RazorCityDen's 1994 Cornbinder

[NewSkewlHauler]

I love the symmetry of your rig! I really like the work you've done. I'll be doing some similar things I think. I'm glad that you're moving ahead and making it look so easy...and good! Outstanding!

Ben.

[Diesel Dan]

Den you are an inspiration to me! Looks great!

I have a question: why did you choose the "composite board" (I don't know what it's called) for most of your walls and other flat surfaces, instead of "layered" plywood like you have on the front bulkhead? What drives your decision to use one product or the other? I've never used the composite product, so I'm not sure what advantages or disadvantages it has as opposed to the layered plywood.

Thanks,
Dan

[RazorCityDen]

The "composite" is OSB (Orientated Strand Board) and is a sheathing rated product used on 95% of wood frame structures these days. I used 7/16" for my walls and cabinet fronts because I wanted to make sure I had backing for paneling and trim anywhere I needed it for glue and narrow crown staples. All that OSB will be paneled and trimmed out.

The AC (finish grade) plywood used on the bottom of my upper cabinets is there because it's going to get painted and OSB doesn't take paint very well (it's ugly). Everywhere in the bus I'm painting plywood, I'm using AC. I used CDX plywood (rough) on the bulkhead simply because I had it handy and that bulkhead is getting paneled so it covers. I used 3/4" OSB on the passenger side storage cabinet because it machines and takes screws and glue better and is getting covered with a carpet panel.

Even if i didn't have a few bunks of OSB hanging around I would have used it anyway, it's much easier to scribe and work with than CDX plywood, that splinters and has dead spots inside, and it takes screws well without blowing out like CDX will do. OSB is also cheap, which is good since there's lots of waste with the goofy cabinets and walls in a bus. Some folks associate it with particle board or other cheap sheet goods, but it isn't even close. OSB subfloors will take much more water and sun than CDX will and the same is true with OSB wall sheathing.

Take care,
Den

[Mulelover]

If osb is good enough for roofing it is good enough for flooring.

I was thinking about using soundboard for the floor, but man that stuff is heavy.

Jackie

[RazorCityDen]

Thanks for the kind words!

The carpentry comes easy (I'm a builder) but I fret over the RV mechanicals and I'm learning as I go from the folks on the forum. Most of the idea's for my bus I've cherry picked from others on the forum and can't express enough how much I appreciate the time they took to take lot's of pictures and chronicle their experiences. This forum really is a prime example about how cool the internet can be.

I consider taking lot's of pictures and relating my experience as payback for what I've learned from everybody else.

Yesterday I got my 2 water tanks and water heater and cover!

Still waiting on my converter/charger, ss sink, accumulator tank, water pump strainer and outside gravity/city water fill unit.

I'm going to get started with installing the water tanks. The tanks are the 40 gallon RV tanks that Tri-State "Rock Your World" (apparently they make plastic rocks too ) sells on Ebay for $40 dollars each. They seem to be well made, with two taps on the bottom, one for the outlet to the pump and the other for the drain. They have a 1 3/8" tube and a tap on the top for the filler and the vent.

I wish it wasn't so damm cold today! (7deg right now with about 15mph wind) I dropped the wood stove off at the high school welding shop for some leg modifications yesterday. The stove is a heavy welded steel cylinder stove like the Jespers installed in their bus, but I added a door gasket and I'm changing the legs. The original legs are held on by thumb screws so they pack inside and they are long and not as heavy as I would like. I'm having the young welder studs install heavier steel pipe legs that will be shorter (my stove sits on a platform over the passenger side wheel well), welded to the stove and have a piece of 2"x 3/16" flat stock welded across the bottom of them so I can bolt the stove down nice and tight. This is an oil and gas town and we have excellent industrial arts/vocational training programs at our high school. The kids thrive on getting projects like this, they do an excellent job and for free! (well, not counting our property taxes anyway)

Take care,
Den

[RazorCityDen]

It was cold today, but I decided to do the cutout for the water heater anyway, it went slow, but it got done and I'm happy with the results.

I started by cutting out the rough opening on the inside. Then drilled holes at the corners though the outside skin and then went outside and layed out the rest with a framing square based on those two bottom holes. It took some grinding to get the rough opening where I wanted it and to trim back the rub rail and body flange to clear the flange on the water heater cover and look decent.

