1984 Blue Bird All American Rear Engine

[Tango]

Hey nonextant --- "Too much is never enough!" Welcome to the board and "tanks" you for your service. Sounds like like you went with a "Big Bird"...what size is the beastie and which engine? Did it come with under-belly storage bays?

My only suggestion at this point would be to spring for plastic water & holding tanks. I just seen too many homebuilts collapse after a fairly short life. The mass of water moving about takes it's toll pretty quickly and the results are not pretty.

[Tango]

Great unit to work with. Birds are famously overbuilt and in the configuration you have should make for a sweet ( and spacious ) conversion.

[newbusser]

Haven't been on in a while, was glad to see you made it here. The black plastic pipe goes to the air gauge, i just hadn't gotten the correct fitting to hook it up yet when you bought her. I disconnected the buzzer on the middle emergency exit because it was going off by itsef. i think it had a bad sender.

Glad she is being finished.... PICTURES!!!

Scott

[pipopak]

Hi there:
congratulations on your jump towards freedom from mortgages!. While I still don't have a bus I wrote a rather large file about the way "I want" and "I believe it should" be set up, where I collected a lot of wisdom from this and other places, complete with a lot of appropriate links to useful stuff. If interested drop me a line to pipopak at yahoo dot com. BTW if you can lead to some place that sells small very short range operating cannons (like from my front bumper no more than 100' forward) ............

[newbusser]

pictures....... pictures........ pictures....

[lornaschinske]

Originally Posted by nonextant

... I've found that I cannot use a GFCI breaker in the panel as it will trip as soon as anything is plugged in... I would imagine it's because my source already has a GFCI.

We have a GFCI on our RV (and will in the bus) We have almost always been plugged into a source protected with it's own ground fault. I have been told on this forum that what I am doing is not possible. But I'm not the only one wired like this. Double check your wiring to make sure you haven't got a problem some where. Are you pulling too much power?

... except the oven which is 240 and will only work on 50 Amp shore power.

Have you had that working? You might get the oven to work but you might blow everything else if you try operating another electrical thing. Not sure but highly suspect that will be the case.

Have to find a way to plumb the shower without looking too much height. I cannot drill through the floor as there is a brace and a fuel tank in the way.

Try the Camco camper drain trap (37262). It's for a "vanity" sink but you can reduce down from the shower hole if it's already drilled. It's under 4" high (2" or 3" I think). I had one for many years on our popup galley sink. Wonderful little gizmo. We are putting them on our sinks/shower. I can't tell you how big it is because not even the Camco website says what the specs are.

[Hvbuzz]

Good job so far.

As far as the 50amp. I've been told, which I will diffently look into it more now, is that at a campground with a 50amp plug, it is still 120v. Yes you have two power legs going into the camper, but its still the same phase. That is why when someone with a 50amp camper, at home, tries to plug their 50amp cord into a drier plug, and ends up "burning every thing up". Doing so, has introduced the other 120 phase into the same bus bar in the camper (240v). So what I'm trying to say is, I'm not sure you will ever get 240v to your bus. Unless you have a 240v generator, or are at more of a mobile home park, rather than campground.

Nate

[bus-bro]

RV 50 amp service is 240 volts. Most 50 amp RV's pull two 120 volt cicuits of 50 amps each. The plug problem was with the 30 amp RV plugs. The 240 volt 30 amp residential rececptacle and the 30 amp RV plug are no longer compatable. That is unless it's an old house.

[lornaschinske]

Originally Posted by bus-bro

RV 50 amp service is 240 volts. Most 50 amp RV's pull two 120 volt cicuits of 50 amps each. The plug problem was with the 30 amp RV plugs. The 240 volt 30 amp residential rececptacle and the 30 amp RV plug are no longer compatable. That is unless it's an old house.

I think you may be wrong. I do not believe that 50 amp RV is 240vAC. But what do I know. I have plugged our 30 amp 120vAC RV into a 50 amp plug (gotta love adapters). Not once but twice... once in an RV park... the second time was in a mobile home park that took RV's. I believe that if a 50 amp plug was wired up like you say, I would have burned up everything in our poor old decrepit RV... including the RV. Call a couple local campgrounds and ask them what their 50 amp plugs are. I do know that you usually pay more ($1 or $2 per night) for 50 amp service in a campground. Also all of the public campgrounds we have stayed in only have 30 amp service. That's why we are wiring for 30 amp only. But we also won't have an all electric bus either. I prefer LP to cook and heat with. does a better job than electric. In the Class C, we only use electric space heaters with the LP furnace as a backup. It will kick on at night. Our electric is included in our site rental.

[Hvbuzz]

Sorry, I think I was wrong. After doing a little searching on the web, everybody agrees with Bus-Bro. Two different phases for 50amp. (240v) One single phase for 30amp (120v). Lorna, the adapters are supposible to limit the other phase when plugging into the 50amp service. I'm still going to do some calling around about it, and see if I can find some 50 amp sights around my area to check. The old fart I work with gave me that line of BS , wait till I tell hem different.

Excellant build, again sorry, carry on.

[bus-bro]

It can confuse. 50 amp RV power is 50 amps of 240 or 100 amps of 120, or a ratio of them. The practice in the conversion world is to have no 240 loads. The converter plug only taps one 120 volt leg.

[Stuff]

this came up on the forest river forums..


http://www.myrv.us/electric/Pg/50amp_Service.htm

" It is a misconception that this 50-amp RV service is something special. This service is a STANDARD 120/240 50-amp 3 pole with 4 prongs used for numerous applications. "

[newbusser]

Hay! just realized what you were looking for.

I have a couple of swivel bases and seats out of a conversion van you can have if you feel like making another trip down here. I also have a water tank out of a truck bed camper and the little heater that mounts behind the drivers seat for you. If it is worth the gas to come back down let me know.

Scott

[newbusser]

Haven't heard from you so the things i had are gone.
Hope everything is going ok.