(Part 4) Best products from r/BurningMan

My experience with dust and RVs is summarized here. This approach keep the RV reasonably clean the entire burn, and I usually can get it spotless in less than 4 hours post Burn (2 people working).

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Here's most of the post -- formatting is better on the link and there's info re the issues with bike racks covering license plates, etc. on the link as well:

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Preparing the RV for Burning Man

The best thing you can do to make sure your RV doesn’t get damaged at Burning Man or require extensive cleanup is to do the right prep work.

Floors. First, protect the floors. If you have wood floors, use red rosin paper like this. If you have carpet, use disposable carpet protection like this. Bring enough to change the protection a few times during your burn. One roll of the red rosin paper allows us to change the main area three times during the event in our 34' RV.

Windows. Next, cover all rubber molding on the outside of the RV with either high quality painters tape or (better yet) gaffer tape. Cleaning molding is very challenging, and the tape will not only keep it clean, but also keep dust from getting under it. Make sure it’s wide enough to the edges of the molding - at least 2”. The gaffer tape is significantly more expensive, but is easy to remove and won’t leave a film. If you are using painter tape, be sure to test it on a small area before going by affixing it to some molding and then running a hair dryer on it to heat it up. If it passes the test, be sure to also check once or twice during the Burn to ensure it doesn’t leave a sticky residue when you remove it.

An alternative technique is to entirely cover the windows with some type of plastic film and tape it on. People typically use a clear plastic film. We avoid doing this because the high winds can very easily tear the film at the time you need it most.

We do this stage while waiting in line at the entrance gate. Be sure to have a ladder or tough bin you can stand on to reach all the windows.

Outside Vents and Seams. Once on the playa, if your RV expands, tape up any seams around the pop outs after you are fully extended. Here’s where extra wide painters tape (4”) works great.

Finally, cover any vent holes that aren’t used during your Burn, being careful not to obstruct any working vents. A note on roof AC vents. We used to use a hammock filter on our outside AC vents. In normal conditions, these can be used to keep dust out of AC vents, and will permit airflow so can be in place while AC is running. Problem is, we have never gotten them to stay in place long in the high winds in the playa. So we gave up. We’ve seen very few people with these in place so our advice is to skip this step.

Inside Windows. You will want to cover all of the inside of your windows with insulated bubble wrap like this Reflectix product. Cover every inch of window on the inside, and tape it down. It makes a huge difference.

Some people swear by also using Reflectix on the roof of the RV. This will absolutely reduce the temperature of your RV. But you must be sure to affix the wrap so it won’t blow off. And we have seen many examples of well taped materials blowing away. If you are going to go this route, consider supplementing an excellent taping job with some 20 lb weights or the like to ensure that the material stays in place during a dust storm.

Finally, cover all the chairs and couches. We use a combination of fitted bed sheets taped or clipped in place and Press n’ Seal cling film. A little experimentation will tell you which works best where. Press n’ Seal will work on the dash board and other surfaces you won’t be using and want to keep clean.

Keeping Your RV Clean

Get an old stained rug….. people will sell these for next to nothing or give them away. 6x6 feet is big enough, but larger works too. Put this in front of your RV, and either weigh it down or use lag bolts to screw it to the playa. Place a non-shedding door mat on the carpet right when you walk in to the RV, so you can scrape your shoes. (Don’t use a mat with small fibers - they will shed, and leave you a heck of a cleanup job…hard learned life lesson). Have a bucket at the door so you can immediately remove your shoes on the steps of the RV, and place them in the bucket. Consider also hanging a sheet from the ceiling over the inside of your RV door creating an “air lock” entrance which will reduce dust blowing into the RV. We’ve moved away from doing this, as we haven’t found it necessary if you just open and close the RV door quickly (in all conditions!). But if you are more casual about getting in and out, this approach will help reduce dust blowing in.

This setup significantly reduces any dust you will track in on your feet. But your clothes may also be covered in dust, so consider having clean clothes available to change into. Our RV also has a chair right when you walk in, which we cover in a sheet that is changed several times during the Burn - it’s the place we sit when we are dusty but don’t want to change our clothes immediately.

A few times during the Burn we will do a good cleaning of the RV, dusting surfaces, and removing the paper from the floor, cleaning the floor and putting down new paper.

We use a high quality broom to sweep out the RV, which we have found to be more effective than using a portable vacuum. We also have an electric leaf blower and small air compressor, which with practice can be used to move dust around… it takes some skill to move it where you want to move it, so proceed with caution and avoid just creating a huge dust cloud. The leaf blower is really reserved for blowing out external storage areas, and blowing dust out of the engine compartment of the RV before driving home.

