Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE - Page 2

syke · 05-05-2011, 03:02 PM

On a different note..... last Saturday we ran down to the local third party DMV office. We wanted to get the bus registered as a motor home asap. Gal takes one look at the Oregon title and tells me Arizona does not recognize the classification from OR. She then proceeds to pull out a 3 ring binder with black and white photos of everyday vehicles. She asks us to pick what we want the bus to be registered as.

Mind you, she knows this is an ex school bus. (this was the same gal that gave us the transport permit a month earlier) She thumbs through the pictures and we stop at the school bus. She smiles and then proceeds along.... we then stop at a Class A motor home. Stop! Put us on that one.
She then asks us what the MSRP was on the bus. I really have no idea but she is fine with me taking a wild guess..... $100k I tell her. Time to decide on 1 year, 2 year or a new 5 year plate. 5 years! She mentions that DMV is just about broke and they are just trying to get some money on the books. Jeez!
Long story even longer.... we go for the 5 year plate for $252.00.
So now we have a 36,000 pound gvw school bus motor home with no more commercial licence or air brake endorsement requirements for 50 bucks a year. I did not believe it until we had the plate in hand.
Come to find out... AZ no longer requires out of state or change of vehicle type inspections. Budget cuts according to the DMV gal. So we basically got to pick our registration out of a book, with no proof that it was actually a motor home. Oh well.

dirtygoat · 05-05-2011, 05:34 PM

That's awesome...

lornaschinske · 05-05-2011, 05:46 PM

For heavens sake! Just be grateful. Maybe by the time we get to that point NM will be the same. They aren't none too flush themselves. I would love for our tag/titling to go easy. Somehow I doubt it. Our title is from NC and was just signed over on the back... in 2009.

syke · 05-06-2011, 11:51 AM

Oh no by all means we are very grateful. Just very surprised. I had no less than 3 conversations, emails and a fax with the third party DMV and the state run DMV, all with real similar stories about needing an inspection and a long list of requirements. So for us to walk into the third part DMV office and get a complete 180 result is just staggering. Every time I walk by the bus with that license plate on the back I just smile. Still in shock and very thankful it was so freaking easy.

Lorna I too hope NM will be a breeze for you.

syke · 05-20-2011, 01:01 PM

Going to work on sheeting the outside of the bus this weekend and possibly adding RV style windows.
I was thinking about using some windows that are 30" x 20" which would require I remove one of the window supports. With removing one of the supports and moving it over about 6" would it be wise to header across due to the support being moved? What do you guys think?
Or I may end up using rv windows that will fit in the factory openings and not even mess with cutting the supports, just to keep it simple/safe.
Thanks for the help.

opus · 05-20-2011, 01:11 PM

Curious of one thing. What RPM are you running at when on the big roads?

syke · 05-20-2011, 01:30 PM

2200-2400 at 60-64mph

I keep it around 60 and so far I've been able to maintain 11 mpg.

How about yourself?

opus · 05-20-2011, 01:54 PM

2000 and get 9 or so. Just heading out now for a 800 mile trip. I will bump the RPMs up and see what I get. 2000 give me 60-62mph. In this country you can do as fast as you can hold on. 60 is fine but I'll do 62-64 this trip and see how it goes.

opus · 05-23-2011, 06:02 PM

Nope, still 9mpg. 65 was too fast. Lost a lot of comfort in just a few mph. Roads arent the greatest here. Couldnt sleep hardly at all at that speed. 60-62 is much nicer. Anyways, thats the deal....interesting.

On an interesting note, fueled up yesterday for $4.18 and today for $3.99. Cant believe I am excited about that though. :/

syke · 05-28-2011, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by opus

Nope, still 9mpg. 65 was too fast. Lost a lot of comfort in just a few mph. Roads arent the greatest here. Couldnt sleep hardly at all at that speed. 60-62 is much nicer. Anyways, thats the deal....interesting.

On an interesting note, fueled up yesterday for $4.18 and today for $3.99. Cant believe I am excited about that though. :/

I hear ya. A tad under 65mph seems to be the sweet spot .

syke · 05-28-2011, 11:11 AM

Not much going on in the way of actual work on the bus.... I've mainly been doing some research and planning.

Plumbing locations have been finalized and holes are just about cut. Other than that.... not much to see here.

opus · 05-28-2011, 11:13 AM

You are closing in all your windows?

syke · 05-28-2011, 11:30 AM

I picked up the 18ga steel the other day..... had them cut/break it down to fit. $650.00 later! Ouch!!

syke · 05-28-2011, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by opus

You are closing in all your windows?

