Tying your Yurt down 101
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Icarus
Aug 16, 2010, 11:47:48 AM8/16/10
to hexayurt
Got this from another group...
This document is also saved as a word .doc with the pictures, herehttp://f1.
grp.yahoofs. com/v1/AC5nTMhPI Wcii_BfbMhxHP_ keJdr9bXiBzIJTEn
bU6rolVwgJMlUkFN 0Bytt5TKrvIeblqe Opg20Mgoq9xhQiQ/ THE%20WIND% 20CARES
%20NOT. doc
THE WIND CARES NOT
Tying your shit down 101
The wind cares not. It cares
not that you didn’t sleep, or eat, or drink, or shit. It doesn’t care
that you
are having the best time of your life, or that you are having the
worst day
ever. The wind is completely indifferent to you and your needs and
feelings. The
wind can tear your shit down, break it into pieces, and completely
ruin your
day, IFyou let it.
This article is about tying
things down in the wind.
I am neither a structural
engineer nor materials specialist. I am a 26 year veteran of live show
production, from major concerts to theme camps and a lot of stuff in
between. Over that time I’ve picked up a few things
and learned a lot about what the wind does, how it does it, and ways
to prevent
it from doing those things. I’ve seen over $100,000 in concert
lighting truss
collapse, fold inward and come crashing down (thankfully no one was
standing
under it), and I’ve seem $20 shade structures hold up to sustained
hurricane
force winds over a period of days, and just shrug it off.
The difference is the way in which the structure is tied down or
secured. The difference is also weather
or not the structure is allowed to oscillate
and how much. This craft is known as ‘guying’ and HOW you decide to
‘guy’
your structure can make the difference between a ‘simple’ whiteout, or
a major
disaster out on the playa. Do it right and your shade will hold up to
Godzilla
on a meth binge, do it wrong and a 20 mph gust will bring it down on
top of
you, your tent, your car, your neighbors car, etc.
One thing to remember about
wind loading is that the resultant force applied increases
exponentially as the
wind speed increases. That means doubling the wind speed causes a FOUR
TIMES
INCREASE in applied loading. So, just because your shade stood up to
last
night’s whiteout does not mean it will hold up today. The three keys
to keeping
your shade up at Burning Man are
Solid and redundant guy linesSolid ground anchor pointsDaily/
(sometimes)hourly maintenance of the
entire system
SOLID AND REDUNDANT GUY
LINES.
This is the main way I see
people slacking on their shade so I’m going to tackle it first.
Let’s take a look at a
simple 4 legged square shade structure. Please excuse my crappy
drawing, I have
other talents.
This is a very common type
of shade canopy used all over the place and can range from a simple
$30 canopy
from a camping store, up to more expensive ‘easy-up’s’, and on up to
the Costco
garage carports or even larger structures. Whatever type the object
is, they all react
pretty much the same to wind loading. That is to say, they give or
flex, or
bend slightly as the load is applied. When the force lightens up, the
structure
returns to its original shape/position. Kind of. This back and forth
motion is
often what starts the failure of the object and is known as an
oscillation. (think: “wonka wonka wonka”
action in the wind). We’ve all seen this happening. Your goal when
tying
anything down is to prevent this oscillation from occurring.
What’s happening is that the
oscillation is loosening the tie downs, and the internal joints of the
structure itself in many cases. Once that happens it’s usually only a
matter of
time before the structure gets bent or destroyed for the wind cares
not.
Ok, so we need to tie this object
down and prevent oscillation from happening? We all get that, but the
confusion
often comes from HOW to tie it down and in what configuration? You
have many
choices and they all have their strengths and weaknesses.
The strongest way to tie a
square object like this shade structure down would be with an 8 point
guy plan.
In this view you are looking straight down from above.
In this scenario 8
individual guy lines are run out from the top corners of the shade
structure to
presumably secure stakes of some sort in the ground. More on that
later. This
is the strongest but also most labor intensive of the way to guy this
shade
canopy down. Pros: Strongest and most wind proof. Cons: Labor/
materials intensive,
takes more time, uses a lot of real estate
Quite often I see people
cutting corners on this design and just going with a 4 point tie down
plan as
seen below.
