Tiny Beluga - 1971 Gillig Home

[tinybelugabus]

Hello,

We are excited to share our Tiny home conversion with you all. We have a
1971 Gillig School Bus/Coach 743 with a Cummings mid Engine Diesel. We found her at Rivers Edge Kayak co. in Healdsburg CA last May 2015. We fell in love her charm, and had our mechanic talk to the previous mechanic and make sure we were informed about her history. The bus was a school bus in the Bay Area in the 1970's, then sat for 10 years and was recently used by the Kayak company to deliver kayakers to the river bank. She looked pretty clean so we didnt hesitate and now she is our future home!

So far we have:

-Found Parking for conversion!! (that was hard in the Bay Area!)
-Changed Batteries
-Taken out seats
-Taken off interior side paneling
-Brought to professional Big Rig mechanic

Our Plan:

-Find Engine Fan
-Change Belts
-Replace tires
-Roof Raise
-Re-Frame windows and doors
-Replace windows and doors (Locking doors for eateries)
--Double pane windows, Sky lights
-Rain water catch
-Water storage
-Insulate (we want to bring her to the Cold)
-Frame partitions for pocket doors
-Plumbing and electric, heating
--Solar Paneling
--Compost toilet

Build out:
-Bathroom
-Kitchen
-Bed Room

Finish work
-Ceiling (blue beetle kill pine T and G)
-Flooring (hard wood or bamboo)
-Walls hard wood
-Paint interior
-Paint exterior
-Get DMV RV status, and insurance

-Find farm land or open space to park in North Bay
Home free (off grid living)!!


be a Hero!
Help Needed:

We need to locate and buy an Engine Fan.
Do you know any resources or have a Fan and Fan motor for a 1971 Gillig 743D Cummings Diesel Mid Engine???


Thanks for Reading!!!!

Soon to Post more

http://www.tinybeluga.com/#!The-Tiny...Part-1/c1rfl/1

[Stu & Filo. T]

Welcome, We're in Vacaville & slowly in the process of converting a 88 Crown, where in the Bay area are you?

[RyanM]

Nice to see theres another Gillig's being converted. I just picked mine up last Sunday and can't wait to get started. How much of a roof raise are you planning?

[charles_m]

Im a big fan of your plans! We need pics! Im curious how the roof raise will go on a gillig. Bluebird was simple to add 20" to

You and I will be ceiling twins ;)

[charles_m]

Oh and there is no such things as a "Cummings" engine. The name of the company is "Cummins". It's a common mistake and who knows where that came from.

[cowlitzcoach]

Pat Young in the Fresno area has/had a lot of parts and pieces to fit Crowns and some Gilligs.

You may want to contact him.

Good Used Crown Bus Parts

If he can't help you I think you are going to have to become a bit resourceful and make something fit and make it work.

[tinybelugabus]

We are living in Fairfax Ca, but Tiny Beluga lives in Petaluma Ca.

[tinybelugabus]

Thanks for the lead! We tried calling Pat many times but no answer...we will keep on it. Now time to get resourceful. The previous owner tried a computer fan...we will have to do much better than that

Let us know if you think of anyone else. Thanks again!

[tinybelugabus]

Yes Cummins, tried to correct it but seems not so easy to edit an already posted post. We will upload some picks this weekend. The roof raise will be a little bit more challenging since the Gillig has that nice curved rear end but we are coming up with designs and will make it work. Its hard to cut into such a beautiful of bus with so much character but the height is a must for us since I am 6'1" and we don't really want to feel like we are living in a bus, but more of a tiny home.

Our current hang up is finding a fan to cool the engine. If you have any ideas of ppl with parts shoot them our way would be a bid help. Keep you posted with some photos soon.

jonah.hopton@gmail.com

[tinybelugabus]

RyanM

We plan to raise the roof to around 13' max height, since we will have some solar panels and some sky lights on the roof. I will be at the bus this weekend and will take some more measurements to see how much of a raise that will end up being, but around 3'.

