The Ground Control Guy Cords from Sea to Summit are carefully designed accessories that might add a little more stability to my Durston and other tents when conditions get rough.
My X-Mid 2 Solid from Durston Gear is a great tent. It is easy to pitch, with just four corner pegs/stakes and my two trekking poles. I do add a peg at whichever side door I am using. Even if there is no wind I tend to also peg down the two peak guylines just in case conditions change (which they often do) overnight and I don’t want to be wandering around in the dark trying to sort things out. Just occasionally however, there is a bit of a breeze and I may have to put out an extra guy or two. To make my extra guys, I don’t have anything already attached to the shelter, instead I have been doing my usual trick of using one or both of my cords that I carry as part of my sleep system. These go round my pad and my Katabatic quilt clips on to them. I don’t always use these, just in colder conditions when I want to lock the quilt in around me, or there is a lazy cold breeze blowing into the tent. Seeing as I have the two decent lengths of cordage anyway, that is what I have been using with any of my tents for the past few years.
Just occasionally I have wanted to do both. That is- use my cords with my quilt and run out an extra guy or two. I have finally got round to adding something to my gear that will enable me to do this. While I could always cut a piece of cord and add a lineloc to it, I can happily be extremely lazy and Sea to Summit have something ready-made for the job. These are their Ground Control Guy Cords. For twelve quid I got a pack of four- 2 x 1 metre guys and 2 x 2.2 metre guys. In truth I would have preferred four of the 2.2m guys, but the two short ones can be joined together to make a longer guy if necessary. Or a lone short guy makes for a decent drying line inside the shelter.
Each guy comes with a micro-lineloc and a decently made crescent-shaped toggle to pass through any loop on my Durston or Duomid. Many is the time I have relied on my knot skills (or lack of) to simply tie on a temporary guy but these shaped toggles are so much easier and quicker to deploy.
The Durston has four additional guy out points, six if you include the loops above the vents, though those are not strictly intended for that purpose. The one metre guys are too short to properly guy out from any of the main four guy out loops on the Durston. These are on the mid-panels where any extra guy should be pulling out at the same angle as the slope of the tent side. A one metre length is simply too short to achieve this but the longer guys are fine. The two metre guys are also an OK length if set out ninety degrees to their usual optimum, that is, pulling down from one of the peaks toward a corner, helpful if the wind is from that quarter.
Advertised as weighing 17g in total, each 2.2m guy weighs 5.3g and each 1m guy is 3.6g. So just a fraction over spec. If I just include the two longer and more useful guys in my peg bag this adds 11g. I might buy another two to make a total of four additional 2-metre guys (22g). Each of the Sea to Summit guys is reflective, showing up well with a head torch at night. Which is just as well as they do need to be pegged some distance out from a tent to provide the best holding power, thereby introducing a trip hazard which isn’t normally there. These extra guys also fit the many extra guy points on my Duomid and the extra length of the 2-metre guys is a very definite necessity with that shelter.
I also took a little time out today to lengthen the quite short corner pegging points on the Durston for something a little longer. This gives me more flexibility when looking for a place for a peg to go in the ground. I have found on too many occasions that sods law dictates there is always a rock just below the surface when I am pegging out the fourth and last corner.
I also fixed some 360mm (halved, so 180mm) shock cord loops to each of the four mid-bottom edge guy points. Pegs are not usually required at these mid points but can help nail down a side to stop wind creeping under in stormy conditions. What the shock-cord loops allow me to do is pull out the sides to allow for more ventilation on fine nights and also taking out any flapping looseness as a result of a poor pitch. Something that can easily occur on a lumpy patch of ground. At just a gram each, I should have done this a long time ago, however I am probably going to change these again, to a length of guy running through a lineloc attached to a webbing loop. That could then be easily fitted or removed as required.
Three Points of the Compass 
I used line lock hooks for extra guys on mine.
LikeLike
Thanks for this Odd Man, hook does look a little small for a larger, or thicker, guying out tab. How do you find it works practically? What is a true gram weight per line lock hook?
LikeLike
I haven’t properly tested them as they are just for the side panels which I haven’t had to guy out since making the mod. Previously I had line lock lites on a guy loop but I got annoyed with the extra cords getting tangled when packing/unpacking. My thinking is that the tap webbing scrunches up inside the hook, but I recon your tab solution is more secure. Hooks weigh 1.4g and are from Dutchware.
