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Old 07-26-2018, 06:40 AM   #1
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Lil Bus on the Prairie - '03 Int'l RE3000 - Build Thread

So, its official! My wife (Danielle) and I took the plunge. On April 24, 2018 we purchased our 2003 International Navistar RE3000 w/ 204,893 miles. 40' of awesomeness.

Allow me to introduce: Lil' Bus on the Prairie



Chassis is in great shape, no rust. Wheels are in decent shape for being built on and be replaced later. Both built in A/Cs work, but will be taken out later to replace with either minisplit or roof top exterior.

We won't be full timing. This is more of a weekender/week long trip deal.

We live in South Florida (2 hours North of Miami) and will stay East of the Mississippi I imagine and try to make it up the Eastern coast.

We plan a pretty standard build. Living area up/dining area up front, kitchen behind, then a toilet room (shower undecided), storage/closet, set of bunk beds and then a room in the rear.

Bus has underbody storage (large compartment w/ 2 doors on either side). I plan to build a cage and house 2 propane tanks. One for use, one for spare. Will power stove inside, and have hookup for an outdoor Blackstone griddle I can break out and cook on.

Would love to build a deck on top as well.

I work as a program manager for a company that builds seats and divans for VVIP jets (think Air Force One, but for Kings/Presidents all over the globe). Boeing and Airbus jets, not small things.. So we're constantly developing unique solutions, so that experience gives me the ability to imagine and adapt to solutions Im hoping! Also have a lot of resources to get input on at work for electric, cabinetry, etc.

Our house is on 2 acres, but its mostly wooded. Going to clear out a spot in the back and drop in some crushed stone to park her on. I have a nice 10kW gas generator I can fire up to use, or I can just pull next to my house and use an extension. I'll try to limit that just so I dont piss off the neighbors, but theres no HOA so really its just me trying to be cordial.

Parked out next to house


My favorite captain

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Old 07-26-2018, 07:48 AM   #2
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Nice bus! 40 foot is a huge space and that basement storage is a huge bonus.

Especially in Florida you couldn't pay me enough to remove my bus' AC system. Road air is at the top of our needs list and those mini-splits won't do much for you when you're driving.

Are you planning on using solar or just shore power?
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Old 07-26-2018, 07:51 AM   #3
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Originally Posted by brokedown View Post
Nice bus! 40 foot is a huge space and that basement storage is a huge bonus.

Especially in Florida you couldn't pay me enough to remove my bus' AC system. Road air is at the top of our needs list and those mini-splits won't do much for you when you're driving.

Are you planning on using solar or just shore power?
Going to keep the built in air for now just while I gut the bus. Then I'll pull it all out, and maybe buy a little roll around portable. Be good to have for hurricane season, anyway, for the house... my generator didnt want to run my house unit so.. that would at least give comfort

Less, I digress.

I thought about solar, but I refuse to not have A/C, and I am not sure I can bank enough power to run the units, lights, etc, so I am thinking of just getting a nice Onan or Honda quiet generator and running my power needs via that or shore power. If I do go the generator route, I'll add another tank for fuel so I dont really have to worry about it.

Why dont you think minisplits would do much while driving? I havent heard that so just curious
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Old 07-26-2018, 08:11 AM   #4
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It's a combination of things. First, even with insulation, the bus is more like a solar oven than an igloo. Florida sun beating down on that much surface area, you're gonna need a lot of BTUs. Add in the amount of surface are that's just glass and that's a ton of heat coming through. The AC systems that came with your bus are likely double the cooling capacity of a minisplit (usually around 12k for a minisplit) and while some people do run their generator while they drive that's not my thing for sure. EVen with the road air keeping things chilly behind the driver (my GF throws on a hoodie, etc) the driver's area has so much incoming heat I have to use the driver's fan to keep from sweating while I drive.

Of course, that's a season thing, but the closer you get to Miami the longer that season is. I was in a word of hurt last summer when I lost an AC compressor in Washington State!