[2kool4skool]

Ask here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/141126842574707/#_=_

[cowlitzcoach]

What exactly is wrong with the engine fan?

I would think that you should be able to find a fan that would work at almost any truck wrecking yard. The fans that Gillig used weren't anything very special.

IIRC they are standard Horton fans. Some may have had viscous drives so the fan didn't turn all the time. But the fan itself was usually pretty basic.

Windmaster Metal Standard Fans | Horton Engine Cooling Solutions

[Roadrunner]

Or you could just go with electric fans.

[Tango]

I am going with electric fans on my 4BT. A., to make room for all the other cooling crap I have to stuff in the buses narrow little nose...and B., I have been told it will save nearly 10 horsepower.

I am, however, going to use a two fan system instead of one. That way if one goes south, I will still have some measure of cooling. And these engines don't really need that much 90% of the time.

PS...the tranny will have it's own separate fan combined with some passive, radiant coolers.

[cowlitzcoach]

Originally Posted by Tango

I am going with electric fans on my 4BT. A., to make room for all the other cooling crap I have to stuff in the buses narrow little nose...and B., I have been told it will save nearly 10 horsepower.

I am, however, going to use a two fan system instead of one. That way if one goes south, I will still have some measure of cooling. And these engines don't really need that much 90% of the time.

PS...the tranny will have it's own separate fan combined with some passive, radiant coolers.

There is a big difference between cooling a 4BT up front and any engine in the rear. Moving air through a radiator at the back of the bus has been a continual engineering problem for every bus OEM that builds a rear engine bus.

It is very difficult to move air into a radiator at the back of a bus and then out the back of the bus in large quantities. Kenworth Pacific buses used a scoop on the roof to help increase air volume, an option that became available on Gillig buses after Gillig purchased the KW Pacific Bus division.

Most rear engine Gillig buses have a problem with overheating when it gets hot outside and you start to push the speed. I honestly do not know if electric fans can move enough volume to keep things cool. The fans on most Gillig rear engine buses have blades that are 8"-12" long and at least six or seven blades.

Again, depending on what is wrong with the fan it might be a relatively easy fix or it could end up being an expensive fix.

One problem with the fans is some people insist on running the belt really tight. This tends to wear the bearing out on the fan shaft. If that bearing goes out that is not going to be cheap or easy to fix.

[Tango]

Roger the cooling issues on rear engined buses. It is an historic and ongoing problem. Getting adequate airflow at the rear still seems to be the bane of engineers. One of the few buses that seems to have overcome the problem were Flxibles. They had these enormous scoops that directed the airflow down and over the engine and rad. Very art deco in appearance but they seemed to have worked.


Probably not the most aerodynamic solution but hey...it did look pretty cool.

[M1031A1]

Originally Posted by Tango

Probably not the most aerodynamic solution but hey...it did look pretty cool.

Tango scores a perfect 10 drooling smileys for this pic!!!! Matching fleet of Flxibles!!!!! I even love the colors!!!!!! Are the keys in the ignition?

[Jolly Roger]

I am computer challenged as far as adding pics but why not fender intake or hide it under the body where there is free airflow? Even something like a 4-6" piece of sheetmetal under the bus hung down to catch air and add one or two big duct registers with screen of course or several smaller ones that will introduce forced/fresh air into the compartmentwhile on the road? I have only looked at 1 rear engine bus and said hell no I ain't gonna be the mechanic so I bought a front engine bus that I could put my hands on

[Tango]

Depends on the make & model. There are some RE's that are easier to access than the typical FE. See M1031A1's engine bay.

[tinybelugabus]

We have made so much progress since our last update. 2.5ft roof raise, insulated and installed sub floors, now onto feaming the walls. We are going wood to metal with framing for house windows and french doors, our Tiny Beluga is going to be a Tiny Home Skoolie hybrid. Pics and more at Tiny Beluga Bus and we post a lot on Insragram @tinybelugabus