I ripped pieces of treated lumber to use as a filler between the outer and inner skins to give me something to screw the water heater too and to support the inner and outer body panels. The heater gets anchored in place by running screws though the metal shroud that goes though the bus body so something had to be in there to screw too. The directions show nothing but a couple cleats on each side of the water heater on the inside to keep it from shifting around.

Take care,
Den

[RazorCityDen]

A couple more pictures showing the cover off the water heater and a picture of the treated filler I screwed in place to anchor the water heater.

Take care,
Den

[Diesel Dan]

How will you seal the open ends of the rub rail where it got cut? Lots of people have to cut through the rails, but I haven't seen any discussion of how they sealed them up afterwards.

[RazorCityDen]

I'll probably poke something in there like a piece of packing foam or something else to act as a caulking "rope" and then use paintable caulk or something else like that over it, but I haven't got that far yet!

Take care,
Den

[yankeflyer]

I am reluctant to post just to say good job, your work is so tight I doubt that that you would need more than I quarter inch of a caulking line. As an old carpenter who gave it up for railroading I can I say this is a great carpentry. In Wyoming open and exposed metal can set for years and never rust, of course that's not going to happen here, especially since there are so many rust preventative products on the market.

Diesel Dan, I have to ask, are you pretty good at 3208 cats, because I sure have a problem with mine that I sure would like to fix. Right now I have to do a bunch of wrenching on my Passat.


So while I'm at it, I would like to figure out how or why after my 3208 sets for while, it gets air in the fuel lines and I have to bleed all the injectors to get it started running again. Obviously I have a leak somewhere. I sure am tired of bleeding those injectors.

[paul iossi]

Yankee; it's sucking air from somewhere and letting the fuel siphon back to the tank, look real close at the fuel lines from the lift pump to the injector pump, It's not unherd of for someone to have left a bracket off of a line or otherwise damaged a line and a hairline crack has developed right at one of the fittings.
Experience sys that usually you will find a cracked line at the fitting on the filter/primer assembly, then look for fittings that have had the thread sealant disturbed and then finally replace the flexable hoses on the supply lines.

[yankeflyer]

I need a pit.

[Redbear]

Originally Posted by Diesel Dan

How will you seal the open ends of the rub rail where it got cut? Lots of people have to cut through the rails, but I haven't seen any discussion of how they sealed them up afterwards.

One idea might be to take the end pieces with the bevels completely off, and then use those pieces plus shorten the rub rails in order to have factory ends in front of the opening. If you don't have enough rail ends to blend in all your cuts, maybe you could find a skoolie graveyard with some salvageable rails.

[newbusser]

I wouldn't use OSB for flooring unless you get the kind designed for that purpose. it is thicker and is tongue and groove. I started to use the cheap stuff and three weeks later it was swelling and warping at the joints. I have a lot of moisture in the air, ( pacific northwest) and am told that is the reason it moved around on me. Home depo said to use the stuff designed for that purpose and haven't had a repeat of the issue. glad it happened before i built anything on top.

[RazorCityDen]

I wouldn't use OSB for flooring unless you get the kind designed for that purpose. it is thicker and is tongue and groove.

The 3/4" OSB decking is all I would consider for the floor as well, it's tongue and grove, treated for moisture resistance and designed for a sub-floor application, the other OSB products are designed for wall sheathing or roof decking.

If I were running in new plywood, I would use green treated, the factory plywood in my bus was of a treated variety and it's still looks great though and though, but the mountain west in dry, there's no salt used and I think my bus lived a charmed life.

Take care,
Den

[RazorCityDen]

Originally Posted by Redbear

One idea might be to take the end pieces with the bevels completely off, and then use those pieces plus shorten the rub rails in order to have factory ends in front of the opening. If you don't have enough rail ends to blend in all your cuts, maybe you could find a skoolie graveyard with some salvageable rails.

I considered that too and may do it. I'm focused on the interior right now, I'm trying to get it done before spring and when it warms up I'm going to start in on the exterior. I should at least get some primer and paint those raw ends though.

Take care,
Den

[headin2MT]

updates?