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Old 01-29-2010, 02:14 PM   #41
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Re: Huh? What just happened?

I'll have to look at how hard those windows would be to get out. One of them is shattered. I'm not sure on the condition of the other two. But it's definitely something to think about. Thanks for the idea!

Nothing really new to report yet...although reading someone else's discussion about what needs (gravity feed, 12v pump, or air pressure), I got to thinking that...Duh, I have an air compressor right on my bus since I have air brakes! Could I add another tank to pressurize my water? Something to think about...

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Old 01-31-2010, 09:11 PM   #42
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Re: Huh? What just happened?

using bus compressed air to charge a water tank would make it not "potable", the oil from the compressor would contaminate the water with oil, don't do it. You might want to add air line antifreeze at some time and that would end up in your water too. Also you would lose charge capabilities if parked for more than a few days because your air is down. Water pumps are cheap really after considering all the options. sportyrick
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Old 02-04-2010, 04:53 PM   #43
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Re: Huh? What just happened?

I was just thinking the same thing about the bladder in the tank, only I am daft enough to think I was making a novel suggestion. I guess someone already thought of it somewhere along the way.
Heh!
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Old 02-05-2010, 03:13 PM   #44
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Re: Huh? What just happened?

See...why do the thinking myself when others can hash it out for me!!!

Probably just a 12 volt ShurFlo pump will suffice. That way, if it breaks, it won't be tough to find parts or replace. But it would be cool...

Thanks.
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Old 02-09-2010, 05:04 PM   #45
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Re: Huh? What just happened?

Congrats on your bus.
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Old 02-20-2010, 05:11 PM   #46
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Re: Huh? What just happened?

Thanks for the well wishes! Here's link to something that happened this last week...

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=5524

We did make it home without hassle once the compressor. I'll have to post some pics of the seats we went after. The great deal on seats kinda went sour when we spent nearly $1000 to replace the compressor and 4 nights in hotels and 3 days of rental cars. We just should have just rented a vehicle, went home, then come back over the next weekend. Oh well, 20-20 hindsight, I guess.
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Old 06-12-2010, 04:08 PM   #47
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Re: The Silver Snail...

I just realized I've posted nothing on the Silver Snail's progress since February. I guess that's because there really hasn't been any!

Since the end of February, we started JH Track (which I coach). I take it way too seriously, so it consumes a lot of my time. Our 8th grade boys and girls were league champions, by the way! I had a group of 8th grade boys run 3:54.52 for their 4x400m relay. I'm pretty proud of that one. 2nd fastest JH time in the state of Kansas this year near as I can figure. Anyway...we had State Assessments (more time consuming stuff), and my wife had some heart surgery!

Lesa is doing better, thanks, but it's looking like she'll be back for more in the coming months. Hopefully, we'll get this thing fixed. I think she just loves me sooooo much. Nah.

Now to the Snail...

Since purchase, we've put nearly 6,000 miles on her! That's about 1000 miles per month. Not too shabby. Most of them have been trouble free...with the noted exception of the air compressor. Memorial Day weekend, we took a trip to Laramie, WY to see my mom and rest of my family. It took forever to get over the pass, dropping down to 35 mph much of the way. The trip back home wasn't so long, we only had to climb a few hundred feet to get out of Laramie, over the pass, then downhill most of the way to Denver. We took HWY 287 instead of the I-25 & I-80 route. I just didn't see the Snail making that steep climb up the mountain out of Cheyenne!

We've had a lot of good times with her so far. Now that school is out for the kids and I, I'm really hoping to get to work on her. Now I have the time and no money...before I had no time and no money so it didn't matter! But I have some money coming from some "extra" work at the school and I hope to apply that to the bus fund. We need to finish with seat removal, and get the new floor and seats installed. I think I have a line on a (roughly) used travel trailer. I'm hoping to look at it this weekend. I'm hoping to salvage the door, some windows, and the roof AC unit. I think there's some other mechanicals that I'll be able to use too.

Not much of an update, but we're still here and kickin'!

Ben.
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Old 06-17-2010, 02:04 PM   #48
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Re: The Silver Snail...

Progress was made this morning on the donor van...We got all the seat bases and the lights out. This afternoon, I'm going to finish pulling the rest of the seats from the Silver Snail. Tonight the plan is lay things out and maybe throw a few seats down. I don't really want to put them in without putting in the new floor and doing something with the walls, etc. But, the conversion van seats will be 10 times (or more) comfortable than the bus seats. We also plan to work on tunes as well. We've gotta get as much done as possible while Lesa is motivated!
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Old 06-19-2010, 06:22 PM   #49
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Re: The Silver Snail...

True story Smitty...

Here are a few photos of the mess:
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2010-06-19 16.06.54.jpg   2010-06-19 16.07.03.jpg   2010-06-19 16.07.26.jpg  
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Old 06-19-2010, 06:25 PM   #50
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Re: The Silver Snail...

But wait there's more...
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2010-06-19 16.07.41.jpg   2010-06-19 17.04.58.jpg   2010-06-19 17.05.15.jpg  
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Old 06-19-2010, 06:53 PM   #51
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Re: The Silver Snail...

So, here's what's going on...

We finished parting out the donor van, as aforementioned. We got out all the seats from the Snail. I still need to take out the front divider, but anyway...