We keep a sheet over our bed when we aren’t sleeping in it, and carefully fold it up before getting into bed to catch any dust that has settled during the day. We usually change the bed twice at the burn.

We keep our dirty clothing in clear plastic trash bags, to contain the dust, and often remove and put on really dusty clothing outside the RV in our external storage compartments.

All these efforts combine to our RV being quite clean upon our return home.

Cleaning Up After

Once we leave the playa we pull over and remove all the external tape, so it doesn’t blow off on the drive home. We stop at the guy with the pressure sprayer in Cedarville. Gerlach has a wash as well that benefits the community. In Cedarville, we like to just do it ourselves rather than risk him damaging the glass or molding, and he’s more than happy to take a break while we do it. It’s cheap….something like $15. It’s not a perfect cleaning, just getting enough dust off the RV so when we get home we can wash it well without leaving a layer of mud on the street.

Once home we slowly and carefully remove all the sheets and cling film covering the furniture in the RV, as well as stripping the bed. We then carefully roll up the paper off the floor and dispose of it. This effectively removes almost all the dust in the RV.

We then use our air compressor to blow dust out of all the crevices.

Next, we wipe all surfaces down. If they are fairly dusty, we start with wiping everything down with a dry huck towel (the brand in the link is our favorite by far). Next we wipe with a dry microfiber cloth. By getting almost all of the dust off before any water is used, you make the final sponge cleaning very simple…no muddy smears.

We use a 50-50 mix of water and white vinegar to wipe down all the other surfaces and to do a final cleaning of the floor, cleaning our sponges regularly. The entire cleaning process typically takes around 2 hours on the interior. We pressure wash the outside, which adds another hour to do it well. Three hours of cleaning and the RV looks close to perfect.

Note: Renting, borrowing or buying a large air compressor is a great way to clean all of your burner gear. Our bikes look almost new every year after spending an hour with the air compressor and an oil bath for the chain. Be careful not to blow dust into bearings, etc., just work the non-lubricated areas. A leaf blower is great for a first pass, and between the two you will be shocked how clean you can get all your gear.

Some people recommend going to a laundromat to clean clothing, but we have never had a problem washing in our own machine. Your mileage may vary! We generally do small loads of all machine washable stuff, and then re-wash a second time with standard size loads. Wiping down the machine and then re-washing my white socks using white vinegar leaves the washing machine spotless and the socks surprisingly white.

Other resources.

The official Burning Man RV page

Good pointers for an RV at Burning Man

These cooling towels are AWESOME. They are made of a material that water soaks into, but doesn't come out of easily. This means they hold a ton of water, stay wet for ages, and don't get anything touching them wet at all (so you don't get an irritated neck like you do from wearing a wet towel). Seriously if you wet one of these and give it a squeeze, you'll be amazed by how much water comes out. They dry stiff, so make sure to fold them up neatly while they're still wet. Highly, highly recommended.

Shemaghs make great dust masks, head scarves, and hats. There is a reason these things are so popular in the desert. Lots of colors too.

These are the disposable dust masks to get. For a proper whiteout, they offer better filtration/protection than a bandana, and the valve means you can actually wear them for more than five minutes without suffocating. They come in little individually wrapped packs, which mean they're great for gifts (although I'd unwrap the ones you aren't planning to carry around as a gift at home).

Not prime, but free shipping, and if you order now they'll get here: goggles. Comes with a day and night set, inexpensive and highly recommended. These are my go-to utility goggles.

These personal misters are good. They aren't durable, so don't count on it lasting more than a year, but they're much more compact than the big garden sprayers.

If you feel the need to own a Soviet Russian spec gas mask, amazon has one for 10 bucks. Protip: that bag it comes with is the perfect size to stick a 1 gallon waterbottle (the kind with the peice of tape a handle, not the ones with the handle built into the bottle) to turn it into a canteen.

If you enjoy biking, and tend to wear boots, wide, grippy pedals are great bike upgrade. I was really suprised at the difference they made for stability and my ability to comfortably put power to the ground. I went for these ones that were on sale last year (not prime), but the shape is what matters from what I can tell, so any ones like that with the grip nubs should be good. There are cheaper ones made of plastic, but I find plastic pedals crack on the playa way too easily, and a decent set of metal ones was worth the investment.

This is the one you want: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010YZ4HE/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00

We did a double-monkey, and used two of them to great success :)

A super clean butt right out of the portos can be yours for less than $10. That's the real game changer.

