Im thinkign about getting a little pop up tent trailer this year. Anyone have experience with those? hows well do they work with dust and what not??? Nice to have ?
I need info.
Thanks kids
moshe
Anybody use Popup tent trailers on the playa? How was it?
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tandembride
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2003 3:05 pm
- Location: Nevada City, CA
I've taken my tent trailer the last 6 years. Unless you have all the windows zipped closed the dust comes right thru the screens in a duststorm. The first year we had over 1/2 inch of dust on the table in the morning when we woke up - from a dust storm during the night. We pulled up all the carpet so we can basically hose the trailer down when we get home as we could never get the dust out of the carpet anyway. I love the tent trailer for the privacy, the stove, and the ability to sleep on a matress that isn't on the ground! Good luck what ever you decide!
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geekster
- Posts: 4865
- Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2004 2:53 pm
- Location: Hospice For The Terminally Breathing
- Contact:
We have a pop-up. If you are buying it, fine. If you are renting it, I probably wouldn't. You are never going to get the playa dust out of it. Ever.
I took a 12-pack of diet coke out of ours about a month ago. Opened the box and the cans were coated with playa dust.
A friendly reminder if you have one and don't use it often, look at the tires and check for dry-rot. Make sure they are properly inflated (check the tire sidewall for inflation info), make sure the wheel bearings have plenty of grease that isn't rock hard, make sure your spare is good, and make sure you have a lug wrench that will fit the trailer lugs. When storing the thing, keep the tires in the shade. A piece of plywood or something will do fine. Just keeping the sun off the tires will allow them to last a lot longer if infrequently used (uv light from sunlight causes the rubber to degrade).
I took a 12-pack of diet coke out of ours about a month ago. Opened the box and the cans were coated with playa dust.
A friendly reminder if you have one and don't use it often, look at the tires and check for dry-rot. Make sure they are properly inflated (check the tire sidewall for inflation info), make sure the wheel bearings have plenty of grease that isn't rock hard, make sure your spare is good, and make sure you have a lug wrench that will fit the trailer lugs. When storing the thing, keep the tires in the shade. A piece of plywood or something will do fine. Just keeping the sun off the tires will allow them to last a lot longer if infrequently used (uv light from sunlight causes the rubber to degrade).
Pabst Blue Ribbon - The beer that made Gerlach famous.
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Archantael
- Posts: 472
- Joined: Tue Oct 14, 2003 10:29 pm
It's looking more and more likely that my girlfriend and I will get to make it to BRC this year after all but some of the camping gear I've used for the past couple of years won't really work for taking her along. I'm looking at bringing a small pop-up trailer and I have some concerns about doing so. After searching through the eplaya to see if anyone has posted about their experiences I can't find the answers I'm looking for. So I'm going to resurrect this thread and just ask.
1: Are pop-up trailers viable as playa shelter?
2: If you have one or have brought one to the event in the past, are there any modifications to it that you would recommend to make it easier to use, clean, etc on the playa? (Besides carpet removal?)
3: Being very specific, I'm worried more about wind. Dust is a given and as long as I can keep my CPAP machine where it can get some clean air I can live with some dust. But I'm thinking about high winds and I'm just a little concerned about stability. Any recommendations that specifically address wind stability would be welcome.
4: Any thing else that I haven't covered and you think might be helpful...toss it out here.
Thanks for considering my request!
Kinetic (Archantael)
1: Are pop-up trailers viable as playa shelter?
2: If you have one or have brought one to the event in the past, are there any modifications to it that you would recommend to make it easier to use, clean, etc on the playa? (Besides carpet removal?)
3: Being very specific, I'm worried more about wind. Dust is a given and as long as I can keep my CPAP machine where it can get some clean air I can live with some dust. But I'm thinking about high winds and I'm just a little concerned about stability. Any recommendations that specifically address wind stability would be welcome.
4: Any thing else that I haven't covered and you think might be helpful...toss it out here.
Thanks for considering my request!
Kinetic (Archantael)
If it doesn't have them, you can add stabilizing jacks or just put some underneath.
Tie downs could be used too.
A friend used serious spiral ones on his mobile home and straps over the top.
Survived winds that took most out in the area.
Tie downs could be used too.
A friend used serious spiral ones on his mobile home and straps over the top.
Survived winds that took most out in the area.
"Everything is more wonderful when you do it with a car, don't you think?"
-girl by the fire, watching a tree moved by car bumper in the bonfire
It would be a shame if I had to resort to self-deception to preserve my faith in objective reality.
-girl by the fire, watching a tree moved by car bumper in the bonfire
It would be a shame if I had to resort to self-deception to preserve my faith in objective reality.
Tent Trailer
Hi Kinetic, Hi all.
