HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!! (Elliot take a look)

[pete c]

I would think that driving around with a 12 foot long spear hanging off the back is illegal. A regular passenger car rear ends it and everybody inside is dead.

Other than that, it's a nicely done rig. Flipping the front roof skin was a pretty slick idea. Anybody here do it?

How bout the flatnose with the dump flatbed? That was pretty cool.

[pete c]

I wondered about the sheetmetal holding up the entire roof as well, but, assuming it's heavy gauge and is well connected to the window posts it's probably plenty strong.

[timbuk]

wow i guess it comes down to the weight on the rear wheels?!put a little extra and pop a wheelie! tha mans good with the tools i say my fav....A GAS AXE timbuk

[the_experience03]

Man...even after pointing him towards Elliot's build he just didn't get it. I'd be curious as to what his axle weights are. It never did get cut off I don't think. I'm sure some cop will nail 'em on something. It's really too bad too because it could have been a cool build.

[phillbus914]

I thought I read where he trimmed it a little, so there was only 4' added overall... I'd be mostly concerned with it scraping the ground than anything. He said something about his buggy weighing only 2500lbs, thats not that much. Jason had 4,000 lbs of water completely behind his rear axle and you could tell it driving his last bus.

That other bus with the tilt bed is very cool, I'd love to see more pics of that build.

[lapeer20m]

if he only has 4 feet sticking out the back, i don't think it's so bad. I had a 4 or 5 foot rear deck on the back of my last skoolie and it wasn't much of a problem...except this one time in toledo ohio....but that's another story.

i think it's a pretty cool build. I admire his creativity. There are too many nay-sayers in the world who like to say that things can't be done, it's nice to see someone who creates something different.

[phillbus914]

at the top of page 4 on that link he says this:

"i did cut the deck down,now it's 12 foot long
put some side rails on it with box tubing and plated inside the frame rails
with some floor plate.
made some ramps,mounted the tail lights.
we got 4'' on rain on saturday so work was slow"

Looks like I mixed up the numbers from memory, thinking he'd trimmed it to 4 feet. I don't know how much would be added to make a 12' overhang. Dosn't look like much more than 4' from where the frame changes heights.

Originally Posted by Smitty

when it comes to risking someones life (or lives).....I'll error on the side of common sense & good judgment......not merely trying to prove my point. I doubt this guy is a structional engineer, and made no mention of consulting one. If a guy wants to run his car off a cliff to prove he can, fine by me as long as he checks below first.Smitty

The same could be said about a lot of homebuilt parts of a skoolie. Imagine rear ending a semi truck while sitting in (or in front of) a Jacuzzi going 60mph down the highway Or getting hit with a flying couch/cabinet ect...

Not saying I'd want to tailgate this guy in a compact car with my family but I wouldn't necessarily trust a structural engineer to build a better rig, if that were the case bridges would never collapse.

Nothing is 100% safe, thats life.

[the_experience03]

I just worry about the weight. I know, I know. A filled jacuzzi weighs a ton too, but Jason has always had his body intact and you can't tell me that doesn't help plus the centroid was closer to the rear axle. I would really really like to see a free body diagram done on that bus. There was a post in there somewhere about bouncing and that is where my concern would be. You'd be hard pressed to convince me that his extended frame rails are not going to flex a fair amount over bumps. It's that fatigue that I find so troublesome.

[phillbus914]

Yeah I know, it's not apples to apples comparing it to Jasons bus, I was just pointing out that others have put a lot of weight behind the rear axles without a problem.

If it were to fail do you think the whole rear of the bus would brake off? Seems it would bend a noticeable amount first and maybe the end would drag on the ground. The front of his buggy (where the engine and most of the weight are) are much closer to the rear axle, only the rear tires are on the part he added on. If it weighs 2500 lbs total, and say has a 60/40 weight distribution that's only 1,000 lbs on the part he added on to the frame... 500lbs per side.

I don't think it's as dangerous as it looks, but I am by no means an expert.

[Elliot Naess]

You rang? (I'm back.)

Interesting case. I once slammed the rear overhang of my first bus into the ground pretty hard, in a filling station driveway/curb, and Millicent has old damage from scraping. So that would be a concern.

Worse, as was mentioned, the overhang swings OUT in turns - very much against most people's instinct. The biggest hazard might be the fuel filling pump, when he swings away from the pump after refueling. Remember that filling station that was rammed by the black Dodge Charger in Bullitt?

But as was also mentioned, if he drives it with the inside of his head, it might work out OK for him.

I don't think steering traction would be an issue -- unless he reinforces the rear platform to extreme with tons of steel.

How it works out for the motorist who rear-ends him.... Hmmm.... I once watched a lady drive her car headlong into the side of a huge empty car-hauling trailer that was making a U turn. At first, I couldn't fathom how she could fail to see something so large, and I reckon the truck driver expected she would see him and cut him some slack. But then I realized that she saw him just fine, and aimed calmly and skillfully to pass behind... his brightly colored truck, and NOT HIS ALL-FLAT-BLACK TRAILER.

Structurally, I'd have to see it up close. But remember what Archimedes said (and he was right)... "“Give me a place to stand and a lever long enough and I will move the world” It's all about leverage, and the antidote is triangulation.

As for skipping the pillars in the walls, that would also worry me. (Remember the picture of the infamous crashed Carpenter.)

Here's the thing: I'm old, and I grew up in an enlightened European country. Between those two factors, I was taught a bit about mechanical principles in school. We built levers and stuff right in the classroom every day. And at home, I played with Meccano erector sets and built Marklin model train layouts. Leonardo daVinci and Isaac Newton were "real people" with real knowledge. These days, I suspect they have been pretty much replaced by Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Even some of the guys we hire to drive 18-wheelers are astonishingly ignorant of basic concepts like friction and heat (truck brakes on a downhill). It's scary. Nation-wide and society-wide -- not just one converted bus. This is one reason I advocate good-old-fashioned mechanical games and toys (Kinetic Sculpture Racing, Burning Man three-dimentional art) at every opportunity.

It's still Saturday here, but it's Sunday somewhere, so that was today's sermon.