3 foot roof raise in Northern Arizona

[zoomy]

My cousin thinks that she wants to build a skoolie before heading off to college so she volunteered a couple days to come down and help me to see if she really wants to, to gain skills , and to get me as an asset when and if she does decide to build. Here she is helping me plane down some redwood fence planks which are actually considerably cheaper than a lot of other boards. Fortunately my old scoutmaster has an awesome Woodshop so I was able to use a quality wood planer for free.


Here she is helping me Shou Sugi ban some of the Redwood planks



Scrounged up some fellow veterans from the VFW here they are helping me put in some blocking for the plank wall



Here's what some of the plants look like after Shou Sugi ban and staining





And here is your monsoon season motivation because you people are beautiful and why not

[zoomy]

Still feels wierd to intentionally pop a hole in the skin of the bus


But now i have hot water


Sealing the sill step one caulk the metal




Had plastic on the back of the planks to keep the foam from squeezing out so at the window we folded it over on to the caulk and added another bead of caulk on top of the plastic



Then emplacing the OEM sheet metal sills that come on the bus and screwing them in with a little caulk on the thread.


And this kids is why you wear ALL your PPE (personal protective equipment) especially when doing an over head blind pour. Could have gone blind

Still felt some pain


And lost some hair

[zoomy]

One of the walls when finished


Inserting T nuts with an arbor press for the functional wood sculpture wall


Touching up the finish on the Tnut holes

Doing our ceiling instal yoga with some t&g pine

the majority of the ceiling we did with a blind pour but the last 4 or 5 planks we did with direct spray and shaped with the wire wheel on an angle grinder. Made a horible mes of foam snow but the saping whent much faster and easier. Over all i would use wire wheel again for shaping.



I love the lighting with the ceiling and windows in


After the grand untarping once the windows where installed with the sealed sills. Still have to caulk the windows them selves.

They loved it

[toasterman12]

Any pics of the framing above the windshield. I need inspiration

[Bricksofhappiness]

Hey Zoomy,

We live just over the mountain in Prescott ridge at the base of Mingus mtn on your way into Prescott valley. We are in the middle of purchasing our bus and plan on raising the roof. What is your overall height with the 3ft raise? Do you ever bring your bus up to the Prescott area? My wife and I would love to see it sometime!


Thanks,


Jesse

[Geo Jeff]

isn't all that flat surface is going to kill your top speed and fuel MPG. I wonder if you'll be able to get it over 55mph and still be above 6mpg. I towed a tall trailer like that behind a power stroke ford. 55 full throttle on my first trip. Added a sprint car style roof wing to the truck to get the air up and over the trailer. Back to 75 mph

[Brewerbob]

Originally Posted by zoomy

I have a 84pak (39') 1995 Thomas Saf T Line with a 8.3L Cummins and Allison MT643. I'm doing a 3 foot roof raise to it to accommodate 2 large sleeping lofts and leave the entire bottom open for living space.

Is this the same bus? This one has rear engine vents. What did you do about those when you chopped the top?


10226 - aaabussales.com

[zoomy]

Sorry guess im not geting my email notifications any more.

Toaster






Had to custome make a D chanle with 1x2 rectangle and half a 2"round tube, didnt have a tube bender so i did spine cuts to make my radioused square tubes. There should be more pics of that in previouse posts.

Brick would love to give you tour not sure if pm went through but call or pm me back with phone number

Geo. After all the blood sweat and tears ive put in this im not sure id want to go over 55pmh..... non the less lets hope your wrong, altho i think your right.

Brew
Ill try to get a new pic this week but here is and old one



But yes that looks like my girl befor i went all nip tuck on her

[Brewerbob]

Originally Posted by zoomy

Brew
Ill try to get a new pic this week but here is and old one



But yes that looks like my girl befor i went all nip tuck on her

so there's nothing structural (heavy duty) above the vents in the RE?

If you get a chance can you measure the back "bench" (the engine cowling) height? Is there a need to be able to access it for engine work? In your application you still can. I would be covering it with a bed and or cabinetry. If the engine isn't 100% accessible from outside of the bus I'd probably just opt for an FE bus. The reason I'm wanting an RE bus is perceived gain in HP to the wheels. I dunno if it exists or not but a 2 foot drive shaft is going to have less loss than a 20 foot drive shaft. Or at least that's my thinking. But if it comes at a loss of space over the engine ...

I would probably do the "standard" roof raise of cutting thru the windows. While yours is cool it might be too cool. I don't want to get chased out of cold climates until I'm just sick and tired of snow and short days. Not because I'm freezing my a$5 at night.

[Carytowncat]

Wow!

Also i can relate to the above "Not sure i would want to go over 55" after all the work.
The more this feels like home, the less interest i have in driving around, which puts a kink because i LOVE driving this bus. So i am planning on buying a 80s GMC dump truck (same front and motor) or a second short bus to drive around, hey all tue cool kids are doing it!

[zoomy]

Originally Posted by Brewerbob

so there's nothing structural (heavy duty) above the vents in the RE?

