To all you assholes with generators,

[strange love]

If you have one of those ridiculously loud piece of shit generators, please build a baffle box for it. I almost got in a physical confrontation with a neighbor who initially refused to block his obnoxious generator with the vehicles and or plywood that were on hand. I politely offered to help build a make shift baffle box so that the rest of the neighborhood could hear themselves think and he just shrugged me off, fucking asshat. End rant.

[Nipple]

You could have built the baffle box for yourself and then gotten into it.

Your milage may vary, but... controllin' other dudes and getting them to behave in a way, or comport themselves and their belongings in a manner tailored to my liking is at best fruitless. The spectrum goes all the way to the other side and lands on "getting punched in the nose."

Sure as hell ain't my scene.

To you assholes with generators. Please park them by my yurt. I don't know if it's the fumes, or the noise... but I sleep better.

Thanks!

[GreyCoyote]

Beer makes a pretty good field-expedient muffler. Simply remove the gas cap and splash a few ounces in. Replace cap and walk away. A minute or two later you wont hear the generator no matter how close you get.

[BBadger]

Well, you could move yourself to Hushville if the noise is too much.

Still, those shit-ass, loud generators do suck. I don't know how people stand having them in their own camps. They probably can't stand the noise and stuff the generator near the back of the camp with a carport wall to reflect its noise towards other camps.

[Captain Goddammit]

I almost got in a physical confrontation with a neighbor who initially refused to block his obnoxious generator with the vehicles and or plywood that were on hand

Hey asshole... you're at the wrong event! I hate the cheap loud generators too. One of my neighbors also had one sitting out in the open; I couldn't even hear my own quiet Hondas over it. The First Mate wanted me to go complain and try to get them to move it. I told her "This is Burning Man and we're in the loud district". I never said a word to them about it. Did I wish they at least baffle-boxed it? Sure. I also wish there was no dust!

Bbadger is right, go camp in Hushville if you want a quiet Black Rock City camping experience.

[Rice]

Beer makes a pretty good field-expedient muffler. Simply remove the gas cap and splash a few ounces in. Replace cap and walk away. A minute or two later you wont hear the generator no matter how close you get.

I don't like loud generators any less than anyone else. I do, however, believe that vandalizing any property because you do not like it is wrong. That only puts you on the same level.


The volunteer rangers in BRC are there to assist with this exact issue. If you and all your neighbours complained to them, you might have been able to come to some sorta compromise.

[GreyCoyote]

Now Rice, you know I would never vandalize someone elses property. Never in a million years.

I just saw that it was hot, thirsty, and dusty, so I did the gentlemanly Burner thing and gave it a beer.

[strange love]

I would never want a quiet burning man experience. I love the cacophony, even when it mostly consists of multiple sound systems blasting whatever the current trend in shitty edm is. However, when my neighbor places his bone chattering generator as far away from his camp as possible, which means it being virtually in my 'front yard', I didn't think it was too much to ask to simply place it between 2 cars and a piece of plywood to muffle the noise (which was eventually done). Anyways, I see your point in not trying to control another persons burn and I would never want to be the guy asking someone to turn down their music or put down the bullhorn. I just think that when a solution is so easily available, it should at least be taken into consideration.

[Captain Goddammit]

I do think it's worth noting that your cool factor just went way up due to how well you've taken counterpoints about your topic!

If there's no decent resolution to such a situation in the future, I suppose you could always see how tolerant the neighbor is of your liberal use of a bullhorn! Assholes on bullhorns is another fact of life in BRC!
"HEY, NICE GENERATOR! HOW MANY WATTS DOES IT PUT OUT? DID YOU GET A GOOD DEAL ON IT? I THOUGHT ABOUT GETTING ONE LIKE THAT! HOW LONG HAVE YOU HAD IT? WOULD YOU RECOMMEND THAT UNIT TO YOUR FRIENDS?"
"WHAT? YOU WERE SLEEPING? OH, SORRY, I WAS TRYING TO BUT COULDN'T!"

[mgb327]

This was my first year with a problem neighbor with his generator. We all camped out at 3:30 and J area, and there was one very tight spot left between my pop-up and my campmates tents. We were all out dancing, and when we came home, some guy and his wife had squeezed his pick-up and trailer between us. He set it up with his CRAPPY LOUD OLD generator less than 10 feet from my bed. Pop-ups have tent-like ends. Everyone thought it should be up to me to say something, but luckily, someone else did it first. BM or not, I don't expect things to be quiet, but don't park your generator out the back-side of your trailer, and under my bed. End of rant.

[atomicray]

As a burn voyeur for a couple years now I have paid close attention to certain aspects on many BM related topics, in preparation for my 1st time out.

I already have my own issues, many that would potentially hamper my experience and those around me while at BM...though each individual experience varies greatly from person to person, I have been using these shared moments and the responses to gauge my own reaction and how I would have dealt with it.

This thread is a fine example of the full range of responses from fuck you twat to we completely understand

I look at the Eplaya as education, therapy, and preparation.

My gut check, being a more conservative and towing the line sort of guy, was to agree with the feelings of loss opportunity to enjoy the rest of the event because of some shithead with a crappy gennie.

Not sure how I would handle it being I was not there, but I suspect as I am a generator tech that I could work some sort of "hey your gen is sounding a little rough, you want to check the plugs, etc." to break the ice...once a baseline of communication was established then hope that the guilt of the ugly gen would allow for some further discussion and hopefully it would get baffled.

Or...it would go badly...I can lean towards the aggressive side of the house...I would hope not to.

Thus the positive of such a thread.

I would think that a certain measure of sound coverage should be a manditory consideration, run a gennie in the open and you must make an effort to block some noise...would go a long way.

That said, I would make a great deal of effort to be as far from the heart of the chaos...slide in and out of the same with the choice of going home to some reasonable measure of order.

