Diesel Dan's Skoolie

[yankeflyer]

Looks good Dan.

[browncrown]

Agree with Yankee, it looks really good!

[Diesel Dan]

Thanks guys! I put some "English Walnut" stain on the walls and cabinets last night, and so now it looks a bit more cohesive in terms of color shades. I still need to decide what to do with the cabinet doors and drawer fronts. I have some salvaged drawers/doors that have a light colored stain and others that are painted white which I will use for the cabinets and underneath the couch/benches. So bottom line is I will need to paint them all one color to match. I'm thinking of either black, green or burgundy/red. The interior theme so far is pretty much brown with black trim. So the black would match, but would be very masculine and not very colorful. So, since my wife is going to be spending time in the bus too, I feel like I should give it some color. I do have a lot of different colored fabrics laying around that I'll use for curtains and drapes to seperate various rooms of the bus and cover windows, so maybe that would be enough offset the brown/black theme...

[Diesel Dan]

Originally Posted by Dr LuLu

Lots of progress! Nice work. Is the luan you used on the panels separating the living area from the back? Did you back it with anything? I think your instinct to add some color for your wife is a good strategy... better yet, let her pick the colors

Actually, I did ask her and her first instinct was the maroon/red color - but we didn't get into all the nuances of curtain colors, etc. Neither of us is particularly skilled in interior design. The luan is backed by other paneling that faces in towards the bunks, so it is like a double layer of paneling. I will attach upper cabinets and probably shelves to these walls, and so as I screw these things in it will further secure the two layers of paneling to each other. The paneling is of course secured to the 2x4 framing of the bunks, but there are fairly large areas where I couldn't use fasteners because of the way I engineered the moving top bunks.

[Diesel Dan]

Last night I replaced the alternator, so hopefully that solves the problem with the batteries not getting charged. I had taken the bus to Autozone to get the old alternator tested and it was not putting out any current. The good news is I upgraded to a 160A model and it wasn't crazy expensive: $145 new. Heck, I drop that much at Home Depot every other week it seems.

So now I'm not sure if I'll just start driving it and keep an eye on the batteries, or if I'll get it tested again to make sure it's working. Tonight I'll drive it to my son's soccer practice so me and the other kids can spread out and be comfortable. Forget the minivan, this soccer dad's got a bus! I actually did the same thing a while back when he had an all-day tournament. It's perfect for local events like that: not too much fuel burned driving locally, but it's great to have your living room/kitchen/bedroom with you at the park! I've also started using it as a man-cave just in the driveway. Have I mentioned how much I love having a bus?!

[yankeflyer]

Yes our buses are all of that, aren't they.

[lornaschinske]

Originally Posted by Diesel Dan

... Neither of us is particularly skilled in interior design...

Want an easy way to choose colour schemes and know they will go together?

Got to the paint section of either Lowes or Home Depot. Look at that paint samples that show the whole rooms (and lists all the colours used in the room). Pick out as many that catch your eye. Don't try to just pick out one or two. Now take them home and put them in places that you are in frequently to where you will see them several times a day at different times of the day. Look at them all for tow or three days. Then start dumping the ones that you just don't care for. Start with ones that you decide that you definitely can live without. No "your colours" and "my colours". Get down to two or three sample chips before you get possessive about the colours. You need to take your time as you get down to the last few choices. If you are going to full-time, you might want to opt for lighter colours if you will be full-timing and/or you are removing most of your windows. A dark room is depressing when you get cooped up inside for several days due to bad weather. For the bus, I would suggest using one sample room for all the colours in your bus, usually 3 or 4 choices, one of which will be the trim colour. Keep the trimwork all the same colour and change the other colours.

BTW, this works for your home as well. Just put the paint samples in the room that you plan to use the colours in.

[Diesel Dan]

Originally Posted by yankeflyer

Yes our buses are all of that, aren't they.

That picture looks like it captures the perfect day! Art, music, the beauty of nature... That's the stuff!

[Diesel Dan]

Thanks for the tip Lorna! That would definitely help in the house. The bus is already constrained by certain colors of materials I got for free (the stain I'm using, the wall paneling, the black trim, grey seats, and grey counter tops). The greys do not really match the browns so well, though it doesn't look horrible. I think a reddish color will help tie them together better than my other option of green. So I'll take your advice and get several different samples of red/maroon, leave them around the bus for a while, and see which one grows on me. I guess I'll also need to put up the maroon drape that will seperate the bunk room from the front room.

[Diesel Dan]

Replacing the alternator seems to have fixed the electrical problems I was having earlier. The job should have been easy, but the bolts were really difficult to get out, so it took longer than expected. But now I've got a brand spankin' new 160A alternator - yay! Next I need to set up a selector switch to allow me to charge my house batteries from the alternator when driving. I wonder if there is an electrical solenoid switch that I could throw remotely from a small relayed switch on the dash?

In other news, I finally got my flooring run to the back of the main cabin area, have both kitchen counters temporarily installed, and installed the AC on the roof. I haven't finished the wiring for the AC yet, and maybe someone could help me with this. Here is my situation: I've got a Carrier brand new (old stock) Air V HC 15,000btu upper unit. I have no lower unit, and the company has now gone out of business. I really didn't want to use a lower unit anyway, due to headroom issues. So I've figured out how to replicate the wiring/switches necessary to bypass the need for a lower unit, but I want to use a thermostat. Does anyone know of a simple thermostat I can place inline to directly disrupt the power to the AC when out of temp range? I'd like something I can put directly in the 20A circuit without having to use a relay. So far, this is all I've found:
http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com/produc ... GoogleBase



... but I'd rather have something even more simple that I can hardwire into the circuit.

