Recommendations for an old-lady-solo-new comer?

[Elliot]

Good point about dust in power tools.

[moonrise]

I bought 14 inch length, 3/8 lag bolts, with washers. I have yet to try them, I'm hoping my medium/decent quality hand tool type ratchet set will be enough. FIGJAM usues a power drill (I think). I would rather use my hand tool type ratchet set to put in and remove about 20 to 30 lags bolts. I haven't tried these on the playa, 2012 will be the year I do give them a go. I'd like to know if the ratchet wrench will do the job easily enough. What do ya's think?

[SquirrelHead]

This is what Moonrise is talking about!

http://www.wholesalebolts.com/hexheadlagscrews3/8x14.aspx

This size will fit THROUGH your grommets!

I'll be bringing a drill to install mine.

The lag bolts just screw in and stay secure? That would be awesome. Have you ever had any issues with this method?

[moonrise]

FIGJAM told me he uses the lags attached to his truck bumper, they hold well enough to drive the truck to tension the shade structure he built. I ordered a bunch of the lags and washers from that site, fast and goood prices.

FIGJAM made an efficient 'playa pod' (as well as the swamp cooler) playa pod is schweeet! There's a thread for it, it's worth looking up.

[Bob]

Jesus fuck, it's going to be a long year.

[Elliot]

Squirrelhead, when you discover a thread "in progress", it may serve you well to read previous posts before asking a question. Bob just told us that playa soil does NOT work like wood.

Moonrise, I do not understand about lag screws and the truck bumper. Mutually exclusive hardware, I should think.

[ygmir]

Squirrelhead, when you discover a thread "in progress", it may serve you well to read previous posts before asking a question. Bob just told us that playa soil does NOT work like wood.

Moonrise, I do not understand about lag screws and the truck bumper. Mutually exclusive hardware, I should think.

I wonder if Moon means "carriage bolts"?

[FIGJAM]

The edge of the tarp that extends clear down to the surface is where the lag bolts will be screwed in.

Once they get past the top 3", they should screw into the hard clay and hold secure because of the threads on the bolts.

Wind was about 25mph when the pic was taken.

[moonrise]

Yea, what FIGJAM said.

I also saw it done to hold ground tarps down at my camp in 2010. The lag bolts & washers ran through a grommet into the playa, it seemed to work well for the vets in our camp.

I always carry my ratchet set, but I'll probably bring my power drill to.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now that we've covered a few of the nuts and bolts, what else can we recommend to the OP?

[Elorrum]

Oh, I always bring a three-foot sledge and a four-foot jack, for the bigger stakes, but I want to play with my pneumatic toys!

two words: rotary hammer!!!!

[StevenGoodman]

Back to the original question!

Most any decent tent will work, if it is setup correctly. If it isn't really sturdy it will need some kind of wind block, and extra tie downs. Use you car, or your neighbor's truck, etc. One advantage of being in a group, it acts as a big collective wind block. Or get a really solid tent, like a Kodiak or Springbar.

Good stakes are important. Rebar is not required, I wouldn't even recommend rebar for a normal tent. I use military stakes:
[url]http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/cb/15-used-us-military-tent-stakes.aspx?a=935828[/url]

Much easier to use than rebar, and they hold great. Get good stakes and bring a 3lb one handed sledge. Whack them a few times and they will pull out without much trouble.

Shade is important, but even a heavy duty silver tarp over your tent will help in the mornings; but not much during the rest of the day. 2011 was so mild shade wasn't that big a deal; but some years it is absolutely a requirement. No matter what people say, good EZups will hold up on the playa. But they need to be secured well, might need additional guy lines, etc. But it needs to be a good solid EZup, not the cheap ones.

You can do Burning Man without cooking. Tortillas, lunch meat, cheese, fruit, etc. But a small one burner propane stove and one pot doesn't take much room, and you can have soup, etc. Bring a chair, a little folding table, etc, and make a little porch in front of your tent. Since ice is available a cooler full of food can easily last a week. Keep the cooler off the ground and don't put the fruit in the cooler!

Martini Steve

[Savannah]

PatiencePie might be amazed when she comes back and sees what has happened to her Introductory thread. Lots of good stuff here!

[Ratty]

PatiencePie, Welcome and you are a youngster. I've got 20 years on you and I go solo.

Bring the structure of your dreams. You'll get plenty of help. This year I decided that my 'building' is the biggest hassle of the entire week. I'm selling it and bringing 2 yard umbrellas. In my mind there's a metal plate I run my tire over and it has a pipe welded onto it. I'll get two of them and slip my umbrellas in when I'm at the camp looking for a shady spot. I sleep in the van on a comfy air mattress. I'm rarely there unless I'm eating or sleeping.

[Ratty]

The mention of age has inspired me to update my avatar. Yes, that's me in poodle mode.

[Patiencepie]

Thanks everybody for the awesome advice! Didn't Exactly mean "old"old when I said old! I just meant, well you know, when your 20 you just lift stuff and be all tough coz you think you can (my mom was 5 ft tall, bucked hay and said she could do any job any man could do, and ended up with 10 back surgeries), and I just know my limitations. As a person arriving by myself, just want to make sure I can deal with my structure! I have tons of good ideas now, thanks so much. This has given me a lot of ideas to work with and I have all summer to setup and experiment in my back yard. STOKED!!!

[Canoe]

... My $.02 is that you keep it simple your first year. Bring a camping tent. Bring some bigger stakes. As other have pointed out, rebar can be overkill for some applications. 12" spikes are good for basic tents.
Plan for max flexibility and simplicity and you will be fine. You will also discover how wonderfully helpful all your neighbors can be...

... Bring the structure of your dreams. You'll get plenty of help. ...

+ on keep it simple
what will you do if it's super windy for the first two days you arrive?
tipi and a tent for backup?
14' tipi will catch a lot of wind, you need to know it will stay up and not blow away (and into anyone)

Back to the original question!
Most any decent tent will work, if it is setup correctly. If it isn't really sturdy it will need some kind of wind block, and extra tie downs. Use you car, or your neighbor's truck, etc. One advantage of being in a group, it acts as a big collective wind block.
Shade is important, but even a heavy duty silver tarp over your tent will help in the mornings; but not much during the rest of the day. 2011 was so mild shade wasn't that big a deal; but some years it is absolutely a requirement. No matter what people say, good EZups will hold up on the playa. But they need to be secured well, might need additional guy lines, etc. But it needs to be a good solid EZup, not the cheap ones.

+ on that

also, although you need shade for your tent, don't be surprised if you end up invited to share neighbours shade

due to the relatively low cost, consider the cooling bucket detailed at http://eplaya.burningman.com/viewtopic.php?f=280&t=33842&start=1170