Expecting quiet and calm is not what BM is really about, but a week is a fairly long time to go without reasonable rest.

Long story short, thank you for sharing your experience, more reason to seek the established quieter zones for the temp homestead.


Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Burn on you crazy burner.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Burn on you crazy burner.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom,
blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and burn!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Burn on you crazy burner.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Burn on you crazy burner.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,
rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and burn!

[Lonesomebri]

Oh, if I can tolerate their generator, as long as they can they tolerate me and my beer. I can shrug off my space being vandalized by their noise as much as they can shrug off any well earned karmatic responses they earn. Maybe they should move to the asshole free part of BRC if they don't want to deal with being told what their problem is.

[Captain Goddammit]

Maybe they should move to the asshole free part of BRC if they don't want to deal with being told what their problem is.

LOL

[BBadger]

It'd be funny if you constructed a parabolic baffle to direct the noise straight back into their camp. You could even paint it up as art!

[Sundial]

I don't really think there's much that can be done about that problem on a large scale unless sound dampening of generators was made an official rule.

[unjonharley]

Elliot complained his own genny was to loud.. I was camped near it.. Didn't notice and no one else said anything..

Next year, I'm going with more lead acid so I can quick charge.. Shorter range but less genny time..

[Captain Goddammit]

When I see "unjonharley" and "baffle box" in the same thread, it gives me a great idea!

[FIGJAM]

His exhaust wasn't THAT loud.

[tatonka]

I was at 7:10 and L and had very little noise problems , my buddy in the upper part of the camper would snore louder than the dubb stepp , so I just wore earplugs to bed.

[delle]

Sounds to me like baffle-boxes might just be the gift of the future. Win-Win.

[Sundial]

That's like gifting somebody deodourant. =p

Sounds to me like baffle-boxes might just be the gift of the future. Win-Win.

[strange love]

It'd be funny if you constructed a parabolic baffle to direct the noise straight back into their camp. You could even paint it up as art!

I love this idea!

[digital]

Next year, I'm going with more lead acid so I can quick charge.. Shorter range but less genny time..

This is what I did for 2013 and it worked great! The gene only ran a few times to charge up the array.

(...Well, it also ran when three campmates needed it because theirs stopped working.)

It is a Yamaha EF2000iS which is extremely quiet on economy mode. I highly suggest anyone looking for a new generator consider this an option.

[Krokodyle]

It is a Yamaha EF2000iS which is extremely quiet on economy mode. I highly suggest anyone looking for a new generator consider this an option.

Yes, yes, yes! That model what our camp 'leader' had for our camp to power our speakers (and general charging). This genny was VERY QUIET in economy mode, and got ridiculously good 'mileage' on the gas it used. We had it 20 feet away from our bar and you barely noticed it was on when the area was quiet and not at all when the music was on. Even so, I'm planning on building a baffle box as a gift to the camp next year.

[chiefdanfox]

Civic Responsibility.

I love the din of Burning Man, the pulse as it were. A loud generator nearby does rob one of that experience. The considerate thing to do would be take some preventative measures by the person using the generator to not occupy the common environment or shared resource for one's sole advantage, to the disadvantage of others. Loud generators are simply that, and on those grounds should not be tolerated, so one does have a right, if not an obligation to insist on a solution. Common and shared resources require the responsibility of everyone. I think the offer to help construct a baffle was generous, and the shrug was irresponsible, if the former tendered politely. The owner of the shrug missed an opportunity to plug in a little deeper into the community at large, which I think is the point of Burning Man, and is most definitely one of the guiding ten principles.

[GreyCoyote]

Civic Responsibility.

I love the din of Burning Man, the pulse as it were. A loud generator nearby does rob one of that experience. The considerate thing to do would be take some preventative measures by the person using the generator to not occupy the common environment or shared resource for one's sole advantage, to the disadvantage of others. Loud generators are simply that, and on those grounds should not be tolerated, so one does have a right, if not an obligation to insist on a solution. Common and shared resources require the responsibility of everyone. I think the offer to help construct a baffle was generous, and the shrug was irresponsible, if the former tendered politely. The owner of the shrug missed an opportunity to plug in a little deeper into the community at large, which I think is the point of Burning Man, and is most definitely one of the guiding ten principles.

Best. Post. Ever.

Based on previous experience, I am thinking of bringing a klaxon from an oil refinery scram tower. It pulls 12 amps at 120 volts and produces something north of 130 db. The noise is actually painful at less than 50 feet. The first guy who says "fuck you - its burning man" will likely reconsider after a few minutes.

What I cant figure is, why would someone prefer to make expensive noise from their own genny when they have been offered FREE and QUIET power from our camp?

BRRRRAAAAPPPPPP!!!

[chiefdanfox]

I am thinking of bringing a klaxon from an oil refinery scram tower. It pulls 12 amps at 120 volts and produces something north of 130 db. The noise is actually painful at less than 50 feet.

How do you feel like mounting that on a 63' high golden bull? Given next year's theme...

[danibel]

Karma is gonna bite ya.

We were camped at 5:15 and H. A nice group of folks were next to us with a bar and a bus and an old RV. They had a crap loud ass gennie under the RV. What it was powering, I have no idea, but it ran every afternoon. They had it baffled so that the noise came straight to us. Nice. We had cars parked along the side that blocked most of the noise so whatever. Noise is gonna happen.

On Monday they started packing up and starting vehicles, the RV wouldn't start. Didn't start. It finally got towed off Tuesday morning.

[lemur]

yeah, i bet that RV woulda started right up if they didnt have that loud generator.

makes sense to me.

[danibel]

yeah, i bet that RV woulda started right up if they didnt have that loud generator.

makes sense to me.

I just thought it was funny.