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Old 01-14-2016, 11:38 PM   #1
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3 foot roof raise in Northern Arizona

I have a 84pak (39') 1995 Thomas Saf T Line with a 8.3L Cummins and Allison MT643. I'm doing a 3 foot roof raise to it to accommodate 2 large sleeping lofts and leave the entire bottom open for living space.


last time I started to make this thread my computer dropped me after adding 15 pics so I'm going to do this over a few posts.

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Old 01-15-2016, 12:45 AM   #2
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Moving a sqeez of hay to make room for the build

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Smarter not harder

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The beast comes home

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There is the extra hay

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Tearing things up

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The locals coming to check things out

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Geting rid of insulation. I hate that stuff

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Im lifting with come alongs instead of high lift jacks. New conection points and new hardware in the barn beams and rick testing our safty line

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6 come alongs to 3 beams suporting bus roof....could have goten away with 4 to2 but im paranoid/ expirianced with murphy

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1 of 3 suporting beams

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Added some 1"angle iron to suport the window headers where we where lifting

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Added some of the loft rafters to help keep things square once we break free
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Old 01-15-2016, 01:13 AM   #3
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Isn't that cute my smart phone thinks its smarter than me


Moving a sqeez of hay to make room for the build



Smarter not harder




The beast comes home




There is the extra hay



Tearing things up



The locals coming to check things out




Geting rid of insulation. I hate that stuff



Im lifting with come alongs instead of high lift jacks. New conection points and new hardware in the barn beams and rick testing our safty line



6 come alongs to 3 beams suporting bus roof....could have goten away with 4 to2 but im paranoid/ expirianced with murphy




1 of 3 suporting beams




Added some 1"angle iron to suport the window headers where we were lifting




Added some of the loft rafters to help keep things square once we break free
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Old 01-15-2016, 06:17 AM   #4
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cool and welcome how many and what kind of goats?
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Old 01-15-2016, 08:57 AM   #5
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Gotta' ask...what will be your final height?
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Old 01-15-2016, 09:20 AM   #6
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OferPetessake! Now I gotta have a goat to be one of the cool kids! Between that and the apparent impossibility of getting insurance, there are times when I despair of the whole thing.
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Old 01-15-2016, 09:35 AM   #7
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Welcome fellow Arizonan!
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Old 01-15-2016, 07:35 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tango View Post
Gotta' ask...what will be your final height?
1 or 2 inches short of 13' 6" and thats off the top of the closed exit wich if need be i can modify to loose a few more inches

There are 2 mgeriam dwarf dairy goats , they are my uncles but one of the steer is mine. Theres also 7 sheep and a bunch of othere stuff.

Where are you at 2kool?
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Old 01-15-2016, 08:02 PM   #9
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Spring Valley, that's near I17 and SR69.
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Old 01-15-2016, 11:50 PM   #10
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Cool I'm doing my bild in Cornville, near Sedona.
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Old 01-16-2016, 12:58 AM   #11
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The sides are easy Rik's worm drive skill saw had the right standoff that we could use the blade guide against the trim to keep our cut strait. I cut below the windows because ( I know you will all think I'm nuts and energy inefficient and heavy but I want to keep the school bus windows and) I want them elivated and the cut siding makes it easy for me to shingle in the new siding for good water sheding.





The front and rear ends were more difficult but after going back and forth a while we found the easyes and sainest way was to chisle out the rivets (took about 40 rivets befor I realized the chisle was the only way) and make these 2 cuts to detach the roof from the wind sheild suport structure/D tube. Ill have to take pics of the back tomarow.



Amount of cutting done on 1 Diablo brand red abrasive blade


Amount of cuting from 1 blue avanti abrasive blade





The skill saw with the 1/8" thick abrasive blade was good but it took 2 of us wraped from head to toe in PPE with the weight suporter wearing 2 heavey welding gloves on the lifting hand......i was honestly concerned we would catch the magnisium sawdust shield on fire...in my hand. But once we got all the side skin cut and the ribs done about half way we went inside to finish the ribs off with the angle grinders with cut discs. I was impresed how fast the 1/16 blades went through.


Had a few snags where we had to transition up at the ends but we soon had lift off



Clear but not up to height yet



Squareing things up was a bit of a pain but eventualy we got it

Whats the right way to post a video?
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Old 01-16-2016, 06:27 AM   #12
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If its a Youtube vid, just paste the url directly .
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Old 01-16-2016, 09:15 AM   #13
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Unibomber?

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Old 01-16-2016, 09:40 AM   #14
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If its a Youtube vid, just paste the url directly .
Right now its just on FB and photobucket. Is youtube the way to go?
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Old 01-16-2016, 09:49 AM   #15
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Unibomber?

That was my previous job. No just hating fiberglass in that pic.
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Old 01-17-2016, 07:00 PM   #16
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Looks good so far. I can't wait to see the finished project.
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Old 01-18-2016, 01:33 AM   #17
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What type of weight transfer and moment arm do you think you'll get with the roof so high? I know the millicent roof raise was 2', and that seemed pretty high. Around here in the Seattle area we have busses called the "Double Tall" (coffee, you know, jokes) that are double decker Enviro 500 models ( same manufacturer as the famous busses in london)

Those busses are TALL, and max out the height like you're planning.
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Old 01-19-2016, 12:19 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by aaronsb View Post
What type of weight transfer and moment arm do you think you'll get with the roof so high? I know the millicent roof raise was 2', and that seemed pretty high. Around here in the Seattle area we have busses called the "Double Tall" (coffee, you know, jokes) that are double decker Enviro 500 models ( same manufacturer as the famous busses in london)

Those busses are TALL, and max out the height like you're planning.
Hadn't really taken moment arm in to considerate but it is a pusher so the wheels are set back pretty far, I would have to think the axis angle would be similer to a norman height front engine.

Do you have any thoughts on that, suspention, or weight placement. My photo bucket is giving me greif so pics arnt up to date but I'm about to skin and water tank placement will be in the next month. I'm not sure if I want it closer to the front or the rear. I have 10' of under storage to play with and at 100 gallons thats 800lbs I have to favor the front with, but that could cause more stress by hanging 800 lbs from the middle of the chassis
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Old 01-19-2016, 12:33 PM   #19
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caulk

I saw the prefered caulk/adhesive in 2 other threads but I cant seem to find them now. Does any one know what it was. Also the skin I have on hand is Aluminum and obviously the structure and original skin are steel will that preferred caulk/adhesive prevent the destructive action of Al rubbing/vibrating on steel or do you guys recomend somthing different. The guy I talked to at ace hardware used to work in his dads body shop and he recomended taking a tractor intertube and cuting it in to a long 1" strip and placing that between the Al and steel. And I did see a strip of ruber reminiscent of that around the nose of the bus I'll try and get photobucket to upload that pic for reference.
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Old 01-19-2016, 12:41 PM   #20
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For overlapping sheet metal joints you'll want automotive seam sealer, or a similar product. I used the black, goopy vapour barrier caulk, which is made of the same ingredients as black automotive seam sealer. It's a bit thinner, though, which I found flows nicer between the sheet metal pieces. It's a real mess to clean up. Lots of mineral spirits.

EDIT: whoops, missed the note on the sheets being aluminum. That does complicate things a bit more. Inner tube sounds reasonable, but a good bit of work. A fast drying caulk of almost any kind could be useful to hold the inner tube strips in place while fitting the sheets.
Have you looked at 3M VHB tape? That would simplify things.
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