North Pole Party Shade

[Prospero's Ghost]

Glad the link helped! I have a feeling I might be in the mood for a beer on the playa...

[griffen]

Saw it for $88 @ Walmart but out of stock for a while...
only place left i see is

$173
http://www.kazoocamping.com/store-produ ... 93556.html

[Chessna]

We put ours up this weekend and it took MAX 15 minutes to put up with 3 people and a few nice gusts of wind.

Someone suggested taking a 15 foot rope and measuring out where you would need to place your stakes from the center pole and I think we'll definitely try this next time we set it up. We went by the directions this time, and I ended up having to hold up the center pole while the boyfriend put in the stakes. This worked fine for the nice and soft mountain ground, but I doubt he'll want to put in the rebar by himself on the playa. Using the measurement technique will allow us to both put in the stakes, then raise the center pole.

It was really nice and cool inside the structure with plenty of room for our 3 man tent, kitchen and a relaxing area. We could probably fit two tents under there if we wanted.

[mudpuppy000]

We put ours up this weekend and it took MAX 15 minutes to put up with 3 people and a few nice gusts of wind.

Someone suggested taking a 15 foot rope and measuring out where you would need to place your stakes from the center pole and I think we'll definitely try this next time we set it up. We went by the directions this time, and I ended up having to hold up the center pole while the boyfriend put in the stakes. This worked fine for the nice and soft mountain ground, but I doubt he'll want to put in the rebar by himself on the playa. Using the measurement technique will allow us to both put in the stakes, then raise the center pole.

It was really nice and cool inside the structure with plenty of room for our 3 man tent, kitchen and a relaxing area. We could probably fit two tents under there if we wanted.

Good idea, I was trying to figure out an easy way to set it up by myself.

[MistressSybs]

We put ours up this weekend and it took MAX 15 minutes to put up with 3 people and a few nice gusts of wind.

Someone suggested taking a 15 foot rope and measuring out where you would need to place your stakes from the center pole and I think we'll definitely try this next time we set it up. We went by the directions this time, and I ended up having to hold up the center pole while the boyfriend put in the stakes. This worked fine for the nice and soft mountain ground, but I doubt he'll want to put in the rebar by himself on the playa. Using the measurement technique will allow us to both put in the stakes, then raise the center pole.

It was really nice and cool inside the structure with plenty of room for our 3 man tent, kitchen and a relaxing area. We could probably fit two tents under there if we wanted.

yoink! Awesome tip! I think we'll be doing that too.

[Elorrum]

yep, tensioning and staking the bottom first is the only way for solo set up I could figure. trying to stake out the bottom when the pole is already up will never get it as taut. Plus, the pole just wants to tip over as you pull the tent out until you have 4 stakes and corners nailed down. I found the 15' marked rope was only needed for your starter two oposiing corners (whichever two you choose.)Then I was sort of using it as a guage to make sure the side corners were at least equidistant from the center. Then pull the two side corners out from that center line on each side and get them evenly taut. With two or more people, you have a lot more flexibility on how you approach it. Still, even with a few people, pulling the tent taut to the ground with the center pole already up is difficult.

[Psycho]

Can someone post the measurements of this thing when it's folded up in the carrying bag?

And maybe the UPC# from the box? That might help people track it down too...

[copilot602]

So I put up the tent and really like it. Came up with an idea to make a 34.5' loop from pvc that would sit above the 3 support pieces and connect to the privacy shade loops. This would push the tent out 1 1/2 feet at that 7 foot height, providing more head room and usable space. I am now attempting to get it made with fiberglass tent poles. Hopefully I will have that done this week and will let you know how it turns out!

[copilot602]

Can someone post the measurements of this thing when it's folded up in the carrying bag?

11" x 11" x 33"

And maybe the UPC# from the box? That might help people track it down too...

North Pole has maybe 10 tents left! They were keeping them for warranty replacement but since all the tents are out of warranty, they are selling them. This is where I got mine. Call them and they will have it to you in like five days, $130!
1-800-366-1599 in the USA and 1-800.625.8772 in Canada.

Good Luck!

If not there, here is the upc. Hope this helps!
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[Psycho]

Awesome, thanks for the info!

