Shade Cloth

[lornaschinske]

Has anyone used this stuff? http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/9...tinfo/SC-BL90/
I have been sitting in 90 to 105 degree temps. There is no shade here and precious little at all in NM. I got to thinking about when we had our pop-up (no ac) and we were sitting in a campground down on Lake Keowee in SC. We had gotten stuck in a campsite with no shade at all (temps were high 90's to over 100 with 95%+ humidity). So we had strung a huge silver/black tarp up on electrical conduit pipe so that it was above the roof of the pop-up (allowing the roof top vent to expel the interior hot air) and shaded the pop-up all the way around (this was years before I lined the while thing with Reflectix). The tarp combined with David's big construction site fan kept things pretty much bearable. I'm not sure I want to put an RV awning on the bus. We had the wind catch the Class C's awning while in TX and it snapped one of the mounts. Also the spring broke inside the awning and it's going to cost over a couple hundred to fix the stupid thing... it's an old one so we might as well replace both springs at the same time.. it wasn't wanting to roll up very well before the spring broke. I have to tie the edges of the Class C's awning to the support arms with ball bungees and tarp clips (3 per side) to keep the cloth under control enough so that we don't have to roll it back in every time the wind picks up. We almost lost the 10X20 canopy the other day because a rain storm blew up and almost blew the canopy away (luckily David & I could hang onto it in the wind and pouring rain). The canopy collected the wind and the wind could not escape without taking the canopy with it. Which tells me I need something that will allow the wind to blow thru the material. As far as the rain... The only reason my RV awning is watertight is because I sealed the material with a waterproofer for canvas a while back (don't you think that an awning should be water resistant like an umbrella?... it rained right thru). I really need the shade. I think we could put together a frame fairly inexpensively. And the cloth itself is under well three hundred with shipping (20 ft w X 48 ft long "finished" with grommets $227). A new 14 ft RV awning is over $1200 (this is what I currently have on the Class C http://www.rvawningsonline.com/index...products_id=76 with the Alumaguard which I think makes a big difference in how the awning holds up to the high winds). And the shade cloth could tent over the whole bus and also shade the sides as well. Portable shade.

Please tell me what you think... or if the heat has gotten to me.

[Diesel Dan]

I remember looking at the website for "burningman" and seeing that people were using sheets of a sort of aluminum mesh to create shade and yet allow the wind to pass through. If something has become popular in that environment, I would think it is the best thing for the job and probably not too expensive. If you check out that website, hopefully you can find it. For my own bus, I'm hoping to install tie-downs on the bus and just string up a tarp with some poles in such a way that there is an air passage between the tarp and the bus that the wind can pass under. My concern is the time it will take to set up and break down each time. We will probably not be in any one place for too long.

[lornaschinske]

Originally Posted by Diesel Dan

... I remember looking at the website for "burningman" and seeing that people were using sheets of a sort of aluminum mesh to create shade and yet allow the wind to pass through...

That would most likely be the Aluminet shown here http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/A...products/1180/ We aren't too worried about set up/breakdown. We tend to stay in one place by the month. We used to cover our little pop-up with a huge 30X40 ft tarp and pole system. The (2) kids & I used to set up/knock down the hardsided pop-up in 15-20 minutes (tarp & all). The Class C is a breeze compared to the pop-up. And we plan on setting the bus up to take off with only a few minutes prep.