Newbie

[ozone_354]

Hey newbie here, I have a 1989 International School Bus with the 7.3 diesel and allison transmission. I have all the seats but one out and I am in the process of converting this into a camper for my wife and baby to be born in August. Any help, ideas or problems to aviod would be greatly appreciated. I will post some pics of my bus once I know how. Thanks!

[Roasting8]

Welcome Ozone, you'll find this to be one of the most helpful sites on the web. If it's not in the Tutorials or How-Tos, you can get an answer in no time.

[ozone_354]

Thanks roasting! I had no idea there were as many people on line doing bus conversions. This is going to be great.

[SeanF]

Welcome newby. (We were all newbies at some point, right?)

As far as pitfalls, problems to avoid -- well there are as many as you can imagine. My suggestion is to read the vast archive of messages here and at the Yahoo groups as well (accessible from the front page of http://www.skoolie.net I believe). The Search function is your friend.

Also look at the conversion websites -- I think you'll get an idea of the hows and whys of things.

My only suggestion at this point is to make sure there aren't problems lurking under the surface that will become a nightmare later -- extensive rust under the flooring, leaks in the roof, leaky/drafty windows, etc. Better to tackle them now than in a storm in the boondocks, IMO.

Oh my other suggestion is to keep all of us up to date on your conversion, ask lots of questions, and post photos in the gallery!

[Jarlaxle]

With the 7.3 International, make ABSOLUTELY SURE you have the correct level of coolant additive in the system!

[rbridg3]

Noticed that you had the same year bus as me. The problem I have is figuring a way to get the stock exhaust pipe out of the wayso I can mount some holding tanks. I want to come up with straight stacks somewhere in the front and was wondering if anyone had any pointers on that.

Thanks