Charliebob

[CharlieBOB]

First things first, this build is a practice/budget build. I bought a 1990 Thomas pusher from Illinois for $1500. It came with plenty of rust, but not enough to really be a problem. Mechanicals all work well, though there is a little bit of leaking in various places. The outside is already painted, all I need to do is build an RV.

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[CharlieBOB]

So next we pulled out the seats, and the floor. The seats were cut off at the legs, and unbolted from the sides. Then I had room to cut off and grind the feet. The plywood floor was screwed into the subfloor. I had to cut off most of those screws. The plywood in several sections was disintegrated, just dust.

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[CharlieBOB]

Many rust holes around the wheel wells, so I welded on some material from the trim.

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[CharlieBOB]

Once I was satisfied the floor was strong enough, I threw on some primer.

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[Njsurf73]

Nice. What is the final plan?

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[superduty_59]

Yes very good drive train! Engine of choice 8.3 Cummins. Nice rust repair.

[Robin97396]

Welcome

Nice choice of buses, and you're moving right along already.

[CharlieBOB]

This bus is going to be our full-time home in the future. We will be raising the roof to gain more space for us and the 7 kids. When we buy land in TX, the bus will "dock" with the rest of the living space. I was pretty excited it had the 8.3 Cummins.

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[Njsurf73]

Wow. I am looking forward to your build. A little jealous of that 8.3 too. Lol

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[CharlieBOB]

Got the first layer of paint on the floor. Had to use a roller to apply rather than my spray gun because I ran out of mineral spirits to thin it with.

[CharlieBOB]

And all of this prep work leads to a hasty flooring installation because we need to use the bus as a u-haul.

[CharlieBOB]

The bus made the trip pretty well. Left TN, driving wide open 65-70 the whole way. Got to Indy, packed up a bunch of stuff, put it on the bus. A 2 bedroom apartment only filled about half of the open space. Drove back to TN, driving casually 55-60, and forgot to calculate mileage. Oh well. Barely even noticed the weight increase.

[david.dgeorge07]

Looking great! What part of TN? I'm in Chattanooga.

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[dispatier]

Cookeville here

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[david.dgeorge07]

Nice! Not far away. Do you know if there are any regional meetups?

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[dispatier]

Not sure at all, actually just purchased my skoolie last week, in demolition phase at the moment

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[LectricLance]

Nice bus, the 8.3 Cummins sounds awesome, is it spring or air ride? Allison 2000 or 3000 series? my '04 Bluebird tcfe 2000 5.9 24valve with the AT545 is ok with the 5.29 rearend but my '97 with the 12valve 5.9 and 4.44 rearend is slow. i was a schoolbus driver for awhile and the Thomas rearengine were so nice, plenty of power and nice ride.

[CharlieBOB]

Spring ride, about 10 short leaves for the rear, and only 3 very long leaves up front. That makes the front quite soft, the rear is very solid. It's an Allison MT643. No clue yet what rear gear. I haven't looked into it yet. I have driven class b vehicles for a while, the bus does a good job of getting moving. It has a lot of power, it just keeps pushing you into the seat the faster you go.

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[CharlieBOB]

So after a long pause in progress, we are back to working on the bus. This is the mockup of the floor plan. Front boxes are the kids beds/closet space. Behind those are the bathroom plots. The kitchen is next, with the master bedroom and water tanks.

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

Cool.
How old are the kids?
One issue I am just now running into is that I built a full family camper with lights,fans,storage and all for the kids to have there own space. It worked great for the many camping trips that we made.
Now the issue I have ? Is that my kids are now 18 and 19 and moving on doing there own thing and out grew there beds buy a little?
So instead of two kids beds how do I rebuild the original specific purposed space's the wall are main kitchen,bath and living area walls and all with wiring and a lot of usable storage.
But how to repurpose them,keep the storage, the wiring,the main walls, without starting the whole area over?
Just food for thought.
My issues for designing for the moment and not thinking of long term