I debated back and forth. Finally decided on keeping about 6 total. The emergency exits come out from the outside so that removes about 8. 6 are being removed to make way for the RV style windows.
When it came down to it... the labor involved to remove them was just to much. I would only gain 1/2 inch of space for insulation with them removed and after I run a bead of caulk around them along with the sheeting it should be water tight.

If I had an unlimited amount of time I might have messed with it but as of right now I'm under a 4 month total conversion time frame.

opus · 05-28-2011, 12:07 PM

And you asked about the tires. Mine are just as meaty. Its better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them. When I re-tire it, I will use the same tires. We do mostly hwy miles but there are times when we need the meat on them. I will gladly sacrifice a little bit of mileage for that peace. Already happened once this year.

Just my take......

syke · 05-28-2011, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by opus

And you asked about the tires. Mine are just as meaty. Its better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them. When I re-tire it, I will use the same tires. We do mostly hwy miles but there are times when we need the meat on them. I will gladly sacrifice a little bit of mileage for that peace. Already happened once this year.

Just my take......

Can't say I disagree at all. Well said.

syke · 06-05-2011, 05:54 PM

Got a little bit done this weekend....
Decided to pull the windows after all. The two windows I removed as a test a few weeks back ended up being the two hardest windows of them all. The only two we broke also. The rest of them came out without to much trouble.

Windows coming out.

Had to grind a few rivets at the eyebrow level. Well actually there was a ton of rivets.

I think I'm going to pull the exit door window and skin that entire square area.

Got them fitted and in place. Now we need to pull each panel down to glue and caulk them. RV style windows are on there way.

syke · 06-15-2011, 03:26 PM

Well.... a fair amount has been done over the last few weeks except one thing.... taking pictures.

I really need to start taking more pictures.
Here are two cell phone pics showing a bit of framing progress. I orgianlly started framing with wood but soon discovered that 5% realitive humidity in AZ along with shitty Home Depot lumber made for not much fun.... not to mention I'm no carpenter.

Metal studs are my new love....a bit more expensive but way easier to deal with.
Base of the couch is in the lower right corner of the picture.... I may remove it and redo it with metal. Or maybe not.

Queen bed frame, long term under bed storage and 2 - 63 gallon fresh water tanks plus a little bit of room for humans. Two closets are being framed over the wheel well area.

Sheeting all of this interior is going to be a challenge

syke · 06-27-2011, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iceni John

I'm really interested in how the metal studs work out for you. I plan on using them - I'm no carpenter, and I'm more comfortable working with the relative precision and consistency of metal, instead of the vagaries and unpredictability of wood. Plus, I like the idea of it being as strong as the rest of the bus - to me, wood just seems wrong in a vehicle. The only use of wood for me will be firing strips and spacers to act as heat/cold barriers next to the interior paneling.

I agree about Home Despot - after looking in vain for some straight 2x4, I told the wonk working there that if I wanted something banana-shaped I'd rather go the the grocery store; he just stared at me with a gormless frog-like expression, and he's probably still wondering what I meant! Thank goodness I also have a real lumber yard close by that stocks good quality wood.

John

Could not have said it better myself John.

So far it has been working great. I am now a huge fan of metal studs/framing. It sure makes dealing with the radius roof a breeze. I'm also able to tack weld certain area's that are especially difficult to get a screw gun on.
One glaring draw back.... no nail gun though.

Good luck.

lornaschinske · 06-28-2011, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Iceni John

... I agree about Home Despot - after looking in vain for some straight 2x4, I told the wonk working there that if I wanted something banana-shaped I'd rather go the the grocery store; he just stared at me with a gormless frog-like expression, and he's probably still wondering what I meant!

John

Might as well lump Lowes into that as well. Try asking the idiots in NM about insulation! It's like they don't know what we are talking about. Same stuff we have been buying for years (and it's on the websites) can't be bought in NM. We drive 70 miles one way to Albuquerque just to buy IN STOCK Foamular sheathing because the 50 miles from us Home Depot in Los Lunas (and Lowes) "can't order it in". After working with wood for decades (David for 40+ yrs, me for 30+ years), the quality of wood has dropped dramatically while the cost keep going up. We also will use some metal studs in our conversion. We like to use screws over nails so using a screw gun is normal for us anyway.

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