4 points, while faster to
set up and maintain has one serious design flaw; if one of the guys on
the upwind
side of the structure fails or comes loose, that corner of the object
is then
subjected to a prying action (Torsional loading) and the danger of a
failure of
the structure increases. Inevitably, this failure will occur A: when
you’re out
on the playa and not home to stop it. Or B: when you’re just barely
asleep in
your tent under it. 4 point Pros: quicker to set up, uses less real
estate than
8 point. Cons: less redundancy, higher likelihood of failure if one of
the
lines comes loose.
Another option is one of “Internal
Guying”, and though I don’t see it used very often, it’s actually a
very solid
and elegant way of securing your shade structure against wind loading
and
oscillations. Take a close look at the center camp structure when
you’re out
there, it is internally AND externally guyed down. That sucka isn’t
moving. Internal
guying creates an X pattern on each face, from the corner anchors that
the legs
are tied into (you ARE staking the legs themselves down too, aren’t
you?)
There are two main
advantages of the internal guy system. First is the redundancy of all
of the
ties working together to tightly hold the structure down, and second
that it
takes up no more real estate that the shade structure itself. This is
of
particular importance in crowded theme camps where tent camping space
is at a
premium or when cars are parked close by.
Internal guying Pros: takes
up less real estate, less materials: 4 points hold the entire
structure down.
Cons: corner stakes need to be 100% bomb proof, this usually means
going to
larger and harder to remove stakes or rebar (see below).
A final word on guy lines is
the angle that they come off the structure at. Ultimately you’d want
them at a
very shallow angle spreading way out to the sides to prevent Torsional
loading
and oscillations. But again the real estate this consumes would be
huge. So
most of us end up with somewhere around a 45 degree angle, which is
adequate.
Just keep in mind that LESS than 45 degree angle (like almost straight
down) is
increasingly useless. All this does is apply downward pull (load) on
the
structure but it does nothing to prevent oscillations; the great
destroyer of
shade at Burning Man. The rule is; 45 degrees outward or greater on
the
guy lines.
SOLID GROUND ANCHOR POINTS.
By far the most secure
anchor point you can create is about 2 feet of rebar pounded down
almost flush
with the playa and leaning outward against the direction of pull.
Rebar is a
pain in the ass to remove however at the end of the week in many cases
it’s
almost TOO solid of an anchor. The dozens of pieces left stranded on
the BRC
site every year are a testament to this. To be honest, I’ve tied a $30
shade
canopy down with 10 inch yellow plastic tent stakes and had no
problems at all
the entire week. (see maintenance, below) Whatever stakes you use,
they’ve got
to be bomb proof. If one of your key stakes comes out during the
whiteout
you’re fucked. The wheel of your car or even a trailer hitch can be a
great tie
down point too.
The three main things to
consider about ground anchors are
SOLIDEasy to remove on load outMarkeable (water bottles, tennis balls,
pool
noodle cut into chunks) or driven flush with the playa surface to
prevent
injury.
MAINTENANCE:
No matter what guy system
you end up with or what ground anchors they are tied to, it all means
nothing
without regular maintenance. This one single thing is the second
greatest
source of destroyed shade at Burning Man after improper guying to
begin with. Read
this again: MAINTENANCE IS THE KEY TO KEEPING SHADE STANDING
There’s a lot going on out
here and you’re sleep deprived, dehydrated, impaired, distracted, or
otherwise
not paying attention to little stuff like what’s going on with the guy
system
on your shade. Don’t make this mistake because it means giving the
wind time to
work on and destroy your shade.
Slack lines mean
oscillation, oscillation means failure and collapse.
Each and every day,
sometimes several times a day, you MUST walk around and inspect all of
your guy
lines. If they’re loose then retighten them and inspect the ground
anchors too.
