Ed's Build Thread

[CritiqueThisBus]

Originally Posted by dbsoundman

If you have a Thomas bus with the awesome (not) CAT gauge cluster, you might find this interesting.

My gauges all stopped working last year. The backlight on two of the gauges wouldn't shut off, and while the gauges would cycle when you started the bus, they wouldn't actually register anything afterward, or they'd get stuck in random positions. The odometer also usually just showed garbage.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, I got on eBay and found an almost identical gauge cluster from a Freightliner truck for $300. Not cheap, but I wanted to get this thing going. I first tried swapping out the odometer module, as it "drives" all the gauges through some sort of multiplex style setup. No dice, but I did notice that the WATER gauge was stuck at a specific value. So, I started troubleshooting, unplugging each gauge one at a time until the backlight problem went away. Once I took the WATER gauge out of the loop, everything started working!

Pulled the WATER gauge out of the replacement cluster, put it in mine, tested everything out, and now IT WORKS! I don't have to guess my fuel level anymore. YAY!

Nice. I may have to try that. My original gauges/dash is all kinds of wonky.

[dbsoundman]

Originally Posted by CritiqueThisBus

Nice. I may have to try that. My original gauges/dash is all kinds of wonky.

Yeah, especially if you have a “modular” setup like mine where each gauge is connected to the next one through some twisted cables and they’re connected in a daisy chain, one bad gauge can apparently take the whole thing down.

[KeyWestPirate]

Originally Posted by dbsoundman

Went to look at the radio to figure out why it didn’t work the other night…attempted to hang the assembly by the wires to get a better look. Connector let go and the whole radio dropped. Two butt spliced wires broke off and I discovered another pair of mystery wires. Fun!

And I still don’t know where or if I have an external speaker…bus came with a mic and an “internal/external” switch but I can’t find an outside speaker anywhere!

Look under the front left, around the steering area, for the speaker

[dbsoundman]

Originally Posted by KeyWestPirate

Look under the front left, around the steering area, for the speaker

I think I found the wiring but the actual speaker was removed. I’m waiting on the dealer I used to get another bus they’re sending off to scrap so he can snag the speaker for me.

[dbsoundman]

Wow, ok so I haven’t posted since our successful trip to Miami and back. We just got back from a short distance trip for the Memorial Day weekend, and I’m heading out this weekend to meet with some buddies. No AC yet but the weather was moderate and breezy last weekend, hoping for the same this coming weekend.

I just Mickey Mouse wired in my inverter to keep my mini fridge going. It’s very functional but I hate how much space my electrical cabinet is taking up. I have to make a longer 2/0 cable for the inverter eventually, and I’ll want to move the AC electrical panel to a side wall instead of it’s current position lying on its back on the shelf. I HATE having to redo things!

[dbsoundman]

I can't believe this license plate number wasn't taken.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by dbsoundman

I can't believe this license plate number wasn't taken.

Seriously, you'd think people would be proud of their erectile dysfunction!

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Seriously, you'd think people would be proud of their erectile dysfunction!

thats wrong?
but if it cant get up it cant get out.
sorry ED?
MG started it?

[dbsoundman]

😂 😂 😂

I supppose ED does have more than one meaning in these modern times.

[KeyWestPirate]

Can anyone check and see if VIAGRA is still available ?


The two buses parked next to each other: Priceless

[Veloc]

Originally Posted by KeyWestPirate

Can anyone check and see if VIAGRA is still available ?


The two buses parked next to each other: Priceless

If ED the bus is a 40fter, I'd hate to see how long the Viagra bus would have to be.

[dbsoundman]

It’s painted. It took all but one weekend in may, and I started working on “real” paint prep mid day the Friday before Memorial Day. We worked all day every day that weekend, and I pulled the last of the masking (except a few stubborn stragglers) at 9:30pm Memorial Day. I’m not sure I want to go through this process again, working with oil based paint sucks. There are already so many bugs in the finish. We have a decent smattering of overspray and runs. Just ran out of time and patience by the time we got going. I did a lot of thinking about the value of my time, I spent the entire month thinking or working on this, barely spent time with my kid. Building a bus is great if you can just take off maybe two months and get it done, but this incremental build out over the course of two years is making me think an RV might have been a better use of my time (at the expense of my money of course).

Going to take a month off of serious bus work and go enjoy life. I’ll see what I get into in July or so.

[Rucker]

Looks great but yes these are a time-suck!