A solar power system for running an air conditioner is something I usually recommend against. It's much more straightforward to run that sort of load from a generator. I'm getting by fine with a 400W 12v system that runs everything behind the driver's seat, but I'd want more like 1600W at 48v to even think about running an AC!
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Old 07-26-2018, 09:20 AM   #5
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+1 on keep at least 1 bus air conditioner for the road.. sure you wont need it off-the-road.. mini splots are great for that... but on that long trip headed westbound into the summer sun.. that huge windshield, a roll-around A/C, and a minisplit or 2 might be enough to evaporate the sweat off your forehead..



insulation is great.. you;'ll need / want it.. but at 65 MPH down the highway you are sucking in hot air and blowing it out as well... think of your house in a 70 MPH wind.. thats what your bus is driving down the highway...



another member here talked about just barely staying bearable on his summer trip with 2 minisplits running.. and he built a heck of a nicely insulated rig..


theres a reason a full size bus has 120,000+ BTU of air-conditioning..



I own probably the most advanced roll-around A/C made and it doesnt do crap... its 2 hose and variable speed wit ha water slinger and all.. srtill doesnt cool worth anything ..



minisplits are awesome parked-A/C units and in my opinion the BEST for that purpose..



Engine-driven A/C's are the BEST for driving down the road..

school busses are Hot-boxes.. ive driven the florida highways in summer enough to know you need a great system.



over-working minisplits is what cuses their premature failure and they are very inefficient when run at 100-110% (yes they go over) their rated capacity..



I have 3 of them in my house for close to 10 years now... ive hacked, modified, etc these units and have seen what happens to them in the field being asked to do more than they can handle.. when asked to do what the yare designed to do then they are long-lasting and very efficient.
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Old 07-26-2018, 09:37 AM   #6
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That bus driver looks very shady, beware... lol
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Old 07-26-2018, 10:23 AM   #7
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That bus driver looks very shady, beware... lol
she lured me on with candy
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Old 07-27-2018, 05:41 PM   #8
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NICE BUS CHRIS! But, you look a lot younger than I thought

I have been wondering about the whole AC thing as well. I did not have AC to remove only the heater. I plan on minisplits, but these guys got me worried about driving. Oh well, I guess I will sweat it out.
I didnt try the portables, but I will say the cheap temporary window box AC I got just to help a tiny bit during construction, did absolutely nothing in my bus. You have to stand right in front of it to even feel it. I took it out to paint the roof and I think Im going to leave it out.

Have you ripped up the floor yet? Pulled any panels? Post more pics I want to see what you do.
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Old 07-30-2018, 10:33 AM   #9
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NICE BUS CHRIS! But, you look a lot younger than I thought

I have been wondering about the whole AC thing as well. I did not have AC to remove only the heater. I plan on minisplits, but these guys got me worried about driving. Oh well, I guess I will sweat it out.
I didnt try the portables, but I will say the cheap temporary window box AC I got just to help a tiny bit during construction, did absolutely nothing in my bus. You have to stand right in front of it to even feel it. I took it out to paint the roof and I think Im going to leave it out.

Have you ripped up the floor yet? Pulled any panels? Post more pics I want to see what you do.
Hey man, I'll be posting some photos today. Did some work this weekend with my wife and father in law. We got the right hand side seats almost all broken free. The left hand I need a shorter driver adapter for my impact.. cant get to the bottom nuts on the sidewall w/ my current one, as theres a conduit that runs along the floor.
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Old 07-30-2018, 11:40 AM   #10
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Click image for larger version

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If you are worried about the AC being in your way. You can always move it. The blue is the floor in this pic.
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Old 07-30-2018, 02:52 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ChrisFL View Post
So, its official! My wife (Danielle) and I took the plunge. On April 24, 2018 we purchased our 2003 International Navistar RE3000 w/ 204,893 miles. 40' of awesomeness.

Allow me to introduce: Lil' Bus on the Prairie



Chassis is in great shape, no rust. Wheels are in decent shape for being built on and be replaced later. Both built in A/Cs work, but will be taken out later to replace with either minisplit or roof top exterior.

