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Old 11-15-2012, 08:14 PM   #21
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Re: The Man-Venture

I want to tint the windows of my bus. But I'm not sure if tinting the windows of a bus/camper would have the same regulations as a car would. I know in the State of New Hampshire you can only have a 35% tint on windows behind the driver.

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Old 11-17-2012, 08:23 AM   #22
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Re: The Man-Venture

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gearhead94
I want to tint the windows of my bus. But I'm not sure if tinting the windows of a bus/camper would have the same regulations as a car would. I know in the State of New Hampshire you can only have a 35% tint on windows behind the driver.
I tinted all of my windows in 5% tint except for the two windows on each side behind the drivers seat. I tinted those in 35% and I wished I would have tinted those in 5%. I have curtains in side and I like the tint because you cannot see the curtains from the outside. I didn't do any research on tinting laws (guess maybe I should have). I figured that if you can skin the side and back of the bus, tint should not be an issue. I guess in my case it will be easier to ask for forgiveness than permission
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Old 11-18-2012, 12:01 PM   #23
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Re: The Man-Venture

I was able to work on the bus this weekend. I started to build the porch. I pulled up two sheet of plywood off of the floor, and I still need to cut one in half, and rip it up. There are a lot of screws in theses buses, I had to grind them all off. I couldn't unscrew them, no matter what I tried. The windows gave me a challenge. I read that they had four screws holding them in, but then I realized that, that was on blue bird buses, not a Thomas. Turns out after I said "F$!% It" and just pulled them out any way that I could, they were only held in with silicone. During Thanksgiving I am planing to finish cutting the walls out, and possibly put up the wall and door to the porch. This is my progress so far:

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Old 11-18-2012, 09:10 PM   #24
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Re: The Man-Venture

The Demo phase usually goes pretty quickly and I like your buildout plan. Gonna be a fun one to watch develop. Keep the pix coming!
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Old 11-18-2012, 10:49 PM   #25
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Re: The Man-Venture

excellent progress
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Old 11-19-2012, 12:00 PM   #26
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Re: The Man-Venture

What are some peoples opinions of a gravity feed water system, with 55 gallon drums on the roof. I would like to use this instead of a pump for simplicity. My dad said a gravity feed wouldn't have enough pressure, because of the short height from drum to faucet, but we use a 55 gallon drum with a pressure washer to wash our bikes at the races and it works just fine.
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Old 11-19-2012, 01:02 PM   #27
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Re: The Man-Venture

You can purchase a water pump for anywhere from $44.00 and up.......
But with the RV toilets only dropping the load and putting a little water inside the bowl I don't see why a gravity feed system would not work..
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=pd_sl_38u8x ... ump+for+rv
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Old 11-21-2012, 07:19 PM   #28
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Re: The Man-Venture

Quote:
Originally Posted by NoBusYet
Just remember that a 55 gallon drum of water will weight over a ton if full, and you might not want that much weight up on the roof sloshing around. (Water is 8 pounds per gallon.) You also need a way to fill them too - I don't know that all campsites will have an easy way to fill the tanks onto the roof. If the campsite has poor water pressure, you're in for a loooong wait to get fresh water. I'd still plan on using a regular pump system of some sort (even if its only to fill 5 gallon tanks in each "room" for water pressure.
8 x 55 = 440. Not sure where you get a ton, but none the less I wouldn't want 440 pounds on the top of my roof.
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Old 11-22-2012, 12:02 AM   #29
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Re: The Man-Venture

The way I have hung stuff is to use steel rivets and weld hooks to plates, which I rivet to the ceiling. The plates spread the load out.

You are traveling in a bus. Space isn't a concern. I would knock bunks together with 2x4s.
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Old 11-27-2012, 03:59 PM   #30
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Re: The Man-Venture

This is my process as of this past weekend. I only worked a couple of hours on the bus. I was able to cut the walls off. Now I just need to finish taking the rest of the rear panels off, and open it up. All of these panels overlap each other, and the screws holding everything together do not want to come loose. Does anyone have any suggestions how to go about this, besides grinding them all off.

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Old 11-27-2012, 04:06 PM   #31
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Re: The Man-Venture

are you going to move the rear cap forward?or just build another wall...keep pics coming
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Old 11-27-2012, 06:59 PM   #32
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Re: The Man-Venture

How about making dual slideouts where you knocked the side walls out? Then make a fold down porch attached to the rear bumper? With all the fast progress you make, you could knock all that out in less then a month?

Here is a great website with some ideas on porches and awnings:

http://www.robgray.com/graynomad/index.php

Check out his porches and hard awnings for some really cool ideas!
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Old 11-27-2012, 07:17 PM   #33
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Re: The Man-Venture

I am not going to move the rear cap. The door and that wall will be taken out. The porch is primarily so that we can put our dirt bikes and street bikes on there, so we can go riding while out in Cali. It is also a cool place to sit and eat when we are parked. I am going to build a wall to close off the inside. I have been taking pictures every time I work on it track my progress. The process will move a lot faster once this semester is over.
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Old 11-27-2012, 07:56 PM   #34
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Re: The Man-Venture

No problem with air flow... i like it....... breezy
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Old 11-28-2012, 09:30 PM   #35
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Re: The Man-Venture

Are you going to grind off the short remainders of the side walls? If you leave those little lips along the floor, they will keep rainwater from draining off and you'll end up with a puddle on the porch. Puddle leads to rust. Rust leads to anger. Anger leads to suffering.
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Old 11-28-2012, 09:54 PM   #36
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Re: The Man-Venture

Cool idea and I think you could take out all the rear vertical members --IF--you install a steel post outboard on each side in the rear to support the roof--AND--you install a rigid support at the beginning of your "patio" that is similar in strength and function to the original rear of the bus (corners lateral to the rear door). I suggest that because you need to replace the "box" the original body provided to control the tortional forces in the lengthwise aspect of the frame. I think this will work based on the assumption that your "patio" looks like it begins rearward of the rear most spring hanger for the axle and rearward of a cross brace in the frame at that point. You will want to be careful about loading the "patio" with bikes as this portion will have lost ALL of the support the original box provided. My two cents worth. Jack
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Old 11-28-2012, 09:57 PM   #37
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Re: The Man-Venture

The roof is staying on, only the back walls are coming down. Its going to be a "covered porch" The rear supports are going to still be there, so there is still a box shape to it. Im not going to cut the lip. I am just going to create a drain for the rain to fall off. I am going to be rhino lining the bare metal so I'm not worried about rust.
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Old 12-09-2012, 07:42 PM   #38
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Re: The Man-Venture

I got some input from some of my friends that will coming with me across the country next winter. They gave me some ideas that i didn't think about before. We decided we would scrape the shower and just shower at truck stops. Because we are bringing 6 to 8 people, I am adding two sets of bunks in the back. Have a small kitchen with a fridge, microwave, and a sink. I am still going to keep the bathroom. We came up with the idea for a TV stand in the front corner of the bus. This is what I drew up from what we were talking about.
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Old 12-10-2012, 01:18 PM   #39
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Re: The Man-Venture

The back porch is going to be really great!
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Old 12-13-2012, 04:46 PM   #40
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Re: The Man-Venture

Does anybody know if you are allowed to put a normal couch in a bus, or do you need a special one? I was planning to bolt it down and put seat belts in it, just to make the officials happy. Do I even need seat belts in a bus?
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