Truck-0-Dome

[ManitoBURN]

Now, I apologize I couldn't figure out where else to put this besides transportation. Sorry.
Has any one ever considered say welding a dome to say an old bus? I am hoping to do something like this at some point.
What I was thinking was building a dome on top of a 1/4 inverse dome pre welded to a bus frame. There would be seats built into each triangle and a central deck. Above the seats would be shade fabric and chain link fence to prevent people from falling out.
I would really appreciate any feed back and to know if this has been done before? (I do not think it has)
Just remember, you heard it here first!

[AntiM]

How tall would it be? There is a height limit if you're going to drive it on public roads. Ask a trucker.

[trilobyte]

This is exactly the place for this kind of discussion. General prep and project questions would go here, and once you have a specific mutant vehicle plan to announce for a year's event, you'd post that in the mutant vehicle board (for announcements and updates and whatnot).

Domes on trucks and buses have been done a few different ways over the year - the most elaborate version I can think of is the Death Star Art Car - that team of awesome people didn't just build a geo-dome, they built the whole damned sphere! We had the pleasure of being camped a block or two away back in 2011, and had a decent view of their on-playa assembly as we put our own camp together before the gates opened up. They had use of a piece of heavy machinery to lift the dome as they went - once they had the entire sphere in place, it was raised up into place and then secured to the top of the vehicle.

Don't let the fact that others have done something similar before stop you - nobody's probably done what you're dreaming about, and even if they have, they haven't done it your way. Besides, it's a big-ass playa, there's room a couple of anything.

Actually, since we were busy with our own stuff I didn't get to see all the details - I'm not sure if they ran their lighting as they built it, or if they had people climbing up on the completed sphere once it was in place.

One thing to mention... if you're planning on embarking on this adventure in 2014, hurry up and get your plans together - the mutant vehicle applications close on May 15 at noon!.

[ManitoBURN]

If only it was for this year.....
I live 3000 miles from black rock, that's a week of driving just to get there!
The goal is to build a Skoolie rv and buy a cut-away van to build the dome on and save for the $5000 in diesel to get there 3 years from now.
I just figured that I should collecting EMT now for the dome if you guys thought that would be a cool MV.
Attached is the rough idea of what I want to build.

[chuckularone]

It looks like max height is 13' 6". Some states are 14", but many are not. I'd build for the minimum common denominator. Also you have a maximum width. I love the idea. I hope you can pull it off.

https://drivinglaws.aaa.com/laws/trailer-dimensions/

Here's one source.

[trilobyte]

It doesn't matter whether any of us think it would be cool, it's all about YOU and building YOUR dreams.

Dome-wise, I'm guessing that height on the road wouldn't be as much of an issue as long as you're building the dome on the playa. Prior to building it out there, of course I'd suggest building it wherever you're at first, probably a few times so you can get that part under your belt and then figure out the rest of the rigging and decoration (for things like completely obscuring the base vehicle, etc). Depending on the size of what you're building, you may find that you'll need the use of some kind of lifter to get it in place. Once you know what kind of gear you'll need, you'll be able to start researching the rental costs and work on that aspect of the logistics.