Been sort of lurking around here for a bit, but I've also had the whole "Unusual RV" bug for a while- once thought about converting an old Type 1 or Type 3 (box rear) ambulance into a camper of sorts. Just figured that the old school bus route would be better in the long run anyway. I've got my eyes on a couple of old buses on Flea-bay, Craigslist and govdeals.com, and hoping to score a decent one cheap. While I'd prefer a 84 pax RE, if it's in good shape, runs well, and decently priced, I'll scoop it up.

You may have seen this floorplan over on the tutorials thread-


Its based on a conventional nose IH 66 pax.

Here's the plan if I score one of the 84 pax I'm watching-

The cabinet just aft of the larboard escape door is the electrical closet, with the house batteries underneath it and shore power connection through the bulkhead

For the subfloor I was thinking of plywood/foam/plywood/foam sandwich over acoustical barrier, except in the area of the wet bath. Which brings up a question, that may have been answered in a different thread (Link appreciated if it is), but how do you guys secure your floors/framing to the chassis? I was thinking of using some of the existing mounting bolt holes and running reversed carriage bolts up into the ply and framing 2x4s to hold them in place, sealed with liberal amounts of sealant, of course.

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Hey! That's not an RV, that's a school bus.
Well thank you for noticing, Captain Obvious
Captain Obvious on deviantArt

Welcome! Nice designs, what software is that?

Not an expert but I think the ply / foam sandwich is unnecessary and will add considerable weight. I would just get some foam board (1-2") and put that under a ply subfloor, then whatever flooring you do over that. Of course, you will lose headroom but you gotta pay to play

To hold down the subfloor (I used OSB subfloor, not reccommended) I just used self drilling pan head sheet metal screws and liquid nails subfloor. I did 1/2" foam (not much but anything helps) then 1/2" OSB, then coated that in poly floor coating, then a floating floor underlayment, then floating vinyl stick-together floor. It feels very solid underfoot.

The minimal framing I did was held to the floor with #14 self drilling hex head screws. If I were to do it again I'd use these:

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Teks-12-x-2- ... /100145370

They are much more solid, countersunk and don't break easily at all. I had issues with breaking tips off the other hex self tapping ones I had. I plugged up all the bolt holes in the floor with rivets and sealant, and just drilled new ones for anything I put through.

Thanks for the info, and I know I'm planning on losing headroom anyway

I used Visio 2013, expensive as hell (like most MSOffice programs) but they do offer a 60 day full featured trial version, and I'm most familiar with it having to use it at my last job. The dash, driver's seat, steps and flooring coming out of ProFantasy's Cosmographer add-on for their Campaign Cartographer mapping software.

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Hey! That's not an RV, that's a school bus.
Well thank you for noticing, Captain Obvious
Captain Obvious on deviantArt

Those are cool designs.

My feedback: those single beds are either extremely narrow, or not proportioned correctly in the design. I made mine just wide enough that I could lay on my back with my hands folded and elbows resting to the sides, without hanging off the edge, and my beds allow much less aisle space than what you have shown. Standard twin beds in that configuration would probably allow less than 12" of aisle space.

I mention this because I think your design is likely giving you a false sense of space, and when you actually put the beds in you will be much more cramped in the aisle than what you originally thought.

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Gallery:
https://www.skoolie.net/gallery/v/Skooli ... l_dan_bus/
Conversion Thread:
viewtopic.php?t=4959

One More Casual Observation --- noticed that you have the bathroom on the "curb" side. All the campground dumps I am aware of are on the "driver" side along with the electrical hookups which would mean running the plumbing, or at the very least, a very long sewer hose across & under the bus. A quick check will confirm that nearly all units keep all the plumbing on that side for pretty good reason. Just my dos centavos.

Good luck on the search. Just hang tight and the "right one" will show up.