Are they coming up out of the ground? Has the entire structure moved/
slid
sideways causing slack in some of the lines? Maybe the basic geometry
of the
entire structure has changed in some way. Physically LOOK at all the
pieces
that make up your shade; are they bending or distorting? Did one of
them slip
out of its connections? This is all basic common sense stuff, but
unfortunately
4 days into Burning Man, common sense can be in short supply. How
important is
your shade to you? To me it’s right up there behind water so I spend a
lot of
time making sure my shade will hold up to Godzilla on meth, in the
whiteout, in
the dark.
TIE LINE MATERIALS. Almost
ANY decent string will work for simple shade guy lines. You don’t need
one
million pound test Kevlar/spectra line.
Basic parachute cord or even clothes line available everywhere will
work
just great. I like white because it’s easier to see at night. I have
seen 1
inch webbing ratchet straps used as well. They tend to oscillate in
their own
unique way in the wind, but they are easy and fast to re tighten and
they are
cheap.
KNOTS
Here are two knots that you
MUST learn when tying shit down.
The Truckers Hitch allows
you to adjust the tension on a line while it’s under tension. That
means you
can re tighten your guy lines without completely undoing them.
http://www.animated knots.com/ truckers/ index.php
and the tossed of ‘thrown’
clove hitch. This knot allows you to precisely tension and set a line
around a
stake, pole, or a carabineer. Tied as a ‘slip version’ it is a very
quick and
secure way to fix the end of a line.
http://www.gorp. com/hiking- guide/travel- ta-hiking- sidwcmdev_
056181.html
Both of these knots mainly
work at the bottom or anchor end of the guy line. Up top at the canopy
all that
matters is that the knot stays tied and can be untied on load out so
I’m not so
picky about what knot you use up there. “If you can’t tie a knot, tie
a lot!”
FLAG YOUR GUY LINES!!
Getting “clothes lined” at 3 in the morning going out for a pee sucks.
Running
into a guy line on your bike at full speed could cause serious injury.
Our eyes
are tuned to movement so tie little pieces of cloth, tape, or
something that
will flap in the breeze to your guy lines so that you and others can
see and
notice them both day and night.
SET UP YOUR SHADE AT HOME A
COUPLE OF TIMES.
One of the biggest mistakes
I’ve seen newbies make is buying a brand new shade canopy or tent and
taking it
out to the Black Rock for it’s first time set up. Don’t do that. Even
if you
have to go over to a local park and set it up a few times, get
familiar with
your shade BEFORE you leave home. Often time the factory stakes are
completely
useless. There’s not enough or even any tie line included, or other
problems.
(“pole A goes into pole B, um…. WTF is Pole B?!” get your stuff down
to a
system and include spare everything too. If you take an hour or two in
advance
of the event figuring this out you won’t have to do it drunk, in the
white out,
at night, alone. Hear that thumping sound? That’s Godzilla, he’s on a
bender
again…..
Everything in this document
is basic common sense stuff.
Thanks for reading have a
safe trip!
This document is also saved as a word .doc with the pictures, herehttp://f1.
grp.yahoofs. com/v1/AC5nTMhPI Wcii_BfbMhxHP_ keJdr9bXiBzIJTEn
bU6rolVwgJMlUkFN 0Bytt5TKrvIeblqe Opg20Mgoq9xhQiQ/ THE%20WIND% 20CARES
%20NOT. doc
THE WIND CARES NOT
Tying your shit down 101
The wind cares not. It cares
not that you didn’t sleep, or eat, or drink, or shit. It doesn’t care
that you
are having the best time of your life, or that you are having the
worst day
ever. The wind is completely indifferent to you and your needs and
feelings. The
wind can tear your shit down, break it into pieces, and completely
ruin your
day, IFyou let it.
This article is about tying
things down in the wind.
I am neither a structural
engineer nor materials specialist. I am a 26 year veteran of live show
production, from major concerts to theme camps and a lot of stuff in
between. Over that time I’ve picked up a few things
and learned a lot about what the wind does, how it does it, and ways
to prevent
it from doing those things. I’ve seen over $100,000 in concert
lighting truss
collapse, fold inward and come crashing down (thankfully no one was
standing
under it), and I’ve seem $20 shade structures hold up to sustained
hurricane
force winds over a period of days, and just shrug it off.
