Our Farold's Conversion

[travelinwithus]

Originally Posted by GreyEagle

Did you shoot it down????

LOL! There was way too many Secret Service around. Don't know that you could have even got a weapon up to your shoulder to aim before they would have taken you out.

[GreyEagle]

Originally Posted by travelinwithus

LOL! There was way too many Secret Service around. Don't know that you could have even got a weapon up to your shoulder to aim before they would have taken you out.

Guess you where way too close........

[jakestraw]

Great looking bus!
I am new here and I was wondering how you fastened the side of the bunks that don't have chains, did you use hinges? Once again your bus looks great!!!

[somewhereinusa]

I'm surprised Obama didn't come over and personally ask for all of your money.

[travelinwithus]

Originally Posted by somewhereinusa

I'm surprised Obama didn't come over and personally ask for all of your money.

Me too. Lol. I saw a bumper sticker on the road today and had to sadly laugh. It said "Don't tell Obama what comes after a Trillion".

We have made it to Myrtle Beach!!! I am working on uploading photos and video from our visit to Washington D.C. as I write this post so they should be up on my site shortly. We boondocked at a Walmart just outside of Washington D.C. the first night, nice location. I called the Walmart the day we arrived and they said overnight parking wasn't a problem. The next morning we went in and did some shopping and then talked to the manager. He said he didn't have a problem with it but the owner of the lot did so we couldn't leave the bus there while we visited D.C. So we decided to go to Greenbelt National Park. Very nice campground. There were no water or electric hookups but it had nice bathrooms and showers as well as a dump station with a drinking water faucet as well as a hose to clean out your dump hose. The cost was only $16.00 per night and we stayed for two nights.


Last fill up we got 11.3 miles to the gallon and I ran 65mph for almost the whole tank. During the tank full I idled for about two hours and spent about an hour or two in heavy traffic speeds between 10-25 mph just outside of DC. I couldn't ask for a better rig. We had a couple water leaks that I had to fix but nothing serious. Everything is working very well. This is our fourth night in a row boondocking. I had about 4 hours of travel time today which recharged by batteries nicely. I have been leaving the bus batteries connected to the battery banks for the inverter for additional power and after three nights without travel had no problem starting the bus. Voltage at its lowest was around 11.6 but then the solar panels raised it to 11.9 and the bus fired fine. My father has been traveling along with us in his van so I wasn't too worried about the batteries not firing the bus as he could have jumped us if needed.

I have been muddying up this thread enough with information about our trip so if you want to follow along please visit my travel website (link below).

I promise I will get pics of the bunks tomorrow and put them on here for those that want to see it. From this post forward I will only be posting information relevant to Farold's conversion and additions.

[travelinwithus]

I finally got a chance to snap some pics of the bunks for you guys:







I used 6 2" #12 (i think they were #12) self tapping screws in each of the 2x2's and screwed them right into the window frames. I have been on the top bunks numerous times and they are very solid.

I got the long hinges out of another camper. They work really nice as we can put the bunks up or down. We always have the bunks down when driving for backrests and we typically put the bunks up when the kiddos are eating to provide more head room. Works really well.

You have to check out the campsite we got for the next 4 days in Myrtle Beach! Right next to the ocean. You can see the pics at http://www.travelinwithus.com/community ... hotos.html

Had someone stop me as I was taking pics of the ocean view today and say "Hey is that your Skoolie!" Talked with him for about a half hour and showed him around Farold. He loved it and wished he would have finished his instead of selling it. Great visit, I really enjoy showing off our Skoolie!

[travelinwithus]

Oh and our pooch Mitchel really likes the bottom bunks too, lol:

[crazycal]

Originally Posted by travelinwithus

Oh and our pooch Mitchel really likes the bottom bunks too, lol:

That's funny. My Rottweiler used to sleep like that.

