There is a ribbon loop on the corner of one flap, that the hook engages. There is a velcro strip that holds the 2 lower flap corners together, to take the strain of tautness off of the zipper. The arrangement is quite sturdy.

3) Early on, the grommet for the pole tip pulled out. I mailed the harness to SMD and they fixed it with a new grommet. No trouble with it since then. I am not sure what grosgrain on the pole tip would accomplish. It doesn’t seem to contact or hurt the hood, even when cinched up to keep rain out.

Here is a photo of mine during a storm.  There is a SMD Haven pitched behind it.

Thanks for sharing. I think my door had exactly what you are describing except made from some small diameter shock cord.

As for the grosgrain, I am just concerned about the 15D nylon catching on the sharp carbide tip. Mine sticks through pas the grommet about 1/2”. Sewing the grosgrain would just provide some insurance at almost zero cost, but I am glad you’ve not had any trouble with it.

I always ran the zipper guyline inside, but never really thought about doing it any differently.

It seems strange to me that your pole tip extends 1/2″ through the grommet.  The carbide tip of mine barely reached the top of the grommet.  You have Leki pole tips or something else?  If your pole tip is that small, experiment with washers of various sizes under the grommet until you find the right mix of washer inner diameter (I’m thinking you’d only need one washer) and the pole tip.  When you find the right washer just epoxy it to the underside of the grommet.  The worst thing that would happen is that your epoxy would fail and you’d lose the washer in the field, in which case you’d be right back where you are today.

Zpacks sells some linelocks with loops https://zpacks.com/products/lineloc-v-with-loop . Using these is comparatively easier to remove and re-attach your lines because you just put them on with the loops. You don’t have to fuss with knots.

I re-read your original post and realized I missed your question about the guylines.  I made guylines that are 16″ long with a loop at each end and attach them each time I’m setting it up as a shelter.  I tend to set it about 5-6″ off the ground unless there’s going to be wind-blown rain, in which case I “batten down the hatches” and pitch it the whole way to the ground and don’t bother with my guylines at all.

Thanks Kevin, it seems you guys don’t have a need for very long guylines on this shelter. That is something to consider. As for your washer idea, that seems like a good idea, but a small piece of grosgrain sewn on top seems easier to me, and I have the material and sewing machine already. I am mostly concerned about not paying attention when I am setting up, taking down, or playing with the hood, and accidentally dragging the hood over the carbide tip; I’m not too concerned about it really getting damaged from anything except user error.

Diane, I have a bunch of linelocs I bought for some packs I am making, but I actually prefer knots for guylines. I pitch using the Skurka method, and have gotten decent with bowlines and hitches – I just wasn’t sure if anyone was using longer guylines on this type of shelter – the ones on my flat tarp were 6’ long at the corners and sides, with 10’ lines for the ridge – this is just a different animal apparently.

The only long guyline I have for the Gatewood is the one I use to attach to the pullout over my head which I then run over my trekking pole and down to the ground.  The others are pretty short, but again, I’m usually pitching it only 5-6″ off the ground.  I can’t go much higher than that without messing with my trekking pole length.

Take a sunny afternoon and pitch it in your yard using various length guylines.  You’ll figure out what works best for you.

I have the short corner lines set up according to the instructions that came with the shelter.  Cut  the thin line supplied into 6 equal pieces, tie a small loop in each end of each piece.  I used bowlines.  Feed the looped line ends through the tarp corner ribbons, then the other end through the loop.  The line lengths are thus not adjustable except by moving the stake around a bit.  Not like having linelocs.  But it works OK.  If I wanted to take the corner lines off it would be easy to do, just pull back through the loops, no need to untie anything.  But being me, I would worry about losing them.

For uneven ground, adjustments can be made by moving stakes and also by adjusting the length and position of the center pole.  I usually angle the pole outward a bit at the base to give myself more floor space.  There is an attachment point to add a long line over another pole, as Kevin says, to lift the canopy a little over the face.  But I don’t use that feature because I am small enough to fit comfortably without it.