The difference is the way in which the structure is tied down or
secured. The difference is also weather
or not the structure is allowed to oscillate
and how much. This craft is known as ‘guying’ and HOW you decide to
‘guy’
your structure can make the difference between a ‘simple’ whiteout, or
a major
disaster out on the playa. Do it right and your shade will hold up to
Godzilla
on a meth binge, do it wrong and a 20 mph gust will bring it down on
top of
you, your tent, your car, your neighbors car, etc.
One thing to remember about
wind loading is that the resultant force applied increases
exponentially as the
wind speed increases. That means doubling the wind speed causes a FOUR
TIMES
INCREASE in applied loading. So, just because your shade stood up to
last
night’s whiteout does not mean it will hold up today. The three keys
to keeping
your shade up at Burning Man are
Solid and redundant guy linesSolid ground anchor pointsDaily/
(sometimes)hourly maintenance of the
entire system
SOLID AND REDUNDANT GUY
LINES.
This is the main way I see
people slacking on their shade so I’m going to tackle it first.
Let’s take a look at a
simple 4 legged square shade structure. Please excuse my crappy
drawing, I have
other talents.
This is a very common type
of shade canopy used all over the place and can range from a simple
$30 canopy
from a camping store, up to more expensive ‘easy-up’s’, and on up to
the Costco
garage carports or even larger structures. Whatever type the object
is, they all react
pretty much the same to wind loading. That is to say, they give or
flex, or
bend slightly as the load is applied. When the force lightens up, the
structure
returns to its original shape/position. Kind of. This back and forth
motion is
often what starts the failure of the object and is known as an
oscillation. (think: “wonka wonka wonka”
action in the wind). We’ve all seen this happening. Your goal when
tying
anything down is to prevent this oscillation from occurring.
What’s happening is that the
oscillation is loosening the tie downs, and the internal joints of the
structure itself in many cases. Once that happens it’s usually only a
matter of
time before the structure gets bent or destroyed for the wind cares
not.
Ok, so we need to tie this object
down and prevent oscillation from happening? We all get that, but the
confusion
often comes from HOW to tie it down and in what configuration? You
have many
choices and they all have their strengths and weaknesses.
The strongest way to tie a
square object like this shade structure down would be with an 8 point
guy plan.
In this view you are looking straight down from above.
In this scenario 8
individual guy lines are run out from the top corners of the shade
structure to
presumably secure stakes of some sort in the ground. More on that
later. This
is the strongest but also most labor intensive of the way to guy this
shade
canopy down. Pros: Strongest and most wind proof. Cons: Labor/
materials intensive,
takes more time, uses a lot of real estate
Quite often I see people
cutting corners on this design and just going with a 4 point tie down
plan as
seen below.
4 points, while faster to
set up and maintain has one serious design flaw; if one of the guys on
the upwind
side of the structure fails or comes loose, that corner of the object
is then
subjected to a prying action (Torsional loading) and the danger of a
failure of
the structure increases. Inevitably, this failure will occur A: when
you’re out
on the playa and not home to stop it. Or B: when you’re just barely
asleep in
your tent under it. 4 point Pros: quicker to set up, uses less real
estate than
8 point. Cons: less redundancy, higher likelihood of failure if one of
the
lines comes loose.
Another option is one of “Internal
Guying”, and though I don’t see it used very often, it’s actually a
very solid
and elegant way of securing your shade structure against wind loading
and
oscillations. Take a close look at the center camp structure when
you’re out
there, it is internally AND externally guyed down. That sucka isn’t
moving. Internal
guying creates an X pattern on each face, from the corner anchors that
the legs
are tied into (you ARE staking the legs themselves down too, aren’t
you?)
There are two main
advantages of the internal guy system. First is the redundancy of all
of the
ties working together to tightly hold the structure down, and second
that it
takes up no more real estate that the shade structure itself. This is
of
particular importance in crowded theme camps where tent camping space
is at a
premium or when cars are parked close by.
Internal guying Pros: takes
up less real estate, less materials: 4 points hold the entire
structure down.
