Jasmine

[AlleyCat67]

The main reason I used it is because it's what I have..... but after using it for a while doing other things with it I can't imagine using anything else, since I know how it works and how to do things in it, that would probably take a long time to learn in other CAD programs.

I tried Sketchup but it's WAY hard. I can't master object placement to save my life, plus getting things dimensioned correctly is way difficult. Visio may not be 3D but making a floorplan I don't really need that anyway.

[AlleyCat67]

Originally Posted by DoubleO7

Or make the door and opening with the same curvature of the roof.

True.........

[milkmania]

Originally Posted by DoubleO7

Or make the door and opening with the same curvature of the roof.

Yes, I had thought of that also... But, I had all the aluminum track rail unistrut and roller bearing wheel hangers so the the materials cost me zip.
Then I had a cabinet door buddy of mine make me some doors out of mahogany & Alder, and the stiles used won't allow me to cut them to follow the curvature.

Also, my porcelain & steel shower pan is 32" deep, so I had to work that into the plan also.

Since it's only me 85% of the time on the bus, I'm going to move the bedroom wall with sliding doors forward the length of the shower pan, then build another split wall (without sliding doors to separate the shower (on passenger side) and toilet on the driver's side.
I'll throw up a pic for better explanation later.

[AlleyCat67]

I think I can visualize what you're saying.... maybe I should do that on my floor plan as well, will shorten my kitchen a little bit but will open up some more space on the other side for something else.

Gonna have to rework it some anyway, I think my shower sits right where my emergency door is located.

[milkmania]

Primitive MS Paint, but it makes the point
The closet will not be 78.5" tall

[AlleyCat67]

Hey, primitive doesn't mean ineffective. Visio 2003 is primitive by modern standards but it does the job.

That diagram does confirm that I had it pictured about right. I hadn't thought about doing the front-on views of cabinetry, etc like you have there.... guess I'll need to add another page to my conversion plan book. (I don't know what they call them in Visio but it's the same concept as a multi-page workbook in Excel.)

[milkmania]

I've got an ISO copy of Visio... But Windows 10 and my copy of Daemon Tools Pro don't play well together and can't get the ISO mounted.

It's safe for me to say that me & win10 don't play well together either!

[AlleyCat67]

Try installing Virtual Clone Drive... it's free and I think it plays nice with Win 10, and mount the ISO in the virtual drive that is created.

[tobeamiss]

What are the inside dimensions of your Bus?

[AlleyCat67]

I haven't taken exact measurements of it yet, but I got 28 heel-toe steps from the rearmost floor to the standee line which I'm presuming is 28 feet, and 7.5 side to side (pretty much standard). Length might be a little more or a little less, my 100 foot tape measure is missing in action right now, sitting in a storage bin somewhere... I have three of them full so it's gonna take a bit of digging to find it, I swear I saw it the other day but didn't grab it. There's probably another 2-3 feet at the rear up higher (engine compartment), and another 4-5 feet forward of the standee line (driver's seat and entryway).

A sheet of paper is 11 inches long, and my shoe is a little longer than that so it's not gonna be off by much.

[AlleyCat67]

A random photo that popped up for me from the albums here gave me a new possibility for my A/C setup..... it looks like he just took a standard window air conditioner (or through-the-wall unit, can't really tell) and basically just split it in half, mounting the "outside" portion in an enclosure under the bus and the "inside" portion in a custom-fabricated cabinet inside.





I think, with a little creative wiring, that this setup could work as a road a/c in addition to using while parked. Basically connect the power up to it through a transfer switch just like you would use to switch between shore power and generator, with the NC side to the house electric system and the NO side to pull power from a dedicated inverter wired to the bus batteries. This would use a low power relay connected to the solenoid to sense when the key is turned on, this relay would then close a high-power relay to switch on the inverter, which would then activate the transfer switch. Ideally I would prefer to be able to sense when the engine is running so as not to pull from the bus batteries unless the alternator is charging them but I think that will overcomplicate things (as if this setup isn't overcomplicated enough, heh).

While this would not be strictly necessary, it would eliminate the depletion of the house battery bank while going down the road as an A/C is a heavy load on an inverter.

[cadillackid]

I use VISIO all the time... but then one of my hats is a network engineer sop its the defacto standard...

-Christopher

[cadillackid]

splitting an A/C like that will work good as long as you dont run the capillary tube all the way up.. if yoiu run the liquid line up to your inside part and then through the capillary you'll do much better..

