Go Lite Shangrila 5 owners
Equipment
Contributors to this thread:
Beendare turned me onto these, as he has one and is the process of customizing it and putting in a stove jack. Show me your setups please, and any tips on customizing them. I also will be getting a mesh nest that comes with a bathtub floor, for use in the midwest, and Canada for protection against insects. I also want to know if this mesh eliminates condensation like a typical double wall tent does. The nest(mesh and bathtub floor) weighs 2 lbs 8 oz and the shangrila tipi weighs 2 lbs 15 oz. I will be adding a medium size Kifaru or a cylinder Titanium Goat stove likely, just havent decided on what stove to get yet. My whole package will still be quite light. The mesh liner will stay at home probably for out west hunts, as there are no bugs and for the weight savings of long distance hiking. I would rather bring 5-6 lbs less items with me,to have the comforts of a comfortable tipi and stove, then sleep in some scrawny little ultra light tent and hang out in it for several days of pounding rain or other inclimate weather, that keeps you grounded at camp. Thanks!
ebenton99's Link
Hello Hardcore, here's an adding a stove to a tipi link from the 24 hr campfire site.
I have the Shangrila 4 and modded it for a stove. I bought the stove jack from Titanium Goat and had it sewn in by a local boat canvas dealer.
Came out perfect. I got the stove from Titanium Goat as well along with the titanium stove pipe. Do yourself a favor and do not get the titanium pipe. The edges after it is rolled curl and are just waiting to cut you as you move around in the tent. Stay with the stainless stove and stove pipe.
I got the small stove which is more than enough to heat the tent but it does not last long (only a couple of hours) so you may want to get the large one..
I woke up many a morning with the temp. inside the tent in the low 20's... the inside of the tent was white with frost but after starting the stove which is ez the tent warmed up super fast and heated off the frost... no dripping..
The only downside to the tent imo is that it does not sit flush with the ground. After you have it staked there is a 3 inch or so opening around the bottom of the tent (without the bathtub netting insert). It allows cold air and wind to get in..... I plan on adding some material or doing some other modification to get the fabric to the ground..
The bathtub netting insert is a great addition. Here in the northeast we camp in the summer using it and are bug free..... You can even not use the tent to camp and use just the netting with the floor to sleep under the stars..
A great alternative for those of us who can't afford the Kifaru or Titanium Goat..... I will own a Kifaru someday with the liner and mosquito netting though....
Pictures to follow.... How in the heck do you post multiple pics in a post....grrrrrrr!
another with stove. At the time of this picture I had the titanium stove pipe. See how the edges curled up...Not good.. I now have the stainless pipe which is perfect....
Last one.... oops... One more coming.....
Thanks for the stainless steel over titanium pipe tip. Beendare is sewing some material on his SL5 also so that the material touches the ground. What about taking approx 6" off of the height off the center pole? Wouldn't this fix the issue quickly and sew free?
I really like this stove that a guy made on another site. He says it weighs approx 2 lbs and cost little to nothing to make. It could easily stow the stove pipe inside of it, and could be lashed to the outside of my pack.
Steve, are you happy with the quality of the sl?
Sewing a good sized skirt is a pretty easy project an can be done with about any home sewing machine. I would leave ends long and sew them together after setting up the tent and marking them. Actually I would sew them and then remove the excess material.
The blue on this tipi is all skirt that I added to an Integral Designs Silshelter, silnylon is difficult to sew perfectly but very forgiving if your not trying to win a blue ribbon at the fair.
HardcoreHunter, In order to seal a tipi tight to the ground the stake points need to be up on the fabric a ways, Golite are designed to not seal for ventilation purposes but it's not a difficult fix.
That's a good looking stove design. I'm curious where the air inlet is. I own a ti goat box stove and have built a bunch of cheap proto's trying to get one to burn wet wood well and keep going when reloaded.
I have changed the door to a hinge setup rather than the one pictured.
This one breathes from air holes under the screen which makes it burn marginal fuel better than most and the base which nests inside is a great hobo stove by itself.
These are made from cheap tins and only take a few minutes to make, they will burn a circle around my ti g stove. Not efficient but unless you have a pretty big stove these go through fuel too fast to make burn time matter much anyway and they will heat the tipi quickly.
HCH, I've recieved lots of good advice from Denny, GG, Txtrapper and others on this site.
I will take some pics of mine when I get the skirt, vent covers and boot sewn in. My one test run made me aware it needed extended skirt to better seal it to the ground. Now Denny has me thinking if I extend the guy outs up higher I wont need the skirt.....hmmmm
I think Ed T has a way to peg those shelters down by using a small diameter ti stake in the small loop that holds the plastic/nylon clip on the skirt. It's worth asking.