Cons: corner stakes need to be 100% bomb proof, this usually means
going to
larger and harder to remove stakes or rebar (see below).
A final word on guy lines is
the angle that they come off the structure at. Ultimately you’d want
them at a
very shallow angle spreading way out to the sides to prevent Torsional
loading
and oscillations. But again the real estate this consumes would be
huge. So
most of us end up with somewhere around a 45 degree angle, which is
adequate.
Just keep in mind that LESS than 45 degree angle (like almost straight
down) is
increasingly useless. All this does is apply downward pull (load) on
the
structure but it does nothing to prevent oscillations; the great
destroyer of
shade at Burning Man. The rule is; 45 degrees outward or greater on
the
guy lines.
SOLID GROUND ANCHOR POINTS.
By far the most secure
anchor point you can create is about 2 feet of rebar pounded down
almost flush
with the playa and leaning outward against the direction of pull.
Rebar is a
pain in the ass to remove however at the end of the week in many cases
it’s
almost TOO solid of an anchor. The dozens of pieces left stranded on
the BRC
site every year are a testament to this. To be honest, I’ve tied a $30
shade
canopy down with 10 inch yellow plastic tent stakes and had no
problems at all
the entire week. (see maintenance, below) Whatever stakes you use,
they’ve got
to be bomb proof. If one of your key stakes comes out during the
whiteout
you’re fucked. The wheel of your car or even a trailer hitch can be a
great tie
down point too.
The three main things to
consider about ground anchors are
SOLIDEasy to remove on load outMarkeable (water bottles, tennis balls,
pool
noodle cut into chunks) or driven flush with the playa surface to
prevent
injury.
MAINTENANCE:
No matter what guy system
you end up with or what ground anchors they are tied to, it all means
nothing
without regular maintenance. This one single thing is the second
greatest
source of destroyed shade at Burning Man after improper guying to
begin with. Read
this again: MAINTENANCE IS THE KEY TO KEEPING SHADE STANDING
There’s a lot going on out
here and you’re sleep deprived, dehydrated, impaired, distracted, or
otherwise
not paying attention to little stuff like what’s going on with the guy
system
on your shade. Don’t make this mistake because it means giving the
wind time to
work on and destroy your shade.
Slack lines mean
oscillation, oscillation means failure and collapse.
Each and every day,
sometimes several times a day, you MUST walk around and inspect all of
your guy
lines. If they’re loose then retighten them and inspect the ground
anchors too.
Are they coming up out of the ground? Has the entire structure moved/
slid
sideways causing slack in some of the lines? Maybe the basic geometry
of the
entire structure has changed in some way. Physically LOOK at all the
pieces
that make up your shade; are they bending or distorting? Did one of
them slip
out of its connections? This is all basic common sense stuff, but
unfortunately
4 days into Burning Man, common sense can be in short supply. How
important is
your shade to you? To me it’s right up there behind water so I spend a
lot of
time making sure my shade will hold up to Godzilla on meth, in the
whiteout, in
the dark.
TIE LINE MATERIALS. Almost
ANY decent string will work for simple shade guy lines. You don’t need
one
million pound test Kevlar/spectra line.
Basic parachute cord or even clothes line available everywhere will
work
just great. I like white because it’s easier to see at night. I have
seen 1
inch webbing ratchet straps used as well. They tend to oscillate in
their own
unique way in the wind, but they are easy and fast to re tighten and
they are
cheap.
KNOTS
Here are two knots that you
MUST learn when tying shit down.
The Truckers Hitch allows
you to adjust the tension on a line while it’s under tension. That
means you
can re tighten your guy lines without completely undoing them.
http://www.animated knots.com/ truckers/ index.php
and the tossed of ‘thrown’
clove hitch. This knot allows you to precisely tension and set a line
around a
stake, pole, or a carabineer. Tied as a ‘slip version’ it is a very
quick and
secure way to fix the end of a line.
http://www.gorp. com/hiking- guide/travel- ta-hiking- sidwcmdev_
056181.html
Both of these knots mainly
work at the bottom or anchor end of the guy line. Up top at the canopy
all that
matters is that the knot stays tied and can be untied on load out so
I’m not so
picky about what knot you use up there. “If you can’t tie a knot, tie
a lot!”
