Monkey hut worked great!

[geospyder]

This must be day one since I don't see the lights installed. I strung 100 white LED lights down the center spline and two strings of 4-color LED lights on the front rib. The controller boxes I put into the Monkey that hung on the front.

The only surprise was that the straight ten foot poles were curved when I left I'm tempted to cut them in half for transport inside the Jeep instead of on top. Any comments from people that may have done this?

[BBadger]

You'll hurt the structural integrity of those poles if you cut them and will need to create sleeves to connect the halves like the crossing connectors on the spine if you do that. It might work, but they won't bend as nicely as before, so you'll have to experiment with coupler lengths and such.

[Sic Pup]

This was my second burn with the halved PVC and actually held up better than the fellow next to me that used the full 10 lengths. It does provide a bit more rigidity while maintaining the flexibility that makes it stand up to the wind so well. I use 2' sleeves. Since I also use the shade flap (highly recommended) it does add the equivalent of almost 2 additional lengths 8 x 2' (albeit much more manageable size). Because of the noted curvature I've found one pole at each of the last two outings that I couldn't hand separate. The first time I used my vice grips and a wide mouth plier sort of thingamajig to separate. This time I was too spent to bother rummaging through my tool bag and just threw it in the back of the vehicle intact along with the rest of my partially broken down camp shit. I'll deal with it when I get back to NY.

[geospyder]

I did have one of the ten footers stick in the sleeve and was unable to twist it loose even with help for a neighbor. Resort to a hammer to try to loosen it - mistake - next year I will have a new connector for that joint Today or tomorrow I'll remove all the duct tape, clean the PVC and wrap together with painters tape for storage. Think I'll stick with the ten foot lengths. My ten foot 1/2 inch PVC for the tent slips nicely into the Monkey Hut PVC for transportation and storage. I want to go back

[SouthernExposure]

Due to a size restriction that I had for transporting the pipes to the playa, I had to cut the 10' long 1" pipes in half to (2) 5' lengths. For each of the three ribs I coupled (4) 5' pieces together with (3) 2' long 1-1/4" pipes and (3) additional 3" long 1" pipe spacers to make the arches larger enough to get the tarp a few inches off of the ground for better air circulation. I extended the spine of the frame by about 2-1/2' to fit the tarp width. The spine was joined together using (2) PVC unions and drilling and screwing the assembled pieces together. The spine was not going to bend in an arch like the ribs, so a regular union was adequate in this case. The spine was attached to the ribs using split bicycle tubes, making assembly and final adjustments easy and allowing sufficient flexing in the occasional heavy wind loading. The bottom edges of the tarp was cinched down using rope and 3/8" playa staples. This held the whole assembly in place very securely.

All in all I had no trouble whatsoever with the Monkey Hut and thank all designers who contributed to this wonderful structure.

SE