Forward Operating Base In-a-Can

[tim292stro]

Based on photos and videos I've obtained, and eye-balling the stored package height, I'm guessing 72" - as luck would have it I've never had a tent out of a bag and had a tape measure available at the same time. I did "reverse engineer" the tents before I bought any of them - at first I was going to build them myself from scratch as I didn't want to go the retail path and wasn't finding them for sale. Turned out that I just wasn't looking hard enough for them and when I had done the math I came out with a material cost about $1-2K below retail (about $12K if I built a 305 myself, $14K if I bought new) - so my belief is that their margins are very tight at HDT, much tighter than many may give them credit for. Really the only way to make any money on them is to make a bunch (like they do).

You can make a boot for any vehicle you want - it's only temper tent vinyl, and velcro. If you think it droops too much, you can add 1" 6061-T6 tubing and have it anodized black. The poles and frame articulations are designed to be at most 60" long (5-feet, 1525mm), so if you want to pack it in the same tent bag, keep that in mind

 

[srodocker]

Well luck has it we had our family easter dinner and everyone wants to campout so with a date set for last weekend in april. Defiantly going to tent camp it or stay in the back of the 5 ton. May be to short of a time frame for a 203 but has the wheels turning to at least look woohoo!

 

[turnkey]

You know motel 6 is a great base in a can also....have a bar ,pool,and food close by...no bugs rain winter etc....guess air conditioning is roughing it for me ...Best of luck...

 

[tim292stro]

Well luck has it we had our family easter dinner and everyone wants to campout so with a date set for last weekend in April. Definitely going to tent camp it or stay in the back of the 5 ton. May be too short of a time frame for a 203 but has the wheels turning to at least look woohoo!

Congrats - I found the first "shake down" packing for our camping/road-trip last spring was an eye opener for my wife on what you need versus what you want on a trip. Things need to be multi-use and packable - whole packs of new sponges need to be taken down to single sponges (leave the rest of the pack). You need to tighten up to what you actually expect to use on the trip, versus what you might want to have available to not make descisions in advance. It teaches one to plan ahead more, which is a hard lesson when all you normally have to do is go to the store to get what you really need.

You know motel 6 is a great base in a can also....have a bar, pool, and food close by...no bugs rain winter etc....guess air conditioning is roughing it for me ...Best of luck...

Our camping/road-trip last spring resulted in a lot of motel stays early in the trip, it's good to not force the first night ever of tent camping if you are going to be getting to the campgrounds around 2200 when it's dark, windy, and 27°F (-2.5°C) out - with two kids under 5-years. For when it's hot, I'm building air-conditioners in a SHC35/60 cage for this setup These will be selected rather than a SHC35/60 heater if it's expected to be hot most of the time, they will only have limited heat-strip capability to save power/fuel.

That said I've stayed in some fairly dismal motels in my day - one down in Texas during a thunder storm a few years back we woke up in the morning with standing water on the carpet (ground floor) as the rain had been blown against the door and windows and everything leaked. Motels can be hit-and-miss too. My

 

[aczlan]

That said I've stayed in some fairly dismal motels in my day - one down in Texas during a thunder storm a few years back we woke up in the morning with standing water on the carpet (ground floor) as the rain had been blown against the door and windows and everything leaked. Motels can be hit-and-miss too. My

And then there is the whole bedbug thing and rooms that had the bed made up instead of changing the sheets...

Aaron Z

 

[tim292stro]

Ahhhh.... picked them up. Little mis-communication with the trucking/expediting companies delayed the pickup from last week.



Again lots of manual labor to move it into storage. Now I have the following Base-X resources:

3x Tan 305 (all complete)
1x Tan 303 (all complete)
2x Tan 103 (partials, missing both liners and one set of end walls)
5x Tan rapid entry vestibules (all complete)
2x Tan end-to-side coupler kits (all complete)
2x Tan side-to-side coupler kits (all complete)
1x Tan open-end to open-end coupler (partial)
3x spare 300 series repair kits (complete)

Trying to get one 103 liner may have turned into a trade for a good frame/shell out of the two I just received, but I'm still looking for 103 liners. Ad in the wanted section.

 

[Lmtv772]

I got a bunch of Drash Tents I use for Camping, I bring my Gen Set, load it all in my shipping boxes, They are Cube sized and 6 of them fit on my LMTV They easily strap down to the strap points on the bed and my crane makes it a snap to lift them up and down of the bed , if I have to. I got a FDECU that I can connect to my tent. I just need to find some tunnels to connect several Drash together . I also have a couple of restored DRASH tents in case you need one . PM me



View attachment 616371View attachment 616370View attachment 616369

 

[tim292stro]

Yeah, one of the reasons I went with Base-X is the reduced personnel count to set up. All the videos I've seen of DRASH tents being set up look like you have to get a bunch of people inside to push the tent out, or having to do a dead lift while ballancing the tent on a pole...

 

[Another Ahab]

I got a bunch of Drash Tents I use for Camping, I bring my Gen Set, load it all in my shipping boxes, They are Cube sized and 6 of them fit on my LMTV They easily strap down to the strap points on the bed and my crane makes it a snap to lift them up and down of the bed , if I have to. I got a FDECU that I can connect to my tent. I just need to find some tunnels to connect several Drash together . I also have a couple of restored DRASH tents in case you need one . PM me



View attachment 616371

That's pretty slick how the units come with their own storage compartment (AND on casters).

