RazorCityDen's 1994 Cornbinder - Page 3

RazorCityDen · 08-06-2009, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ezbme

Thats a funny story Rick!

I am diggin your bus also, very nice!
The mountains look wonderful Den! Where were the photos taken?

I have a question while we are on mid-ship door talk... On the Transit the profile is so low that if I were to cut the body down to the rub rail like your schoolie I think I would have too many steps & they would be offset too far into the frame rail making it not feasable... So I thought maybe a platform inside the door opening & then the steps 90 to the right up to the floor... Any Input or suggestions to why this would or wouldn't be a good idea?

Jonathan

The highway pic was taken rolling into the Monument Valley on the Arizona/Utah border during a sandstorm, we really like the Four Corners area. The mule riding pic was on the Bright Angle Trail dropping into the Colorado River from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon and the hard hat pic was on a commercial job in the Razor City, OSHA compliant of course

It's hard to say what I'd do with your stairs ezbme without seeing whats going on under your bus and taking a tape measure to it, but I know I could have easily cut my stair well 24" towards the frame, but I had 12" from finish floor to finish floor on the bottom of my stair well and only needed one step in the well for two 6" rises, so I cut mine 20" for two 10" treads. I could have cut mine even less that 20" but that worked out good the way my stairwell is between the computer secretary and the wood stove platform over the wheel well. I wanted my wood stove in the middle of the bus to spread heat and near the door so it's easy to clean out and load the wood box, without toting ash or wood through the bus.

Put up some pics of the area your thinking of a stair well with a tape measure in them. On the outside of the bus finish floor to bottom of skirt, and underneath from the out side of bus skin to the frame rail, that would make it easier too come up with a rise/run solution and determine what you will need for a slide in RV step.

My two tread slide-in RV step came off an old travel trailer, the steps off the 07" fifth wheel I looted for parts had three treads and hung down too low when they were folded up. I was looking for max ground clearance, our bus is going to see a lot of BLM and forestry back roads.

RazorCityDen · 08-06-2009, 07:43 AM

A few more pics of our stomping grounds

RazorCityDen · 08-06-2009, 07:56 AM

Maybe just a couple more

ezbme · 08-06-2009, 08:37 AM

Wow...Great shots & beautiful country! I can't wait to move out towards the 4 corners! We are moving to New Mexico in about a month or so & will be about 1.5 hours from Arizona border. We are dying to travel & see what is out in the midwest! I have been a photographer for many years but mostly product photography & am jonesin' to shoot nature as it has been too many years & I can only shoot so many sunsets & babes in Florida!

SOOO...is that a "wild sweetie" leg by chance??

How much gold mining have you done? Any big finds or just for fun...A good friend of mine has rights to some old mines in WA state & has found a good amount but nothing big. Are you living in Wyoming at the moment? My wife & I are looking for fellow skoolies that may come thru the Datil NM area to come visit & stay a spell if interested. Busses are always welcome & we have plenty of room to roam at the new property!

Anyway, as we all say, thanks for the photos, the more the better!!

I will look at the frame location a little better to see if I can in fact run the steps straight in. After I wrote about it I was lying in bed trying to sleep thinking about Buster (like most nights) & I realized that the front door steps are lower than the profile of the body & those steps obviously fit fine so I may in fact have enough room to do it. My bus has a really wide side door opening so I am thinking about options as far as either filling the extra space with metal or if I can find a tall narrow window that is the height of the new RV door I could place that right next to the door - might look cool!

paul iossi: somewhere i saw a conversion where they put the door in at floor level and then built a "drawer" with a platform and stairs that were at a 90% to the door, open the drawer and you have steps, clpose the drawer and the steps disappear, just put a warning light on the dash so you don't forget to close the steps before you go down the road.

or how about foldout, swing out or pull out steps under the door on the outside?

note; look at some stick and staple trailers, they use external steps that fold out and keep the floor all at one level.

Interesting ideas Paul...gives me more to think about! GREAT...No More Sleep!

Thanks, Jonathan

RazorCityDen · 08-06-2009, 09:19 AM

I saw a few pics on the Yahoo Group Skoolie site and a guy was shrinking his wide wheel chair door to RV door size with angle iron framing and building a stair well below it, You would need to do some body panel and floor fill in, but that's not a big deal. You've got a good looking bus it looks like the exterior is 90% done!

