Betty the Bus

[FlyboyHPD]

Originally Posted by machine

Have you got this back in Tomball? Im at 249 and Northpointe, just getting the itch for doing one of these...

Hey Machine, my wife and I are also getting ready to get a bus to convert into full time living. I'm right at 249 and FM1960. Lets keep in touch so we can swap ideas.

Eric

[austin1989us]

It's been four weeks since my last update, so I guess it's about time again.

We had a successful hunting season. The bus functioned well as a spare bedroom/bathroom. Now it's time to get the bus back to Houston.

I needed to get some work done on my truck this weekend, and I needed to make some final additions to the bus before dropping it off at the mechanic's shop for a couple weeks. I have a mechanic out in the hill country that I trust to do a lot of work.

My wife made some curtains for the back window just to try an idea out, so I put those up.

I added a door stop made out of a hinge to keep the door from locking when going in and out of the bus. My old stopper was just a ball of duct tape. I like this one much better. I also clamped on a CPVC cap to the bar that connects my door to the handle. When the door handle crosses that bar the door can't be closed from outside. The stopper stops the door handle from crossing that bar.

I also added some locks to the handicapped and emergency exit doors. My mechanic's shop is right next door to a bus stop and I figured nosey vagrants might try to sleep in my bed or poop in my toilet. I drilled the screw heads off just in case someone had a screwdriver on their pocket knife. I guess a somewhat athletic person could still climb in through the window though.

[austin1989us]

My dad got some pretty good bus pics.

[austin1989us]

I'll probably be back to pick up the bus in a couple of weeks. The mechanic didn't seem to think it'd take that long, but that's what my schedule allows.

I'm having my mechanic look at the brakes. I had a pretty bad brake problem the day we bought the bus, so I'd like to make sure those are in good shape. There was also allegedly a leak somewhere with the brakes (according to the guy who sold it to me).

Hopefully my mechanic can weld my exhaust pipe back to the muffler too. It's not a huge problem. I noticed when it was cold and I started it after sitting for 10 weeks that I had some white smoke coming out of the exhaust (at the back of the bus, so some of the exhaust is going all the way through). When I hit the accelerator hard there was some black smoke, but once the bus warmed up all the smoke went away.

I'm also having the oil changed and I'll get him to put synthetic fluid in the transmission. Hopefully the synthetic fluid will hold up a little better at higher temperatures. I may consider swapping for a better transmission or getting a cooler for my transmission at some point in the future.

The mechanic is also gonna replace the sending unit for my temperature gauge. It spikes occasionally and I have to tap on the gauge to get it to go back to normal.

He's also gonna give the bus a good once-over to spot any other mechanical issues I may have. Once he give us a clean bill of health I'll be confident driving it on long trips.

[austin1989us]

Once the bus is back in Houston I'll have about 4 months to make it pretty. Our next goal is to have it pretty looking and somewhat nice to camp in by Memorial Day weekend. Every Memorial Day weekend we go up to Oklahoma for my wife's family reunion. This year we'll be taking our bus. We bought the bus the weekend after Memorial Day 2015, so I guess that'll be our one year bus-iversary.

Here's a preliminary list of the things we need to complete before then:

-Seal windows (I've got leaks and now is the best time to fix them)

-Fresh water tank/pump/12V electrical (we can't camp at that campground Memorial Day weekend without fresh water tanks and a pump. They don't allow you to stay hooked up to their water for any longer than the time it takes to fill up your fresh water tank)

-Black/gray tanks (I can't keep using this portable thing forever)

-Finish insulation and wall paneling (since I haven't actually done much paneling so far, I may be able to go back and take out most of the interior sheet metal and insulate better)

-Finish up electrical and install lighting (right now I've only got one circuit connected to the 120V system and no lighting. we've got some nice 120V mason jar lights we're gonna make. I also think I need to contemplate some 12V auxiliary lighting for when we're not connected to AC power)

-Finish out shower stall (right now it's just plastic shower curtains taped up. I think we're gonna go with some sort of corrugated metal design for the shower stall. We also need to come up with a better way to hang the shower curtain)

-Bathroom door (I keep saying I'll get around to it)

-Vinyl flooring (I've gotten several splinters in my feet from the OSB floor this hunting season. Also, my wife wants it to look pretty and she doesn't like the OSB floor)

-Counter top for bathroom sink (the current counter top is also OSB)

