Tent Questions!

[Ratty]

ok so i got my nylon in to sew onto the mesh of my tent. Should I sew it on the outside or inside? Im thinking if I go it on the in the dust will blow in and collect between the mesh and nylon? Sound like a good idea to do it on the out?

I just sewed some very pretty nylon to the outside of a small tent. I was thinking the same thing about dust collecting inbetween. It's just a storage tent so I'm not concerned with ever looking out a window. If i were planning to sleep in it I would have done velco and attached it on the inside.

[tattoogoddess]

it worked pretty well! I have two small spots I need to throw some duct tape on cause well nylon is hard to sew on the machine. Super slick. so some places did not get off the mesh. But over all worked great! This is pinning and sewing the last pannel. got the strips for $8 for 18 yard. Would have been prob 4 times the price if it was not in the strips.

[Bob]

The orange safety caps are usually made to fit #3 to #7 (3/8" to 7/8") rebar, J-bolts and threaded rod. Might be a bit loose on the smaller rod, and they're designed to prevent puncture if you fall on top of them, not to prevent gashing bare feet if you run into them sideways.

Stiletto makes a nice 15 in. titanium pry bar (17 oz) if you're trying to save weight. Only $179 suggested retail. Has a bottle opener built in.

[waynerd]

Hello all you wise veteran burners.

I've been looking for precut rebar pieces here and having no luck. I did however find large 16 inch stakes BUT they are made of hard plastic but conveniently fluorescent orange.


Would these suffice for 4 man tent and perhaps to secure down a shade tarp that's also attached to my vehicle?

My main concern is getting them into the ground, how hard is the playa once past the sand?

Thank you in advance.
W

[MacGlenver]

Hello all you wise veteran burners.

I've been looking for precut rebar pieces here and having no luck.W

Can't comment on the stakes, but you're really not able to find precut rebar? Where are you? Any Lowes or Home Depot will sell 2 foot long, 0.5 inch thick rebar.

[waynerd]

Hello all you wise veteran burners.

I've been looking for precut rebar pieces here and having no luck.W

Can't comment on the stakes, but you're really not able to find precut rebar? Where are you? Any Lowes or Home Depot will sell 2 foot long, 0.5 inch thick rebar.

Yeah, I've looked at 3 Home depots and a Rona (Canada's other Home Depot) They have rebar but in minimum 10 foot lengths. Considering just looking in a Home Depot once I cross the border. A place called princess Auto had a bunch with the tie rings welded into them but another burner professed to cleaning out both locations of them for his camp.

[Bob]

Hello all you wise veteran burners.

I've been looking for precut rebar pieces here and having no luck. I did however find large 16 inch stakes BUT they are made of hard plastic but conveniently fluorescent orange.


Would these suffice for 4 man tent and perhaps to secure down a shade tarp that's also attached to my vehicle?

My main concern is getting them into the ground, how hard is the playa once past the sand?

No, plastic will fail, typically. Reread all the tent threads. Should be able to find decent aluminum military surplus tent pegs, or MSR Groundhog or Cyclone tent stakes somewhere around town. These are usually about 9 inches but work fine for most tents and awnings if driven at or below the ground surface.

[MacGlenver]

Would you say MSR Groundhogs are as good as rebar for staking out a 6 foot tall 10 foot wide dome tent?

[Zona_the_stona]

Hello all you wise veteran burners.

I've been looking for precut rebar pieces here and having no luck.W

Can't comment on the stakes, but you're really not able to find precut rebar? Where are you? Any Lowes or Home Depot will sell 2 foot long, 0.5 inch thick rebar.

Yeah, I've looked at 3 Home depots and a Rona (Canada's other Home Depot) They have rebar but in minimum 10 foot lengths. Considering just looking in a Home Depot once I cross the border. A place called princess Auto had a bunch with the tie rings welded into them but another burner professed to cleaning out both locations of them for his camp.

Ask them to cut or bend the rebar for you. The Home Depot by my house does a certain amount for free.

[Ugly Dougly]

I wonder if those poor people in Haiti are using these tips to keep the coming hurricane from destroying their flimsy tents.

[Bob]

Would you say MSR Groundhogs are as good as rebar for staking out a 6 foot tall 10 foot wide dome tent?

[ bangs head on keyboard ]

[MacGlenver]

Would you say MSR Groundhogs are as good as rebar for staking out a 6 foot tall 10 foot wide dome tent?

[ bangs head on keyboard ]

*sigh*

[FIGJAM]

Would you say MSR Groundhogs are as good as rebar for staking out a 6 foot tall 10 foot wide dome tent?

[ bangs head on keyboard ]

*sigh*

You're still thinking, when you need to be doing!

[MacGlenver]

You're still thinking, when you need to be doing!

Doing commences at 6am tomorrow when I fly out . I knew it was a semi-dumb question when I asked it, but some people talk about the Groundhogs like theyre magic. I can't imagine they're as good as rebar driven 1.5 feet into the ground, but I'm interested in knowing whether they're "generally good enough, barring insane conditions". I suppose he may not like the size of the tent, which is why I have a backup, low slung 2 person tent, but I'm hoping to use the more comfortable one until conditions show that I cannot.

[maladroit]

My Home Depot has precut lengths of rebar, as well as a big rebar cutter right in front of the rack for people to use on the longer pieces. Then again, this is the SF Bay Area, and the 1/2" rebar is almost sold out already due to the large amount of birgins this year who didn't already have rebar (like me).