So far we have only taken extended road trips into the Four Corners area but were itching to get down there at least seasonally, when I get the bus done we're going to hit it hard. We have equipment and mine reasonably serious but not full time, I'm a building contractor/commercial contract superintendent and hit the prospecting/mining between jobs. If we were busing full time (which is in the cards) we could make a decent subsistence living. At any rate it's a good excuse to be running around the back country

Take Care,
Den

RazorCityDen · 08-08-2009, 05:28 PM

I got that big hole in the passenger side floor filled it.

Pretty straight forward, I used 2X2x3/16" angle iron bolted to the flange that supported the original stairwell with 3/8" bolts on the three sides with the flange. On the side with the 2"x2" channel I used 3/8" self-threading bolts. Over top of the primed angle iron went a piece of 20 gauge galvanized sheet metal siliconed into place and over that went a piece of 3/4" OSB subfloor edge and back primed then screwed and glued down with 1/4" X 1 1/4" sheet metal screws though the angle iron.

I'm going to use spray can undercoating to protect everything under the bus that I've added.

Done deal.

RazorCityDen · 08-08-2009, 05:46 PM

Getting the slider in square and then trimmed out was a little tedious, mostly because I didn't really know how I was going to do it

I wanted the installation to exactly match the drivers side but that just wasn't going to happened, there were just too many differences so I settled for close. I had grabbed all the metal trim pieces I could when I pulled the window and they came in handy for the inside. On the out side I used the trim piece for the bi-fold door that had a nice bent edge to butt up against the window then I siliconed it from the inside. Like the drivers side I trimmed it out so that it could be removed and repaired if needed. I think the exterior trim will blend in well enough when it's all painted.

The bottom picture is the completed stairwell and permanently installed door.

Tomorrow I'm going to cut in the propane locker door and then it's rubrailarama for the passenger side

Take Care,
Den

TygerCub · 08-08-2009, 06:26 PM

Wow. That looks amazingly nice. I like the way you incorporated the RV steps. It looks very professional.
Did you say you were going to install a passenger's seat next to the driver's seat? Or are you going to fill that space with something else?
Thanks for showing something like this is possible.

RazorCityDen · 08-08-2009, 06:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TygerCub

Wow. That looks amazingly nice. I like the way you incorporated the RV steps. It looks very professional.
Did you say you were going to install a passenger's seat next to the driver's seat? Or are you going to fill that space with something else?
Thanks for showing something like this is possible.

Thanks TygerCub, I'm looking for a couple mini-van seats right now for side by side mounting. I'm going to space the passenger seat about 12" from the new wall with a low cabinet so it will be similar to the drivers side and route that heater vent though the side of it towards the passengers feat. The co-pilot seat about has to be spaced over so the there will be good leg room, I'll also have to find someplace else for the fire extinguisher.

I'll be glad when the metal work is done it's not my favorite part

Take Care,
Den

TygerCub · 08-08-2009, 09:06 PM

I have 2 seats (with seat belts) you can have. Ya just gotta come get 'em

RazorCityDen · 08-09-2009, 09:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TygerCub

I have 2 seats (with seat belts) you can have. Ya just gotta come get 'em

Thanks for the seat offer

I just took a look at your YouTube video's, very cool

I really don't think your starting issue is going to be a big deal, sounds like some kind of fuel issue which typically aren't much drama. I would check all your air intake ducts going to the filter though. Guys mess with each other on big job sites by stuffing the air intake with rags to keep equipment from starting just to get the morning adrenaline flowing

The mechanic is probably going to do a down and dirty fuel system check first, watch him closely and get him to explain what he's doing, most unexpected diesel engine issues are fuel related and simple to remedy once you know your system. Have him show you all your filters and where the fuel comes into the injector pump, he shouldn't care, he's going to be charging hourly anyway. Most of your roadside issues are going to be related to the fuel system, likely caused by dirty fuel plugging up filters, lots of dirty diesel out there.

It's raining to beat hell this morning messing with my rubrailarama plans.

Take Care,
Den

swhite832 · 08-09-2009, 09:30 AM

I've always wanted to pan for gold...especially at todays prices.

RazorCityDen · 08-09-2009, 10:13 AM

With gold running $900+ an once and likely going to go higher when inflation sets in small scale mining can pay.

