HexaYurts

[Elderberry]

Pictures too please. And if you build it on the playa, let me know where you're camping. I'd like to see it.

[Dr. Pyro]

With over 1100 posts I can't imagine a hexayurt question that hasn't been answered by now. Just sayin'.

[Elderberry]

With over 1100 posts I can't imagine a hexayurt question that hasn't been answered by now. Just sayin'.

Hahaha. You got that right. But it's "REALLY HARD" to read 1100 posts! Plus, half of them are not about how to do them, but how to somehow change or modify them; which is pretty much impossible at this stage. The standard versions have been tried, tested and proven. They ain't gonna get much better no matter how ingenious people think their ideas for improving them are. (IMHO--base on actually viewing some of the monstrosities on playa in person)

[maladroit]

Yeah, cutting a few standard sized panels in half, no measuring needed, and ending up with a rock-solid prismatic structure? No way in hell you're going to get that lucky again. Everything else is necessarily a compromise in some way.

[mdmf007]

I didnt think you could go 40 pages about design tips on a Yurt - fun times.

[DoctorIknow]

I have no intentions of sleeping in a tent at Burning Man, that's what music festivals are for.

???

Tents are totally acceptable at BM.

15 years in a tent under shade. We have had neighbors with yurts, my impression is "what a pain in the ass", they provide no social shade, and they smell funny after a few days. Visually monotonous. No thanks.

I concur, ??? tents are just fine.

I've appreciated the Hexayurts: viewing them as a great design, efficient, relatively low cost dwelling, perhaps best utilized in emergency situations. I like to see them all at Burning Man. Especially the villages, rented housing or not makes no difference.

Just wouldn't wanna be in one other than to see how cool some folks have tweaked 'em up...decorations, lighting, swamp coolers....

Personally, I do not like to isolate myself from what's happening. I never tell virgins to rent an RV or make a hexayurt. One might consider that Burning Man is not something you step out into. One goes thru the gate, rings the bell and steps INTO it!

It takes all year to get ready to have an experience that one should want to squeeze every single moment out of, and removing oneself from the elements is just too default for me personally to accept as being acceptable. Yeah, I don't like that megaphone blabbering asshat at 4am just a few yards from my tent, but to train myself to let it go is something very positive I can take back to the default world. An inch or two of foam and a swamp cooler wouldn't let me grow that way.

Also, I've seen many hide from whiteouts in their hexayurts or RV's, get comfortable, and not even know that the whiteout only lasted two minutes and they could have been out of their hole enjoying the day...

But, to each his own.

BTW, anyone with a van with "rain gutters" on the side of the roof should get these. VERY strong. (Just get the fittings and put in heavy plumbing galvanized pipe.) Called "Quick N Easy"

quick n easy.JPG

[lucky420]

Ummm people can hide and isolate the selves in tents too...

[DoctorIknow]

[quote="lucky420"]Ummm people can hide and isolate the selves in tents too...[/quote]

I didn't mean to sound like my preference is in any way better than anyone else's, just put my thoughts in here that might help the stray eplaya reader trying to decide tent or other shelter....it seems to be a current drift in the thread.

[skippy3k]

When I am sleeping, I kinda want to be isolated. Sleep is hard enough to come by out there. If I could bring a hyperbaric chamber I would.

[lucky420]

Ummm people can hide and isolate the selves in tents too...

I didn't mean to sound like my preference is in any way better than anyone else's, just put my thoughts in here that might help the stray eplaya reader trying to decide tent or other shelter....it seems to be a current drift in the thread.

yes, thread drift.

[AntiM]

I think yurts work well in a village or large camp setting which also provides a shared shade space. To show up with just a hexayurt and no plans for any other shade seems unreasonable to me. Same with an RV. but that is an opinion, as part of my experience is sitting around camp part of the day, enjoying the company of campmates and visitors. The "front porch" of a camp, so to speak.

This may be totally irrelevant to other burners though, as we each do things our own ways. Just something to think about for first timers. Where are you going to sit if you are in camp and don't want to be inside?

