Poptop at windy Burning Man

[msponer]

Hi All,
How much wind can the pop top's handle? We are going to the Black Rock Desert this year in late August, where I've read it often blows twenty or thirty mph during the day. This would damage the pop-top, right?

Does it blow that hard at night-- could we sleep in the poptop at night and close it before the wind builds in the morning?

Thanks.

Matt.

[saline]

I don't have much experience yet but we had winds of around 40mph in Moab a couple of weeks ago with the top up. No problems at all, didn't even flap that much.

[yvrr]

We've had our penthouse up in some strong winds...so strong, so couldn't sleep but the penthouse itself was fine. A couple of years ago, someone on the Yahoo chat list reported that they forgot to lock their penthouse and it "self-erected" at 65 mph...no damage.

[scatter]

We've camped with the top up in 50 mph winds and aside from all the swaying, the penthouse was fine.

[yakhlr]

I agree with Scatter. We have been in some really strong winds with no problems. The big gusts will rock the van and wake you up at night but the top is fine. Just make sure you zip up all the windows or the van will fill with dust and dirt. On that dry lake you will get dirty anyway.

Henry

[Ed in Montana]

But with strong winds in the desert, do not sleep in the penthouse facing upwind with the window open. You can wake up with a sand dune in your mouth.

[daveb]

I've had mine up in some bad stuff (50+) and no problems. Just think about areas that throw stuff. I saw an aluminum table go for a ride at a campground. Trees can be bad. Nobody wants a limb punching a hole in anything. I do try to point the van Parallel to wind flow as the van moves around a bit.

[Greg In Austin]

I don't know the windspeed, but we had a night last November in BBRSP with winds coming through a pass and across a plateau and down into some lower lands.... the wind was blowing hard enough to rock the van and disturb sleep and blow dirt up agianst the upwind tires.

....no PHT problems observed....

[Jeffrey]

The point is not 'can it take it', but will you get sleep? When it starts to rock, you're better down below.

[John and Dana]

We just got back from a week in Saline Valley and one day we had a really good blow. The winds were were gusting so hard that it was difficult to walk into the wind. I would estimate that the gusts were 50-60mph. In the strongest gusts the van would rock from side to side but the top remained stable. We did have to put it down at night just to cut down on the noise so we could sleep.

John