If you get a chance can you measure the back "bench" (the engine cowling) height? Is there a need to be able to access it for engine work? In your application you still can. I would be covering it with a bed and or cabinetry. If the engine isn't 100% accessible from outside of the bus I'd probably just opt for an FE bus. The reason I'm wanting an RE bus is perceived gain in HP to the wheels. I dunno if it exists or not but a 2 foot drive shaft is going to have less loss than a 20 foot drive shaft. Or at least that's my thinking. But if it comes at a loss of space over the engine ...

I would probably do the "standard" roof raise of cutting thru the windows. While yours is cool it might be too cool. I don't want to get chased out of cold climates until I'm just sick and tired of snow and short days. Not because I'm freezing my a$5 at night.

Nothing structural about the vent its self if you look above the vent in the pic you will see hat channel rib in front of it and a 90* C channel behind it. I think its intake for the air filter to the engine.


You need hight and width of both levels for the bench? Ill try to get them both on tuesday when im there next.
I would have to defer to an expert but there is definitely a bolted down pannle on the bench that looks like it is intendes for engine access or removal. Im using it for the shower bench and the mid part where the panels is is just a bench so it should be fairly easyto make it some what accessable. Even so i think of RE as being more spacious.

Im planing on taking the bus to cold climates and the solar gain is part of how im planing on handleing it. Plasticing the window and double paining some that dont need to open will help and the larger wood stove should be what makes it.

[Brewerbob]

Originally Posted by zoomy

You need hight and width of both levels for the bench? Ill try to get them both on tuesday when im there .

That Would be great!!

Any other pics of the bench?

RE more room

Really? More room or just relocated room? FE is an engine between driver and door no? Kinda wasted space anyway.

Does your bus have storage lockers outside underneath? I might want one of those buses.

[zoomy]

In the front of my bus im puting a board over the stairwell and making the entire front-end the dining room/office and I'm utilizing the backbench as the bench for the shower and puting the bathroom sink over it so it's giving considerably more floor space with a front-engine bus I'm not sure what exactly you would do over the engine lump and if it's a front engine dog nose bus then you're definitely losing space.

My bus does have storage lockers and originally I wanted to use them for storage at this point the back-end of them will still be used for storage but the front end is where I have my water tanks and inverters and such I put the batteries outside of the storage lockers that way the battery gases would not corrode anything

[Brewerbob]

Aside from it being a school bus and all school buses having a front door where the driver can keep an eye on the kiddies, is there any reason you HAVE to have a front door? Weld a plate over the stairs, bolt a new seat there, seal the doorway with sheet metal, and use the E-exit in the side. I'm guessing there's no requirement for RVs as many of them don't have a door AT the passenger seat.

Hmm, so many things to consider...

[Brewerbob]

Originally Posted by zoomy

Used my 1,000 yard target for an anvil to keep it flat.

You are my new hero. That plate doesn't look very wide for a 1,000 yard target. What are you using to attempt to put holes in it? It doesn't look very marked up either.

I have a piece of railroad plate that measures 8"x14" that I can manage to hit about 50/50 using my K-31 and iron sights at 300 yards.


You need to up your caliber tho. Mine definitely leaves marks. Doesn't go thru since it's +3/4" steel but it leaves a nasty mark on the front side. I think (but don't remember) that you can tell on the back side where it was hit. Certainly not bulging but a mark.

[zoomy]

so I'm planning on having an elevated patio that will fold up against the "main house door" while traveling leaving me the school bus door then when stationary I will board up the bus stairwell and use the main door........Planning on.....

308 on a rem700 chassis shooting 175Gr SMK.......dosnt have a lot of steel deformation ability/kinetic energy at 1k but the another tgt has a deformation from a BMG. but thanks for assuming I can hit my target

[zoomy]

guess these never got posted on here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9EW7ld_RWk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztj05nvHLGc

[Brewerbob]

Originally Posted by zoomy

308 on a rem700 chassis shooting 175Gr SMK.......dosnt have a lot of steel deformation ability/kinetic energy at 1k but the another tgt has a deformation from a BMG. but thanks for assuming I can hit my target

I didn't yet have my .308 when I was out with the steel plate so I've no idea what kind of dimple it would have left at 300 yrds. I suspect not as much as the 7.5mm K-31 if for no other reason than the K-31 rounds are steel too.

You hit it often enough to mention it. I don't mention the one time I've been to a 1,000 range because I can't tell you where the rounds even went. Need a better spotting scope if nothing else. The range had 3 ft boulders but I couldn't tell if I was hitting them or not.

[zoomy]

You going to skoolie palooza in January? Im going to try and make it and there is lots of wide open space around quartsite.

[zoomy]

sorry i have been neglecting you guys and the bus but here is a dump of all the videos from the last 9 months or so should have more pictures and videos up soon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Lu0JaTkQFg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhUAaLlpdM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCsF6xDWMAg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwcnTkef6HM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me0vNfyjFPw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5PRn1cqQHM