LATCHO DROM

Steve · 12-19-2003, 11:40 AM

If you haven't seen this conversion you should. This is one of the best walkthroughs I have seen yet.

http://www.mobilehomestead.com/newbus/latcho1.htm

EldoMike · 12-19-2003, 05:10 PM

I've enjoyed the site, I check his progress every day...

EldoMike

Steve · 12-19-2003, 07:01 PM

Hey SM what is this light. Is it 12V or 120V and where would I find one?

lapeer20m · 12-19-2003, 10:16 PM

the inside of that bus was nearly identical to mine! Both his and my bus' are 1991 Ward's. his is 60 passenger, mine was 72. His a GMC and mine is a Ford, but the inside is pretty much the same.

Excellent site! It would kill me to have a bus for so many months and not get the outside painted though !

For external lights, i've been considering putting extra "back=up" lights on the bus. The plan was to buy a small inverter just for the purpose of running the backup light (s). The lights are going to be the non-engergy efficient 250 watt halogen lights. Home depot has em on sale for under 8 bucks!.

On occasion, i have put these type of lights on top of the bus while stationary for added light at nite, and they really light things up! The downsided is that they take a lot of juice.

soused moose · 12-20-2003, 07:06 AM

Steve , that light is an exterior 12-volt one made for RV's.

I get some of the 'Big' stuff for our conversion from Camping World...but most of our stuff comes from Dyer's online RV store.

They have an amazing bunch of stuff for converter's ...worst shipping fees I've ever seen though.

(We live up in Sitka Alaska and are used to getting screwed on shipping.) , But they have a really a great selection of stuff.

Here's Dyer's URL , this is where we picked up that 12-volt light

http://www.dyersonline.com/

I’m going to install one of those lights over the buses back door and one in our bath/shower also.

Lapeer , I wanted to paint the Bus earlier in the Conversion process …but weather , time & money issues came into play .

Up here in Sitka Alaska (Bus Converters Hell) the weather is absolutely atrocious…there’s no way to Candy coat it, it just Sucks.

You get a day here with a bit of sunny weather, run outside and start to work on the bus and within an hour it starts raining again.

So, you can’t paint a rig outside here…even if you put a tarp over the rig, the paint wouldn’t dry because of the very high humidity.

Then, any place that will rent you an inside spot here in Sitka to work on a rig, charges $800.00 -$1000.00 a month. This is a small Island community, stuck out in the middle of nowhere …so space is at a premium.

There are some cheaper deals, but they want you to sign at least a year’s lease.

So, we’ll finish up the inside part of the conversion …which is costing a fortune to have everything barged up here already. …Then I’ll bite the bullet and pay some guy a $1000.00 to work on painting ‘Latcho Drom ‘ inside.

Speaking of Painting, I used a roller to paint our last Bus conversion …but I’m leaning toward getting one of those Wagner Power Sprayers for our new conversion …has anyone used one of those sprayer units? Do they work, or are they just a ‘Toy’?

Lapeer, I was wondering …what’s it like taking a turn in your bus with all that water sloshing about in your big hot tub? Do you notice any turning or stopping problems?

Thanks for this Great Site,

Michael & Millie

Steve · 12-20-2003, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soused moose

Here's Dyer's URL , this is where we picked up that 12-volt light

http://www.dyersonline.com/

Great link, I'm going to add that to the links in the How-to section.

Steve · 12-21-2003, 10:53 PM

I can't believe you are doing this and it says that you don't even own a vehicle.

soused moose · 12-22-2003, 06:23 AM

It’s one of those ‘Priorities’ things Steve

I thought about picking up a little truck or something that would help with getting supplies and such home…but up here in Sitka Alaska. Any inexpensive rig you’ll find is pretty much trashed out already.

But I have to admit …every once in awhile; I’m really tempted to get a rig …because I’m sick of walking a mile & back again in the rain to pick up supplies at the building supply store here.

One nice thing about Sitka is everything is only about a mile away from where we live…so it’s not that big of a problem.

Our Building supply store has free delivery if you buy $300.00 or more worth of stuff…so I try to take advantage of that when I can.

(Which isn’t hard to do here, º inch AC plywood is close to $30.00 a sheet.)

Any of the smaller stuff I need …like right now 3/8 LP Line fittings …are easy to carry home in a backpack.

I guess …where there’s a will, there’s a way.

When we get ‘Latcho Drom’ finished…we’ll look around for a very-small Panel Truck to tow behind us.