[travelinwithus]

I changed out the TV Antenna yesterday. The previous antenna that I showed worked ok but not as good as this one and it was the same price $40.00. This antenna is an indoor/outdoor antenna that I permanently mounted on the mirror bracket. I came with a 20' coax cable and a power amplifier as well as all the mounting brackets. We are currently at a Walmart in Savannah, GA where we boondocked last night. Went from 1 viewable channel with the previous antenna to 14 viewable channels. Much better. Here is a pic of the antenna mounted, I only ran the coax thru the driver window temporarily:



We will see how it does going down the road at 65 mph. I don't think it should be an issue.

[rex_1_mn]

Where did you get those clear light covers for the old eight ways?

They look the same for a blue bird. I want some

[travelinwithus]

Originally Posted by rex_1_mn

Where did you get those clear light covers for the old eight ways?

They look the same for a blue bird. I want some

My Bus is a Blue Bird and they are reverse light covers from a Blue Bird

The antenna held up for 300 miles at 65 mph. For 40 bucks you can't go wrong.

[TygerCub]

Love your bus. The bunks... the water tanks... the solar panels! Awesome. Great job!

[gbstewart]

The antenna held up for 300 miles at 65 mph. For 40 bucks you can't go wrong.[/quote]

With mounting your antenna on the mirror bracket, do you have to rotate the bus for a good signal also did you get that one at walmart aswell?

tks
gbstewart

[proconsul100]

Originally Posted by gbstewart

The antenna held up for 300 miles at 65 mph. For 40 bucks you can't go wrong.

With mounting your antenna on the mirror bracket, do you have to rotate the bus for a good signal also did you get that one at walmart aswell?

tks
gbstewart[/quote]

i might want one of these as well. what is the name and model number of your new antenna?

[travelinwithus]

Originally Posted by TygerCub

Love your bus. The bunks... the water tanks... the solar panels! Awesome. Great job!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by gbstewart

With mounting your antenna on the mirror bracket, do you have to rotate the bus for a good signal also did you get that one at walmart aswell?

tks
gbstewart

Actually when we stopped tonight I tried turning the bus around to get a better signal but no luck. I am about 60 miles out of Pensacola, FL right now and had to remove the antenna from the mount and place it on top of the roof but I have about 9 channels now all out of Pensacola. Yes, I got this one at Walmart as well.

Originally Posted by proconsul100

i might want one of these as well. what is the name and model number of your new antenna?

The model number is ANT700R. It is an RCA antenna.

I originally wanted to mount it on the top of the bus on the solar panel frame but the mounting brackets that came with the antenna are too big to fit below the panels. I will probably figure out a way to get it mounted up there in the future.

[gbstewart]

I check out the antenna on line, looks like theres one in my future, im thinking of mounting it on one of those metal covers that are over the flashing lights on the front, I dont want to drill any holes in the roof, I have a vu cube sat dish, works great, but for a 1 nite stop over its not worth setting up.

tks
gbstewart

[somewhereinusa]

9 channels now all out of Pensacola

How many in English? Even 10 years ago when I was near any big city I found that about 80% of the broadcast TV was in Spanish.

[travelinwithus]

Originally Posted by somewhereinusa

How many in English? Even 10 years ago when I was near any big city I found that about 80% of the broadcast TV was in Spanish.

LOL, I consider myself lucky then because only two of the 12 (more come in now) stations is in Spanish.

[travelinwithus]

So a couple weeks back we had sort of a coloring contest between the kiddos. They were each giving the task of creating two designs that said travelinwithus.com. Once the designs were finished we would all vote as a family on which one we liked best and then paint that design on Farold. They made their designs, we voted, and our six year old daughter won the contest. So yesterday we stopped to do laundry and while we were waiting for the laundry to get done we went to work. Here are the results:







We had fun painting it on the bus and we all participated. Next summer we are going to be repainting the entire bus and we will decide then if we will leave it on or not.

[somewhereinusa]

I like it!!