Art 'car' or mutant vehicle?/Art Car registration process

[kmyelin]

Hi!

I feel like the info I'm looking for has to be on this forum, or the main site, somewhere, but after an hour's search (with half of that admittedly just getting lost in completely unrelated threads for the fun of it), I haven't come across it. So, thanks for any help, and with that apologetic preface:

My friends jumped on an opportunity to score a free, older RV from their employing org, for the express purpose of using at BRC in the future.

We were hoping that, rather than just leaving it parked at camp, we could turn it in to a MV/service-art car.

Not having dealt with this aspect of things before, we've been talking about it as a mutant vehicle, but after reading on the main site tonight, I think none of the ideas we're bouncing around would qualify as a MV...

We haven't decided on the concept yet, but I think our leading ideas are either dispensing food or drink (though this might be thrown out due to Nevada food law?), and/or providing hopefully fun, unique public transport around BRC.

In either case, we're planning on painting/decorating the exterior, and doing some possibly extensive exterior structural work, but fundamentally, it would still be an RV driving around, so I don't think it qualifies as a mutant vehicle?

So, I guess our primary questions are:

1) Does this sound more like an art car than a mutant vehicle?

2) Are art cars/RVs allowed to make laps around BRC?

3) Can someone link us to the registration process for service/art-cars, and especially the deadline for such?

4) Any other questions we should be asking but are ignorant of...

Thanks very much!

[teardropper]

Sounds like an RV to me and no, you can't drive your RV around.

[AntiM]

Serving food to others not camping with you requires a permit.

http://health.nv.gov/BFHS_EHS_TempEventInfo.htm

http://www.burningman.com/preparation/event_survival/health_safety.html

"Art cars" aren't allowed to drive around unless they are licensed as a mutant vehicle. No, you cannot drive your RV around, no matter how pretty or what you may be serving. I think it is mutant vehicle or nothing, as "service" vehicles are things such as the fire trucks and ambulances, DPW, staff vehicles and law enforcement.

[Captain Goddammit]

The answer is YES you can drive it around if you make it spectacular enough and/or it carries enough people.
Busses regularly get MV licenses even though they are usually much less "mutated" because of the large number of participants that will get to ride on them.

Having said that... in normal practical terms AntiM is right. It will take a lot more than paint and some decorations to get an MV license for an RV. You mentioned the possibility of extensive exterior structural work. Most likely that would be necessary! There are a LOT of RVs at Burning Man, you'd need to make yours quite the people-hauling eye-candy spectacle to get an MV permit. I think it CAN be done, but it won't be a simple weekend-or-two "Hey let's decorate the RV" project. It'll have to be major. It probably won't still be a practical RV by the time it gets an MV license.

[Lord Of Ruin]

First, here's your link:

http://www.burningman.com/on_the_playa/ ... teria.html

Second, as others have said, it would take EXTENSIVE modification. To put it in perspective, the buses I've seen are painted, decorated and altered to have extremely large sound systems, often with multiple plasma TV's inside. Exterior often features tons of lighting, often in artistic expressive ways..i.e. as a sculpture and moving mural.

Think of it more as creating a huge piece of art that one of the unique features is it happens to move and you're on the right track.

I'd also do some google search for Burning Man Art Cars to see the types of things that get licensed.

Others that do it regularly can chime in, but I'd say a good budget for the types of mods you'd need would be in the $20-50k range based on what I've seen. Granted, many of the artists slowly do all the work themselves, but the components alone cost a pretty penny.

LoR

[Captain Goddammit]

If you do any google or other searching to see what cars get an MV license, only pay attention to what got a license in the last maybe two years. You will find plenty of examples of the golf-cart-with-some-fur, with a strand of xmas lights that got licensed in the past. The bar has been raised significantly since then.

This is an excellent video about DMV mutant vehicle licensing: http://current.com/items/77064092_dept-of-mutant-vehicles.htm

[kmyelin]

After getting a first tip-off email when teardroper posted his/her (appreciated) first response, and no emails after that, I'd assumed no one else had responded to this, which apparently was wrong, so I hadn't seen any of the rest of this thread until now...thanks to all for the feedback and advice!