Now, if I can just get through to them tomorrow before 10 other people, that would be great. 8)

[griffen]

4 left

[Psycho]

Whew, got one (after a 30-minute wait on hold). They know us now... As soon as I mentioned the model number and said I wanted to order it, she just laughed. She said someone told her a few days ago that the Burning Man community wanted them and he could post about it in a forum, and it might generate some sales... 8) Copilot- they owe you a commission!

$129.98, shipping included! I was expecting to pay a shipping charge, man that's a great deal! Thanks again.

She said there's probably 2 left...

[protopoop]

sweet, just got mine after about 30 min on hold as well. They said still a couple left.

[copilot602]

So glad that worked out for everyone! I am very bummed, we had to cancel our Burn this year. My wife is preggers but we were supposed to have two months to go as of the Burn. The baby dropped on Tuesday and she is very slightly dilated so now she is on bed-rest till the birth and on zero-fun drugs.... Don't forget to let me know how it goes! My tent is going to make it to the Playa with our campmates and hopefully it will have the tent-pole ring installed! If I get it working before the burn I will post some pics!

Josh

[vf1kf]

Thanks, I just picked one up (after 30 min on hold) I searched high and low before finding your post, what a lifesaver!

If you see one up by a blue scion Xb, come on in and have a beer :D

[jneil]

First time poster, second time burner, long time lurker... just ordered one from the hotline! Looks like they still have some left... shipping is 5-10 business days, so I would definitely get on it now if you haven't already.

Thanks so much for the info!!

[FlaggerBoy]

Thank you so much for posting this information. After searching and searching for this shade structure, I found your post, and 30 minutes later it's on it's way!

The friendly sales rep was amused by my excitement, and let me know they're down to 3 left. A friend liked the design too, so now they're down to two.


:D

[gtbsquared]

... and they're out :(

anyone have an extra in the LA area?

[crazystray]

A friend and I both purchased these three burns ago and I've been using mine ever since, it's been through some rough weather and is still doing great! It's been interesting to watch the familiar dome of these things spread throughout the Playa. I saw two or three others the first year, last year I saw quite a few, this year I have a feeling they'll be everywhere!

My tip for peace of mind with these is to reinforce the center pole with rebar. There's a center hole on the bottom of the main pole, I drilled this out larger, and cut a piece of 1/2" rebar so it goes all the way into the bottom pole. (1 - 1.5' I think?) Then another 1.5' to go into the Playa. I don't bother with the four stakes on the little base platform, usually just put one in to keep it from turning.

[FlaggerBoy]

Thanks for the tip, crazystray. We'll see if we can do that with ours.

My canopy arrived just 2 days after ordering it, and we're very happy with it. We did a quick setup in the park, which took about 20 minutes, and the wind was challenging enough to have me re-reading this thread for wind-assembly tips.

I'm sewing more window panels to provide constant shade for our sleeping tent, and I'll probably make them long to provide full cover.

For the center pole anchor, I planned to cut an anchor plate out of plywood and drill a hole for the pole to stick through. I figured if I bolted the pole to the plywood and then rebar-anchored the plywood, the center pole would be secured.

So glad to have found this forum. Great stuff, guys.

[cynik]

Wow, these have become quite a hard to find commodity.

I'm still looking for one, so if anyone knows where to track one down....please says so. If your thinking of selling yours....I'll be on the playa and would be happy to purchase.

Fingers Crossed

(I live in Colorado)

[joya]

Just did a test run in the park... setting it up for the first time. Not as much shade as I'd hoped, but the additional side panel helped. Also the shade footprint will be moving throughout the day. Just more reason to go out and explore!

Overall I'm pleased, we'll see how she holds up on the playa.

[Bob]

In the interest of follow-up -- how did these things work out for ya'll? The small ones looked a bit cramped and saggy to me.

[FlaggerBoy]

[quote="Bob"]In the interest of follow-up -- how did these things work out for ya'll? The small ones looked a bit cramped and saggy to me.[/quote]

Here is my facebook album from the trip. the last several pictures show the tent after a week. [url]http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7 ... =677001071[/url] This is at the end of the week, after a few dust blows and some rain.

Bottom line: The shade structure was *fantastic*.

- There was a small amount of sag because I didn't lock the corners to the *bottom* of the rebar stakes, and they slid up a little during a dust storm. The rebar caps kept them from sliding off. Next time I'll secure them better to the bottom and keep things taut.

