So, a few questions before I start...

[paxye]

I live in an extreme hot and cold climate so I really want to insulate as much as I can. Now, we are starting this build as two people who do not have much experience. I do learn quickly though.

So first... we have to stock AC units in the bus at the moment. 1 works, 1 doesn't but it might be just a fuse I was told... we don't know though.
Second, there are the stock heaters.

So what would you do? I am thinking though they take up space etc to keep the heaters. I am not sure about the AC units... Could they all be run off shore power instead of just the bus? if so how does that work? or not? I told you I was a beginner!! If not... are they more for only when driving? Are there any other reasons to keep them?

I have read many conversions here that just built on top of the floors and didn't rip anything out and then many more that of course ripped out the ceiling and the walls to redo insulation and ideally that is what we want to do but the rivets scare me... so many!! I guess my question here is about how you do it. I have seen drill the middle then use a dry chisel and hammer. What drill bit works best? What tools are needed? There also seems to be two types of rivets.


For the floors... do you start by un screwing the center isle? Are there any tricks? the floor looks really thick and I a bit miffed by what to do around the engine (we have a front engine inside)

Here is what we are starting with...

[JakeC]

As for keeping your heaters/ac... Hopefully someone here can has more knowledge of those A/C units. I would try to retain them if at all possible. I mean, how cool is that...vented a/c AND storage!! Maybe just keep one side? As for the heaters, I would at least keep a couple. I only had one in the back of my bus, and I kept it. For removing the floor...remove everything attached to the floor, including the center aisle. Pull up the rubber flooring first, and then start on the plywood. As for the dog house, you will likely need to remove it (by removing the bolts that you can see surrounding it). It'll be easier to see once the rubber is up. Also, starting an actual build thread would make it easier for people to keep track of what you have. For example, questions rolling around in my head are: Does it have a generator and/or invertor already installed, and does it have a Webasto heater or anything like that?

EDIT: As for the rivets, my bus has all screws on the interior, but I usually use a grinder for EVERYTHING, lol. Not saying it's the best way, though.

[paxye]

OK... So I am going to copy and paste this one into another thread and start my conversion thread I will try to answer those questions also...

[roach711]

What equipment you keep or trash depends on what you'll be doing with your rig. If you'll be mostly parked, the engine-fed heaters won't be much use to you. The air conditioner in the picture looks like an engine driven unit also so that wouldn't be very useful either.

For a bus that drives a little and parks a lot you'd want an electric AC unit powered by shore power or a generator, and for heat a propane and/or electric unit.

You have enough room to compromise: build one of the heaters into a cabinet or something for use when driving and use a propane furnace or catalytic heaters for when you're parked. Electric resistance units work well if you have access to shore power. Keep the engine driven AC and add an electric window mounted house-type AC unit (or two) for when you're parked.

I'm thinking The two AC units are actually one unit with two evaporator (cooling) coils and fans.