Our Farold's Conversion - Page 7

crazycal · 12-14-2012, 12:19 AM

Glad to hear that you had a fun trip and made it home without incident.

GreyEagle · 12-14-2012, 08:35 AM

Welcome back...... I know the feeling about getting and not being happy, always ready to do it again...
How many days until your next trip?

browncrown · 12-14-2012, 02:13 PM

What a great trip! Glad everything was smooth sailing...I hope to take my bus next year to the East Coast. Been awhile since I've been back there and want to see the sights again.

gbstewart · 12-14-2012, 05:15 PM

glad you had a great trip, we did 33 days and aprox 9300kms (dont have the figures right in front of me ) what I did is take the total cost of my fuel and camp grounds, diveded that cost by the number of nights in the bus, turned out to be about $120.00 per day, thats really good for 4 of us, hotel would have cost more.
I never count the cost of food , cause you have to eat regardless,

gbstewart

travelinwithus · 12-14-2012, 09:27 PM

Thanks guys. Not sure when the next trip will be but I am ready. Actually, if it weren't for obligations I would still be traveling. I love it! I am so happy with how Farold performed. I couldn't ask for a better Skoolie. I will have to do the same type of calculations to see what our $ per day was.

ol trunt · 12-14-2012, 09:35 PM

I know I'd like to know those $. Jack

lornaschinske · 12-14-2012, 11:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gbstewart

... I never count the cost of food , cause you have to eat regardless...

But eating "in" as compared to eating "out" is far cheaper. We figure the two of us can eat out for roughly $25 (we don't do fast food restaurants). Cooking "in" is so much cheaper. And if you miss certain dishes you can always make a "copycat recipe".

Copy Cat/Clone recipes (caution these sites have exact & similar duplicates of the same the recipes):
http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/copy-cat-recipes/
http://www.budget101.com/frugal/copy...e-recipes-163/
http://www.recipe4living.com/recipes/copycat
http://www.babble.com/best-recipes/c...-waffle-house/ Note: I've had problem getting the babble pages to go to the correct page.
http://www.recipe4living.com/article..._favorites.htm

http://www.thatsmyhome.com/mainstreet/streetfoods/ Street Foods/Fair Foods

bansil · 12-15-2012, 04:01 AM

Glad trip went good,I didn't realize the journey was that many days...it flew by

travelinwithus · 12-15-2012, 10:56 AM

Yes it did fly by. Way to fast!

Well here are my numbers. My son was the bookkeeper on the trip and every receipt is accounted for. I totaled everything that wouldn't have been spent if we were at home so I didn't include food (we only ate out maybe 3 times), hygiene items etc. Total trip expense for Fuel, tolls, camping, parking, attractions, bus repairs, dump stations, public transportation, and propane was $3131.58. Divided by 43 days, total cost per day was $72.83. We boondocked about 1/2 the time. If we didn't have Farold, hotels would have cost more than $100 a night alone for the 6 of us.

mightybus · 12-15-2012, 11:27 AM

It is a very good thing to throw the accounting chores into the lap of your son. He will learn how to be prudent and learn G.A.A.P. Home schooling is a great thing if the child is lucky enough to have intelligent parents. It seems from here that Farold has paid for itself in a short time. Don't exclude depreciation schedules and accounting for reserves in your home schooling regimen.

travelinwithus · 12-15-2012, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mightybus

It is a very good thing to throw the accounting chores into the lap of your son. He will learn how to be prudent and learn G.A.A.P. Home schooling is a great thing if the child is lucky enough to have intelligent parents. It seems from here that Farold has paid for itself in a short time. Don't exclude depreciation schedules and accounting for reserves in your home schooling regimen.

He is doing very well with it. All the children were involved in the accounting aspect to some degree. It is quite impressive to see how much they appreciate the dollar. All parents should get their children involved in the accounting aspects of their lives. We have always done that and I think that is a major reason why when we went through a candy store in Nashville, TN to look around then left without buying much of anything not one of the children complained or whined that they wanted something. After we left, I whispered to my wife, "what great kids we have."

After I got Farold parked and before we all exited our Skoolie, I huddled them all around the couch and gave the whole family a hug and told them what a great family they are. For 6 of us plus our dog to spend 43 days on the road in an area less than 200 square feet without one single argument is a huge accomplishment. I am so proud of them

mightybus · 12-15-2012, 01:30 PM

Quote:

For 6 of us plus our dog to spend 43 days on the road in an area less than 200 square feet without one single argument is a huge accomplishment.

Quote:

I am so proud of them.