We bought a bunch of new Restaurant equipment from the ‘lower 48’ and had it barged up to us …we’re going to set the panel truck up as a small mobile restaurant that we’ll hit fairs and such with in our future travels. The truck will be our ‘Toad’…we’ll be able to leave the bus in a campground and drive around in the truck when we want/need to.

Michael & Millie

lapeer20m · 12-23-2003, 05:35 PM

Driving the bus with a hot tub full of water: First of all, i take half of the water before i drive and put it into separate holding tanks (4 separate 55 gallon drums) inside the bus. That takes care of the issue with water sloshing out of the hot tub. It takes a significant change in velocity to get water over the edge. There is a slight but noticable difference between driving the bus with an added 4,000 pounds of cargo and empty. The top speed doesn't seem to be affected, but without the water the bus accelerates a little faster especially when going uphill. Stopping distance is not significantly altered. The surging of the water side to side or front to back isn't really noticable either. It's a 72 passenger bus, and 72 people have the potential to weigh far more than the 400 gallons of water.

lapeer20m · 12-23-2003, 05:37 PM

Now for some good news for you. The paint i used on my bus sounds like it could sure come in handy there in Alaska. I can't locate the name of the paint right now. ugggg........It's inexpensive acrilic based paint that can be applied in temperatres of 35 degrees or warmer. The best part is that it dries fast. It dries to the touch in about 12 minutes. Just like krylon only better! I live in Michigan, and i painted my bus on new years day last year. The high temp was around 37 degrees. I bought my paint from the Sherwin Williams paint store.

I bought an automotive air paint sprayer from wal-mart for about 50 bucks. I think it took 3 gallons to cover the bus. Each gallon is about 35 dollars.

Just an idea.....but in theory, you could use the air pressure from the bus to run the air sprayer. you might however need an external tank so the compresser can keep up.

Steve · 12-23-2003, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lapeer20m

Just an idea.....but in theory, you could use the air pressure from the bus to run the air sprayer. you might however need an external tank so the compresser can keep up.

Using the air brake system for other things is a really neat idea. I don't have air brakes so I am going to put a 120V/12V compressor in someplace.

EldoMike · 12-23-2003, 07:44 PM

Before we made out 5000 mile Ca trip last month I put a quick connect fitting on my air tank and bought 50' for hose...didn't need it but it was there....if you plan on using the air with tools you should get a in line filter..that air is real dirty...

EldoMike

lapeer20m · 12-23-2003, 08:45 PM

You don't have air brakes????? That's just crazy!

I originally tapped into the air system on my bus to power the doors that are on either side of the hot tub. These doors open by remote keyless entry exposing the occupants to the great outdoors (or vise versa). The air pressure powers a couple of hydrolic cylinders i had laying around. Cost me 40 bucks for the remote. I used 1/2" flexible plastic water line from home depot for most of the connections. Of coarse, i put a brass fitting on the system before any plastic so i can shut it down if there's any problems.

Another idea i've been pondering, is having the front door open and close in the same manner. Wouldn't it be convienient to close and "lock" your front door by simply pushing a button on the remote??

Steve · 01-11-2004, 10:11 AM

So you have been taking a lot of crap over at Yahoo about having the electrics under the sink. I was just wondering what your thoughts are.

soused moose · 01-11-2004, 11:03 AM

Steve , are you talking about our bus 'Latcho Drom' or Vern's Bus?

If you're talking about Verns Bus....

I noticed that Vern had his Inverter and such located under his Sink and wondered about whether the electronics would get wet if the sink or faucets had a leak.

But, I don't see any real problems with a set-up like this as long as you protected the devices .

I bet you're talking about 'School Bus Conversion Nuts ' over on Yahoo. The guy who runs it Booted me out last year...it's 'His' way or The Highway school of Conversion. Putz.

lapeer20m · 01-11-2004, 11:44 AM

"As long as they are protected" is the key phrase. It doesn't take much liquid at all to make things really exciting. Someone on my partybus managed to drop a jellow shot on top of my 2000w inverter. After the jellow melted, and infiltrated through the cooling vents on the inverter, it caught fire. Toxic smoke soon filled the bus, setting off smoke detectors and prompting an evacuation of the bus. Total thermal nuclear meltdown was narrowly avoided. It only took a couple onces of liquid to make all of this happen.

As long as you take the proper precautions, i think the electronics could live under the sink without any problems. I just wanted to share my story as a word of caution.

Steve · 01-11-2004, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by soused moose

Steve , are you talking about our bus 'Latcho Drom' or Vern's Bus?

Oops your right, I was talking about Vern's bus

soused moose · 04-30-2004, 07:01 PM

Mostly fine...thanks for asking.

Michael

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