LikeLike
Thanks for this Odd Man. The crescent end tabs on the Sea to Summit anchors/guys are very secure. Let us know how you get on with the hooks
LikeLike
Hi Jools,
I acquired a Durston X-Mid 2 Solid in March 2023 and have used it extensively since then including on the West Highland Way, the GR20 and other extended trips in the UK. A great lightweight tent with enough room for me and my wife and strongly recommended even with importation costs. I too have ended up changing the guys and tie out loops. People kept tripping over the black peak guylines and I found that although pitching is very easy with the 4 corner tie-outs the tent didn’t “sit” properly if the ground was very uneven. To that end I’ve replaced the guys with more reflective lines (backpackinglight.co.uk 2 mm Dyneema yellow with mini line-loks), added longer corner tie-outs (same line) to permit more flexible peg placement and also added shock cord loops to other bottom edge ties. Looks like we’ve had much the same ideas although I attach the guys with knots which seems much less slick than the Sea to Summit crescent end tags.
I emailed Dan Durston about which lines to use and he replied as follows:
“For the cord, we use a low stretch peak guyline on our solid series tents because the low stretch helps it stand more solid in windy conditions (compared to the stretchier cord on our regular models). I don’t know the exact source because our factory sources it for us, but the peak lines are a non-reflective, 2.5mm, low stretch cord. I think the corner lines are a bit different. They should be our regular 2.5mm guyline.
“For your new cord, longer lines are helpful to tie to objects but if you set the corners too long it will allow the fly to lift higher and that lifts up the inner too. So having long cord to tie to rocks is good, but don’t leave too much length between the tent and stake (or other anchor point). Any cord of 2.0 – 2.5 diameter will work well in the tensioners. We have Reflective Ironwire in stock now which Lawson (manufacturer) calls 2.0mm but it is really more like 2.5mm. It is the strongest/lowest stretch/most durable cord possible for this size, and it is reflective, but only one reflective stripe so it is not that bright. They also sell a “Glowire” in 2.0mm that is not quite as strong but still quite good and much more reflective and it comes in bright colors. If you buy this, I would buy 2.0mm and not 2.5mm because their cord is thicker than spec and their 2.5mm can be too large for the tensioners.”
Of course there are many people out there making tent modifications some more helpful than others – I found this one useful: https://blogpackinglight.wordpress.com/2019/04/26/dan-durston-x-mid-mods/
Anyway, keep up the good work. I always enjoy reading your posts. Cheers Peter.
LikeLike
Thanks for your informative comments Peter, as you say, looks like we are both approaching (required) mods on the Durston in the same manner. I often find myself (with any tent/shelter) attaching ‘something’ to the guys to make them more noticeable to those stomping by. It soooo aggravates me when there is the sudden lurch of my tent as someone outside trips over a guy.
I agree with Dan that too long a corner peg-out can lift the corners adversely, thereby affecting the pitch. I have been considering adding linelocs to the corners too, to mitigate this. Regardless, I am sure you would agree, a lovely tent, even as it stands.
LikeLike
For tthe ground mid panels, both on my Durston x-mid solid 1p and TN Southern Cross 2, I used a short guy with a mini linelok plus shock cord loop combo as with the ultimate hang rubber band line tensioners.
https://theultimatehang.com/2012/04/18/rubber-band-tarp-line-tensioners/
Provides the best of both worlds. If both shock cord and guy are looped like a girth hitch(best looping a couple of times) , then they can be added and removed as and when.
LikeLike
Yep, I changed mine again. Now have these- https://www.treadlitegear.co.uk/4-x-linelocs-line-locs-3-self-tensioning-tarp-shelter-tie-out-on-grosgrain-loop-87-p.asp, with short guy with lineloc 3
LikeLike
interesting. Is that for the side panels at ground?
I toyed with the idea of line lok 3s instead of the mini, as I do like the simplicity of just pulling the like to tighten. I’ve got some spare might have a play sometime with and without doubled up shock cord.
How did you find going from the shock cord, and it’s give, to a static line?
LikeLike
Used with my Durston, the fabric has a bit more ‘give’ than with my DCF Duomid
LikeLike