[Bob]

The precut rebar is mainly for landscapers and concrete contractors, who use them to stake sidewalk forms, landscape borders and such. The trouble with buhrnurz buying these off-the-shelf is they'll grab 12" pieces and turn them into pretzels trying to bend them into a J-shape, and/or drive them only 6 inches into the ground before they get really, really tired. Not to mention the bullshit involved in capping them, rather than driving them flush.

Waynerd's coming from Calgary and has apparently been shopping at camping outlets for tent pegs. I'm assuming something lighter than rebar might be preferable for traveling from a long distance. A quick Google search says there are surplus stores close by that might have military tent pegs, and camping stores that carry the MSR stakes and similar. I believe the Y-shaped Groundhog stakes actually have more surface area than 1/2" rebar.

[MacGlenver]

I believe the Y-shaped Groundhog stakes actually have more surface area than 1/2" rebar.

Interesting. Thx. I grabbed 12 of them the other day. As for rebar, I always buy the 2' long pieces and dont bother with candy caning. I do hate capping them, but oh wells. PS. thanks for the nice "rebar faq". Got it printed & packed. The knot guide is great.

[waynerd]

Thanks for the replies guys, shortly after my post here I found 12" rebar spikes with loops welded onto them (and even painted black) for $4 a piece. Bought 6, they worked great for my first burn and I will most likely pick a couple more up for spares/extras for next year.

You all rock, Thanks.

[Noboundaries]

For folks looking just to stake a tent, Home Depot sells 12" x 3/8" galvanized nails. Buy a big 1 1/2" washer with a 1/2" hole and slip it over the nail. Total cost 90 cents per stake (nail was $70 cents if bought separately. Washers worked out to 20 cents each when purchased in a package).

If securing to the tent to the ground with a tent loop, just pound the nail with the washer flush with the ground. If using to secure a guy line, pound the stake until it is about an inch from the ground, slip the line under the washer, then pound flush with the ground. Use a slight angle staking either way.

We secured our tent, ground cloth, shower tent, and our Monkey Hut tarp like this and had absolutely no problems.

Remember to take a 36" pry bar for leverage and you can pull them right out of the playa fairly with relative ease. It's a tougher with a shorter pry bar.

[BoyScoutGirl]

I just picked up a small, crappy tent that I think will be just right for me and my minimal gear this year, with the bonus that it has very little mesh to seal. I'm thinking of shading it with the rainfly of another tent that's staying at home. The fly is considerably larger, so there would be between half a foot and 1.5 feet between the fly and the tent on all sides. I know that space between shade cloth and shaded area is critical.

I've seen some people suggest tent-inside-a-tent to reduce dust, but my aim here is keeping the temperature bearable for an hour or two longer in the morning. The problem is that rainfly material is not breathable; will using a rainfly at a distance keep things cool or will it just make a sauna of the space between it and the small tent?

I thought about rolling up the rainfly a foot or two around the bottom to let air through, but I'm already having to jury-rig the fly's support skeleton so I worry about losing guy line attachment points.

My back-up plan is just a tarp with four poles like was posted in the backpacking tent shade thread.

[BuddyGoodness]

I have a Kodiak tent. I was told I need to wash my tent because the dust could damage the canvas it stored with the dust still on it. Anyone have an opinion of this? I can clean it, just want to know if it is something I need to do sooner rather than later.

[Ratty]

I have disposable old tents that never die. I never wash them. Haven't washed them since my first burn of 2008. If I spent money for them I would wash them.

[geospyder]

The longer the alkali dust stays on an item the more "possible" damage it can cause. I had two types of spikes I used to hold down my ground tarp for the monkey hut. One was 8 inch and made of zinc I think (dull matted color) and the others were ten inch and stainless steel coated. After a week in the Playa the zinc ones look like new after I washed them. The stainless steel ones look like crap. The coating was eaten off and they had started to rust. Long story short, anything you hope to keep for any length of time, take the time to clean it. For tents and cars I suggest using a leaf blower to clear out as must dust as possible before washing.

[chiefdanfox]

I have a Kodiak tent. I was told I need to wash my tent because the dust could damage the canvas it stored with the dust still on it. Anyone have an opinion of this? I can clean it, just want to know if it is something I need to do sooner rather than later.

I have a Kodiak and I wash mine inside and out, and let it dry thoroughly. It has been out to the playa 5 times (2008, 2010-2013) and it still looks new, functions perfectly. I don't know if the dust would rot your canvas faster, but my guess is the washing keeps the zippers functioning perfectly. I think the UV light would probably be a bigger concern than the dust.

[Savannah]

Tents hold up to the dust a whole lot better than stakes, which get rusty immediately. If I had an expensive Kodiak or nice canvas tent (and a backyard) I would probably take the time to wash it, but since I use a nylon tent I don't bother.

I've never had a tent "expire", although I proactively threw out my first Burn tent (a cheap secondhand dome tent) after 4 Burns simply because I didn't want to tempt fate.

My current longest-lived nylon tent ($120) has just experienced 5 Burns without washing (just a really good sweep, and a shake) and will easily be good for a 6th Burn.

I think the wind is a more destructive force on a tent--pulling at it, testing the seams (or poles)--than the dust is.

[VultureChow]

I have a kodiak and wash it.
1)Probably doesn't hurt the tent, and might help it.
2)It's nice setting it up for use without a giant haze of playa dust
3) It's a nice post playa ritual day of cleansing. A chance to get dusty one more time and leave ghost footprints all over my parents' deck.

[Ratty]

I ran across this.

http://gearjunkie.com/massive-tent-vill ... witzerland

[Aurelia]

Is it my Mother telling me to do so ?
I always wash my tents because the ritual clean-up is part of my burn
the Wenger poles have died ..and some of my tents are given to my kids when they grow away
but still I will wash my tents