Went back and revised the plan, and dimensioned and scaled the drawing as well. Ditched one of the bunks in the midship cabin, we'll probably not have that many overnight guests onboard. The dinette'll be designed as another bed anyway. And when we finally find our land yacht, I'll be able to revise and and plan out the undersides and electricals

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Hey! That's not an RV, that's a school bus.
Well thank you for noticing, Captain Obvious
Captain Obvious on deviantArt

Captain Obvious is home. Well, temporarily until I move it to its work site. Scored her for 2500 bucks, and drove her home from Maine yesterday (New York traffic was such fun )

Averaged about 10mpg, at least from Maine to the Alexander Hamilton service area on the NJ TPKE.

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Hey! That's not an RV, that's a school bus.
Well thank you for noticing, Captain Obvious
Captain Obvious on deviantArt

That's a nice looking ... tree? ;)

Can't see the Skoolie for the trees --- What year, make, model? But if it is in one piece & runs, you got a heck of a deal for 2-1/2 K.

Its an 03 International/Amtran RE, with 120k on the odo. Only thing found wrong with it so far is a cracked exhaust pipe, dry rot on the escape hatches, and a missing piece of weatherstrip on the front door. Interior demo begins tomorrow (hopefully).

A couple more shots from when we picked it up Friday-




The dent in the right front corner we'll bang out when the interior cladding is down for rust inspection and insulation removal and replacement.

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Hey! That's not an RV, that's a school bus.
Well thank you for noticing, Captain Obvious
Captain Obvious on deviantArt

Sweet deal Bud! --- this should be fun to follow, so please...keep the pix coming.

Where in Maine did you find that beauty? Would have loved to say hello and share a drink while y'all were up here.

It was actually owned by Gladney's Bus out of New Foundland, although granted the eBay location was Fairfield. We picked it up in Waterville.

And Tango, it was. I was the only bidder for 6 hours on the last day of bidding.

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Hey! That's not an RV, that's a school bus.
Well thank you for noticing, Captain Obvious
Captain Obvious on deviantArt

Snugged down yesterday at the work site.


With the obligatory "goofball" shot

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Hey! That's not an RV, that's a school bus.
Well thank you for noticing, Captain Obvious
Captain Obvious on deviantArt

I'll give you an obvious tip (which I didn't adhere to and now regret) If thats where the bus will be sitting while being built, LEVEL IT!

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Don't make a fuss-just get on the bus!

my bus build https://www.skoolie.net/gallery/Skoolies/Sped

Welcome to the madness of school bus conversions. You can quickly get obsessed with all the details. I have been working on my conversion (a 1988 Crown Coach transit style) for eight months. There are literally hundreds of decisions that you will be making in the coming months (and years). When it is over, you will have a wonderful completed RV with a lifetime of memories.

Good luck and keep the pictures coming of your conversion.

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Greg and Donna Marvel
Danville, California
https://www.transtraks.com

Welcome aboard, that's a great pic, I remember that feeling

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"That's,. like,.. your opinion, man...." - the Dude.

<- buried under registration & title paperwork while tied up with bureaucratic red tape

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Hey! That's not an RV, that's a school bus.
Well thank you for noticing, Captain Obvious
Captain Obvious on deviantArt

I put a bid in for that bus in the earlier part of the action but forgot to bid when it was ending. I'm gonna look for a similar unit but I bet I won't get as good as a deal as you.
I'm going to borrow some of your ideas too probably
Good luck!
Jake

Jake, be glad you didn't get it. The Canadian bus company, that their agent was selling it on eBay for, never transferred the title out of the State of Wisconsin, to a Canadian title. Nor did they do the Customs entry paperwork bringing it *back* into the US legally. So, I had to go to the US Customs House to get the Entry Form, EPA statement, and NHTSA declarations stamped (really easy); now I have to get a court order stating I'm the bona fide owner because they never changed the title and because NJMVC won't do an "insufficient evidence" request for a "foreign" vehicle.

Check govdeals.com. I saw some pretty sweet buses for sale, relatively inexpensive, there.

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Hey! That's not an RV, that's a school bus.
Well thank you for noticing, Captain Obvious
Captain Obvious on deviantArt