I don't know the LMTV too well, and curious about the half-round "harnesses" (five to a side), around the inside perimeter of your LMTV. Are those a kind of bottle/tank-holder or something, or maybe the fold-down bench legs?

 

[tim292stro]

Looks like an MEP-831 on two furniture dollies hanging from the crane...

Base-X tents are often shipped in very large and heavy Hardigg cases which I don't need or want (more to store and carry), I'm focussing on building a collapsible frame to but in a trailer bed that will contain the tents.

Here's the video on setting up a DRASH:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI2JuO1Q3VQ

 

[Landbarger]

Yeah, one of the reasons I went with Base-X is the reduced personnel count to set up.

This is the main consideration that has been driving my desire for an AirBeam shelter. I figure I can drag them out solo and then let an air compressor do the rest of the work. (This thread has been a major inspiration, btw. So thanks for your detailed explanations and updates.)

 

[tim292stro]

If you can get the airbeam on the ground with a crane that'll help, but you may have to find a way to roll it out and back again with a vehicle (and that can make site selection complicated). My truck will have a compressor, but not a high volume one, so again I'm hoping to reduce the tools I have to carry. Think of this: Once the compressor has been used to set up the air-beams, what does it do for you? If you're rocking an M929 like your signature says, you can use the trailer connection on a hose with a regulator to inflate the tent without carrying any extra hardware.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djVxt8xnJ9Q

 

[Guyfang]

That's how we inflated all our tents. Glad hand with an adapter on it, hooked to the truck. Yeah, it was loud, and used a little extra fuel. But we did not need to unload the compressor and find the hoses, and all that stuff. When we got the FRESH, tool flat rack, now there we had a COMPRESSOR!

 

[Landbarger]

Yeah, the M929 would make it REAL easy to unload, too. I've thought that using its glad-hands would be a convenient source of compressed air. That was an interesting trailer it came on. Having only guesstimated the dimensions, I was thinking I would be able to park in on the back deck of my G.E.T. (http://www.hdtglobal.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/HDT_35kW_GET_04.pdf). Seems like it wouldn't be too much trouble to lay down a bottom strap and then "curl" that giant duffle bag onto the trailer with a hand winch. That video has me wondering about tongue weight implications, however.

 

[Lmtv772]

Yeah, one of the reasons I went with Base-X is the reduced personnel count to set up. All the videos I've seen of DRASH tents being set up look like you have to get a bunch of people inside to push the tent out, or having to do a dead lift while ballancing the tent on a pole...

Actually it takes 4, but I found out that 3 works out just as well.

 

[Lmtv772]

That's pretty slick how the units come with their own storage compartment (AND on casters).

I don't know the LMTV too well, and curious about the half-round "harnesses" (five to a side), around the inside perimeter of your LMTV. Are those a kind of bottle/tank-holder or something, or maybe the fold-down bench legs?

They are fold down leg benches, you are correct, sir

 

[tim292stro]

From the datasheet (attached), the 2031 is a Coleman 2-burner stove short of 700lbs.

View attachment HDT_AirBeamShelters_14.pdf

I have some difficulty as a 140-ish pound 5'8" (1.72M) individual just moving around the 305 shell and frame pack - I can dead lift about twice my weight a few times before I'm spent (the shell/frame weighs more than 280lbs - it's 365lbs). If I was moving that package myself and I committed the sin of getting between the bag and the ground as it fell over, I might have to wait for someone to find me (especially since I carry my cell phone in my pocket and that would likely be pinned with). This is the other reason I specify at least two people for my setup. As I have mentioned in an earlier post, it is possible to set up a 305 by yourself if you're willing to endure some painful effort, but I have no interest in doing that for recreation.

If you have dreams of doing this type of setup, start by making a list of the hardware and then start digging into the specifications. You will find very quickly that either space or weight becomes a show-stopping problem. If you plan to run a 5-ton off-road on hills (the reason the payload is so low given the truck's actual on-road capacity), you will find it's not hard to quickly run past 10,000lbs of gear if you're not careful. And your trailer hitch load is part of that payload - so just deferring loads to a trailer isn't always the answer.

The other thing to think about is how you're going to pack this stuff for transportation, you want weight low and distributed properly, and some things don't like to have things stacked on them.

Actually it takes 4, but I found out that 3 works out just as well.

HDT's datasheet says 4 people, but they are specifying for a certain set of circumstances. I am aware of those circumstances, but have other experience that shows less can be used. One person in each door, if they are able-bodied, is sufficient for setup/strike. I'm allowed to be more selective in the physical conditioning of my "troops" than say a modern Army, or CERT/SAR team...

 

[Another Ahab]

Actually it takes 4, but I found out that 3 works out just as well.

That's better than needing a platoon, for sure; but still:

- That's two more than just ONE only.

 

[Lmtv772]

That's better than needing a platoon, for sure; but still:

- That's two more than just ONE only.

I am sure I could find ways to get it set up alone, if I'd get creative.

 

[Another Ahab]

I am sure I could find ways to get it set up alone, if I'd get creative.