[Elderberry]

I think yurts work well in a village or large camp setting which also provides a shared shade space. To show up with just a hexayurt and no plans for any other shade seems unreasonable to me. Same with an RV. but that is an opinion, as part of my experience is sitting around camp part of the day, enjoying the company of campmates and visitors. The "front porch" of a camp, so to speak.

This may be totally irrelevant to other burners though, as we each do things our own ways. Just something to think about for first timers. Where are you going to sit if you are in camp and don't want to be inside?

Oh hell yes! You need to have a shade structure. We have/had a 10' x 10' attached to ours, plus the entire camp shade structure at our disposal. This year we're trading the shade structure in for a Costco Car Port. (Finally after literally years of looking for one, the Costco in Carson City had a ton of them so we stopped back there on our way home after the burn. We bought two! )

[mattcamp]

Can anyone advise somewhere that will have panels available in bulk this year? It seems like most Home Depot's and Lowes near Reno no longer carry them.

I need around 120 of them....

(apologies if this violates the rule about commercial posts - please feel free to private message me instead of replying here if so)

[lucky420]

Have you called one of the local stores here and asked about a bulk order?

[mattcamp]

Not yet... I'm in the UK so I don't know a lot about which stores are decent ones... figured I'd ask here in case there were any that were specifically burner-friendly before I just start randomly cold-calling stores out of Yelp.

[lucky420]

I googled my local HD store here in Reno and they have RMax panels. I think for 120 you'd need to special order which shouldn't be a problem as construction is on the upswing here. My zip code is 89503, you can google the store location by that. Give them a call I'd be surprised if they couldn't help you out.

[rideincircles]

I am still on the fence on the hexayurt since the 3400 mile round trip in a rental van is daunting. I want to avoid anything that could happen mentioned in this thread below. I need to call the rental agencies to see if their vans have roof racks and what vehicles I could wind up with. The Kodiak tent will be my backup plan if I don't go hexayurt. The thread was started by someone from Dallas, so it can be done, but has to be done well.

https://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic.php?p=531949

I am heading to San Fran/ Yosemite and Vegas this weekend, then after that, its full scale researching and material sourcing.

[LowePro]

The monkey hut is another popular option and it's less bulky, easy to break down and transport in a van from cross country, google or eplaya-search for monkey hut if you haven't seen it. Small tent can go inside monkey hut. A campmate in 2012 did a personal-size monkey hut and it took us 20 minutes to set it up. That's what I'd do if I was driving a van a long distance.

[rideincircles]

After spending a day out in Death Valley this weekend, it didn't take much to convince me that a hexayurt was the way to go. 95 degrees out in the desert is hot enough.

I lucked out on my cargo van rental since its about $750 for 2 weeks. It sounds like I should be able to fit a hexayurt inside. They said it is a Dodge Promaster 1500 which is just 2 seats and an empty back with 400+ feet of cargo space. The plans are shaping up nicely. I will call and check on the cost of RMAX 1" boards shortly, but I may get the 1/2" and 3/4" boards and tape them together since it will probably be cheaper and easily available at Home Depot.

[Elderberry]

DO NOT GET THE 1/2 OR 1/4 INCH BOARDS. THEY WILL NOT WORK AND YOU'LL BE SLEEPING UNDER THE STARS. (caps intentional)

[lucky420]

And taping them together seems like a pain the ass

[maladroit]

It won't be cheaper, either.

[burner von braun]

Hi rideincircles, have you considered going with the smaller H5? It would pretty much only be large enough to sleep in and store some stuff, but it does take advantage of the same thermal properties, only uses 5 panels so it saves money, and packs into a 4' x 4' x 1' bundle. It wouldn't be a party space, but I thought I'd at least mention it.

And no, I suspect taping thinner boards together is a bad idea, and by the time you glued them together properly (if that can even be done well) you haven't saved much, if any, money, and will have used up a lot of time.