I'm convinced just about any of the known gold districts will give up enough gold to keep you in bacon, beer and fuel once you get past the learning curve and get some production equipment. The pan in that picture was clean-up from running a small dredge/highbanker combo rig for 4 hours and wasn't all of it, there was about 8 penny weight (20 pw=1 once) in that clean up. That was a good clean-up but not all that uncommon for me in an area that's had two "gold rushes" go though.

Lot's of gold left, it just takes some time to figure out whats going on in the area your mining.

Take Care,
Den

swhite832 · 08-09-2009, 12:22 PM

I wouldn't know the first thing about it. I would assume looking for a place that would possibly hold gold is kind of like reading a terrain for wildlife or underwater structure for fish? Or is it just pick a spot thats not someone elses and start digging?

Bacon, beer, and and gas money....makes a good vacation.

RazorCityDen · 08-09-2009, 01:09 PM

Making gold consistently is a curious mix of understanding local mining history, geology and human nature. It's likely that most of the gold districts are known, but with in those districts are lots of area's that got worked lightly or not at all (hence many of our weekend pics have old buildings and mining equipment in the back ground , putting in the time

). If a guy was living cheap, say in a purpose designed school bus camper, had already made the major investment of gear and had put in the time to get up the learning curve, he could make a couple k a month or more in a half decent area. If you file claim on your digs there aren't any of the camping time limit restrictions associated with National Forest and BLM land.

This summers bus project has been putting a cramp in my dredge time, I'm going to double make up for it next year!

Speaking of bacon.........................

ezbme · 08-09-2009, 01:26 PM

Sounds like it could be a great simple lifestyle... & yum, breakfast looks good!

swhite832 · 08-09-2009, 02:37 PM

Campfire chow....the best by far.

Sojakai · 08-09-2009, 05:01 PM

I was thinking that those two meat and the eggs and potatoes look like a good meal. Yummy Steak and Eggs with potatoes.

Hotrod · 08-28-2009, 10:10 AM

That bus is lookin great. Alot of time and effort spent. Love the photos...did that dog of yours help u any.

I love steak and eggs.

RazorCityDen · 01-03-2010, 08:37 PM

Time for an update!

I worked a lot this summer and hunted though the fall and didn't get much done on the bus but framing odds and ends and some more exterior work. With winter in full swing things are slowing down for me now though and I'm hard at it again.

With the framing at 95% it's time to start thinking about the mechanical rough in. Thanks to Redbear I'm on my way with figuring out what electrical equipment I'm going to use. It's going to be a pretty typical converter/charger, inverter, battery bank arrangement, heavy on the DC storage side for off grid boondocking. I'll go into more detail when I get all the components in hand.

This weekend we also removed the dome lights and speakers from the ceiling. I was originally going to just run with the factory ceiling, but I've decided that I'm going to go over the exposed parts of the ceiling with a thin paneling so I can relocate the lights and hide all the holes in it. Once we got into removing the old wiring from the dome lights, speakers and upper flashers that led us right into the exterior light indicator panel that was located above the drivers seat. I'm going to have a shallow cabinet in that forward bulkhead above the windshield for the 12 volt TV/DVD and didn't want to bury all those wires running in and out of that thing behind it so I spent all afternoon figuring out what went where. It took a bit but I got it figured it out and have cut out the indicator panel all together, removing all the unnecessary flasher wires and soldering up the necessary ones so they run directly to the control panel.

I'm going to dig into that beast next, most of the switches are controlling nothing now so I'm going to keep the switches that still do, continue stripping out the unnecessary and built another panel face to mount them in. That's for another day though I can only take so much of digging though wires with a test light, jumper and multimeter

I'm happy I got as much sorted out as I did, it seems pretty down hill now, just the tedious stripping out of switches and wires.

I'm only half automotive DC electrically literate and the task was intimidating, so I went slow and methodical with the bus running and every exterior light on figuring out what every wire powered up and marking them as I went. I got a little hung up on the fact that for a couple of the rear light functions there were two wires coming into the exterior light indicator and only one coming out to the control panel.

I felt like we got over a pretty big hump today with the old electrical, I've been framing around that big bundle of wires for awhile now not really wanting to get in the middle of it till I had too!

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