My fiancee and I just bought a tent trailer to bring to black rock. We tried to do research on how we could windproof it for the playa, but haven't found any good suggestions. We just picked it up anyway and we're hoping it will survive well. It's an old one and has had many lil problems within our fixing up process but we are hopeful.
We are in the planning stages of devising a tarp, pole, rebar, anchor strategy to keep it aerodynamic. We are hoping to at least partially cover it up and use angles from the tarps to take the forces of wind away from our canvas. I think it may end up looking like a blue tarp pyramid once it's set up, but that's something we will be doing this weekend. It seems especially important to take the weight of the wind off the side lift bar mechanisms because we can see if they get bent it's going to be a real mess trying to pack it back in. I'm not as worried about the plust getting in because so far every time we go to BRC everything gets completely plusted and no matter what we do there's no way around it. I have added some additional canvas and velcro pieces to cover gaps from the inside, but still, I expect to be covered in playa dust.That's not nearly as bad as having the trailer knocked over and wrecked and no place to sleep. Thats what we need to avoid.
Kinetic, have you bought your pop up yet? How is that process going? If you like, we can brainstorm together. What have you come up with so far?
I send the question out there again: if anyone is out there that has experience with wind stabilization issues on pop up tent trailers on the playa, We could really use some advice before we leave.
Thanks a bunch,
My fiancee and I just bought a tent trailer to bring to black rock. We tried to do research on how we could windproof it for the playa, but haven't found any good suggestions. We just picked it up anyway and we're hoping it will survive well. It's an old one and has had many lil problems within our fixing up process but we are hopeful.
We are in the planning stages of devising a tarp, pole, rebar, anchor strategy to keep it aerodynamic. We are hoping to at least partially cover it up and use angles from the tarps to take the forces of wind away from our canvas. I think it may end up looking like a blue tarp pyramid once it's set up, but that's something we will be doing this weekend. It seems especially important to take the weight of the wind off the side lift bar mechanisms because we can see if they get bent it's going to be a real mess trying to pack it back in. I'm not as worried about the plust getting in because so far every time we go to BRC everything gets completely plusted and no matter what we do there's no way around it. I have added some additional canvas and velcro pieces to cover gaps from the inside, but still, I expect to be covered in playa dust.That's not nearly as bad as having the trailer knocked over and wrecked and no place to sleep. Thats what we need to avoid.
Kinetic, have you bought your pop up yet? How is that process going? If you like, we can brainstorm together. What have you come up with so far?
I send the question out there again: if anyone is out there that has experience with wind stabilization issues on pop up tent trailers on the playa, We could really use some advice before we leave.
Thanks a bunch,
:) Renee
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playababeLL
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2008 4:33 pm
Tent Trailer
Renee, et al -
So I'm also bringing a Tent Trailer to BM for the first time this year - and I'm a bit worried about the stability of my trailer (it's an '86 model) - and shade - so I'm thinking of building a shade structure that'll include additional support for the camper.
If you have any lessons learned you'd like to pass on - or the plans for what you've built for your trailer (however rudimentary) - please pass them on!
Will you take your TT to the playa this year???
Stu
So I'm also bringing a Tent Trailer to BM for the first time this year - and I'm a bit worried about the stability of my trailer (it's an '86 model) - and shade - so I'm thinking of building a shade structure that'll include additional support for the camper.
If you have any lessons learned you'd like to pass on - or the plans for what you've built for your trailer (however rudimentary) - please pass them on!
Will you take your TT to the playa this year???
Stu
Tent Trailer works great, with wind blocking and anchoring.
Hi Playababe!
We can't go this year, but next year, we will definitely do the tent trailer thing again. It was great... the most "comfortable" burning man experience we ever had.
We even added a "shower" to our TT, so we were super comfy.
The only problems were, as you guessed it, with the winds. But we faired those well too, although we will make a few improvements for next year.
I did a huge write up on this same forum called "living in a tent trailer on the playa", so check it out, it gives details for all the modifications we did. Pay attention to the part about how I would modify the outer shade structure, because that part could have been done better, (and will be, next time we go out there).
If you have anymore questions, feel free to write, I'm happy to share my experience.
:) Renee
We can't go this year, but next year, we will definitely do the tent trailer thing again. It was great... the most "comfortable" burning man experience we ever had.
We even added a "shower" to our TT, so we were super comfy.
The only problems were, as you guessed it, with the winds. But we faired those well too, although we will make a few improvements for next year.
I did a huge write up on this same forum called "living in a tent trailer on the playa", so check it out, it gives details for all the modifications we did. Pay attention to the part about how I would modify the outer shade structure, because that part could have been done better, (and will be, next time we go out there).
If you have anymore questions, feel free to write, I'm happy to share my experience.
:) Renee
:) Renee