Hi Silas,

Short of getting a tent from England via E-Bay (European tents don't seem to have the mesh ceilings) I had to settle for a Coleman Crescent Rim XL 8 man tent which has that ceiling so I've been thinking about the same thing and agree about the duct tape.

I will do one of two things.

1.) I will hand sew velcro all along the edges on the tent side and fabricate a cover to fit out of nylon that fits neatly over the mesh ceiling. The cover will have the other half of the velcro on it.

2.) Or I'll be fast and dirty and whip stitch the same cover to and through the mesh (It'll be fairly easy to remove after the burn which'll be nice as I usually don't camp in whiteout lundia : ).

As I am a compulsive virgo with something like asberger's syndrome I'll likely excercise option one.

Note: Rainfly's conspire with the wind to guide the dust to a calm place where deprived of momentum and lift it sifts down like base beige snow : ).

Sas

I put a 16 ft. over my Eureka 10 man tent. Some dust still gets in of course but likely a lot lets. And my tent stays cool enough for daytime naps!

Cheap and easy answer:

Get some old bedsheets (sometimes hotels will give them to you for free if you ask). Cut them up so they cover any ventilated mesh plus 2 inches all the way around. Then use painter's tape to secure it on the tent.

Voila! The wind comes in, but the dust stays out and you don't have to keep your tent zipped up the entire time (which makes it hotter than hades in there)

if you decide to concoct pieces to cover the mesh areas, BE SURE TO DO IT WHILE THE TENT IS SET UP!

i made some pieces my first year without everything being stretched out and the pieces did not fit and did not seal.

lots of work wasted (but was not that hard to fix the next year, just added a piece here and there to expand)

cheers!

Looked all over the place for a post like this two days ago. Bit too late for me now. I took a glue gun and some old sheets to mine. This is my first year so I'm hoping it will work. Will take some gorilla tape with me just in case.

i ended up using quilt batting and hot glued it to my tent...it worked wonders

>>How to make a ventilated tent dust proof?

Magic?

Layers of material is how I did it. I was a newbie for 2007 first burn. I do not like camping very much nor staying in a small tent without creature comforts. So I purchased one of those 10 X 20 garage enclosures. Then I did what the Arabs did with their tents to keep out the sand - I layered material from the ceiling and walls. It kept the sand out, but it was cool and ventilated. I had Persian rugs, a king size air mattress and other creature comforts making my first burn wonderful!

camp with other people! it's more fun and less the work, help then set up at the start and pack up at the end and the tent is at home and all is clean and the fun is funner ! pippi monster

Here's another way to attach light fabric (like bedsheets or gauze) to the tent over the windows without tape -

www.shelter-systems.com/gripcl...ex.html

These things are effin amazing. They're great to have around just in case -
you'll find that you use them for stuff that you never even thought of.
Even costumes (with the small ones).

BUT - even though you dust-proof your tent as much as possible,
dust WILL get in your tent.
You will have a much better time if you resign yourself to becoming ONE WITH THE DUST.
The DUST is one of the rites of passage of Burning Man.
Learn to LOVE the DUST.

Five years at BRC leads me to conclude:

a) Because wind is predominantly from North and South, face doorways East.

b) 60/40 shade cloth seems to allow lots of air movement, but filters the dust greatly.

c) Aluminet also provides equivalent, acceptable results.

d) Get RID of dust by returning to the Playa and going to dust exchange camp .....

shameless cross-post: www.instructables.com/id/Seal...-panels/

I took batting material (actually, I used old xmas tree stand covers... the ones that look like 1/4 of "snow") and sealed all my mess vents. It acted liked a filter, and while dust still got in, not too much. I found the material to vent better, and be even more effective than an old sheet (which gets clogged with dust requiring one to shake it out...which sent dust everywhere) and it's rather cheap.

The reality is that dust is going to get everywhere...be ready for it.