I like the headroom in mine 7' it's a small area but being able to stand up is great and of course it's very warm up there when the stove is lit, by adding the skirt you can add a little height and the extra silnylon alone won't add more than a few ounces to the weight.
Hardcore:
I am happy with the quality...
I am also curious to see how others deal with getting the tent flush with the ground.... I hate it the way it is now when using no floor..
I will either attach addition material or mess with the securing points and raise them. Not sure yet...
Steve, couldn't you just hack off a couple inches of the center pole?
ebenton99's Link
Lower edge of a shangrila closer to the ground. Try this thread (see supporting link)at The 24hr campfire site go to the bottom of page 2 to see it. Then go to the top of page 3, for a poster's question as to how the tipi was pitched tightly at ground level. Scroll down about 1/2 on page 3 for the response. There is some others responses as to how achieve a tight pitch where the tipi meets the ground. I just don't have the time to search it out at the moment. The whole thread is a good read.
Thanks for the link eb99. Yea, sewing material on the bottom is not necessary; thanks for the info..it is all there on page 3.
My SL 5 came yesterday and it sets up very easily. Stake out the 4 corners, install the pole, and stake down the rest of it. It pitches right to the ground, and makes a nice seal. Very nice quality from what I can see. I got a confirmation email today that shows my ti goat stove jack is on it's way. I also ordered 12" X 100" of .004 ss shim stock and it arrived today, and now all I have to do is assemble my stove. I also got a confirmation that my 2 REI ti plates have shipped. Working on getting ti rods or ss to connect the 2 plates to the cylinder body. I am basically duplicating a pic of of Ti Goats cylinder stove. Basically in a nutshell, here are my costs to have an ultra lightweight shelter with a burner in it.
$280 for the Go Lite SL-5 $40 for ti goat jack $48.00 for the SS shim $30.00 for 2 Ti plates $30 at the most for Connectors
$428 and total weight should be approx 5 lbs for entire setup.
I tried 2 different ways of pitching the sl5 today. The 1st was staking all 4 corners, unzipping the door, inserting the pole, and then readjusting all of the stakes and re pulling and reworking the stakes to get them the way I wanted. I left the corners a little loose so that it could compensate for raising the pole. Now onto the 2nd method, and I found this the easiest and best way to get a perfect tight pitch for me. I staked one side 1st with a stake on each corner. Then I insert the center pole with the door still zipped shut, buy sliding it under the sl5 and installing it. Then, with a stake in hand, pull out a corner, and stake. Adjust the pole so it is straight, while staying on the outside of the sl5. Then, go stake the 4th corner. Now, go around and stake all of the other points. You will need 20 stakes and tie down para cord to do this. The sl5 comes with only 8 stakes and no cord. This isn't mouse proof, but a tight enough pitch for me.
Then onto the go lite poncho tarp. I immediately ripped the 2 places where the trek poles are used. Very weak areas here, and I repaired them both in about 10 minutes and made them bulletproof by sewing a 1"X1" piece in each area I cut from a camo ratchet strap tiedown. Very strong now. In the pic with the 2 poles used, one of the pole locations is reinforced with velcro behind it and the tiedown is sewed intot it, and it appears to be strong. The 2 that ripped on me, had very little area where the tiedown was sewed and is definitely a design flaw imo. The corners are all sewed strongly and are beefy, but why they made these 2 areas where poles will be used weak, is beyond me. I am 6'3" and I was able to crawl in both of these setups and I could stretch out. The open method would be nice with a fire in front of the door and the wind at your back. I tied the opening for the poncho shut with the supplied draw cord so that it would not allow rainfall in. The poncho has a head hole and you can snap some snaps to make arm holes if you want to. No directions come with it, and why it has velcro hasn't come to light for me yet. Maybe some of you that have one of these can elaborate. It's basically just a poncho and I wouldn't want to try to go through brush or bow hunt serious with it on, but it would work in a pinch. It is very light and imo any guy out away from camp, should have one of these or something similar in his pack, as this could be a lifesaver, and for the hardcore light weight guy, you could just use it as a shelter. With a trek pole set at 2', here are the dimensions of the 2 pole setup: 8'8" long, 3' wide. The one pole setup, is 2' high, 7'6" long, X 4' wide.
That looks good and you have it nailed down pretty tight. Today in these parts was a day a heated tipi would be worth it's weight in gold.
I went up to snowline and cooked some lunch and had a pretty good whiteout/snow to rain storm for part of the hike down. I don't advocate the poncho's as replacements for rain gear but I've sure gotten my use out of them I've woke up from an afternoon nap in an elk bed with an inch of snow on the poncho I'm wrapped up in and today it made a serviceable packcover/rain gear to get me to the car without pulling on the raingear.
Poncho's also vent perspiration better than most raingear which helps on a physical hike.
