Are wallmart tents OK 4 single use @ BM?

[HippieGoLightly]

I'm a NYer with zip camping experience looking forward to first roast...oops, I mean Burn. Anyway, I have no sleeping bag, tent, etc. Thought was to fly in day before and buy in Reno, but I'll drive myself crazy comparing stuff w/o knowing what I'm doing, assuming anything is left to buy.
So plan B is to shop online and ship to Reno hotel and then pick up. So: My questions are (aren't you glad I'm getting round to it)?
1. Are any of these Wallmart tents good enough? They seem affordable
http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng ... nstraint=0
2. Idea for shade structure to go over?
3. If I get an air mattress, do I have to blow up manually? I'm a little old for that. I assume there is no electricity (altho my camp has an RV). Can you blow up an air mattress with an RV? (grin) a bicycle pump? other.
Any suggestions most welcome. Since Tent, sleeping bag, air mattress will be the bigger stuff, I am looking fo rhints. I searched forum, but with all due respect, search engine is not that sweet.
Thanks for your help
Aging Hippie

[Savannah]

Consider a WalMart cot instead of an air mattress. They start at just $28. (I wish I could see their $44 cot on their site right now; it had a mattress). Air mattresses are chilly to sleep on, and the cheap ones deflate in the night.

If you can't take it home, ask a neighbor if they would like it, or donate it to the DPW on the way out of the event. You'll see the donation station off to one side on your way out of the event. The DPW stays afterward to tear down the city they came early to build, and to clean up any (most unfortunate) Matter Out Of Place. Please note they may not be in the mood to take it; sealed food, beverages, etc is the favorite gift.

The ePlaya search is not what it could be. When looking for advice, the best thing to do is type eplaya goggles or eplaya simple shade into google. The first hit will be ePlaya. To see only ePlaya, click More results from eplaya.burningman.com ».

That's how I got this custom url:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw= ... mple+shade

[junglesmacks]

This should be interesting.

[Shambala]

I will offer detailed help, but first, please tell me what you consider old to be. How old are you?

[aknod]

My first year I used a $30 walmart tent with no problems. Get an extra sheet and cover whatever you plan to sleep in all day/night, that keeps off the worst of the dust. There's no rain, so mostly the tent just holds some of the warmth in during the night, and heats up nicely once the sun comes up.

[snake]

a queen air mattress will allow you to flop around (if you're like me and need to flop)...a cot would be too confining to me. PLUS if you meet somebody...you'll have space to accomodate them. next...it's kinda tough to sleep directly on the airmattress as it can become cold and doesn't allow for circulation. some cheap buffer zone of blanket is good. then top with sheet and open sleeping bag to be pulled over during the chill of a 4 0'clock am...unless you plan on partying till dawn. then forgo sleeping bag.
any tent works. avoid plastic tarp for shade, cause when it starting blowing...the flapping sound is aggravating.

[SnowBlind]

I blow my airbed up with an electric pump that I run from an inverter from the car. But I think Coleman has an electric pump that runs of 4 D cells. I believe Walmart carries that pump too.

As far as the tents, I've used cheap tents like that, and so have several others in our camp. They are fine. I've had one that I used for four or five years out there before it needed replacing. And that was because we ripped it when we took a shade structure down.

They all *do* have a lot of mesh openings. At night I wish they wouldn't have those, in the mornings I wish they had more. Of course that means some dust gets in when it's windy, but it's manageable. If you buy an expensive 4 season tent, it can probably be closed up entirely, but that will make it hotter in the morning. Maybe much hotter.

So yeah, those tents are good. And if they get messed up, then you didn't mess up an expensive tent.

[Shambala]

The newer cheapie tents have very large mesh venting in them. In the case of camping on the playa, the LESS venting the better. There is a rain fly cover that goes over the tent, but with the larger venting, the tent will fill with dust. I have an older tent with much smaller mesh area, and I covered much of that with vinyl repair sheets to close it off the best I could.
Another important thing to do is set up your tent prior to coming to the playa. There are multiple reasons for doing this, such as: discover missing parts, know what you're doing even in the dark, be able to set up during a wind storm, replace shitty stakes with beefier ones, make sure that the mesh is not too large and that the tent will accommodate you and your stuff.

Bring a piece of material large enough to cover your sleeping bag and sleeping area, to keep the dust off of everything during the white-out dust storms.

[gyre]

No

[Sic Pup]

In my thrift store rummaging I've seen multiple air matresses and pumps (both 12v and battery) in virually every store.
At first blush that might seem like a good thing but there's a reason they're there.