-Finish out dining area (my wife is getting excited about the table top and cushions she gets to make look pretty)

-Safely anchor my wife's passenger seat and seat belt

-Build cabinets/storage areas under the bathroom sink, under the bed, under the dining area, and under my wife's passenger seating area

-Make curtains for the windows

-Body work/prep/paint the exterior of the bus

-Paint/trim for the interior of the bus

-If there's time left, contemplate the kitchen area (I'd like to at least have a fridge and a place to put the coffee pot, but a stove/oven/microwave would be nice too)



I'm sure there are plenty of other things that belong on this list. Progress has been slow these past ten weeks because of hunting season and the 5 hour drive I had to make to work on the bus. Hopefully work will pick up again once I've got the bus back home.

[EastCoastCB]

So is the freezer full now?

[austin1989us]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

So is the freezer full now?

I think I have enough to make about 40-50 pounds of sausage. I got a little 8 point this season.

[EastCoastCB]

Nice, I haven't had any venison in a couple years.
Good to see yall using and enjoying that bus!

[Tango]

Love venison sausage...but save the backstrap. It's too good to get ground up.

[austin1989us]

I don't grind the backstrap. We usually batter and deep fry it like little medallions of chicken fried steak

[Puggy]

Hey you do have a Betty Bus! My daughter and I think Burner Betty or Betty the Burner might be a good new name for ours to avoid confusion

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by austin1989us

I don't grind the backstrap. We usually batter and deep fry it like little medallions of chicken fried steak

That's how we do it!

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Puggy

Hey you do have a Betty Bus! My daughter and I think Burner Betty or Betty the Burner might be a good new name for ours to avoid confusion

As do I!

[Tango]

Mmmmmm...what time is dinner?

[austin1989us]

It has been about a month since my last update and not much has happened in that time. The bus was sitting at my mechanic's shop for a lot of that time. My mechanic has a mechanic that works for him, and he got sick and needed surgery; so that set us back a few weeks. Fortunately he's okay now.

They were able to fix my brakes (although they had a little trouble locating the parts). They fixed a leak I had in my heater hose. My temperature gauge problems were caused by a loose connection, so they fixed that. They also changed the oil and put in synthetic transmission fluid. I asked them to weld my exhaust pipe back on the muffler. They said there wasn't much to weld on to. I figured they could rig up a solution better than I could, so I asked them to figure out a way to make it where it doesn't smell like diesel exhaust when I'm stopped in the bus. Their solution worked, but it's a little loud. They cut my muffler off! Now it doesn't smell like diesel exhaust, but it's a bit louder. Not obnoxiously loud though. It was difficult to carry a conversation in the bus before, so it hasn't made it much worse. I also got somewhat improved fuel economy on the ride back, although I'm not sure how much of that was muffler and how much of that was the fact that I was driving downhill (about -1,000' elevation change in 300 miles). I'm happy with the fixes and am confident that my bus is mechanically sound.

On the trip back I didn't have many difficulties. The transmission would get a little warm accelerating from a stop going uphill on the hills around Austin. I was able to mostly keep it under 200, but occasionally it'd go up to 220ish on a big hill. 170ish is where it likes to live at top speed on flat ground. Also, I had a little shake in the steering wheel between 60-65mph. It'd usually go away if I got up to 70 or down to 55. That was annoying, but I was still in control. I kinda preferred cruising at 55 to cruising at 70. How does one go about balancing an 11Rx22.5 tire on dayton hubs?

So, I've got the bus back home for now. It looks like I've got just shy of 3 months to finish out the bus and make it pretty. (Un)fortunately, I got cut back to part time at work (oilfield). So now I've got 4-5 day weekends just about every weekend to finish up the bus. Tentatively, we'd like the bus done or nearly done by the first weekend in May so we can have a bus warming party. Either the second or third weekend in May we'll take the bus out on a weekend trip somewhere less than two hours from Houston (probably lake somerville). Then memorial day weekend is our first big trip to Oklahoma for my wife's family reunion. That will also mark one year of bus ownership.

I've got a list of stuff to do and have already checked one of those things off the list. My sister helped me seal my windows this weekend. Most of my list is similar to the list I posted a month ago, so I won't bore yall with it.