[fo4imtippin]

Originally Posted by dbsoundman

It’s painted. It took all but one weekend in may, and I started working on “real” paint prep mid day the Friday before Memorial Day. We worked all day every day that weekend, and I pulled the last of the masking (except a few stubborn stragglers) at 9:30pm Memorial Day. I’m not sure I want to go through this process again, working with oil based paint sucks. There are already so many bugs in the finish. We have a decent smattering of overspray and runs. Just ran out of time and patience by the time we got going. I did a lot of thinking about the value of my time, I spent the entire month thinking or working on this, barely spent time with my kid. Building a bus is great if you can just take off maybe two months and get it done, but this incremental build out over the course of two years is making me think an RV might have been a better use of my time (at the expense of my money of course).

Going to take a month off of serious bus work and go enjoy life. I’ll see what I get into in July or so.

Congrats on getting it done. Morale will change shortly when you recover. It looks like a lot of us spent April or May painting. I haven't updated my thread yet, but i spent 2 months away from my kids everyday and blew $2k on the whole paint process. Really felt like a gut punch when i got drips on one whole coat of my black.. I'm all for learning something new, but its tough to recover from imperfections in the paint after so much prep. I had a trip planned back to my hometown in the midwest that i delayed a week because of my painting, and i didn't even put the bus back together, just drove it home, parked it, and went on my trip a bit late. While spraying the paint, i would've given the bus away if someone would've asked for it.. Now i'm excited to get back to it. I'm going to only work when i want this summer and take some time for some summer projects on other stuff.

[dbsoundman]

Originally Posted by fo4imtippin

Congrats on getting it done. Morale will change shortly when you recover. It looks like a lot of us spent April or May painting. I haven't updated my thread yet, but i spent 2 months away from my kids everyday and blew $2k on the whole paint process. Really felt like a gut punch when i got drips on one whole coat of my black.. I'm all for learning something new, but its tough to recover from imperfections in the paint after so much prep. I had a trip planned back to my hometown in the midwest that i delayed a week because of my painting, and i didn't even put the bus back together, just drove it home, parked it, and went on my trip a bit late. While spraying the paint, i would've given the bus away if someone would've asked for it.. Now i'm excited to get back to it. I'm going to only work when i want this summer and take some time for some summer projects on other stuff.

I appreciate the perspective. I definitely feel better about the bus today than I did yesterday and I’m proud of the work we did even if it’s not perfect. I was happy to sleep in it last night but I got a little tired of smelling paint all night, hopefully it will cure and vent off s bit by Friday!

[Timeline]

Looks really nice!

I'd go so far as saying it looks...

E for Exceptional
D for Dude!

[dbsoundman]

Just got back from a lovely trip to the Smokies. First time getting to use the cruise control, best mod I've made so far. The bus handled just fine but I need to replace the steer tires soon and I still have that engine knocking. At this point I'm pretty sure the knocking is a faulty injector, but it's hard to pinpoint which one because it only happens when the engine is basically under 100% load- not easy to reproduce while parked.

Another amusing but also annoying issue is the fuse panel beneath the driver's door keeps randomly opening up on the highway. I can tell the latch just isn't catching very well but I haven't worked out the best way to fix it yet. The nuclear option is to put another surface mount latch over it but I'm going to see if I can improve upon the existing hardware first. It opened up twice on the highway on the way home this trip so I duct-taped it shut to get home.

Upcoming interior projects are to measure, order, and install kitchen cabinets, develop a plumbing layout, install some interior lighting, and install the engine-driven air conditioning. Among 10,000 other things as usual.

[dbsoundman]

One other cool "hack" I've done to this bus was rewire the stairwell and exterior door lights to run off the house batteries. I have a switch inside the door to turn them on and off together just like a front porch light. I put a white LED bulb in the stairwell light and an amber LED bulb in the exterior light. The amber bulb puts out a lot of light but it's not super blinding outside thanks to the chrome shield on the fixture.

[nikitis]

If you covered the top a little more of that light at the top end it'd stay out of your eye visial but still light up the ground area.

[dbsoundman]

So for the trip back from the smokies I made a fuel stop about 60 miles into our trip, then drove straight home without fueling up. My fuel gauge doesn't work so I track my fuel usage by the trip odometer. I typically get 9 MPG (plus or minus a few tenths) so my general rule of thumb is to start looking for fuel at 400 miles and definitely get fuel by 450.

By the time I drove home from basically the northern edge of Tennessee and then drove to my fuel station about 10 miles from home, I was up to 454 miles on the trip odometer if my memory serves correctly. My invoice for fuel should come tomorrow, but as I recall I put about 54 gallons of fuel in the bus, which means I was virtually driving on fumes, with like 5-10 gallons left in the tank today!

Next time I'll try not to cut it so close...