FLAG YOUR GUY LINES!!
Getting “clothes lined” at 3 in the morning going out for a pee sucks.
Running
into a guy line on your bike at full speed could cause serious injury.
Our eyes
are tuned to movement so tie little pieces of cloth, tape, or
something that
will flap in the breeze to your guy lines so that you and others can
see and
notice them both day and night.
SET UP YOUR SHADE AT HOME A
COUPLE OF TIMES.
One of the biggest mistakes
I’ve seen newbies make is buying a brand new shade canopy or tent and
taking it
out to the Black Rock for it’s first time set up. Don’t do that. Even
if you
have to go over to a local park and set it up a few times, get
familiar with
your shade BEFORE you leave home. Often time the factory stakes are
completely
useless. There’s not enough or even any tie line included, or other
problems.
(“pole A goes into pole B, um…. WTF is Pole B?!” get your stuff down
to a
system and include spare everything too. If you take an hour or two in
advance
of the event figuring this out you won’t have to do it drunk, in the
white out,
at night, alone. Hear that thumping sound? That’s Godzilla, he’s on a
bender
again…..
Everything in this document
is basic common sense stuff.
Thanks for reading have a
safe trip!
Joshua Keroes
Aug 19, 2010, 2:29:58 PM8/19/10
to hexa...@googlegroups.com
It'd be nice to see their pictures but I can't get that URL to load. Can you find it and sent the correct URL through http://snipurl.com ?
Many thanks,
Joshua
Joshua
Paul Sanow
Aug 17, 2010, 1:03:57 PM8/17/10
to hexa...@googlegroups.com
I have tried to get on the web site but cannot. Is there a typo? Thanks!!!
> Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 08:47:48 -0700
> Subject: [hexayurt] Tying your Yurt down 101
> From: burnin...@gmail.com
> To: hexa...@googlegroups.com
> Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 08:47:48 -0700
> Subject: [hexayurt] Tying your Yurt down 101
> From: burnin...@gmail.com
> To: hexa...@googlegroups.com
> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hexayurt" group.
> To post to this group, send email to hexa...@googlegroups.com.
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>
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>
Jason Payne
Aug 20, 2010, 1:16:33 PM8/20/10
to hexa...@googlegroups.com
It was just a straight copy and paste. Sorry.
jus4kix500
Aug 25, 2010, 1:03:44 AM8/25/10
to hexayurt
take out the spaces
On Aug 20, 1:16 pm, Jason Payne <burningman...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It was just a straight copy and paste. Sorry.
>
> ...
>
> read more »
On Aug 20, 1:16 pm, Jason Payne <burningman...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It was just a straight copy and paste. Sorry.
>
> On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 10:03 AM, Paul Sanow <bluelight2...@hotmail.com>wrote:
>
> > I have tried to get on the web site but cannot. Is there a typo?
> > Thanks!!!
>
> > > Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 08:47:48 -0700
> > > Subject: [hexayurt] Tying your Yurt down 101
> > > From: burningman...@gmail.com
>
> > I have tried to get on the web site but cannot. Is there a typo?
> > Thanks!!!
>
> > > Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 08:47:48 -0700
> > > Subject: [hexayurt] Tying your Yurt down 101
>
> read more »
Paul Sanow
Aug 24, 2010, 11:15:55 AM8/24/10
to hexa...@googlegroups.com
Thanks!!! and safe travels to you Paul
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 10:16:33 -0700
Subject: Re: [hexayurt] Tying your Yurt down 101
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 10:16:33 -0700
Subject: Re: [hexayurt] Tying your Yurt down 101
Paul Sanow
Aug 24, 2010, 11:14:56 AM8/24/10
to hexa...@googlegroups.com
Thanks!!! and safe travels to you Paul
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 10:16:33 -0700
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2010 10:16:33 -0700
Subject: Re: [hexayurt] Tying your Yurt down 101
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