[austin1989us]

I'm running a little behind schedule, but we'll probably make it for memorial day. Last weekend I tested a little paint. We also got some curtain stuff ordered and our flooring ordered. We decided to go with a wood colored rubber anti-fatigue mat for the short term. I figured it'd be easy to install, look relatively okay, and cut down on road noise.

I bought some paint to test out a patch on the bus last weekend. I figured it'd be quicker and cheaper to go this route. First, I cleaned the area with some acetone. Then I roughed it up with the sander. Then I cleaned it again with acetone and taped it off with some masking tape. I applied two coats, then repeated with the trim paint. The paint looks relatively good. Provided it doesn't flake too bad I think it'll fade in a good way. We're planning on redoing the paint in a couple of years anyway. I might do a bit of bondo work when I'm patching some rust holes to help smooth out the finish. Pits and chips are obvious up close, but it looks pretty good from a distance.

I also found out that I could grind off my stickers with a wire wheel. This feels much more preferable to me than the heat gun and scraper idea. I couldn't feel my hands for weeks when I did that with the glue inside my bus.

[EastCoastCB]

I love that color! Its what I'm using as well.

[austin1989us]

Another month without a post, but that doesn't mean I haven't made progress. About 5 more weeks until our maiden voyage. There's still a lot to do. Registration and tanks are quickly moving to the top of my list as time runs out. Both are a necessity for where I'm going.

I started on body prep work. There are some good pics/vids of that on the bus' instagram page (@bettythebus). I painted on some ospho after hitting what I could with a wire wheel. I also took the stickers off with the wire wheel. Then scrubbed the adhesive residue with acetone.

I used some fiberglass body filler (like the tiger hair) to fill a couple of small holes and one really big hole in the body. Bondo too in places. I attempted to make the gouges where the wire wheel took too much paint with the sticker look better with bondo, but I think the paint will fix those imperfections.

My wife has a bunch of pics of her staining walls and making the dining room table and stuff on the bus' instagram too. That's making good progress. But I need to finish out the rest of the walls. I started work on the shower stall this weekend. I stapled some plastic behind the metal. I'm framing the corners with cedar fence posts. I made the mistake of putting the plastic up before I realized I needed to install a light fixture on that wall. So that wall got a second layer of plastic after I had to move some of the first layer to route the wiring for the light and switch. The light fixtures are another creation of my beautiful wife. There are more pics on the instagram.

The guy that owns my storage unit was a little reticent to let me spray paint on his property, so I decided rolling the paint was the way to go. I find that when I ask for paint recommendations from a professional they clam up and can't answer my questions when I mention it's a bus, so I told the guy at the paint store that I was painting 30 year old sheet metal that already had a base coat on it, but my wife wanted a different color. He recommended a latex exterior gloss house paint.

I tried the latex paint after roughing up the surface with the sander and wiping down with acetone. I could still see yellow through the first coat, but after a second coat it looked great. It's a little rough in texture (kinda like bedliner, but not quite that rough). I tried to make it flake or chip or peel off in pieces by scratching it with my wedding ring, but it's stuck pretty good to the metal. I like it. I think I'll keep it.

More pics to come eventually, but it's easier to check them out on instagram @bettythebus

[austin1989us]

It's been another 7 weeks without an update, so here goes.

We've made a lot of progress in the last 7 weeks. Yesterday marked one year since we bought the bus. Memorial Day weekend was also our first big trip in the bus. We drove from Houston up to Oklahoma (about an 1,100 mile round trip) for my wife's family reunion.

The bus handled well (aside from the shake I have in my steering wheel sometimes between 55-65 mph). I got about 10.5 mpg on the way back. I didn't bother calculating my mpg on the way there. It was probably less because it was uphill. I was able to go about 65 mph most of the way there, and 70 mph most of the way back. The bus backs off to as much as 55 mph on an uphill, and gets up over 75 mph on a downhill. Google maps says it's an 8 hour drive, but with stops we did it in 10. I've got a 40 gallon tank, but we usually stop for a break and fuel somewhere between half and a quarter tank. Every 3-5 hours or so.

For the past few weeks we’ve been driving the bus to the house to work. It was getting a little difficult to work around all the tools and materials in the bus, so we emptied the bus out into our garage and worked at the house. I think we started doing that around the time I got plates for it. The State of Texas felt that I had done enough work for it to be considered a motorhome, so they gave me passenger plates, and when we got home from Oklahoma last night the motorhome title was waiting in the mail box.