- We heard there were a couple big dust storms, although they didn't seem bad to me. They didn't trouble us under the shade - for example, we just slept through the post-burn storm and then went out afterward.

- To secure the center pole, I cut a length of 2x4 about 1 foot and a half long, and drilled a large center hole for the tent pole. Two smaller holes on the ends for 2 rebar stakes, and the center pole was locked down *tight*.

- Setting this up was easy with a little planning. We did our park setup and determined the pole-to-corner distance was 14.5 feet. We cut 2 ropes with end loops to this length. Then we anchored our center pole/footer, and measured off triangles using the two ropes to work around the perimeter. Each corner stake is 14.5 ft from the center pole, and 14.5 ft from the last stake, so it's easy to just work from point to point around the hexagon. Note - 14.5 was our length, and your tent may be different.

We were setting our tent up during the wind and dust monday afternoon, right before the rains hit and closed down the front gate. With one person beneath the tent and two outside sliding the corner loops over rebar, it went up very easily. The hardest part was adding the final pole segments after all the corners were secured, but even that just took a couple of minutes.

The canopy provided a *lot* of shade. My 9x13 dome tent fit underneath it after some finagling, and there was room for 2 or 3 more tents. I had extra camp gear behind the tent, and a couple chairs in front of it. We usually had a couple of bikes in there as well.

We took this forum's advice and made additional window covers for the canopy. I wanted to make sure the tent was protected from the sun as much as possible. The tent's rainfly kept the canopy a couple of inches off the tent, so we didn't get heat conduction.

I took a long piece of dark, thin silk and hung it around the lower edge of the windows, creating an inner "skirt". This was light enough to move with the breeze, but blocked a lot of light. It also gave the space a "room" feeling.

I used rebar to stake down the canopy, the canopy's stakes to hold down the tent, and the tent's stakes to tack down a tarp. Nothing pulled out at all. I threw a cheap carpet down on top of the tarp and everything felt clean and comfortable.

(The inside tent stayed clean because of a nylon panel sewed over its mesh walls. Thank you, instructables)

With earplugs and an eyemask, I had no difficulty sleeping into the morning or taking a nap in the afternoon. Next year I'll take a small tent fan to create a breeze for more coolness.

Overall I and the other members of my camp LOVED this canopy.

The biggest questions we heard from everyone who visited our camp was, "where did you get it?" and "WHY don't they make them anymore?"

I'll try to post this somewhere convenient, perhaps instructables, with pictures to explain everything better,

Cheers,
Everyon.

[lucky420]

It was the first thing we put up Monday afternoon. It worked out great, used rebar on 2 of the canopy corners and just used the stakes that it came with on the other corners. Had the hammock under it and was great for morning naps

[MistressSybs]

ours held up awesomely!

[Elorrum]

love it. year two and no problems. moved shade from sunup to sundown side and had plenty of shade. the plastic hooks are half broken, but a bit of string held it all together, just took that shade down when the wind came up. Since the winds this year and last haven't been much to write home about, I'm still hopeful it would do well in a bigger blow. not worried. rode the trike inside and parked it out of sight, nice feature of a larger shade structure. hung solar lights from the crossbars, hung the solar shower from the crossbars, hung drive in speakers from the crossbars... they are handy.

[teardropper]

Yeah, we put ours up Monday, with 16 1/2" rebar stakes. Put lounge chairs under it and was a great place to nap. We didn't really have much wind, I guess Monday late afternoon it blew a bit, but it was fine and did the job. We have two for our camp and some Costco car ports and all were good. On rereading this topic it seems the manufacturer might reconsider making it. Lot of interest on here, and could probably sell more.

[Token]

It was very tame during the event this year.

Saturday before gate, the storm front pretty much ripped up all EZ-ups and mangled them. We had to sawzall a couple to fold them back down for packout.

I didn't see any party shades out there on Saturday on our block but would love to hear if they survived the big wind.

[mudpuppy000]

I didn't put mine up till tuesday morning, but it was fine all week. When it started to get breezy I unzipped the screen portions and it seemed to put less strain on the structure. The pole seemed to flex in the wind a little but it held up ok. Not sure what it would do in a really bad windstorm.