1989 Thomas Saf-T-Liner - Page 2

TomCat · 03-10-2005, 01:04 PM

BusOne,

High speed buses in WY? Yes. Mine will do about 70mph, but is turning too many RPMs with it's present rear end gears for me to keep it there very long.

No rust in WY? Yes, it's very dry there, and salt is not used to deice the roads in WY.

My 87 Thomas SaftLiner went from the Campbell County, WY school district, to a bus/truck dealer in Cheyenne, then to Rocky Mountain Bus in Monument, CO, where I bought it in Dec 02.
I'm sure everyone made a few bucks on it on the way to me, but I got a very clean, well maintained and rust free bus for a good price.

BONUS! I called the CC school district bus shop, asked the secretary if it was possible for me to get copies of the maintenance records. Her first question to me was "What is your UPS address?"
2 days later a large box full of records was at my door. In it was everything from the original spec sheets and invoices, to a record of the smallest bulb change.

My cabinet guy is taking a week off of his day job next week to devote to my project. I have every confidance he will make my 60 day schedule.

busone · 03-10-2005, 06:33 PM

I think I have seen that dealer from I-25. I just moved back to the Denver area about a month ago. Thanks for the info. When the time comes I will have to look at WY buses.

TravelingMan · 03-11-2005, 03:28 PM

The lamps you made look very nice and will look great in the bus. Whare would you look for the burner parts?
Matt

vonslatt · 03-11-2005, 06:32 PM

Thanks Trav! (you don't mind if I call you Trav?

)

I got them from Lehman's:

http://lehmans.com/jump.jsp?itemType=CA ... =0&i4Cat=0

They have a vast array of parts and their customer service is excellent. If you are looking for Dietz style lanterns W. T. Kirkman is the place;

http://www.lanternnet.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?

TravelingMan · 03-11-2005, 08:36 PM

Trav is fine.

Thanks for the info. Hope things are moving along with the conversion.

vonslatt · 03-21-2005, 04:17 PM

Starting on building the dinette - posted some new pics at:

http://www.vonslatt.com/busmain.html

vonslatt · 04-27-2005, 05:06 PM

Posted a couple of new pages - kitchen and electrical.

TravelingMan · 04-27-2005, 11:05 PM

Looks real good. Really like the panneling.

Does it come in sheets?

vonslatt · 04-28-2005, 11:02 AM

Yep, 4x8, from Home Depot. I think it was $12-18 per sheet, certainly not more then $20. I bought 10 sheets and have 4 left, I think I'll need maybe two more then that.

dammitAndy · 04-28-2005, 01:00 PM

Photo site is looking good. I like the kitchen counters. keep up the good work.

Branden · 04-29-2005, 12:35 AM

If you're in a city with Craig's List, that is a GREAT resource. I've gotten four leather BMW front seats from 86-96 for $100 and a bunch of nice kitchen cabinets. I'm close to getting flooring (pergo laminate type) but want to wait until the bus keys arrive...

vonslatt · 05-10-2005, 11:26 AM

Mounted the house batteries this weekend:

http://vonslatt.freezope.org/bus-elec.html

TravelingMan · 05-10-2005, 11:54 AM

How come they have'nt got the keys to you yet. I'd be have a fit and really on the guys case by now.

lapeer20m · 05-10-2005, 02:36 PM

get your keys yet?

IF it's a mechanical injected diesel, it's really easy to hot wire!

vonslatt · 05-24-2005, 03:31 PM

Made some progress this weekend - I've updated the Electrical page.

http://www.vonslatt.com/bus-elec.shtml

I've been running all my tools and a stereo off of a Coleman 1500 watt modified sine inverter and I'm pretty impressed with the quality of the power from it. It's MUCH cleaner then any of the computer UPS' I've been playing with and 1500 Watts for $179 is not bad at all.

Branden · 05-25-2005, 10:46 PM

I am overwhelmed just looking at those pictures. I hardly understand a lightswitch much less a whole electrical system, so they are both incredibly useful and a bit intimidating...

And on the local front, I have the keys, title, license, successful emissions test, insurance, and a new temporary warehoused home for the bus. Now I just have to figure out what to do with it.

Branden

vonslatt · 05-26-2005, 05:04 AM

LOL! Well you're way ahead of me when it comes to getting her on the road. With luck I'll get the title converted and plates next month.

I'm working on a bus electrical HowTo page that covers things in better detail. I'll let you know when it's done.

Cheers!

Branden · 05-26-2005, 03:16 PM

My thoughts are changing on this topic daily (I would say evolving, but that's suggestive of some directional element that doesn't really exist in my thoughts on the matter at the moment).

I'm now seriously considering a simple inverter layout, with a medium sized inverter (ca. 1000W) to run a laptop comp, coffeemaker, stereo, and the occasional power tool. No TV, no nuker. I've two (and maybe four if I can recondition two) 12V 193A deep cycle batteries, and with a good inverter and built-in charger I could, if I understand correctly, use shore power and charge batts at the same time, and when no shore power was available use the inverter to run all 110 stuff in house and just run the diesel for a while every day or so. How long would that big bus alternator take to recharge batts, I wonder?

B

lapeer20m · 05-26-2005, 10:02 PM

you need to find the size of your alternator. perhaps 160 amps?

Then takethe total amp/hr of your batteries ~400a/h, then divide that in half. = 200a/h (you should ideally never use more tha half the available a/h available)

If you need to replace those 200 a/h, you can plan on putting in at least 10% more than the 200 a/h to bring them to full charge. that = 220 a/h

Then just do the math for the amount of current going into the batteries. ie: Charging at 50 amps would take about 4 and a half hours. 50 amps is a lot of juice. you're batteries would be much happier with only 25 amps at a time. The full potential of your alternator might be 165 amps, but that's probably only at a pretty high engine rpm. 165 amps going into your batteries would almost certianly reduce their life span. My alternator is connected to my house batteries through an isolator. it's possible that most of the current from the alterator is being forced into my batteries.....how will this affect them? I don't have much real world expierence with this exact setup......yet. I'll post more info on how this seems to have affected my batteries at the end of this summer as i have only recently installed the isolator.

captainkf · 05-29-2005, 03:59 PM

I've got three deep cycles, a three phase charger (non rv specific) perminently mounted, a continous soloid for seperating the starting and deep cycles (I tried an isolator and did not like it), a two 15 amp shore power breaker, and a 1200 watt inverter.

The charger can be plugged in (in the bus) when on shore power if I need to. The alternator (100 amps) charges the batteries, however the fuel it takes to idle the bus i'd rather use my crappy generator. The rear ac outlets are wired into a 3 prong plug so I can switch between shore and inverter power manually. The automatic systems are nice but very, very expensive. Also the charger can be removed in the winter and stored with the batteries and keep a good float trickle charged now and then. It seemed silly to buy two charging systems.

So I like the KISS system. Mine works great. I've got some ac and dc lights and I can go for quite a while.

visit the site for photo's and good luck!

-Richard

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