98 Bluebird TC2000 Conversion: 2 Feet Roof raise 3 Slideouts

[Vlad]

Hey I am not dead.... bus is not dead.....

We moved from coast to coast and still live in rental house. We just bought our own house and in the process of moving in.

My whole setup is a mess my desktop computer is buried somewhere my camera with ton of pictured is also buried somewhere.... I am using my wife laptop to surf the net.....

I do work on the bus and some things are done. I just don't like crying about my problems....

I know I will finish the bus and will post as much as I can. I just don't want long useless empty build thread about nothing.....

[Vlad]

I keep bus in rental warehouse. The owners allow me to work on the bus but I have too many restrictions what and when and how can be done.

I removed exhaust system completely and adding exhaust brakes in new setup. Going downhill on I-5 wasn't fun at all, so I want exhaust brakes....

[Tango]

Welcome back Vlad --- Glad to hear you made the trip OK. Here's hoping you find the right working location as we all want to see more of your very interesting build.

[aaronsb]

Are you tossing a pacbrake on there? I'll be curious to know if you end up keeping it independent of the transmission computer or integrate it.

On all the unimogs I have driven that have exhaust brakes, stepping on the little switch mechanically locks out the throttle to idle so you can't hit the fuel at brake at the same time.

I wonder if the "right" way is to wire pacbrake solenoid to some pin on the ecu, and the activation switch to ecu, that way its coordinated with the regular brake pedal?

I preferred to have the service brakes independent of the exhaust brake so I can ride just exhaust brake on downgrades.

Originally Posted by Vlad

I keep bus in rental warehouse. The owners allow me to work on the bus but I have too many restrictions what and when and how can be done.

I removed exhaust system completely and adding exhaust brakes in new setup. Going downhill on I-5 wasn't fun at all, so I want exhaust brakes....

[Vlad]

The reason we mess around skoolies is to build your own something....

I will have 4" inline flap made by Jacobs. It is fixed orfice flap. I am plugging the orfice and adding a wastegate valve in parallel. The wastegate valve will allow me to adjust exhaust back pressure.

I want to control exhaust brakes independent from transmission but transmission must be locked. I will see how to set it all up.

The reason packbrakes are wired the way they are is to make them dummy proof. Most people buy large motorhomes never drove large vehicles in their life...... give them extra button to control and they will end up in a ditch.....

[GreyCoyote]

Vlad: I joined the site after you went off-line for your move west, so we never had a chance to interact. But I wanted you to know how much I enjoyed your build thread. It honestly was a big part of the inspiration that led me to finally "do it!" and get a bus.

When you get settled-in to your new home, I do look forward to seeing the build resume!.

[Vlad]

Moving things has it's positive part... finally found my camera.... Tonight I will upload a bunch of pictures to Flickr and in next few days will post them.

[Vlad]

Before I moved to East Coast I decided to add air bags to my front suspension. There is not much room and not too many options but all skoolies are a bit crazy and determined....

I bought 2 large air bars from truck wreck yard ($10 each)




There is no way to put this bags between axle and frame rails. There is only 3-4 inches of clearance.... this is why I had to build some "ledges" for bottom of air bags:





Here are some details:


























So, the ledges outside side are bolted by spring's U-bolts and inside side is resting on axle and bolted by "clamp" from the bottom. There is nothing welded to the axle, just bolts.

Here is a cross member which I had to add above air bags:



This 3" or 3.5" (don't remember excactly) square tube is bolted with a bunch of 1/2" grade 8 bolts to the frame rails. I did't have to drill rails, there were ton of holes in rails which I had to trace and use after.

Some details:







Here are final results:





The air bags work just great. I still don't have any sophisticated pressure control system but what a difference. I just added about 40 Psi and my front end raised by about 2". Lucky me I added this air bags before my big move... I jumped on few bridges going 60 MPH and with my load I would smash into pavement without this air bags.

Later I will add gauges and valves to control pressure/clearance. Also I am thinking about removing rear springs and convert into air ride... but this will be later on.

[Tango]

Excellent Work! enjoy the ride.

[Robin97396]

That's bad a$$. I like the way you fabricate.