Forgive me for not having back read the thread at the moment, but you do know that it is imperative to use polyisocyanurate boards right? I'm not even certain thinner boards are readily available which are made of that material. I'm all for self-expression and experimentation, but I would suggest it is now getting near the time when it would be great to begin to solidify your plans, and go with proven results if in doubt, especially if you have a lot of things still to do on your main list. Best of luck, with whatever direction you choose.

[maladroit]

Eventually, if listening to all the instructions doesn't sink in, you have to take off the training wheels, and let them ride down the street to have their first crash or two.

[Elderberry]

I actually read that wrong. The comments that followed, caused me to re-read the OP and I thought he meant he was going to build with 1/2 inch panels, as opposed to putting two 1/2 inch panels together to make a 1" panel. Still a silly idea, but at least I don't think it would collapse. Just not elegant. Extra work, extra tape, not a wonderful idea.

[rideincircles]

I saw the 1/2" and 3/4" sandwiched together mentioned a few times as working okay if 1" isn't easily available from people in forums. Will have to see if I can find a link later, I know it was post burn. Last I was told from dfw burners was that the 1" panels were $27 somewhere out in Dallas. I don't have a truck which is one issue on getting them at the moment. I still need to see if there is a better source closer nearby. I already talked to the local RMAX rep and she didn't know of any. I will call the place in Dallas to check the price and availability soon.

The Home Depot nearby had enough panels in stock to make the sandwiched version which is why it was being considered. Will see if there are any other options to find the 1" boards, or just arrange to get them out there.

No tragic mistakes have been made yet.

[Purp Drink]

Hello everyone! First time posting. I've had a lot of fun reading through the thread so far!

I have a general opinion/observation type question that I'm looking for advice from experienced burners, and it specifically has to do with hexayurts, so I thought it would be best to ask here.

Last year was my first year (and managed to get a ticket for this year!), and I camped with my best friend who managed to bring a beautiful haxayurt. We put it up in about 30 minutes, and it functioned magnificently for the whole week. This year it became quite obvious to me to build one for myself to bring along. Then it occurred to me, while I'm already at building these, why don't I just make more? I'm between work right now, and I would be able to use my friends backyard who lives in the East Bay to get these done. I have a lot of spare time, so my logic is while I'm already in the Bay Area (I live in LA right now) building a yurt, why don't I keep the assembly line momentum going and make more?

Do you all think there is demand enough for pre-constructed yurts and yurt kits that I would be able to sell them as I am creating them? I'm not interested in making a ton of money or taking advantage of other burners. I'm thinking of selling them for cost parts, plus a modest labor cost. I thought of this since I got the impression from my first burn experience that there were just so so so many people still trying to get their stuff together even right up to the week of burn. I figured there would be a demand for an efficient shelter. Or is a hexayurt not really something people want ready-made? I tried searching craigslist for hexayurts but havent found too many basic ones for sale.

I'd love to make this a big project and get started, so let me know if you all think it would be worth the time and effort. It would really help me.

[lucky420]

There are people out there already doing this. Black rock hexayurts for one or maybe playa yurt. I believe they have a fb page. I am not affiliated

[trilobyte]

One year in, and already looking for ways to make a buck off the event...

While we do allow commercial listings in certain areas of the site, this isn't a place to conduct market research or plan your business (however small). Yes, people make and sell yurts (as well as other types of shelter), though do be aware that if you intend any sort of on-playa delivery you would likely be responsible for registering with outside services and obtaining a BLM permit.

[Purp Drink]

I think we both know that wasn't my intention. Sorry to cheapen the purity of everyone's experience. I just thought building a pile of yurts in the Bay would be a really fun project and I was hoping I could sustain the project itself while doing it since they are several hundred dollars in material. I literally can't afford to give them away. I'm not going to be delivering them to anyone on the playa, just to whomever wants to come through town and get them.

I'll just do it anyways. I'm sure I'll have a great time going through a few and I'll see how it goes one yurt at a time. Was just looking to know from people with more experience with the camping scene whether or not this would be feasible.