We won't be full timing. This is more of a weekender/week long trip deal.

We live in South Florida (2 hours North of Miami) and will stay East of the Mississippi I imagine and try to make it up the Eastern coast.

We plan a pretty standard build. Living area up/dining area up front, kitchen behind, then a toilet room (shower undecided), storage/closet, set of bunk beds and then a room in the rear.

Bus has underbody storage (large compartment w/ 2 doors on either side). I plan to build a cage and house 2 propane tanks. One for use, one for spare. Will power stove inside, and have hookup for an outdoor Blackstone griddle I can break out and cook on.

Would love to build a deck on top as well.

I work as a program manager for a company that builds seats and divans for VVIP jets (think Air Force One, but for Kings/Presidents all over the globe). Boeing and Airbus jets, not small things.. So we're constantly developing unique solutions, so that experience gives me the ability to imagine and adapt to solutions Im hoping! Also have a lot of resources to get input on at work for electric, cabinetry, etc.

Our house is on 2 acres, but its mostly wooded. Going to clear out a spot in the back and drop in some crushed stone to park her on. I have a nice 10kW gas generator I can fire up to use, or I can just pull next to my house and use an extension. I'll try to limit that just so I dont piss off the neighbors, but theres no HOA so really its just me trying to be cordial.

Parked out next to house


My favorite captain

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lilbusontheprairie/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lilbusontheprairie/

Congrats! Welcome to the skoolie family.
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Old 08-08-2018, 06:49 PM   #12
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Spend sometime in it with sun shining, buses are like microwaves when it’s hot outside. I’ve say leave unit in it until you get atleast 3 roof units, or 4. I run 2 and only get comfy at night
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Old 08-09-2018, 12:17 AM   #13
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Congrats! Welcome to the skoolie family.
I just looked at this and thought DAMN that looks huge! Then I realized my bus is also a 40' RE bus!
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Old 08-10-2018, 05:19 PM   #14
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I just looked at this and thought DAMN that looks huge! Then I realized my bus is also a 40' RE bus!
Our busses def arent small!

Been a bit since I've posted. My main time to work on the bus is on Fridays. Wife has stuff at church, or I have training runs for my marathon so the rest of the week is basically not much for time availability.

Last week I broke all but ~6 seats free, and bought some new toys. Got an angle grinder and a sawz-all.

This morning I went to the tax collector office with an affidavit that my bus has 110v and plumbing, they dont require any photos. I figure since I have a giant generator and a bucket, I qualify. After some explaining that no, we do not need to provide any receipts for sales tax, they confirmed that was correct. Conversion of title to motorhome complete - $78. Then, I went to run a few errands and called State Farm and managed to get my new motorhome insured - $169 for the year Then, back to Tax Collector and registered the bus and ordered my custom skoolie tag - $360.

Came home, and my wife and I took care of the last seats as well as unbolted the belts from the rear bench above engine. Then we took the bus to my office which as a large warehouse and unloaded the seats. Right off the bat was kind of pissed... a company in the same plaza put a whole bunch of their crap in the way of our door, so I had to carry seats around everything. Then decided to use our forklift to load ~6 at a time onto a pallet and bring in, and as soon as I went to bring in the first load, the sky started to pour... So, all our windows were down, roof hatches were up, doors open... Bus got soaked.

Ended carrying them in one by one

Anyway, seats are out and bus is now empty!

I'm not sure what happened, but the buzzer for emergency doors being open wont stop going off. I broke one of my roof hatches trying to get it closed while pouring and there some wires hanging. Need to look up how to disable all of them since I wanted the buzzers out.

Anyway, now I can start to tackle the sidewall, last roof panels (I'm going to use the angle grinder to cut around the ceiling A/C units for now), and then rip up the floor.

Thanks to WanderBus who is actually super local to me (like, 10 minutes away!). She reached out to me on Facebook from a skoolie group. She held my hand thru the title and insurance work. Hope to visit her bus soon!

