Daddy's Dog House

[baadpuppy]

First, let me say welcome to the madness. That's a nice looking hi top thomas you have.

This is just my opinion, but it seems it would be a lot easier to deal with floor issues before a lot of things are sitting on the floor.

If you're just going camping, I probably would just poke a screwdriver at the floor in a lot of places looking for a soft spot indicating a problem. Not finding a problem, I would likely use the existing floor as is.

If you plan to live in your bus full time, I would go ahead and pull the floor, and *know* the condition of every piece of the interior living space.

Again, this is just my opinion.

hope this helps,
jim

[Sojakai]

Popular Opinion is to remove the floor rubber and wood. Check everything and clean/scrape/sand any problem spots then use rust inhibitor.

Better to know now what you have to fix, while its still cheap, then find it later when it costs ten times as much to fix.

[madpsalmer]

Welcome, I agree you don't want to have to tear down after a build because of a rust issue that you would kick your self about later for not doing the diligence to yank the rubber and check it out.


I love your bus... It's a monster, and the high top is going to be awesome... You've got a sweet rig good luck and keep us posted.

[BUSBOZO]

CONGRATS!! I have the same bus!! I'm jealous though... You have underbelly storage. Anyway, you will love it!! These ride so nice down the highway! And the 250 HP Cat has plenty of power.

I put down 5/8 plywood and 1/2" foam insulation on my floors. And still plenty of headroom! My bus came from Maine and had some pretty badlly rusted areas around the wheel wells. My advice to you is.. Take a good look inside the wheel openings and look for undercoating worn off and holes in the sheetmetal. The water gets thrown up through the holes and inside the bus rotting the plywood and metal floor.

I also ripped my walls apart because I had leaky windows. (still trying to chase down all the leaks). The water would leak down the pillars and out of the chair rail onto the floor.

You can check out my conversion project on here. Look for "Changed again.This will be it!!"

There is only a handful of us Safe-T-liner owners on here. WELCOME!!

P.S. Let me know if you find any service manuals for our buses. I'm having a hell of a time finding them.

[BUSBOZO]

Hey, how did you get the "THOMAS" logo on your signature? I can't seem to figure that out.

[BUSBOZO]

GOOD PROGRESS SO FAR! Is that hose appear to be some sort of drain hose? Or is it a hydraulic hose with fittings on each end?

[BUSBOZO]

I just went out to look at mine. And it appears to be a coolant overflow hose. Unless yours is set up different. Hmmm...

[dburt]

Is the "turbo cooler" the intercooler? If so, is it air to air intercooled? Could be a leaking seal in one of the turbo bearings, allowing engine oil to get into the intercooler, and then draining out the drain hose. The drain hose would be there to drain excess moisture out of the intercooler due to humid air, and you don't want the water to go on into the intake. Just a thought! Anyway, I bet your bus probably has around 150,000 to 250,000 miles on it, that is usually about the distance many districts put on thier buses before they dispose of them. Look at the wear on the brake and throttle pedals, that can tell you alot about how many miles are on a vehicle. And the steering wheel! 13,000 hours seems like alot of hours, could be the meter is inaccurate?

I hope to upgrade to a Thomas rear engine bus this coming summer. One of the local school districts will be selling two buses, both with 3116 CATS, Allison MT643 autos, and about 150,000 original miles. They sell them by sealed bids, so you can get lucky, and sometimes you get aced out!

[BUSBOZO]

Yeah, what dburt said. The turbo bearings are usually lubricated by the engine oil. So you could have a bad seal. Is it blowing any blue smoke?

[busdriver_phil]

To answer a couple of your questions:

Not every bus has a plywood floor. It's a popular option, but the base spec for a Thomas is rubber over steel.

No vehicle averages 65 mph over its entire service life. The 13,000 hours includes lots of idling time and stop-and-go driving. I drive a school bus in a somewhat rural district (longer than average distance between stops), and my bus is used for about 90% of long-distance field trips in our district. Dividing my odometer by my hourmeter I get close to 25mph. I've seen school buses average as low as 10mph. At a lifetime average of 25, your bus would have 325,000 miles, which is quite reasonable for a 17 year old pusher that's been well maintained.

[thesaltydog24]

Originally Posted by bcschro

No work on DDH. My Grandfather passed today. He was a great man, and will be missed.

Sorry to hear about your loss. It's always hard when you lose a family member or close friend. the best thing you can do is to keep your memories of time spent with him alive. My thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family and as well to your Grandfather may he rest in peace.

Christopher

[dburt]

The best thing we can all do is pass on the priceless advice and stories from our grandparents to our kids, perpetuate the family feeling, that close feeling of kin and a connect to the past. When you pass from the scene, all you can really do is leave memories, hopefully really good memories with those you leave behind. Nobody ever says on thier deathbed that they wish they had worked harder or longer. But they always say they wish they had spent more time with thier family, and spent real quality time with thier friends and family. That is what it's all about!

[swhite832]

I would say it's mandatory.

[busdriver_phil]

The levers on the front heater panel may be only for the dash heater/defroster. There should be one or two shutoff valves in the engine compartment that will stop the water from circulating, however this valve shuts off the supply to every heater. There's no way to shut off hot water to just the middle heater, unless you install a separate valve on the lines that run along the wall.

[BUSBOZO]

On the driver's side rear compartment..(the compartment with the air filter NOT the battery compartment), if you lift up the door slide it to the right it will come right off (much easier than trying to hold it up).

To the left of the air cleaner assembly you should see a pump with heater hoses coming out of it and a valve. Turn that valve clockwise. And that should stop the coolant from being pumped into the interior hoses. Just remember if you start taking apart the heaters, you will have an abundance of coolant still in those hoses.

You should also have a switch on the left side driver panel that says "pump". That is the switch for the circulator pump. Make sure that is off. You don't need the pump running unnecessarily.

Looking good!

I wished my floor was in that good of shape.

[MarkB]

Originally Posted by bcschro

I may do the pig blood next time. Ha ha, wonder how long it would take for the police to get there when someone saw that.

Or worse yet, the ASPCA!

Mark

[dentedvw]

Holy smokes! You are going to be in there forever with that little cup and drill motor.
You need an angle grinder with a big wire cup attachment. If you can't spring for a new one, do what I do, hit up some pawn shops. Then, off to the harbor freight for the cup brush. You will save a LOT of effort, and you will find other uses for it later. Like cutting metal, or bricks, or cement, or tiles...

[BUSBOZO]

Can't really see the wire cup from this angle. But this made short order of the work I needed to do and that is with my rusty floor. Yours is in great shape!

[dentedvw]

No, it won't ordinarily work for dried adhesives. It makes a mess, and can fling it around where it will readhere to something else, like the windows.
Unless the globs are huge, I wouldn't worry about the adhesive, as it makes a pretty good sealant for the floor anyway.
You can paint right over it. I am assuming you are going to put something on top of the floor, right?
You can knock down the high spots with adhesive on them with a chisel, or sharp scraper.
But overall, I wouldn't worry about it.

[houskou]

I think i saw your bus in a lot in Katy while going to t ball today...