Great Shade Structure Source!

[mdmf007]

78 feet is WAY to high.

[MozyBonz]

Yeah, you could always pound in steel fence posts and stretch shade cloth in between. I usually do something like that for a shade and/or wind break. Or improvise --


1999, blue lamp district I think.

Bob is correct.
lots of good shades out there..... it's OK to improvise



http://www.toad.com/gnu/clifs-shade-structure.html

[PrincessLea]

I just got the tent Sharky did on ebay for $98. The shipping was $29. However If I were to just buy it from justcamp.com for the $149, the shipping was only about $14. Thanks for the suggestion Sharky

[Rat Bastard]

Does anyone have experience with the shade structures that use 1" EMT conduit for poles and 3-way etc. junctions. Most have a flat roof with sloping sides. "Yes, please..." across the street from us had a setup like this with tarps on top and aluminet on the sides. It worked great.

I've found a couple of spots on the net that carry the pieces. How are these in the wind? Any good links for inexpensive parts? I am aware of the use of bungie balls for the tarps.

Our camp's needs are for privacy in our shade structure. Otherwise we could go with one of the open air ones shown. We have walls made out of sheets that we would be lining the structure with. Drawback is that when the wind kicks up we have to scrunch up the walls and tie them up.

[MozyBonz]

I used one over my 18x12 tent with camo



but for the price it cost me I would just get three good car ports and make a 20x30 space.

Wish I had a picture of ibdaves setup.

[Prospero's Ghost]

This goes a bit back to the original structure posted...
Having a structure such as this, would you necessarily need another tent to sleep in?
With a structure like this it would seem that another tent wouldn't really be necessary. If clothes and food/supplies were packed away in a "supply" tent, and you had a sleeping bag, would a sleeping tent be absolutely necessary?

I am a virgin so I am not speaking from experience.
Thanks!

[Ugly Dougly]

Time again to whip this one out:
http://www.strombergschickens.com/starp ... _index.php

[brickmaster]

I seek the advice of the mighty eplayans.

What i am thinking is that rather than buying a shade structure, I could instead purchase a large tent such as the one linked below. I could then cut away the walls on the north side and cut away about a 1-2 foot rim from the bottom of the rest of the tent. I would leave the corners and groundsheet intact so not to weaken the strength of the tent too much.
My main concern is that the tent would now catch more wind than it was intended to.
I would secure it, not just with rebar, but by lacing rope along the lines of the tentpoles. The end of the rope would be looped. I would connect the rope to the rebar using straps that can be tensioned as needed during a storm.

I'm thinking that as long as i don't cut across an joint, then it should not tear.

Opinions?

http://www.target.com/Coleman-Montana-B ... rh=&page=1

[AntiM]

We had a 70 mph wind gust snap our Coleman five-man tent poles while at a Utah burn. It might work, but you've designed yourself a dust catcher.

[CapSmashy]

I seek the advice of the mighty eplayans.

What i am thinking is that rather than buying a shade structure, I could instead purchase a large tent such as the one linked below. I could then cut away the walls on the north side and cut away about a 1-2 foot rim from the bottom of the rest of the tent. I would leave the corners and groundsheet intact so not to weaken the strength of the tent too much.
My main concern is that the tent would now catch more wind than it was intended to.
I would secure it, not just with rebar, but by lacing rope along the lines of the tentpoles. The end of the rope would be looped. I would connect the rope to the rebar using straps that can be tensioned as needed during a storm.

I'm thinking that as long as i don't cut across an joint, then it should not tear.

Opinions?
p/B0006U9PE6/qid=1206968616/ref=br_1_6/601-2215381-4122540?ie=UTF8&node=13848901&frombrowse=1&rh=&page=1

Tents like that rely heavily on the entire design to maintain any semblemce of structural integrity.

In addition to AntiM's dust catcher reality, it would also significantly weaken the remaining structure and would likely tear to shreds in the first good afternoon of sustained winds.

[Teo del Fuego]

but for the price it cost me I would just get three good car ports and make a 20x30 space.

