How strong of ratchet straps do you need to hold down a caport? It seems like the standard breaking strengths are 900, 1500 and 3000 lbs.

Is a cordless drill going to be any help with these or does it need to be an impact driver?

Thanks Figjam, I'll be back with some photos and measurements. I just wanted to float the idea first to see if there were any obvious problems I wasn't thinking of. mudpuppy000's idea of a cargo basket may be the simplest of all. I wasn't planning on needing the extra cargo space, but it could be co...

I'm considering sleeping in a mini van this year. I have seen many reports of draping shade cloth on a van, building a free-standing structure around a van or using a roof rack as one side of a structure to shade a tent. But I'm thinking about building a structure on the roof rack that will support ...

Wow, a MURS radio looks like a great investment - thanks for the link.

So just to clarify, you'd recommend spotters riding on the top of the bus looking over the sides rather than on a bike or something?

Hey, I'm on Gano's team. The idea has been floated of having spotters who are on bike or foot off the bus to be able to "scout" for issues. Is that overkill or a great idea?

Thanks for the tips guys, but I won't be bringing the H2 back this year. First, I tried shipping it wrapped in a tarp with no plywood on the sides (the ratio of plywood to actual structure would have been ludicrously high!) so it got fairly dinged up. It'd still work, but I'd have to ship it more ca...

White paint absorbs a lot more heat than the shiny foil. Why paint the shiny foil that reflects sunlight and heat away? I couldn't find the foil polyiso panels in my mid-sized Canadian town. Apparently they're not used very much as a building product outside the US. The only ones I could find were ...

Thanks for asking, Canoe. It worked fairly well. My write-up is here: http://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_H2

We're thinking about buying a propane-powered vehicle as an art car base. Any thoughts on that?
What's the closest propane fueling station to BRC when coming from the north?

(As discussed in this thread, there are propane fueling trucks available only for DPW.)

Should probably look at canvas tents similar to what you want, online or at the library, use a similar weight, and heavily reinforce the seams and corners. You might be happier using canvas tarps on a conduit frame, though. Canvas tents are generally designed for a wider range of conditions than th...

I'm thinking about making my own canvas tent for next year. What is the lightest fabric that would block dust? (ie: Can I use something more air-permeable than canvas?)

The Bee wrote:Wool maintains its insulating properties when it's wet. That's how sheep stay warm in the rain. You'll be fine.

Yeah, but it smells like wet sheep. I suppose unlike on the West Coast, I don't have to worry about it drying the next day...

Should I be bringing a rain coat? My night coat is wool, so it doesn't react well to significant rain. What are the chances that it'll rain enough this year that I'd want a waterproof coat?

I'm trying to build one of these to cool a 60 cubic foot structure. The problem is that I'm in Canada: we seem to suffer from a lack of small DC pumps and I don't want to wait for one to make it across the border. Would a small marine sump pump work? Example specs: Attwood Tsunami T500 : 360 GPH at ...

Alright, thanks to Vinay and hexayurttape.com the tape is on its way!

Any thoughts on the material for the tarp floor? I'm thinking some sort of polyethylene, either sheet, tarp or Tyvek.

I know you want to keep dust off your water bag valve, but is dust on your cup's mouthpiece an issue? The Stanley 1913 One-Hand Vacuum Mug has a "grit guard":

Any advice for underwear? Are some types of underwear better for the playa than others? Do you bring 1 or 2 pairs per day? Normally when hiking I wear polyester boxer-briefs with an anti-microbial treatment. Camping in the cold I wear polyester or wool long underwear. If I go commando all day I need...

The playa consists of alkalai dust that can eat holes through your skin. Washing your feet a couple of times a day and changing your socks afterwards makes a difference to some people. No reason that those socks have to be cheap. I think... Right, so the idea is to minimize the dust touching your s...

I'm a BRC virgin but an experienced lightweight hiker (so I'm used to some hardship). Normally I would bring one or two pairs of good hiking socks for a week long hike but it sounds like almost everyone brings 14 pairs of shitty socks for a week at BRC. Is this wasteful glamping or is there somethin...

A second tent is not for everyone. Some folks might want it because they want their sleeping area uncrowded, or because they want an added layer of protection for their stuff from rain, or a (minor) dust buffer, or to keep a toolbox out of sight (unguarded tools may have a tendency to walk off) and...

I've seen a couple of people use a float-switch-controlled pump to fill a drip reservoir rather than continuously operating a small pump. I suspect this would have lower overall power consumption. Does anyone see any issues with it?

Sorry about that bad link from my previous post folks. Here's a new one: https://plus.google.com/photos/102751044934696922119/albums/5763941754763177169?authkey=CPyCiLqahvqxKA I don't see the filter? Couldn't this be built exactly the same way as FIGJAM's swamp coolers but replace the plastic cooli...

I occasionally hear people talk about having a separate gear tent to minimize dust in their sleeping area. Can someone explain to me the point of having a structure to store gear rather than just some plastic boxes exposed to the elements? It's not like I'm worried about someone seeing me changing. ...

Too complicated. It's two sheets, edges taped with 3" foil tape (moop, skin, breathing), taped/hinged along the top. Nylon strap (don't need tubular; 3" flat readily available), 8' for the sides plus the distance you want the bottoms to be apart (4' ?), plus 3" to 4" for overlap for sewing it into ...

Great suggestions Canoe, thank you. I'll try talking to the suppliers one-on-one. I'm also trying to track down 3" tape domestically, because this design has less strain that a full hexayurt. r.e. the hexayurt design Mixed results reported with furnace filters. Don't leave it open all the time the s...

I have an idea for a mini hexayurt that I'd like to build and bring down from in Victoria, BC, Canada. The design only needs 32 yards of 6" tape. The problem is that 6" bi-directional filament tape is very hard to get in Canada (findtape.com is the only supplier that explicitly ships to Canada, and ...

Hey Gusthefuss, where did you get the bidirectional filament tape from? I can't find anywhere with decent shipping prices to Canada...

I think they should consider using random selection on those 10,000 tickets as well.

Scalpers are engaged in luck arbitrage. A scalper has more luck than you, so they sell that luck for a profit. That is not creating value, it's deadweight loss from market failure. The economically rational way to deal with scalpers is to sell the tickets on an open market in the first place so that...