Just a brief synopsis of all we’ve accomplished since my last post:

-Installed gray water tank and black water tank under the shower and toilet respectively (both are identical 25 gallon ABS tanks)
-Installed light fixtures (dining room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom)
-Installed power outlets and wall panels and some insulation
-Installed pump and potable water tank and fill door under seat in the dining area (26 gallon tank)
-Did most of the painting on the exterior and interior. There are still a lot of touchups left
-Finished out shower stall
-Installed curtains
-Installed anti-fatigue mat flooring
-Finished out some panels in the dining area and passenger seating area (with storage under both)
-Installed passenger seat and seatbelt
-Carpeted wheel well by bed and passenger seating area
-Put vinyl tile stuff on the bathroom counter
-Painted/stained/installed kitchen counter area
-Bought a KODI ice chest to keep food/drink cool on the road
-Got up on the roof and spun the fan to get my air conditioner working again

I probably accomplished a lot of other things not mentioned above. If yall have questions, feel free to ask.

We’ve still got a lot of work left to finish up, but for now it’s ready for summer camping season.

Here is a short list of things left to do as we have the time:

-Fix the wobble in the steering wheel. It might be some kind of suspension or power steering issue. My power steering pump is leaking fluid. I notice the wobble doesn’t happen all the time, and I can make it go away if I have just a little pressure on the steering wheel (like in a long curve)
-Figure out why my sink won’t drain. I think I might add a small gray tank just for my sinks. I think going the 10’ or so from my sink to the tank leaves me with too little water trying to push too much water uphill. The sink drained okay, but slow at home. Once my father-in-law gave me some blocks to level the bus the sink wouldn’t drain at all. I opened up my low point drain on that line and just let my sink dump onto the ground last weekend.
-Fix my water line foul up. I absentmindedly hooked my water pump up to the hot water line, instead of the cold. Now everything is backwards. Turn the blue handle to get hot water.
-Finish out the curtains, and make some blackout curtains to help keep it cooler this summer. My wife is calling them ‘window quilts’ right now. They’re essentially two pieces of fabric with batting sewn between and magnets sewn into them to hold them up.
-Trim. Lots of trim. Corner trim everywhere. Trim along the windows. Loads of trim to cover up the exposed 2x2s and panels that aren’t square.
-Paint touchups. There are still a few unpainted/stained panels in the bus. And outside there is still some yellow around the windows and touchups on the front. I’d also like to put another coat on the roof. The color is supposed to come out more tan/cream than white. You can see the tan/cream on the front/back of the bus around the lights where I put more coats on, but I didn’t get enough coats on the roof, so it just looks white.
-Additional fan or a small bedroom A/C unit. Trying to take a nap midday was a bit uncomfortable in the bus. We were parked in direct sunlight. The temp outside was mid 80s. My bathroom blocks the A/C from reaching the back of the bus where the bed is. It was 78 in the back of the bus, but 72 under the A/C unit. I guess I could just take a nap in the dining room. It was cold when I ran the A/C after the sun went down. I was able to get it into the low 60s in the bus.
-Mount propane tanks. I fished my propane hose through the same hole my power cable comes through. That worked okay, but I’m a little uncomfortable traveling with a propane tank inside my bus. We need to find a safe place to mount the tank.
-Figure out an A/C plan for going down the road. It was in the 90s in the bus on the ride back yesterday. I need to get a generator that’ll run the A/C when we’re going down the road.
-Install door locks for inside the bus. We slept in a truck stop on the way up to Oklahoma. I locked the front two doors, but left the door by the bed unlocked in case of fire.
-Install fridge/freezer. My wife bought a small fridge/freezer unit. It’s slightly larger than a dorm fridge, and the freezer compartment is separate. I’d like to mount it over my wheel well by the bed/kitchen, but I’m worried that might make it too cumbersome to walk around the foot of the bed.
-Eventually we want to get a toad. We’re thinking an IH Scout. That’s a project for down the road though.




I had a great time on our big trip last weekend. My wife’s family loved seeing the bus, and didn’t really seem to notice how unfinished it still is. The kids loved sitting in the driver’s seat and honking the horn. It was really fun. We’ve already got one more adventure planned for summer, and are quickly planning others. None as far away as the trip we just made.

[Tango]

Excellent adventure...congrats on a successful maiden voyage!