Door location change

[Bigbadbus]

Hey skoolie community. Im new here and converting a 40’ 2006 freightliner with a Mercedes diesel. I want to move the door and stair location to about centre bus, and seal the front door with a sliding window and change the stairs to a “tool shed”. This is all to add a beautiful captians chair for my lovely copilot. Has anyone Moved the door location before? Any tips? Happy travels

[TomA]

Carefully figure out how much weight you plan to add to the front passenger corner of the bus. on a RE bus, it is painfully easy to overload the front axle...

[Bigbadbus]

Good point. Thanks. Its Just the seat, my wife and some essential road tools for easy access.

[Ronnie]

A friend of mine has moved his door to the middle using the emergency door as a start, and put stairs in. Had them done actually. The front door and steps will be removed and will build a dropped shower pan to go there for the shower . I am planning to help him with that later this summer.

[plfking]

Originally Posted by Bigbadbus

Has anyone Moved the door location before?

It's pretty straightforward, and fairly easy, once you spec out your new steps. I'd recommend bolting the steps to the floor AND the ribs (and anything else within reach).......you ARE cutting the chair rail, and that's a structural component, so adding support back to that area is a good thing. Then it's just a matter of framing the opening and building a door to fit.

My old door opening will hold my genny and house batteries.

[JamieJackson]

Try this link. Travis did a great job I think and I was going to kind of follow his lead with my door move.

https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f11/sojourner-8810.html

[Bigbadbus]

Thanks. Not sure about the chair rail. Just exploring right now. New to bus renovations. I know what i want. Its just a matter of learning the proper way to go about it. Your bus looks great!

[BeNimble]

Something I saw that I didn't know as a tent camper, is that rv parks have their hookups on the drivers side, and thus all RV's have their doors and awnings and decks, etc on the passenger side. So I noticed your door is on the drivers side. On purpose?

[plfking]

Originally Posted by BeNimble

So I noticed your door is on the drivers side. On purpose?

Yeah.....that fit my favorite interior layout. I'll be spending my time out in the boonies......the RV park or campground thing just isn't my scene.

[FatBoySTL]

Originally Posted by plfking

Yeah.....that fit my favorite interior layout. I'll be spending my time out in the boonies......the RV park or campground thing just isn't my scene.

In those odd cases where you might end up in an RV park anyway, just go in nose first.

[cdrobbins77]

I did just what you are thinking about doing on my 37' conventional bus. Moved the stairs about halfway back on the passenger side, added an RV door there, covered the old door with sheet metal and a sliding window, and created a storage bay where the old stairs were which now houses the outside unit of my minisplit. I also mounted a copilot seat where the old stairs were. Let me know if I can help in any way.

[Beachvbguy]

Originally Posted by Ronnie

A friend of mine has moved his door to the middle using the emergency door as a start, and put stairs in. Had them done actually. The front door and steps will be removed and will build a dropped shower pan to go there for the shower . I am planning to help him with that later this summer.

Yes, this project was part of the old window replacement. It went pretty smoothly. I found a very good welder to make my vision come true.

[Bigbadbus]

Sweet mod! Ill be studying your pics for sure

[StacyLynn]

Originally Posted by Ronnie

A friend of mine has moved his door to the middle using the emergency door as a start, and put stairs in. Had them done actually. The front door and steps will be removed and will build a dropped shower pan to go there for the shower . I am planning to help him with that later this summer.

What a fabulous idea!!!!!!

[Bigbadbus]

Originally Posted by cdrobbins77

I did just what you are thinking about doing on my 37' conventional bus. Moved the stairs about halfway back on the passenger side, added an RV door there, covered the old door with sheet metal and a sliding window, and created a storage bay where the old stairs were which now houses the outside unit of my minisplit. I also mounted a copilot seat where the old stairs were. Let me know if I can help in any way.

your bus looks amazing. looking at your design gave me lots of ideas

[Bigbadbus]

I pulled it off. you can see pics on instagram if you like. @our_bus_is_named_harriot. let me know what you think

[cafspecdel]

Originally Posted by Ronnie

A friend of mine has moved his door to the middle using the emergency door as a start, and put stairs in. Had them done actually. The front door and steps will be removed and will build a dropped shower pan to go there for the shower . I am planning to help him with that later this summer.

You're going to put the shower in the very front of the bus by the dash??