No pictures this time. Wife (and resident photographer) broke the camera last week while working on the bus...not the first piece of tech the bus has claimed, I also managed to bust my phone a few weeks ago...
Current status is as follows:
- Interior completely stripped, rust converted, holes patched
- Interior framing nearly done, everything from the drivers seat back has been framed in
- Rough in electrical is done!
- Rough in Plumbing is done!
- 30lb Propane tank mounted!
Next step big project is spray foam insulation, but I have a few things to wrap up before then:
-Rough in propane (happening this weekend)
-Pressure test water and propane lines (this weekend)
-Frame in the drivers area...?
I'm looking for advice on a couple of fronts.
Framing
We had originally planned on leaving the front of the bus open, as is most common from what I've seen. This seems to have two major drawbacks. Firstly, you lose a ton of heat/cool through the giant windows in the front. Second, we would likely need to replace the current air door on the bus with an RV door to minimize air intrusion.
Because I
really don't want to replace the air door (I'm not a good metal worker) I've been thinking about completely partitioning off the front of the bus. We would lose a lot of natural light, and some precious square footage, but it would solve my door issue by essentially creating a 'mud room'. This would also greatly reduce the cooling/heating load because we would have a very well insulated cabin area. Also...no co-pilot..not sure if that's good or bad.
Thoughts on this subject are welcome!
Electrical
With rough in electrical done the only thing left to do before we spray foam is put in conduit for the solar system. Our end goal with solar is still to be completely self-sufficient. I, unfortunately, don't have the 20K for the 4KW/2000AH system right now...so getting it ready so we can add over time is the current plan.
Also still looking for a generator, ideally a 3KW diesel so we can tap into the main tank...if anyone has some good leads (less than the cost of a kidney) I'm interested
.