-Christopher

[WanderWoman]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

splitting an A/C like that will work good as long as you dont run the capillary tube all the way up.. if yoiu run the liquid line up to your inside part and then through the capillary you'll do much better..

-Christopher

Why not just use a split A/C? Like this one: MRCOOL Advantage 12,000 BTU 1 Ton Ductless Mini-Split Air Conditioner and Heat Pump - 230V/60 Hz-A-12-HP-230A - The Home Depot

That's the one I'm getting for my bus. Seems like it takes up a lot less space.

Sandi

[AlleyCat67]

Originally Posted by WanderWoman

Why not just use a split A/C? Like this one: MRCOOL Advantage 12,000 BTU 1 Ton Ductless Mini-Split Air Conditioner and Heat Pump - 230V/60 Hz-A-12-HP-230A - The Home Depot

That's the one I'm getting for my bus. Seems like it takes up a lot less space.

Sandi

#1 that one is a 230v A/C. 230v inverters are quite a bit more expensive.

#2 the A/C I'm looking at is about $300 cheaper, plus I already have a 2500 watt inverter I can dedicate to run it.

Keystone 12,000 BTU 115-Volt Through-the-Wall Air Conditioner with LCD Remote Control-KSTAT12-1C - The Home Depot

And #3 most of those have a heat function as well, which I will not need since I'm working a hydronic heat system that will heat my floors as well as blow warm air.

[AlleyCat67]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

splitting an A/C like that will work good as long as you dont run the capillary tube all the way up.. if you run the liquid line up to your inside part and then through the capillary you'll do much better..

-Christopher

Thanks for that, that's something i probably would not have thought of.

[Motrukdriver]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

I used to freak out about little oil leaks on the busses.. until someone pointed out to me that next time i go to a truck stop or rest area to fill up that the spots designated for semi trucks are always covered in oil.. and those guys are running half a million miles on those engines before tearing them down...

I got a million and a half on my old Detroit engine before I had to rebuild it. Then I got nearly another million before I sold the truck. All I can say is, every time you fuel up, open the engine bay or hood or where ever the engine is and look at every possible thing you can see. I've caught and repaired more stuff that "looks" like its going bad long before it broke. Drove a semi truck for 14 years and I only got towed in 3 times. Once, the sidewall of the air compressor blew out and it dumped all the oil and coolant out on the ground. One of the compressor pistons was hanging out. Never did find that other piston. Second time the engine dropped an injector tip. I was able to get the truck shut down before any damage. Those were in my old truck. My new truck 2014 International Prostar with the Maxxforce engine. Well it caught on fire. Turbo blew after 250,000 miles and since it had that diesel particulate filter in it, the oil that normally would have blown out the stack filled the filter up and it ignited. I was a fireball coming down that mountain in Penn. Stay away from diesel particulate filters and exhaust gas recirculation if you can. Simple aspirated engines are best and require the least tinkering. A new diesel particulate filter in my Prostar costs just over $2000 and all it does is filter exhaust and get plugged so you have to have it mechanically cleaned or replaced.

[Motrukdriver]

Has anyone considered an APU. We use them on big trucks. Its basically a generator and AC unit combined. It monitors your batteries and cycles on and off to keep them peak charged. The one I had in the last truck I drove was a Tripac. So quiet I rarely heard it start up. Several other manufacturers make them. I had a 4 battery setup in the truck and when then I shut the big engine down the APU took over the electrical requirements. Ran a 2500 watt inverter for the fridge/microwave/TV etc... I could see keeping your house batteries separate from your starter battery and then setting the temperature on the APU to keep the back of your ride comfortable and keeping the batteries charged up as well.

Rigmaster APU System, truck apu, truck generator

[AlleyCat67]

I used to drive big rigs myself so I totally get what you're proposing there.... however an APU isn't designed to keep that kind of cubic footage cooled.... it might work in a short bus but not a full size like a lot of us have. It would fulfill the need for a generator to keep the batteries up and running a smallish inverter, though.

Only problem I've run into with them is the cost..... rather pricey new, and at least in my searches used ones have been rather hard to come by.

For myself, if I went with one, the way my bus is designed I would probably use the APU air conditioning to cool the drivers compartment (since the back of the bus is going to be closed off).

[Motrukdriver]

Last place I was leased on with was selling used APU units (Tripak) for less than $1000. I would imagine building a bus would have far superior insulation than mass produced trucks. Might be worth a trial run to see if it would work. My APU would freeze you out on a July day in Laredo.