I went with an air matress last year, had to fill it 2-3 times over the course of 8 days. Not the end of the world, but I am going with a cot this year.

I had found an inexpensive tent online last year that had zippers on all the openings for c.$100.
It's not the best, you can't stand up in it but for my purposes (sleeping only) it's fine.

[BBadger]

Consider a WalMart cot instead of an air mattress. They start at just $28. (I wish I could see their $44 cot on their site right now; it had a mattress). Air mattresses are chilly to sleep on, and the cheap ones deflate in the night.

Ugh, I hate cots. They sound awesome, but when you use them they usually crowd you into the center so your shoulders are cramped. It's also a pain to lay on your side (though how much worse than an air mattress is debatable). For either bedding, you should get a sleeping bag. You don't even need to sleep in it zipped up, but the insulation it provides will shield you from the cold of the air mattress.

An alternative is to get a foam pad. They're light, insulated, and cheap. The camping ones are also very portable.

The ePlaya search is not what it could be. When looking for advice, the best thing to do is type eplaya goggles or eplaya simple shade into google. The first hit will be ePlaya. To see only ePlaya, click More results from eplaya.burningman.com ».

The more direct way is to use the "site:" modifier (the URL you posted actually had that, but not explicitly). For example:

Code: Select all

site:eplaya.burningman.com tents


It works in those search boxes on top of browsers too.

[BAS]

Personally, I don't like cots-- then again, air mattresses aren't that great, either, and if you are tired enough, ANYTHING can be slept on. The biggest problem I have had with an air mattress is filling it to just the right amount. I have one of those battery operated pumps and they work fine. My brother has one which plugs into his car, and it works, too. I'm not familiar with what WalMart has and doesn't have, since I don't like to shop there. (I don't like their business practices, and I have had bad experiences with what they carry-- cheaper is not always better, despite the prevailing philosophy in this country.)

One thing you'll want to do is replace the tent stakes with longer, tougher ones. The tiny stakes which come with tents will pull out and let your tent blow away in the first strong wind-- and the playa has very strong winds very often. I used aluminum stakes, and they bent as they when into the ground, so if/when I go again I'm bringing steel stakes. YMMV depending upon what the playa is like this year. Also, use a camp vehicle as a wind block. Somehow I managed to use my car as one (despite being really out of it when I set up), and it really helped. And you really, really need a shade structure! And you need to practice setting it up ahead of time. Out on the playa during the heat of the day is not the place to find out your plan is all screwed up and won't work-- I learned this one the hard way. (Of course, later in the week a guy set up a tiny dome tent without a shade structure near me, and seemed to survive just fine-- then again, I think he was probably 20 or more years younger than me, which would help a lot.)


Good luck.

[Shambala]

......and speaking of tents, store your jugs of water in the corners of your tent. This will get them out of the way of things and help to keep your tent firmly on the ground during 60 mph winds.
Lay a light tarp on the ground to go under your tent. The tarp should NOT, NOT, NOT stick out of the sides of the tent or it will catch the rain and soak the inside floor of the tent. Have it folded just under the tent so it can't be seen, and the water will not get into your tent.

I use these steel stakes on the corners of my tent. They are smooth, but after the first year, they start to corrode and hold in the ground even better. (bring a few extras to either use or to gift)

and these lighter stakes on the middle sections to keep the tent tight.Even if these bend a little, the are not use to keep the tent anchored, just tight.

[Bob]

Jesus fuck.

[C.f.M.]

Go with Coleman, not Ozark Trail. Research how to seal mesh panels and properly stake it down. I know WalMart tents that have seen multiple trips to the Playa and other regionals.

Get the Main Stay...Home Stay? air bed with the built-in pump. I actually have three of these, now, they're great.

I also have the bed frame, it's in a tan bag, I put a queen mattress on it and store stuff underneath.

[Turnip]

Yes.

Is it just you?

Buy two. A smaller one, and a bigger.

Make sure the smaller will fit inside the bigger, with room to "breathe." Allow for air circulation, or you're just setting yourself up for an oven inside an oven.

Now tape the shit outta the mesh on the smaller one. Don't worry so much about the bigger one because that one's job is to breathe but offer shade.



We took this a set further our virgin year and cut an aligning hole in the two tents, and crammed a window unit air conditioner (ran off a generator) into the hole, taping up the edges with tesa tape. Worked pretty well. =D