Burning Man - Tent and Shade

Same tent as 2016, but this is an updated 2017 photo.

I had a massive Coleman 8 person Instant Tent which was awesome, and afforded me the luxury of a queen size air mattress, space for totes of gear, and a table for cooking and eating on. The downside is it needed a bit of work to be playa-proofed.

This tent (and many in the Coleman line) have a number of mesh windows that open via a fabric flap on the interior. Some of the flaps zip all the way around, some do not, and of course that is a bit of problem. I solved this by purchasing some Nylon Patches at Walmart and cutting them down into strips and taping these open edges. I wasn't overly confident this would hold, so I also purchased some Gear Aid Tenacious Tape for Fabric Repair in case things went south on me, but surprisingly the patches held through some super strong winds, and were removable . . . which was surprising. For the sake of ease, I recommend the Tenacious Tape as it is already on a roll and appears to be easier to work with. 

When you go with a 14'x10' tent you suddenly run into the problem having to shade it. Most EZ-Up style shade structures max out at 13x13', and while guy-lined down properly are pretty safe, from what I read they can also destroy themselves as the legs and frame twist and bend in the wind. They are also large and add a ton of weight in transport, and that was a major concern. 

Ultimately I opted to go with a Tightshade structure which weighs in at about 25lbs and just about fits into a 5 gallon bucket. While large (10'x13'), it still required me to add some chains to extend the footprint beyond my tents. This meant using a few feet of chain on the corners which gave me plenty of space for the tent to reside underneath without being cramped.

I used additional shade cloth attached to the Tightshade's webbing to protect from the morning Sun and cover up more of the tent. Harbor Freight Tarp Clips worked to accomplish this and are super cheap. Unfortunately the shade cloth I was able to get before I left town was only 60% so the morning sun got me up and out by around 10am (better than the 8:30 which seemed common).

Thanks to the good old internet I stumbled across FIGJAM's Lag Bolt Discovery. I used zero rebar in my camp, everything was bolted down to the playa via 12" Lag bolts and 3 links of chain (for ratchet straps to attach to). I had to special order these as I couldn't find any locally. I found them at Bolt Depot. While not cheap, omg, talk about easy to use.  I used a compact (but capable) Ryobi impact drill I had laying around with an extension arm (so I wouldn't have to bend over to drive the screws into the ground). It took two of the smaller (but newer) Ryobi batteries to put in and remove 10 Lag bolts. That ground is mighty dense when you get down about 8"-10"! If you go this route, and I highly recommend it, bring extra batteries, a charging solution and a manual ratchet as well!