Cool stuff I've learned from ePlaya

Questions, answers, tips & tricks for newbies and veterans alike
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ibdave
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Post by ibdave » Tue Feb 16, 2010 8:15 pm

I just skimmed through the post's and want to add this about Gasoline.
The new style gas cans are worth shit when it comes time to fill something with them. So pre-plan how your going to fill what you want to fill.(funnels ect..) I still have the old style cans and I baby the flew fillers to insure they last a long time..

Anyone have a source for the old style flex fillers?? The fuel engineers made the "caps threads" a different size and that fucked everything up.I'm in California and they like the no-fumes-no drip type fillers..

I carry about 25 extra gas in the trailer for BM and when snow skiing I take 5-10 gallons in the storage bays of the burnerRV for the honda eu2000 gennie... 8) 8) 8)
I was Born OK the 1st Time....

Don't bring defaultia to Burning Man, take Burning Man to defaultia...... graidawg

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Captain Goddammit
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Camp Name: First Camp
Location: Seattle, WA

Post by Captain Goddammit » Wed Feb 17, 2010 6:54 am

ibdave wrote: I carry about 25 extra gas in the trailer for BM and when snow skiing I take 5-10 gallons in the storage bays of the burnerRV for the honda eu2000 gennie... 8) 8) 8)
If you're carrying all that fuel for your generator, look here http://ilynne.com/captaingoddammit/ but use a bigger tank.
I should update that page - that setup should include a fuel shutoff petcock. When you don't have the fuel hose plugged into the generator's cap, you have to either have something to plug it with or keep the end of the hose higher than the tank or it will dribble the fuel out.
I also keep rubber caps (sold at auto parts stores as vacuum caps) to close the fitting I put on the Honda's gas cap when not hooked up for use. I order spare Honda gas caps to modify for this so I can still use the original cap which comes with a vent that has an on-off switch, but at BM I'm not moving them around.
The external tank plan is better for Burning Man use for lots of reasons, one is the original gas cap vent will let dust into the Honda's tank, with an external fuel setup you can put fuel filters inline to keep it cleaner.
For BM I have an old truck fuel tank I mount on my trailer, and I plumb that into my generators the same way, and never think about fuel while I'm there.
GreyCoyote: "At this rate it wont be long before he is Admiral Fukkit."

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Victorian
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Post by Victorian » Thu Feb 18, 2010 4:41 pm

Bling, you're pretty amazing, you know that!?

Oh, and btw, you BETTER be at the eplaya meet and greet at barbie death camp!

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LostinReno
Posts: 649
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Burning Since: 2009
Location: 4:30 & G

Post by LostinReno » Thu Feb 18, 2010 4:48 pm

ibdave wrote:I just skimmed through the post's and want to add this about Gasoline.
The new style gas cans are worth shit when it comes time to fill something with them. So pre-plan how your going to fill what you want to fill.(funnels ect..) I still have the old style cans and I baby the flew fillers to insure they last a long time..

Anyone have a source for the old style flex fillers?? The fuel engineers made the "caps threads" a different size and that fucked everything up.I'm in California and they like the no-fumes-no drip type fillers..

I carry about 25 extra gas in the trailer for BM and when snow skiing I take 5-10 gallons in the storage bays of the burnerRV for the honda eu2000 gennie... 8) 8) 8)
I believe you can still get the old style in Nevada. :wink:

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Bling
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Post by Bling » Thu Feb 18, 2010 5:54 pm

Victorian wrote:Bling, you're pretty amazing, you know that!?

Oh, and btw, you BETTER be at the eplaya meet and greet at barbie death camp!
You are so sweet! How could anyone resist Barbie Death Camp? The photos of it looked awesome last year. :D When's the M&G going to be?

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Victorian
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Post by Victorian » Thu Feb 18, 2010 7:38 pm

http://eplaya.burningman.org/viewtopic. ... highlight=

There's all you'll need for the Eplaya meet n greet.
Hopefully I'll see you there, like you, I've picked a few "MUST DO" things while attending my first year... Among a few choice art and camps, this is like, top of my list. For if I hadn't had eplaya, I wouldn't be making it at all this year.. Honestly. Snarkiness included!!! :D

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Bling
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Post by Bling » Thu Feb 18, 2010 7:46 pm

Cool. Our camp does something at dusk every day, so we may show up on Playa time, but hopefully we'll see y'all.

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Bling
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Post by Bling » Sun Feb 21, 2010 8:50 am

Lord Of Ruin wrote:Also, keep in mind you can PLAN for spoilage. That is, some items once cooked will keep just fine for a time. (remember cold pizza on the counter in college?) You can plan to consume some fresh things right at the front of the week, keeping your preserved stuff for later in the week.
This WOULD work for a lot of people, but unfortunately, I have an unhappy tendency toward food poisoning. Things that would be safe for most folks (like leftover pizza) aren't safe for me.
I'd buy trash compactor bags as the liners. They are very, very thick, as you don't want those to break! I bring a jug of kitty litter with odor control. Sprinkle some in the bottom to start (like a half cup!) and a little on top after your business.
Trash compactor bags. Never even heard of them. That's genius!! :D
On the fuel, I simply bought an extra bike lock cable from Harbor Freight or Home Depot and went through the handle of the gas can to lock it to the frame of the trailer. I put it in the shade a few feet behind the trailer but not under it.
Awesome! Never even thought of locking it to the trailer.