These are my favorite for dead simple, no fuss installation. Would recommend one for each wheel plus a head and tail light: https://www.amazon.com/Nite-Ize-Spokelit-Bicycle-Wheels/dp/B001TKFZ7S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1502007692&sr=8-2&keywords=nite+ize+bike+light

Some cheapo LED lights will crap out on you - I've had a set of these longer than my current bike. Been to 4 burns and still working beautifully with just battery changes.

I'm a fan on Nite Ize stuff in general - has treated me well for Burns :)

I met someone special at Burning Man and I wanted to get them a Burning Man related Christmas Gift. I am torn between this book, which ive read and liked, and the one linked to this post.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0041Q70C0/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00

I have a big head and these fit over my glasses pretty decently.

I've shared this here before and it's worth mentioning here too.

I take lawn/garden pressure sprayer and replace the end with a sink sprayer. You'll also need a fitting to connect them which is likely this but you can't know for sure until you have the garden sprayer in hand. This gives me very simple, one handed control over a relatively low flow water sprayer that's designed for rinsing soap off of things.

It's simple, cheap, it doesn't take any electricity and works really well. I can take a full shower including shampoo and conditioning long hair with less than a gallon of water.

This doesn't answer your question directly, and might not be helpful, but I highly recommend "fairy light" style LEDs over EL wire. Over the years I've consistently had bad experiences with EL wire breaking, but the thin copper wire of "fairy light" stuff seems to be very very robust. This is particularly the case when sewing into clothes, or other things that move around.

This brand has worked really well for me.

Something like thismight help. You might also think about trimming it back a little shorter for the burn. It will grow back.

We use one of these. It packs very small, honestly keeps the dust out. You will need something over it, but a hunk of shade cloth should do. We use ours under a carport, but have had it in the open too. It is not big enough to stand up in, but is very comfy for sleeping. It does set up fast, a minute is stretching it, but under five minutes? Sure thing.

https://www.amazon.com/Sixty-Second-Set-Up-Dome-Person/dp/B003C1CFGG

Those would work, but I bet you'd find a whole bunch of people on every single channel. You should look for walkie talkies that have privacy codes. There's still a chance of someone using your privacy code, but because there's more combinations of channels x privacy code, it's a smaller chance for people to be on your chat.

example: https://www.amazon.com/Motorola-T260TP-Talkabout-Radio-Pack/dp/B01DM7AEYE

I used this kit last year and was very happy with the results: http://www.amazon.com/LEDwholesalers-Controller-2034RGB-3315-3215/dp/B0040FJ27S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1371270035&sr=8-2&keywords=led+lights

Evaporative cooling towels and headbands. Dunk 'em in your overflow water for instant and long-lasting heat relief. https://www.amazon.com/Biange-Cooling-Workout-Fitness-Pilates/dp/B077TMQ43F/ref=sr_1_14?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1526656287&sr=1-14&keywords=cooling+towels

Yeah, look on Amazon for "OTG" goggles. I bought mine from there.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0041Q70C0/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00

Here's the lube (wax based instead of oil based, better for all the dust). https://www.amazon.com/White-Lightning-Clean-Ride-Squeeze/dp/B0016ZXE06/ref=sr_1_10?keywords=white+lightning&qid=1566270921&s=gateway&sr=8-10

You may have to learn to solder, since I haven't personally bought any 'kits' with batteries and on/off packs like you can with EL wire. I found these places with a quick search:

http://www.usledsupply.com/shop/led-rope-lights/rgb-full-color-strips.html\
http://www.flexfireleds.com/rgb-color-changing-strip-light/
http://www.amazon.com/Ledwholesalers-Changing-Flexible-Yourself-Controller/dp/B0040FJ27S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347048661&sr=8-1&keywords=led+strip http://www.amazon.com/Flexible-Changing-LED-Strip-Ledwholesalers/dp/B00476B908/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1347048681&sr=8-2&keywords=led+strip+rgb

I just bought a special dust mask as a result of this research, check this out

These look good too, and come in single colors to avoid the christmas tree look. I saw them recommended here as a cheap alternative to el wire.

This is the tarp I used, silver side to the sun. It worked very well and is returning this year.

http://www.amazon.com/210200--20-Foot-10-Millimeter-5-5-Ounce-Reversible/dp/B0010YZ4HE/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1374516134&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=heavy+duty+tarp+10+x+20

Maybe her hours were misstated? That seems most likely. Or perhaps she doesn't really need the money and just loves Burning Man. She (Jennifer Raiser) authored "Burning Man: Art on Fire" last year.

http://www.amazon.com/Burning-Man-Fire-Jennifer-Raiser/dp/1937994376

I used these and they held up ok. Just have to wipe the dust off them every day or so.

As far as proper dust mask, I bought this at amazon, is it adaquate?