Waiting to see your stove and would also like to know where you sourced your stovepipe material. thanks denny
Hey HCH
Where are you going to put your stove boot?
I got my stove jack sewed in tonight and I also have my stove 3/4 way done. Both of these ventures were very easy. I really like this Titanium goat stove jack. It is a nice jack and well made. DJ gives you a silnylon pattern to trace for your tipi so you know what to cut out of your existing tipi, and he gives you a drawing to cut out for the stove jack too. These are both cut out AFTER you have sewed it in. It comes with a velcro rain cover even for when the jack is not used. The rainfly is gray and matches the golites gray color very well. Here are some pics of the installation. Stove pics will be coming when completed, as the setup burning wood in it will be too. It took me 45 minutes by hand to sew this in. I used 80 lb teflon treated spiderwire fishing line. It is green in color and fits in a standard needle eye and is tough excellent material.
[IMG]http://i40.tinypic.com/2hcgsxw.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i44.tinypic.com/wmbazq.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i39.tinypic.com/3326iyt.jpg[/IMG] Pinned in a few places to guide me.
[IMG]http://i43.tinypic.com/10pod3c.jpg[/IMG] Jack is sewed on, and This is the inside now and I am getting ready to cut out unwanted tipi material so that a hot pipe can come thru
[IMG]http://i40.tinypic.com/209qdkk.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i40.tinypic.com/28iyd5g.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i42.tinypic.com/2rdhmpc.jpg[/IMG] Jack is sewed on, this is the Outside of tipi with raincover in place Now I have to treat the sewed on area with silicone to waterproof it.
Well, I got the stove all done, except for the legs. This was so simple, ONCE I brainstormed how I was going to complete it. I wanted it to meet 3 main requirements: 1.No parts that could be lost 2.Easy assembly 3.Ultra lightweight
This is so easy to assemble and only takes a few minutes. The stove drafts excellent and the pipe seals real well where it goes into the stove body. I'm quite happy. Here are some pics of tonights maiden burn. I used charcoal so I could get it hot. Wind was blowing hard.
That stove looks awesome!! wow! great job and I enjoyed the thread
I used a heavy duty strainer that I bought at wally world for a spark arrestor for the time being. It was way too big and took some cutting and shaping to make it fit. I am going to use 2 of these in the stove pipe, but I am looking for some different material or product. Maybe just some mesh from lowes.
[IMG]http://img534.imageshack.us/img534/2176/2ndburn3.jpg[/IMG]
I decided to burn wood in it today, to get it really hot, as advised by Woods Walker from another forum. Woods Walker is a tipi survival ul stove expert and has forgotten more about this stuff then all of us will ever know. The pipe rolls up easily for packing and when unrolled it goes back to it's stove pipe form due to being heat treated.
Keys in this pic are for reference. Look how insanely tiny this set up goes down to. This was so easy a caveman could do it!!
Thanks notfastbutaccurate
Here is a tip for you guys using these ti plates for stove ends...when you cut your door, use a razor blade knife. I had to switch the blade 4 times, and I used one more side of another blade, but I was able to cut the opening out by repeatedly scoring it. This is the thinnest cut you can get, and that way you can use your cutout for the door. I used a 1" ss hinge, with ss nuts/bolts, and lockwashers. The door handle is aluminum bar with a ss eyebolt and two wingnuts, in case I lose one. This wingnut is the only part that physically comes loose for assembly/disassembly.The door handle gets HOT, but it is workable..you just aren't going to grip it..lol
I just installed a 1/16" cable on the stove handle so I won't burn my fingers anymore
Well, I got up early today and put another hour into finalizing improvements to the SL 5. I clipped all of the tie down buckles and straps off, except for the 2 on each side of the door, which I left for different door configuration options. The rest were useless for a hunting tipi. I then used the straps I cut off and added another staking loop in between each of the other tie downs. This created another 16 stake down loops for an extremely tight pitch now for wind, snakes, and spiders. I sandwiched the sil nyl between the webbing strap for a rock solid, tear proof point. I then sewed the over sized eight stake down loops, that have reflective material in them, in half so they make a very tight pitch and this also creates two stake locations at the same stake loop, in case two stakes would be needed in sandy soil. I then sewed the stove jack rain cover in place on the top, and sewed parachute cord above and under it, so that I can tie it up with several square knots, when a stove is used. I had debated on whether to just remove the rain cover each time, but I just saw this as a way to lose it. This is now the ultimate backwoods bow hunting palace. I used 80 lb spider wire to do all of the sewing. I love this stuff. It fits in a sewing needle eye, and is TOUGH.
This is a great thread! Appreciated. I am looking to pic one of these up.
I see two versions. One in EPIC fabric and the other in silicone type nylon.
Does anyone have experience with the two fabrics and what would you recommend?
Thanks