You could also more than likely "borrow" a few gallons or so from a friendly person if you really got stuck.
I did think of this, but it's definitely a last resort. Love the radical self-reliance aspect of BM. :D
Your question about the playa temps has been answered but I wanted to add that one GREAT layer to get are ski thermal underwear. These are no longer the bulky things of your grandpa, but instead are more form fitting. You can get them in both black and white, so depending on your costumes, you can add that as a base layer and really kick up your warmth without impacting your look. I always bring my black base layer for this reason.
I'll look for those...
On the coffee, an alternative (maybe better because espresso cubes have to be kept frozen to remain viable, probably) option might be the new Starbucks instant coffee. They sell it in individual coffee cup sizes and my wife, who is a coffee aficionado says it tastes quite good. Very simple to heat a cup of water and your cup is good to go. We use them camping.
Just saw these at Costco yesterday and came to the same conclusion!
On the glow in the dark rope (especially Harbor Freight's) be sure to check the strength rating. Most of their "cheap rope" is just that...cheap. It snaps clean during windstorms out there. I've seen the glow rope, as well as a variety of the poly ropes from there just snap during gusts...
Good to know!
On electrolytes, depending on your salt intake through food I'd say once or twice a day....as outlined in other threads, I do Emergen-C's electrolyte powder in a 12 oz bottle of water twice a day...when I rise, and before bed....like clockwork, never fail. I drink other plain water and a metric tonne of alcohol out there, so I'm fairly religious about it.
Thanks so much for the thoughtful reply!

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Bling
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Re: Regarding Fuel

Post by Bling » Sun Feb 21, 2010 8:53 am

Token wrote:http://www.burningman.com/installations ... orage.html

Also some general common sense items.

1. Fuel is valuable. Tag it and lock it. Cable locks work well to prevent oportunistic casual "borrowing". It happens.

2. Cover it with camo netting or some type of shade cloth.

3. Keep it away from your sleeping area.
Camo netting... I love these ideas! We were going to try to hit an Army/Navy surplus store today, but they're not open on Sundays, and we don't have one in town any more. Still have time, though...

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Elorrum
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Post by Elorrum » Sun Feb 21, 2010 6:00 pm

Your question about the playa temps has been answered but I wanted to add that one GREAT layer to get are ski thermal underwear. These are no longer the bulky things of your grandpa, but instead are more form fitting. You can get them in both black and white, so depending on your costumes, you can add that as a base layer and really kick up your warmth without impacting your look. I always bring my black base layer for this reason.
I love silk thermal underwear. it is so compactible, you can hold a long sleeved shirt balled up in your fist the size of a baseball. Easy to put in your playa pack for later in the evening, early in the morning? nice and warm too.

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Bling
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Post by Bling » Mon Feb 22, 2010 3:10 pm

Compactible is good. But I've found...FLEECE LEGGINGS! They are FABULOUSLY FUZZY! GOD, I love fuzzy stuff. We can wear these under our clothes and then they can be jammies. :D

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Bling
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Post by Bling » Tue Mar 02, 2010 11:19 am

Now I've learned about Tribe.com. I like the format of ePlaya better--when it's up and running. Which seems to be less and less lately...

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Artemis
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Post by Artemis » Mon Sep 13, 2010 1:32 pm

helpful stuff here

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Bling
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Post by Bling » Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:15 pm

Lots of good minds. :D The fleece leggings really were awesome. My potty with WAG bags worked perfectly--I bought a couple of Opsak odorproof bags (big ziplocs, really, meant for keeping bears out of food when you're camping. Important to reinforce the zips with duct tape, because otherwise they can pull apart) to dispose of the WAGs in. Perfect! We didn't end up doing vacuum-sealed food; we brought canned stuff and Tasty Bites. Worked great. We had an awesome burn! I hope y'all did, too.

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jella
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Camp Name: Dye with dignity
Location: Escondido, California

Post by jella » Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:00 pm

Bump ...cuz I think it's a good 411 thread 8)
Burning Man isn't about the stuff you see when you get there ....it's about the people that brought that stuff there

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Bling
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Post by Bling » Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:04 pm

Thanks, Jella. Actually, upon some more thought, we WILL plan to do vacuum sealed foods if we can come back this summer (job stuff is up in the air; we're not sure yet).

For us, the 3-day drive down & back plus all packaged foods on the Playa was just too many days w/o fresh food. So, MORE VEGGIES! And, now that we've tried out the dry ice blocks and know how well they work (MUCH better than slabs, BTW), I would trust them to keep food safely frozen for the duration.

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jella
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Camp Name: Dye with dignity
Location: Escondido, California

Post by jella » Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:27 pm

We found something that worked well. Vacuumed sealed seasoned roasts, my fave is tri tip teriyaki. We froze them for the drive out and just let them thaw in the fridge. Wrappped in heavy foil cooked slow (about an hr) on a little gas bbq. yummy !
Burning Man isn't about the stuff you see when you get there ....it's about the people that brought that stuff there

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shroom
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Location: Georgia

Post by shroom » Mon Mar 14, 2011 3:35 pm

love this thread!!! I read as much as I could before I went last year so I could be less of a noob as well.
"Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must first set yourself on fire."~~Fred Shero

particle
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Post by particle » Sun Mar 20, 2011 6:03 pm

Thanks for the fantastic thread! Gathering all the most common important advice into one place is so handy. ePlaya is full of useful information but it's hard to remember or find it all without doing something like this.

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jella
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Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2009 9:01 pm
Burning Since: 2009
Camp Name: Dye with dignity
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Post by jella » Thu Jun 09, 2011 4:17 pm

I love that if you just word your search enough different ways you'll find almost anything your looking for here

Eplaya=Oracle :wink:
Burning Man isn't about the stuff you see when you get there ....it's about the people that brought that stuff there

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