Thanks!

[Diesel Dan]

I took a couple days off work to get some things done on the bus. I've got the kitchen cabinets framed and ready for drawers/doors, I framed up an overhead cabinet to hold the toaster oven and controls for the air conditioner.



Oh yeah, I got the air conditioner installed and running. I decided to forgoe the lower ceiling unit that normally controls the AC partly because of headroom issues, but also the manufacturer (Carrier) of the AC unit went out of business since I bought the upper unit. So I re-created the controls using a master on/off switch, which sends power to the thermostatically controlled outlet and also to the switch in the middle that selects "low cool" vs. "high cool". Next I'll put some directional vents over the intake and blower holes. I'm going to draw the intake from the sides and blow the air out front and back using angled vents.



I also stained the luan on the walls to the bedroom and made the bedroom a bit more cozy since we have started using the bus for short exursions and I have taken to spending many evenings hanging out in my new man cave, as I am now as I write this post. Gotta love wireless internet!

[Seeria]

Looking good for a man cave.

[yankeflyer]

Sure looks good Dan - I guess I have to rebuild the bottom step - It makes for a bad first impression for people looking at my bus. And I have all the parts and tools - so ya keep the pictures coming.

[Diesel Dan]

Originally Posted by yankeflyer

Sure looks good Dan - I guess I have to rebuild the bottom step - It makes for a bad first impression for people looking at my bus. And I have all the parts and tools - so ya keep the pictures coming.

Funny you should mention a bottom step. My bottom step riser is screwed up. It got moldy somehow before I could stain it and even though I cleaned it up, the stain/polyurethane came out all weird. So I have to redo my bottom step as well.

[Diesel Dan]

Time to get some mechanical stuff sorted out. The bus is in the shop right now to get an overall inspection of condition and get a few specifics fixed. Mainly, they diagnosed my overheating problem as thermostat and viscous fan drive malfunction. Also my front wheel bearings are loose. They also found various oil leaks and proposed a $2,500 workup. Yikes! I decided to just get the overheating and bearings taken care of - that alone, plus the diagnostics is going to be over $1,000. The oil leaks seem like something I can easily do myself. I could probably do the thermo stuff too, but just want that done right away so the bus is reliable. And I think I'm getting a bit lazy as I get older.

I also ordered a bunch of WVO components, including two fuel selection solenoids (Golden Fuels GV10), 3-way switch, a flat plate heat exchanger (Plantdrive) and a Hotfox coolant heated fuel pickup for the tank. I also scored a used 125 gallon rectangular aluminum fuel tank at a boat yard. I already had a Racor 12v heated fuel filter/water seperator and some heater hose. So I just need to make a few modifications to the tank and I'll be ready to install my WVO system! I'm very excited about that! I think I've got about $1,200 into the WVO system so far, and anticipate that any further expenses (various hardware, tubing, and welding services to make a mount for the tank) will still not put me over $1,500 total for the system. That's not bad at all considering the quality of the resulting system and the size of the fuel tank. I've got a surplus of about 300 gallons of WVO that I'm looking forward to burning soon. That alone will nearly pay for the system!

I'll be sure to take some pics when I'm putting the WVO system together. Not much other progress on the bus really, except I also bought a Champion 3,500/4,000 watt gas generator on sale at Cabela's. I'll need to get someone to fabricate a box for that to sit in underneath the bus. It came with a wheel kit and handle to wheel it around, so I want to mount it in such a way that I can easily pull it out and roll it off to wherever I may need to use it. It weighs about 100lbs, so two people could easily pull it out and put it back in, and if I had some sort of ramps, I could probably pull it in and out by myself without risk of throwing my back out.

Edit: I also got a "hard start capacitor" to put into my 15,000 BTU AC to reduce the amps demanded during the startup surge. The generator was really bogging down during startup. I'll report back once the capacitor is installed and let y'all know if it worked.

At some point I will need to total up what I've spent on this bus. My goal was to come in under $10,000. So long as I accomplish that, I'll be happy.

[Seeria]

Gotta hate those repair bills But sounds like you have a good plan going. Looking forward to seeing the WVO pics.

[Diesel Dan]

We are doing some remodeling in our house, and had to vacate while the work is going on. So what to do? Stay at a hotel? Stay at a friend's house? No wait, let's camp out in our driveway! We do have a somewhat functional skoolie after all! Unfortunately the bus cannot get into the back yard, so we are camped out in the front yard. Here is the street view:



If I could find something to use a skirt to block the view under the bus it might be less obvious we are camped out in the yard. Here is the view from the house:



Our elderly neighbor across the street calls it "Camp Runamok" They are always amused by our "antics".

I think its kind of quaint...

[Diesel Dan]

The Kids are having fun:



I think even my preteen is having fun... though he would never admit it:



We do have access to the bathroom in the house, so the lack of plumbing in the bus is not too bad. Our biggest problem is the 15,000BTU air conditioner. During the heat of the day it's perfect, but during the night it gets arctic in that bus. We have windows cracked open, and I guess we just need to open them wider (I need to figure out how to make some screens to keep bugs out). The AC has no thermostat so it's either on or off.

[yankeflyer]

Ah artic air makes the best sleeping/snuggling time don`t want to rock the bus though.

When my bathroom went out, I had the one in the bus to use, yep a 11ft tall 40ft long out house in the back yard.

[browncrown]

DD, really like the "camp out" pics...looks like everyone is having fun