@Captain Goddamiit:

"it won't be a simple weekend-or-two "Hey let's decorate the RV" project"

Our plans were never as simple as that; they're all involved enough that I guess we'll have to contact the 'DMV' ahead of time to see if it's okay before we start investing the time...cheers!

Again, thanks to ALL for the help and feedback, and don't let this note stop others who have some other helpful advice to offer from doing so..

cheers,
k

[Dr. Pyro]

My question is, once you submit your application to the BMOrg DMV, can you retrieve it to either modify it or make sure all links are working? We sent ours in but understand that the powers that be can't seem to pull up our picture. We tried to retrieve the submission but it had vanished since the nice DMV Hotties now had it. We just want to make sure the pictures are there properly. Suggestions?

[oneeyeddick]

you should have gotten a response in your email from the DMV, it should have all your application info in there, including the link where your photo/sketchup is.

If you uploaded it directly, well...you are fucked and must now deal with the Hotties as they request your picture over and over again.

[bm_cricket]

A little comment on RVs.. they are junk. I mean, they are really comfortable to sleep in but they always have underpowered engines, always weigh a lot, and always crap out at the least opportune times. Tack 500-1000lbs of "art" to the car and you've got a recipe for disaster. Maybe you could make it look like an art car but I don't think it's really want to.

Still, I encourage anyone to prove me wrong...

[oneeyeddick]

"Junk" would be an upgrade to my RV.

[ygmir]

kmyelin;
have you looked at the DMV site, linked to from the main page?
within, you will find a link submitting an "MV" application.
Within that, you will want to submit drawings of what you envision your project will look like.
At a point, after review, DMV will either send you a letter, inviting you to bring your MV to the playa, for final approval, or, deny your request.
When you bring it to the playa, and, it'll only be allowed in if accompanied by the invitation, it will be inspected on site and given the appropriate licenses, or, denied and sent packing........or for further work before trying again.

Don't show up there with an MV and no "invitation"......it'll then just sit in D lot until you leave..........

good luck

[Ugly Dougly]

Keep in mind, unless you have a way to transport this thing to and from the playa, it still has to be road-worthy and OK with Defaultia's DMV as well.

Does it have a bed?

[Dr. Pyro]

It's road worthy and has a bed (for those late nights out on the playa!). Though we hope to get it towed. We will have the issue of the picture fixed by tomorrow I hope. But when someone tried to open our picture, it was not able to come up. But we are putting something into Flickr or some such thing, and hopefully everything will be fine.

[Elliot]

Didn't we solve this once before? You e-mailed a picture to me and I hosted it on my Photobucket account?

I'll PM you my e-mail address.

[gyre]

Elliot, you have your email enabled.



All he has to do is click on it.

[oneeyeddick]

sweet !

hahahahaha !!

[Captain Goddammit]

A little comment on RVs.. they are junk. I mean, they are really comfortable to sleep in but they always have underpowered engines, always weigh a lot, and always crap out at the least opportune times. Tack 500-1000lbs of "art" to the car and you've got a recipe for disaster. Maybe you could make it look like an art car but I don't think it's really want to.

Still, I encourage anyone to prove me wrong...

I could prove you EXTREMELY wrong, or absolutely right... "RVs" is a very general term, it depends on the rig in question. Did you know you can get RVs with C-series Caterpillar motors, that would rip your house off it's foundation? Even if you get a cheapo older stick-built motorhome, if you get a shorter one, 22 - 26 feet, with a 454 in it, you avoid all the overweight hassle - those are well under 10,000 pounds. As for crapping out, that's mostly operator error, either driving in such a way as to overheat the motor or transmission, or not doing your maintenance. The old stick-built gas RVs have the exact same running gear as big American pickups, rock solid unless worn-out and not cared for.

[Elliot]

Elliot, you have your email enabled.

Yes, that's how "slow" I am with computer stuff.