🚛🐢

Semi-Trailer Packing Planner

Jeremy said it: "we will need lots of help planning how to pack the semi trailer." Here it is — five zones, nose to doors, packed in reverse build order so Day 1 on playa starts with a smile instead of a dig. 🏜️

📦 Draft v1 · zones + weights are planning estimates · confirm with Jeremy & David

51 ft

interior length

~8 ft

interior width

9–10 ft

interior height

65,000 lb

GVWR

triple

axle · 1996 Kentucky van

🐢 The One Rule

LAST IN = FIRST OUT. Whatever the build crew needs first on playa rides at the DOORS. Whatever isn't touched until event week gets buried at the NOSE. Pack in reverse build order — and strike is just the mirror: deepest zone refills first, door zone seals the truck.

Why it matters: Build week is ~10 people on a clock, in the sun. Every hour spent digging past kitchen bins to reach a sledgehammer is an hour of shade that isn't standing yet. The trailer also stays on playa as the dormitory shade anchor and camp storage — so the load plan doubles as the camp's pantry map all week.

📅 What Comes Out First — Unload Sequence

Build order on playa drives everything. Shade stands before anything else can live under it (David's ship priority: keder rail → dorm shade hardware → IBCs → shower/water → kitchen polish later). So the unload runs like this:

Day	Comes out	From zone	Why now
Day 1 Build wk start	BUILD WEEK BOX: rolling tool chest, 8' + 12' ladders, sledgehammers, stakes (circus + concrete), keder rail + fasteners, aircraft cable + swaging tool + hardware bins, generator	Zone 5 (doors)	Nothing happens without tools, ladders, and staking hardware. Generator powers tools + keeps the freezer cold.
Day 1–2	Shade: Aluminet roofs + walls, dormitory fabric, 4×4 posts, moving blankets, post bases	Zone 4	Dormitory + dining shade anchored to the trailer itself (keder rail @ 13–13.5'). Shade = survival; it goes up first.
Day 2–3	Water & shower: 2 IBC totes (empty, ~120 lb ea), cattle troughs, shower stall sections, pump + hose bin	Zone 3	Once shade is up, water distribution and the shower pods get built — Jeff Temmin fills on playa, so totes travel EMPTY.
Day 3+	Kitchen bulk: NSF shelving (knocked down), stackable bins, 8' folding tables ×4, Brute cans	Zone 2	Kitchen trailer carries the appliances; the semi carries its furniture. Set up once the kitchen zone is staked.
Event week Aug 31 →	Deep storage: AI Oracle totes + 3 tents, consumables, spare fabric, camp overflow	Zone 1 (nose)	AI Oracle tents deploy when sites are ready; consumables get pulled as needed. Nose = the camp's back-of-house all week.

Strike mirror (Sep 7–10): reverse it. Nose zone refills first as event-week stuff gets packed, door zone (tools, ladders, generator) loads LAST so it's first out back at Phoenix Gulch. Sweep the floor before the doors close — Leave No Trace rides home with us.

🗺️ The Load Plan — Side Elevation

Zone table

Zone	Contents	Approx weight	Load order	Comes out
1 · Nose	AI Oracle totes + 3 tents, event-week consumables, spare fabric, camp overflow	800–1,200 lb	#1 (first in)	Event week / as needed
2 · Kitchen bulk	NSF shelving (knocked down), stackable bins, folding tables ×4, Brute cans, cold-box panels if not in kitchen trailer	900–1,300 lb	#2	Day 3+
3 · Water/shower	IBC totes ×2 EMPTY (~120 lb ea), cattle troughs ×2 nested, shower stall sections, pump/hose/float bin	700–1,000 lb	#3	Day 2–3
4 · Shade	Aluminet roofs ×2 + walls ×6, dormitory fabric, 4×4×8 posts ×8 (flat, lengthwise), cable reels, moving blankets	1,000–1,500 lb	#4	Day 1–2
5 · Doors ★	BUILD WEEK BOX: tool chest, Honda 2200i, 8'+12' ladders, stakes, sledges, keder rail + fasteners, swaging tool, hi-vis hardware bins	1,200–1,800 lb	#5 (last in)	Day 1, first hour

Total planned cargo ≈ 4,600–6,800 lb — a fraction of what this van can legally carry. Weight is not our problem. Balance and access are. 🐢

Honest label: zone weights and lengths above are Terri's planning estimates, not scale readings. Weigh bins as you pack (bathroom scale works), chalk the real zone boundaries on the trailer floor, and update this table.

