My 1990 Ford E-350 Goshen Bus

[Stuff]

Ha! I saw Goshen and I thought you were from my neck of the woods.

lol not quite. I might be by there though. It seems I might be headed out to Nova Scotia for a retrieval of people and their belongings out there. Gonna do a real dirty conversion to get her out there and back lol. Gonna mount 2 sets of seats on the passenger side facing each other and then on the drivers side im going to make some dirty bunk beds there so I can sleep! Not sure what the timeline is but but I got too much on my plate...

I also have to replace a wood panel inside the bus and clean it out so from the seats back will be storage for the cargo coming home.

secondary plans are to wire up trailer lights and to get a trailer hitch on there. No cheap pos, something rated for 1500lbs or better!

[Stuff]

well i will be needing a hitch. Father has an old uhaul truck that was cut down. wonder if i can steal the bumper and hitch and use it and the lights??

[sdwarf36]

Well--you could do that-but sometimes (more often than not) it is more work retro-fitting something rather than starting from scratch. What I did (twice actually-once on my bus+ once on my cube van.) is have a metal shop bend you up some diamond plate. For about $100, you can make things to how you want. On both rigs, my intent was having a step to get in+ out of the back (frequently) and having a 2" reciever hitch. You have the 2 frame rails +some other cross-bracing back there-so you have plenty to attach to. Folded 1/8" plate is plenty strong-the thing weighs maybe 80 lbs. My hitch + whole bumper are all welded together as 1 unit--and i also put in 2 pieces of 1"x 2" tube under there for sliding in a motorcycle carrier.

[Stuff]

my father says he has a hitch for a full size ford van in the back of one of his vans.. so i might try that to. was thinking that bumper would just look better behind the bus lol.

tomorrow is a day off so lets see what i can wreck lol

[Ascend]

The hitch can definitely present its own challenges. My bumper is one huge hunk of steel and I could not find a simple bumper mount hitch like the one on that uhaul for the life of me. So I ended up getting one specifically for an E350 van. It matches up to the frame fine but in order to clear the underside of my bumper I'm going to have to notch out about an inch or so. I have been dreading this for a while but I found out the other day one of my riding buddies has a heavy duty plasma cutter so i think I'm just going to let him notch it out for me.

[lapeer20m]

In the future, if plasma cutter is not handy, You can cut some substantial pieces of metal using a 110 volt circular saw like carpenters use. Replace saw blade with an abrasive metal cutting blade/disk.

Wear eye ear and lung protection.

Angle grinders with skinny blades work well also, but lack the power of a circular saw.

[Stuff]

look what i found in the back of one of dad's van! BRAND NEW! "i dont have a use for it, just take it" its a class 4 hitch to!

[Stuff]

And i took a night shot cause i could. Fired on the 2nd try after sitting all month.

[Stuff]

they opened the dams and I had to move. unfortunately no hitch on the bus yet... had to use fathers super duty to get out. if he would have spun or sunk it would have taken a few trucks to get him out!

[Stuff]

well 11:30 last night they sounded the alarm and got everyone out! they opened the dams to 650 m3/s (23,000cubicft/s) and it began to flood the trailer park. 400 more people out of a home and now there is bridge failures and they are trying to save the park but no guarantees yet..

suddenly everyone is thinking my mobile home is a very good idea!

[Stuff]

well we are back home, trailer is in and blocked and leveled again, but the bus aint...


the starter gave up the ghost on the street in the picture... put booster cables on it and charged up the batteries good and it just wont crank fast enough. then the cables got hot so we know it was drawing way too many amps. tried it again and nothing and nothing then a grr as it tried again.. so i assume its done. probably the brushes in it or something.. bah..

so now i gotta see what a rebuilt starter for it will cost... its full of skirting junk from the trailer and other crap i need to get out of it.. and 12 days of plates left on it..


and now i find out there is an option to have gear reduction or no gear reduction... grr..

[Stuff]

so tow truck boosted the bus to get it to start. guy is trying to claim its my batteries.. they were new last fall, they have been topped up and maintained... why is it that as soon as you boost it from another diesel that it will spin to life i wonder?

I for one still believe it is the starter that is shot and is drawing way too many amps!

[sdwarf36]

I thought the same thing of my Vw diesel. found various tricks -plug it in longer-new battery-run longer on diesel after shutting off the veg system. Finally changed the starter-but it still wasnt always quick enough. it turned out the end of the pos cable to the starter had a crappy connection inside the terminal. A new cable + some sanding + cleaning made the thing crank over MUCH better.

[Stuff]

i think im gonna ask them to put in a new starter cable to if it shows any signs of wear or crappyness lol

they might get it in on Thursday they say.

the tow truck left the lights on to when i went to check on it after work..

[Stuff]

picked it up last night. WOW what a difference!! cranks over like nothing and VROOOMM!!