One of my chores this weekend was to price a 3/4 inch conduit shade structure for my mother of all tents which measures 9' x 18'. Do you have an idea what yours actually cost and how many sticks you used?

Oh yea, is there such thig as a 4-way cross connector for 3/4 inch EMT?

[Bob]

Oh yea, is there such thig as a 4-way cross connector for 3/4 inch EMT?

Two short lengths of 1" EMT bolted together in the middle?


Re: any family tent, agree w/ leaving it intact, and pitching it in the middle of a ring of vehicles or a windbreak fence.

[Dork]

Does anyone have experience with the shade structures that use 1" EMT conduit for poles and 3-way etc. junctions. Most have a flat roof with sloping sides. "Yes, please..." across the street from us had a setup like this with tarps on top and aluminet on the sides. It worked great.

I made a flat-root shade using 10' lengths of 1" EMT and economy 5-way connectors (didn't cost much more than 3-way and allowed me to add on in any configuration I want) and it was great. I just used silver tarps and ball bungees for the cover. Occasionally a bar would pop out of the connector because the screw things aren't very secure, but the tarps held things together well enough until I could get up there and put them back.

I don't think a sloped roof is really necessary for what we're doing.

3/4" EMT would probably work, but I'm sure I would use 10' lengths between uprights - you might need to go a little shorter. I got the connectors and bungees on Ebay.

[Teo del Fuego]

Two short lengths of 1" EMT bolted together in the middle?

I was thinking more along the lines of a pre-fabricated 4-way junction similar to PVC couplings, except of course, made out of metal. The poster above makes me think he found three-way couplings for EMT

[Rat Bastard]

Here's some links I found for EMT conduit connectors.

http://www.tarps.com/chrome2.htm
http://www.shelters-to-go.com/flatgalvanized1.shtml

If someone finds a cheaper source or better quality, post it here!

[MozyBonz]

. RB is correct that is what I used. My resource was the swap meet down the street. Chinese lady uses them for her set up and had a box full. A bag of the ball Bungee Straps was $20 per100 (I ended up using plastic zip ties) fittings were four or five bucks each with the 1â€

[Teo del Fuego]

thanks RB, that's what I was looking for

[QuintaEssentia]

Sorry to resurrect the thread, but how did the shade structure turn out for you Sharky?

[Toolmaker]

Here's some links I found for EMT conduit connectors.

http://www.tarps.com/chrome2.htm
http://www.shelters-to-go.com/flatgalvanized1.shtml

If someone finds a cheaper source or better quality, post it here!

I used 2nd hand stuff from shelters to go and can vouch for quality. Still looking for someone cheaper. They do have an awful lot of parts there of different sizes. Good source for dome stuff too.

[phil]

Does anyone have experience with the shade structures that use 1" EMT conduit for poles and 3-way etc. junctions. Most have a flat roof with sloping sides.

This is at Dark Skies outside Vegas the other year. We had only one side flap up. EMT pipes and three-way joints, flat tarp roof, homemade side flaps. Only the sunset flap is down in this photo.

We stopped using a flat-roof shade the very last time it rained.

[vargaso]

Hey, not sure if anyone's still reading this thread, but I thought I'd chime in. For 2008, we did a simple quonset hut style structure using schedule 40 PVC and a 10x20 ft tarp. I can't claim credit for the design, I found it here: http://www.chromatest.net/Lovemonkey/.

Anyway, it is amazingly easy to set up. My wife and I did it in about 20 minutes on the playa (we did a test run in our backyard), but it could easily be done by one person. The total cost was around 100 bucks. One of the cool things about it is you can enlarge the size easily by adding spines. So here's a picture of it in action: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vargaso/2819835127/. It held up great during the wind/dust storm on Saturday. I highly recommend it. One of my issues with the really cool looking tension-type structures is that the actual shade area is very small, whereas with a quonset-style, you get more shade for your buck.

Anyway, it's always interesting to see the creative ways people battle the elements out on the playa. It's half the fun of Burning Man, as far as I'm concerned.