⚖️ Weight & Balance

Balance beats total. GVWR is 65,000 lb; even minus the trailer's tare, our ~5–7k lb of cargo is nothing. What actually matters: where the weight sits. A badly balanced light load handles worse than a well-placed heavy one.

Heavy-low, light-high. Tool chest, generator, hardware bins, IBCs ride ON THE FLOOR. Fabric, ladders, folding tables ride on top of the flat, stable layers. Nothing heavy above shoulder height — if it can crush you during unload, it's packed wrong.
~10–15% of cargo weight on the kingpin side (ahead of the axles) keeps the tractor happy and the trailer tracking straight. Our heavy door-zone sits roughly over the triple axle — good; bias the next-heaviest bins (Zone 3 IBCs) slightly forward of it.
Left/right balance too. Split heavy bins across the width, not all down one side. The trailer lists, the shade hanging off it lists.
Strap every zone independently — a stop-and-stand on the brakes should never let Zone 3 visit Zone 5.

🧤 Packing Technique

Tie-downs: inventory the interior first — e-track, D-rings, or bare walls? If there's e-track, bring load bars + e-track straps. If bare walls, plan floor D-rings or cargo bars. (Open question below — check the van at Phoenix Gulch.)
Ratchet strap per zone: one strap across each zone boundary at minimum, two on the heavy door zone. Straps get a tug-check after the first 50 miles — everything settles.
Moving blankets between every Aluminet fold and every 4×4 post. Aluminet snags and posts dent; blankets are cheap, shade is not.
Label every bin on TWO sides + the door-facing end. Big Sharpie, bin number + zone + contents. Future-you, at 6am in the dust, says thanks.
"First-out" items in hi-vis bins (bright orange/yellow) — the Day-1 hardware should be visible from the door with a flashlight.
Keep a door-zone aisle: you should be able to pull the BUILD WEEK BOX without unloading Zone 4. If you can't reach it, it's not at the doors.
Dew/condensation is real — metal boxes sweat overnight on the high desert. Fabric (Aluminet, dorm cloth, tents) rides in SEALED totes or wrapped, never bare against the trailer walls.
Weigh station legal: we're far under limits, but know the gross weight anyway — write it on the manifest, keep the manifest at the door.
Posts + keder rail lengthwise on the floor, ends padded — a 4×4 sliding forward under braking is a battering ram aimed at the nose.
Ladders flat on top of a stable layer, never leaning against the doors — doors open, ladder falls on friend. 🐢
Propane does NOT ride in the sealed van. Tanks travel per the fuel plan (ventilated, secured, upright) — confirm where with David/Jade.
Photograph each zone as you close it. The photo is the strike-day repacking map and the insurance record.

❓ Open Questions for Jeremy & David

Answer these before load day — each one changes the plan:

Load & haul logistics: does the semi get loaded at Phoenix Gulch and dropped by a tractor? Who's driving/hauling it, and when does it arrive vs. build week crew?
Interior tie-down points: what's actually inside this 1996 van — e-track, D-rings, rub rails, nothing? (Decides straps vs. load bars vs. installed anchors.)
Ramp or liftgate? The rolling tool chest and IBC totes are the heavy singles — do we have a ramp, a dock at the Gulch, or are we muscling them up? (Empty IBCs are two-person carries, ~120 lb.)
Bikes: do bikes ride in the semi (Zone 2 tops, wheels padded) or in the box truck?
Weigh before departure? CAT Scale run on the way out of Boulder would confirm axle weights and pin weight — cheap peace of mind for a 1,000-mile tow.
Event-week living: is anything living in the trailer during event week (it's camp storage + dorm shade anchor) — and do we lock the doors? (10× combo locks are in Ops inventory.)
Zone lengths: tape-measure the real interior and confirm the 10/10/10/12/9 split before chalking the floor.
Cold box panels: kitchen trailer or semi Zone 2? Decide once the veggie coffin ships.