Starting from the front will be the driver and "navigator" seats. We'll be relocating the door "eventually." Those seats will be the gray leather seats that you probably can't see in the pictures. They're in the mess somewhere. Behind the driver area, will be two couches. One will be the gray leather from a 2001 Impala. I'm kind of excited about this...it folds down so that we can access the rear of it. I'm also planning to make it so that the seat will flip up. I'm hoping the use the seat bases from the bus for this. I'll make armrests and cup holders with the "extra" space on the sides of the seat. In my mind it looks cool. Across from that will be an electric couch from the donor van. I haven't gotten the electric worked out yet...but working on it. It should fold out and extend all the way across the width of the bus. It should make for a nice bed (I hope).

Then there will be the door at the 4th window. Across from that will be a cabinet of kind. Probably for kids' toys and whatnot. Behind that will be four captain's chairs facing the center isle. Lesa and I "discussed" this at great length. I wanted two chairs facing forward and two facing rear...facing each other, on the driver side. But we "compromised" and it will be the four chairs facing each other at the center isle. There will be a table in the middle of the chairs and/or couches.

Behind the chairs on the passenger side will be the 3-way refridgerator and then some counter space, and then maybe some bunk beds, or tool storage. On the driver's side behind the chairs will be a sink over the wheel well, then a bathroom and closet.

I'm not 100% sure on the whole bathroom behind the rear wheels, but it's the best place for it. 99% of our use will be highway.

You see the 3/4" plywood? It's going to be used in the the framing of the seat and cabinets. It's overkill, but guy at the lumber yard quoted us $17.50 a sheet because he thought they only had 5 left. Turns out it wasn't what he thought he had 5 sheets of, so he sold us that for the price he quoted. I think it should have been at least double that. Score!

I grabbed a few 2x4s as well. He threw in a few scraps too. Right at $100 total.

We're really leaning toward the foil backed house wrap. A 4' x 125' roll we were quoted $155. We think that we can put that on the ceiling and on the floor. It should really lower the temps and hopefully quiet things down. We're looking at fabric to put over the foil on the ceiling to create a headliner. We're trying to find some carpet for the center isle too.

We're really not doing this 100% the way we want to. We want to make it useable as soon as possible for vacation. Ideally, we'd be fully insulating the floor and pulling the metal off the walls, etc. But I don't think we're going to be doing any of that...at least for now. I realize it will be tons more work "later," but "later" may never come!

Lastly, this is a pic we took of a camper Memorial Day weekend. This is what we want it to look like...We really like the TV and cabinets overhead. We're planning for that too.
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2010-05-31 15.34.55.jpg  
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Old 06-19-2010, 06:57 PM   #52
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Re: The Silver Snail...

OK...a few more pics...
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2010-06-19 17.06.22.jpg   2010-06-19 17.06.42.jpg   2010-06-19 17.06.52.jpg  
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Old 06-19-2010, 07:19 PM   #53
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Re: The Silver Snail...

I used B-Quiet Ultimate on the ceiling. It's like asphault with shiny aluminum covering it. It's thin and dampens the sound a lot. The sheetmetal roof reflects the sound back down on you and the driver's seat is the worse seat in the house. I have a single 13,500btu AC and it easily cools the bus, which has no curtains but does have tinted windows.

You've got the right attitude--use it. I built my interior one way, used it a year, tore it out and built it another way. I'm already planning some new renovations.
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Old 06-30-2010, 11:35 PM   #54
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Re: The Silver Snail...

Progess being made...pics to follow tomorrow. Both couches "done." Gotta pull an air ride seat from a wrecked semi tomorrow and mount it. Trying to find two swivel style bases for captains chairs. Gotta have seats all in by Friday. Pics coming, I promise...too tired!
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Old 07-01-2010, 12:28 PM   #55
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Re: The Silver Snail...

Here are the pics as promised...
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Old 07-01-2010, 12:32 PM   #56
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Re: The Silver Snail...

More...
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Old 07-01-2010, 12:35 PM   #57
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Re: The Silver Snail...

Last one for today...These two couches took me 3 days worth of work. It didn't help that I didn't know what I was doing, but I got it done. There's still plenty more stuff to do, but I'll work on it later today and tomorrow.
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Old 07-04-2010, 10:25 PM   #58
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Re: The Silver Snail...

I'll post up some pics in the morning, but I got some work done on the wiring. I got all the stuff eliminated from the 8 ways. I left the wires though for future use. I got ride of some circuits that aren't used anymore too. Now begin. The process of repurposing the wiring. I need my tunes before our trip to Minnesota.
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Old 07-06-2010, 10:56 AM   #59
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Re: The Silver Snail...

Here's a few shots of what I've been up to the last couple of days waiting for fields to dry out. The original thought process was to work on overhead cabinets. But then I got to thinking about pulling wiring, etc. So I worked on first eliminating the 8 way stuff. I left the longer runs of wire so that I could repurpose them. Here's the mess of things that I pulled from behind the driver console. It doesn't look like much, but it freed up a lot of space (which was good because my radio sucked up a lot of it).

I also pulled down the front bullkhead to see what was there. I also needed to run wires for the TV, stereo, and gps antenna.
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2010-07-05 16.37.03.jpg   2010-07-04 13.20.18.jpg   2010-07-04 13.20.26.jpg  
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Old 07-06-2010, 11:04 AM   #60
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Re: The Silver Snail...

Here's the end result on the stereo. I'm not totally finished (not nearly enough speaker!!!). But this gets the job done for now. I had to relocate some switches to accommodate the flip up screen. I'm going to get some diamond plate to cover over all of that, then reorganize the switches, but for now, it's functional. I have to get the dvd player working. There's some stupid thing with the a parking brake interface. I'm not willing to mess with it. So I think I'm going to have to run a toggle switch to ground to make it work. On the older units, you could enter a code or just run that wire to ground. But this one is "smarter" and needs something lame like a toggle switch to simulate turning off and on the parking brake. Grr....
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