[threat]

Hey, not sure if anyone's still reading this thread, but I thought I'd chime in. For 2008, we did a simple quonset hut style structure using schedule 40 PVC and a 10x20 ft tarp. I can't claim credit for the design, I found it here: http://www.chromatest.net/Lovemonkey/.

Anyway, it is amazingly easy to set up. My wife and I did it in about 20 minutes on the playa (we did a test run in our backyard), but it could easily be done by one person. The total cost was around 100 bucks. One of the cool things about it is you can enlarge the size easily by adding spines. So here's a picture of it in action: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vargaso/2819835127/. It held up great during the wind/dust storm on Saturday. I highly recommend it. One of my issues with the really cool looking tension-type structures is that the actual shade area is very small, whereas with a quonset-style, you get more shade for your buck.

Anyway, it's always interesting to see the creative ways people battle the elements out on the playa. It's half the fun of Burning Man, as far as I'm concerned.

Wow, that's exactly what we were looking for -- thanks for the links!

[kINGJESTEr]

Hello, Today I actually put together the monkeyHut per instructions on the website. I constructed it with the default 10x20 size tarp size. Everything up to attaching the tarp on one side with 4" bungee balls was perfect. By the time I went to attach the other side, I had about a 10" gap. between the end of the tarp and the last rib.

Obviously, my 4" bungee balls were way to short. I was going to order 9" or 11" bungee balls today. I was thinking 9" might be good because I can probably stretch both sides enough to fit tight. Or would it be better to be safe and go with 11" bungees?

I'm paranoid that if I get 9" it may be to short still vs 11" balls with may possibly be to long and 'cause a loose fit which would be bad for in wind. But my brain kinda says go with 11" which basically would be 5" of extra space on each side and kinda perfectly match the gap, I had.

I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks!

[dewnorth]

The tension, star shade structures mentioned above look good and those posting comments seem to like them. Some of the manufacturers offer different colors.

1) Would white, or yellow as a second choice, might be the color to get for coolness?

2) Would they be even better if they were silver, reflective like the heavy tarps at home improvement stores?

[Bob]

Doesn't matter, everything gets covered w/ dust. Pick a colour you like.

[stack]

"I had about a 10" gap. between the end of the tarp and the last rib. "

I had a similar problem, only it was too slack. You might want to measure the length of the spine and then measure your tarp. Either your frame is a little bit larger than the tarp (mine was too small & I had to replace one piece), or you didn't have it put together tight enough. If you trim some material off one of the spine pieces it will probably fit better and you won't have to spend anymore $ on it.

Also, here's some more info that I was really glad to have regarding set up and rebar placement. I'm found this on the tribe site and specifically a crazy alien dude named Alan that deserves full credit as these are his words: Thanks Alan!

"Make a loop at the end of string (or equivalent).
Make marks at 5', 10', 12', 15' 7.5", 17' and 22'
Drive a stake (rebar) where you want the front left to be
Loop the string around the stake
Run the string down the left side, driving in the two other left side stakes at the 5' and 10' marks
Have the string wrap around the last stake and move towards where the back right stake should be
swing an arc like a compass where the 22' mark is (12' from the last stake)
lift the string over the two left stakes so it's a straight line to the first stake
drive the back right stake where the 15' 7.5" mark intersects the arc (this makes a perfect right angle)
swing an arc at the 12' mark around where the front right stake would be.
Move the loop to the back left stake and wrap around back right stake and drive a stake where the 22' mark crosses the arc for the front right stake the middle right at the 17' mark and voila, you're done. "

It took me a try or two to figure it out, but it really works. Hope all that helps!

Good luck, see you on the playa!

[JGleason]

I wrote Sharky to see how his NorthPole tent held up and he was kind enough to send the follow report. I have decided to post it so that all can benefit.

Good morning!

Glad to see my old posts are getting some use still :)
I guess it's time to start planning for this year's burn... kind of tough with all of the wind and rain up here in WA state right now though.......... ahhhhh Playa dreams!