Well, they are proud of you too for taking them on a great adventure.
My brood is mostly grown now. I learned at argument time, more times then not, they were either tired or hungry. For the other times, my solution was to channel their energy. Arguing was referenced as 'time to debate'. This entailed procedural rules and decorum. If it was an important subject matter, debate would ensue followed by negotiations. If a resolution among parties wasn't achieved, I, by holding a higher rank, would rule on the outcome.

travelinwithus · 12-20-2012, 04:11 PM

Tango · 12-20-2012, 04:47 PM

B-B-Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

GreyEagle · 12-20-2012, 05:03 PM

B-B-Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! Is right! thanks Tango, I couldn't have said it any better......

ol trunt · 12-20-2012, 09:11 PM

You didn't find anyplace else warmer you liked?

somewhereinusa · 01-04-2013, 04:20 PM

Quote:

We want to do similar hanging bunk for the grandkids to keep them off the floor

Not sure this would be too good of an idea in a 5ver, Depending on the construction, there might not be much there
to hang from.

travelinwithus · 01-04-2013, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by somewhereinusa

Quote:

We want to do similar hanging bunk for the grandkids to keep them off the floor

Not sure this would be too good of an idea in a 5ver, Depending on the construction, there might not be much there
to hang from.

I would agree with that. The roof and celing in a bus is metal and can support the weight. I don't think the roof of a 5ver would hold up. You may be able to use the walls or build walls to support the bunk but I think you would need to find a way to distribute the weight across the floor.

travelinwithus · 05-03-2013, 07:19 PM

So it is getting to the point that I am going to start making some improvements to Farold.

First, since my father passed, I removed the 45 watt solar panel from his van pictured in an earlier post and added it to Farold prior to our last trip. Both panels working together seem to be working quite well. It is only 90 watts of power but seems sufficient to run our fridge and TVs off the grid for a few days without a problem.

The next addition is going to be an air conditioner. It is getting to be the warm season (even though it was only 40 some degrees here today) and it is going to be necessary to keep Farold cool. I am looking for some input on this topic. I have been looking at window units as well as rooftop units. The rooftop units are more than 10,000 BTUs and seem to use a ton of power (1000-1500 watts). You can get a 6000 BTU window air conditioner for about a 10th of the price and power usage is somewhere around 600-800 watts. According to the specs of the window unit it is good for a 250 sq. ft. area. Now that is about the size of Farold but I also realize it probably isn't as well insulated as your standard house. I do have all the windows other than the front tinted so I don't believe there will be a horrible amount of solar heat coming thru the windows. What is everyone using for A/C in their rigs and what kind of experiences have you had?

After the A/C unit is going to be a generator. I have been attempting to avoid getting a generator but found you can pick up a new 4000 watt genny at Tractor supply for around $350. I haven't looked for used gennys yet but plan to. I would think I would be better off with a Diesel generator seeing as the bus runs on diesel but haven't completely thought that thru yet or looked at the cost, fuel economy or noise difference. Again, this is an area I would love some input.

I now have put on almost 6500 miles on Farold and loved every minute of it. He is averaging around 10mpg and it doesn't matter if we are going through the mountains in PA or cruising down a flat interstate. The only mechanical troubles we have had were the brakes and those problems were resolved with no problems.

Looking forward to hearing everyone's thoughts.

-Brandon

lornaschinske · 05-03-2013, 08:03 PM

Not telling you what to do. What you need in a generator is different than what we need. I know what we need and have been kicking around generator info/mods for a while now. Nor do I care to hear that what we plan to do is "wrong". This is just what we are going thru over generators....

Generators... the bane of my existence! Or rather trying to pick which kind to get....

Because we don't use a generator very often (only while traveling and when wallydocking in parking lots) then a propane one is a good choice for us. No varnish build up and we could go for years without "exercising" the generator. Running the gas lines is a piece of cake since we would simply "T" off the black gas pipe we will have run towards the back for the LP part of the hydronic system. We would be carrying roughly 100 lbs of LP under the bus. But LP generators generate less power and the price of a propane genny is terrible!

Diesel is the fuel the bus is on and we already have a large tank. But like a gas genny, it needs to be run every month for a brief period. I also do not like the idea of tapping into the fuel tank for the generator. Been there - Done that - Didn't like it. The prices of the diesel generators are bad! Diesel is higher priced that gasoline.

Gasoline gennys need to be exercised every month. If left to sit for even a month the carbs get "varnish" build up. The genny prices are lower though. The price of gasoline is lower than diesel.

I think what I need is a "dual fuel" generator. I think that buying a gas generator and adding a "tri-fuel" (LP, NG & Gasoline) no drill changeover kit will allow us the flexibility needed and still allow us to buy a generator (& kit) staying within my budget. We can go back to gasoline since the carb isn't drilled in a no drill kit. And the output watts will stay the same from what I have read.

So my plan is to buy.... an OPEN FRAME CONTRACTOR GENERATOR (you know, the loud, noisy ones they complain about on the RV forums

) and a conversion kit. Then run the thing off of LP... Parked in a Wal-Mart parking lot next to a sticks-&-staples RV with a Good Sam and/or Escapees sticker, cooking hamburgers on my LP grill and sit in the lawn chairs the lawn chair outside!

I'm going to make a bumper sticker that reads "WARNING! LOUD GENERATOR ON BOARD & AIN'T AFRAID TO USE IT!"

As a side note: I do have a plan on how to quieten the generator down if needed, for our own sanity. I also plan to make a permanent mount genturi to pipe the exhaust up over the roof of the bus... for our benefit only.

No drill kits
http://www.propanecarbs.com/tri_fuel_kits.html
http://www.pngtechnologies.com/Gener...sion-Kits.html
http://www.uscarb.com/engines.htm

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