Also been watching Fadderalls live stream on the daily. Been a fun time watching him come up with some creative stuff -- he built a hot wire to cut his floor foam in half to save on head room. Would never tackle something like that, but it worked and worked well!




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Old 08-10-2018, 05:33 PM   #15
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Nice Progress Bra!! So happy for you and jealous about the registration and insurance. I couldn't believe it was so easy when you kept updating us today. Good job. Bus is looking good. You gotta get that little one on the wrench soon. Looks about the right height to stand up under the bus and help out dad.

Those AC units of yours look real nice. After working on mine in the Vegas sun, I would agree with JD_GREEN and leave those in there as long as possible.
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Old 08-11-2018, 02:58 PM   #16
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Little bit more progress today, which was surprising.

Had a quick 10 mile run today (lol... it scares me this will be a "short" long run here in a few weeks) that felt great, and after having breakfast I came home and put a few hours of work into bus.

I swept it all up to get rid of bolts, garbage, etc.

Found this little balloon, not sure what its for?


I started to remove the metal runners for the aisle and my phillips bit broke, so I stuck a short bit into my impact and started to remove side panels. Found quickly that the side panels are tack welded into place under the window frame (removed emergency window and fixed window next to emergency side exit door). Grabbed the angle grinder and went to town. Got all the drivers side panels down.

I want to remove all the windows and reseal, I'm just not sure if its necessary. I would rather be safe than sorry.

Also, not sure what these pipes are? Drivers heater? If so, they're comin out.
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Old 08-11-2018, 03:12 PM   #17
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Those are coolant lines that go to the rear heaters. They are connected to the front heater/defrost. Cut them behind the drivers seat and loop them back together to retain the heat up front, but deletes the 2 rear heaters. The wires just unplug and can be repurposed for something else.
oop's, just realized it's an RE. Yes coolant lines to the front heater/defrost. Do you have midship heaters connected to those lines?

Party Balloon?
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Old 08-11-2018, 03:21 PM   #18
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Little bit more progress today, which was surprising.


I want to remove all the windows and reseal, I'm just not sure if its necessary. I would rather be safe than sorry.

Also, not sure what these pipes are? Drivers heater? If so, they're comin out.
I am debating on the window issue myself. The phrase "can of worms" keeps coming to mind.

Those sure look like drivers heater lines. Do they go to a small box up in the front by driver seat? I had the same setup. Pretty easy to uninstall. I cut mine and bypassed in the back at the engine. Tryonis helped me out with the details, he did his first. Essentially, you find where the hoses go to in the engine compartment. Then you just connect a hose between those two points and bypass the ones that go into the bus. The lines are easy to take out. They can get a little weird at the point where they go under the floor at the side E Door. Once bypassed you can blow the lines out (a bunch of coolant in there) and then cut em out. Have a 5 gallon bucket ready. I cut mine in the bus and blew out with shop vac. If you want let me know on Monday and I can walk you through it on my bus live. At least show you were everything was on mine. Not sure that yours is 100% the same but will be very similar.
There are also supposed to be bypass valves sometimes that you can just close off and then you dont need the small bypass hose.

Love the progress brazzah! Especially the treasures you are finding on the bus. I sure hope it was at least a high school bus with that fancy water balloon
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Old 08-11-2018, 03:46 PM   #19
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thats a rear engine bus... you take those lines out and you have no heat or defrost on this bus at all....

-Christopher
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Old 08-12-2018, 08:41 AM   #20
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thats a rear engine bus... you take those lines out and you have no heat or defrost on this bus at all....

-Christopher
Oops! Im in Vegas and Chris is in FL, I guess we tend to forget that heat is needed. More important I guess we forget about the defroster. I dont think I have needed a windshield defroster in 10 years. Remind myself "the bus moves, the bus moves".

Those lines are nasty though. Take up an awkward amount of space and what happens if they leak after building over them?

Is there an aftermarket window defroster/driver heater? Has anyone re routed the heater lines under the bus? Is it legal to put the rear window defroster lines on the windshield?

Chris, do you already have a plan for this?
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