We skipped the Playa last year and took a break to come at things new this year. Not really sure if that was a good idea or not. we REALLY regretted it when it rolled around in August. Just bought tickets for Sweet Pea and myself for this year's burn, so I guess it's official, we're headed back again this year for year 6....... and yes, the North Pole tent is headed back for another stint in the dust.

I would highly reccomend this tent. We used a 16 foot dome with two parachute coverings for five years and it was a tough desicion to let that go and commit to the North Pole tent without ever having seen one on the Playa. I can tell you right now, we are sticking with the North Pole tent! It held up beautifully without a tear or hitch! We are sold and committed to using this tent for years to come!

I guess I'll just list the pro's we experienced:

Extremely well sewn with heavy, quality fabrics.
Goes up fast and easy with two people. (15 minutes)
Super stable in high winds.
Good shade footprint.
Easy in and out access.
Looks cool!
Comes down and rolls up fast and easy as well!
Easy to transport, it all fits in a duffel bag.
Pretty light weight (compared to our dome with 25, 10 foot struts & chutes).
We camp with a number of folks and we all share the shade. We just "circle the wagons" and camp in a circle around the tent. Everyone has some privacy from the others that way and we all have easy access to the common living area.......

Drawbacks (not really much here):

The wind and dust can blow right through, so if you need shelter from the dust storms, you'll have to have an escape location to fall back on (we have a little 10 foot travel trailer).

That's about it for drawbacks :)

Tips:

When you set it up, use the small stakes that came with it to get the perimeter where arranged right and snug (you will have to move stakes to adjust). When you get it where you want it, then go around, one by one, and substitute the issued stakes with rebar stakes ( I use 2 1/2 foot heavy guage) and top with a tennis ball with a hole poked in it. I do not bend over the tops of the rebar into "candy-canes". Leave them straight and use a tennis ball cap. The bent over ones are a pain in the ass to hammer in!

Bring a sledge hammer for the rebar stakes. Bring vice grips to get the rebar back out. You can use the vice grips to twist and loosen the rebar and then use a hammer to tap on the grips to reverse-hammer them out. Works great.

Set it up at home before you head to the Playa so you can see how it goes up and make sure you have all of the parts!

We put down a big canvas tarp on the ground before setting up the tent so that we have a "clean" floor for the week. It gets trashed, but you can at least sweep it off. With just Playa for the floor, it turns into a big, loose, dust pile. Tack down the corners of the tarp with those big 6-8 inch spike nails you can buy at the hardware store.
Bring a broom to sweep the tarp.

If you use it on the Playa for more than one year, be sure to go through the at-home set up routine each year to inspect for damage, make repairs and to make sure you have all your parts........... you'll never get it clean, so if you want one for "default-world" camping off-Playa, then buy two!

Here's a link to my blog... if you go to the 2008 postings, I have a picture of the tent set up in my yard to give you a better idea of how it looks. I can email on-play pics of it set up with details if you think you want them.........


http://sharky-fourbees.blogspot.com/


First year on the Play...... there is only one first time! You will love it! Leave all your expectations at home and just let it unfold! Every year the Playa gives us a new and different experience..........

Take care and enjoy the ride!

Sharky

Port Townsend, WA.

[C.f.M.]

I have been looking at this to add as a white-out chill space.

no floor

Mountain Hardwear: Stronghold 4.5 Meter Dome Tent - The Stronghold is our most impervious, double-walled, expedition base camp shelter for day-to-day use in the Antarctic or Himalayas. Strongholds dome shape minimizes wind load over its surface area and three zippered doors, large roof vent and five perimeter vents help circulate air. Perimeter floor-band creates waterproof seats when snow benches are carved. Bar-tacked stress points and nylon pack cloth reinforcements add durability to the structure supported by super strong Yunan Scandium Expedition PF poles.

That's what I took last year. Saw one other camp with one.

As a single camper, it was pretty sweet.

[Elorrum]

I am covetting a mountain hardware strong hold. did you find one used? expensive new.

North pole party shade shelter. works fine. exceeded my expectations. see other threads extolling its virtues.

[Elorrum]

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