How to pack the car for Burning Man

The complete packing list is what goes in the car. This page is the order, so the first hour at camp is shade and water instead of a search. The Survival Guide is still the list of what the week requires. If their page and this page disagree, pack to their page.

We are an independent outfitter. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Burning Man Project. The event name is used so you know which week this gear is for.

Last in, first out

The costume bin is the thing you need last. It goes in first, deep, where it cannot fall on a person. The shade, the lags, a jug, and the goggles come out before anyone wants to be clever. If the cot is on top of the lags, you will pitch a tent in the sun while you hunt for metal. Put the lags, the socket or the impact driver, the gloves, and one jug where a person who has been in the car all day can reach them.

Goggles and a respirator ride in the front, not in a bin under the frame. The wind does not wait until camp is built. A headlamp in the same pocket means the unload does not depend on the lantern that is still packed.

Shade, water, cooler

The straight-leg frame is long. The 10 by 10 we opened comes with a roller bag. It can ride inside or on the roof. On the roof it needs ratchet straps, not a bungee, and it still has to come down before it is useful. The open knit and the lags ride with it in spirit: if the cloth is in the car and the frame is on the roof and the lags are under the sleeping bags, you have three trips and no shade. Keep those three together.

Jugs are heavy and they leak if a cap is loose. They ride low, upright, and not on a soft bag that will soak. Two 7-gallon Aqua-Tainers are a start for one person's drinking water. They are also the load a wagon is for, once you are walking from the car to the hex. The wagon does not replace a strap on the drive.

The cooler is pre-chilled, with the lid shut, and it is not the object you leave in the sun at a gas station. Block ice or frozen bottles outlast cubes. The melt is not drinking water. The ice page is the rest of that. On the drive, the cooler comes out into shade when you stop for the night, the same way it will at camp.

The station and the fuel

Lithium packs and a closed car at noon are a bad pair. On the drive, the station rides where you can see it, not in a black bag on the dash. When you park in the sun, it comes out with the cooler, into shade. Charge it at home so the first day is not a hunt for an outlet that is not there.

A Jetboil canister is not a battery. Their fuel guidance says never to fill containers past 80 percent, and to keep fuel in secondary containment that can hold 110 percent of the largest container. Upright, capped, and not in the tent. The station does not make that rule go away.

The cot and the tent

The XXL cot packs long. Measure the car before you fall in love with it, not in the driveway at dawn. It can ride on top of the soft goods once the lags are already in the first-out spot. The tent rides with the fly, the footprint if you use one, and the stakes you actually trust. The short spikes can stay in their bag. They are not the plan. The sleeping bag stays in a bin. Loose in the trunk it becomes a dust filter before you arrive.

A walk, not a second drive

The walk from the car is where water gets left for the next trip. A folding wagon with real wheels is how the jugs, the cooler, and a bin make it in one go. It is not a bike, and it is not how you cross the city later. Bearings pack with dust. That is a problem for the way home, not a reason to carry fourteen gallons by hand.

• —Goggles and a respirator in the front.
• —Lags, gloves, and a driver where you can reach them.
• —Frame, knit, and lags as one load, strapped if any of it is on the roof.
• —Jugs low, upright, caps tight.
• —Cooler pre-chilled, lid shut, out of the sun when you park.
• —Station out of a closed hot car once you stop.
• —Fuel upright and contained. Not in the tent.
• —Costume bin deepest. Cot measured before it is a surprise.
• —A wagon for the walk from the car.

Gallons are how much water to bring. The frame is the shade structure. Ice and the lid are the cooler. The box of watt-hours is camp power. The same pieces, as a shopping list, are the camp cart.