Ratchet Tie Down Strap – 4 Pack – 1 Inch – 15 Feet – 500 LBS Working Load – 1500 LB Break Strength – Cam buckle Alternative – Cargo Straps Perfect for Moving Appliances, Lawn Equipment, Motorcycle, ATV by Everest

Why we love it?

REENGINEERED HANDLE WON’T FALL OFF – Guaranteed to not fall off! HIGH QUALITY INDUSTRIAL GRADE STRAPS – Premium material to keep straps from breaking!

Some comments about this we saw on the web:

* /u/ZacharyRD on /r/BurningMan Can you link to what you ended up buying? If you found something cost effective I’d consider switching to this.

EDIT: This looks good to me: http://www.amazon.com/Everest-S1043-Yellow-Standard-Ratchet/dp/B006QGD996

See on reddit

——* /u/gwillen on /r/BurningMan I took a camp of two people and all our belongings in my 2012 Honda Civic with the back seats folded down. It was a tight fit but it worked.

Note that I bought one of these to put on top of the car to hold light/soft stuff (tents, sleeping bags, pillows, air mattresses):

http://www.roofbag.com/

And I bought some of these (or rough equivalent) to give it some additional security to the roof of the car:

http://www.amazon.com/Everest-S1043-Yellow-Standard-Ratchet/dp/B006QGD996/

But note also that I had WAY more volume of stuff than a typical new camp of two people would. I had 2ft. x 2ft. x 4ft. worth of foam boards to build my shelter, which took up more than half the back seat of the Civic. A tent is a lot smaller. And my friend and I each had an inflatable air mattress to sleep on in luxurious comfort. (I actually do recommend that; of course make sure your pump has charged batteries, or can be powered from your car’s accessory port.) And we had about 80 feet of PVC pipe for building a shade structure, and a massive tarp to put over it.

All of that stuff took up lots of space. You will probably be packing lighter. (Although you do want to put some thought into shading yourself from the sun. But it can be done with a lot less volume worth of shit than we had.)

EDIT: Oh, we did use one other space-saving trick, which you might be able to do as well – we found someone who was taking a box truck, and paid them in advance to bring water for us. 2 people * 2 gallons * 7 days =~ 30 gallons or so, which takes up a lot of space in a car but is nothing to someone with a truck. (Just make sure they’re bringing it in some form you can carry back to your camp, i.e. 1- or 2.5-gallon containers. And do bring enough water with you in the car to survive at least the trip plus 24 hours, in case you get stranded or your water gets lost en route or something, and you need to make alternate plans.)

See on reddit

——* /u/ZacharyRD on /r/BurningMan That’s a long list.
Some recent purchases (links are plain clean Amazon links without any tracking or referral codes) from the last week or so as I start ramping up: