A cot for Burning Man

The sleeping bag is the cold. The tent is the room. This page is the thing under you. The ground is colder than it looks at noon, and it is dustier than the photo. We stopped sleeping on it.

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.

Why the ground loses

The surface pulls heat out of a bag and finds the lump you missed when you were rushing the stakes. A sheet and a costume is a night awake, then a rough day in the sun. Days can clear 100°F. Nights regularly fall into the forties. The bed has to work for both, which means off the playa, under shade, inside a bag rated for that drop.

The cot

The cot we opened is the TETON Outfitter XXL. Often $100–160. It is large and on the heavy side, which is fine because you are not backpacking to the hex. It earns the space on a cold night and again as a nap under the shade. Measure the car. This one packs long. If it does not fit, the air bed is the other plan, not a shorter cot you have not sat on.

Shake the dust out of the rails before you fold it. If you skip that, you grind alkali into the frame until next year. A pad on top is worth it if you sleep cold. The sleeping bag goes on the cot, not under it. Write your name on the frame. The playa is full of identical cots.

The air bed

A thick flocked air bed is how people sleep when the cot does not fit the car. A real camp bed is often $80–200. Insulated, so you are not lying on a bag of night air. A pump and a patch kit in the same bag. Inflate it on the tent floor or a rug. Bare playa finds the valve and the lump. A foot pump still works when the station is saving itself for lights.

The foot pump we list is the Bestway Air Step. It was $23.08 when we opened the listing, sold through Amazon's Germany storefront, so read the import note. It tops out around 3 psi. That is an air bed. A narrow pad that wants more pressure is a different pump. Try the adapters at home. Find the hiss the hour it starts. Deflate it for the drive so it does not become a dust balloon.

The bag on top

The Kelty we opened is a synthetic the maker rates at 40°F. Often about $65. The link opens on the regular size, which they say fits sleepers up to 6 feet. A 40°F rating is their number, not a promise you will be warm at 40. Wear socks and a base layer. A cotton shirt you danced in is damp, and damp is cold. The pillow can be a stuff sack. Peel the case. The next one is clean.

Earplugs live with the bed. Foam is for the tent. The neighbor's camp does not get quieter because the cot was expensive. A lantern that dims stays on a small table or a bin, not on the floor in the dust.

The hot half of the same bed, shade over the tent and a fan after that, is sleeping in the heat. Dust in the tent is the fly and the wind. The sleep kit is the list. The cot, the bag, and the station in one load are the camp cart.