Our TC2000 Journey

[CaseyBrown]

I decided to share our project here to both chronicle the progress, as well as to have a place to refer back to if I forget something. We may be setting the record for the longest (time wise) build thread...this will be a 5 to 7 year project. Our goal is to have our home ready when Angie and I hit 62.

This will be a very ambitious and complicated build. Our goal is to have a bus that looks like a motor coach on the outside, but is a 300+ sq. ft. self contained home on the inside.

The Bus: A 1996 72 passenger Blue Bird TC2000RE with the 8.3 Cummins and the MD-3060 Allison.

Layout: It will get a 2' lift and 3 slide outs. A large floor leveling 12'x4', a 8'x2 1/2' slide out opposite the large one, and a 4'x2' slide out kitchen.

Power: I have already acquired enough solar cells to build the panels that I believe will give me 35+ amps of charging current in full sun. The real score is that I bought a WhisperGen PPS-16 with just 78 hours on it....
...This is a stirling cycle co-generation power plant that produces 70 amps of 12 volt charge as well as 18000 btu's of heat on 1 1/2 pints of diesel an hour. It is also about as noisy as a refrigerator.

Heat: Hydronic with wood backup.

Water: I will get into detail in time, but I plan on a closed loop grey water system with a total of 6 stages of filtration and UV disinfectant. This will allow the use of 25 gal. a day for showering and appliances. I also will have a rain collection system for water replenishing. I will have a similar filtration system for drinking water.


Ok, back to the present . I was lucky in that when I bought the bus, the previous owner had already pulled the seats and removed the side paneling...




...Oh looky, RUST . Oh well,it is what it is. 8 sanding wheels, 4 cut off wheels, 9 cans of Iron Armor's Rust Restorer, and around 30 hours later...






Next weekend I'll lay down roll on bed liner.

Thats all I got for now.

Casey

[Tango]

Howdy Casey...and Welcome! --- Does indeed sound like an ambitious build, but it also sounds like you have a well thought through plan. Gonna be fun to watch this one come together. The Stirling Cycle unit (aka; Flux Capacitor) is especially interesting. I'm guessing you didn't come across it at a garage sale.

[CaseyBrown]

Tango said: "Gonna be fun to watch this one come together. The Stirling Cycle unit (aka; Flux Capacitor) is especially interesting. I'm guessing you didn't come across it at a garage sale."

Actually not far off from a yard sale...craigslist. The guy I bought it from paid $24k plus installation for the unit in 2008, and against his mechanics recommendation had it installed in a power boat. It was total overkill. Over 8 years it ran 78 hours. He decided to pull it to make room in the berth, and he listed it on craigslist. Since very few people have a clue as to what it is, it had been posted for over a month when I ran across the ad. He sold it to me for $1000 . He was actually happier that a stirling cycle fanboy was getting it than he was selling it. This is hands down the best deal of my life, and the whole power scheme was modified to accommodate it...I was originally designing a 24 Volt system.

Casey

[Tango]

OUT-FREAKIN-STANDING!

Congrats on the deal of the century. Those units have a great rep for running forever. For a while there, I thought you must be a gazillionaire since they typically cost several times what any of us pay for our buses.

[CaseyBrown]

Tango Said: " For a while there, I thought you must be a gazillionaire since they typically cost several times what any of us pay for our buses."

A gazillionaire I most definitely am not, just lucky enough to get a true gazillionair's table scraps before it hit the floor .

"Flux Capacitor" rolls off the tongue a little easier than "stirling cycle co-generation power unit", and it's not to far off the mark technology wise.

Casey

[CaseyBrown]

Hello all, hope everybody had a good weekend. I spent mine wrapping up (almost) my floor prep. The first thing I did was realize that the dirty scuz surrounding the rust that I assumed I could scrub off was in fact dirty scuz on the top of zinc corrosion .
So back to the grinder and sand wheel...



...the little shiny squares running up the floor are pieces of HVAC aluminum tape over all the holes that caused the rust in the first place. I then scrubbed down the floor with straight white vinegar and got busy with the roll on bedliner...



The last thing I need to do is to go back and drizzle some bedliner in the small nail and screw holes. At that point I think I can call my quest to kill the rust on the floor, now and in the future, complete .

[CaseyBrown]

A Long overdue update

First I have to say that my original plans have being changed as I spend more time with 'ol 48. As it stands right now, I plan on a fold out screened deck as opposed to slideouts. that will be a future post.

I decided the next step was to build a beefy leveling system. All the "turn key" options I have seen was either too wimpy, too expensive or both. I started with 4 10K lift, 12K hold landing jacks…



The First Step was to modify them thusly...



I cut the coupling shaft off flush with the bushing, and shortened the drive shaft. I then pressed in a 3/8" roll pin. I fabricated a socket that fits over the drive shaft to run the jack up and down with my Hilti 4-speed cordless drill. Finally I modified the extension leg handles, the originals sucked.

School Bus Conversion Resources - CaseyBrown's Album: Bus Project - Picture

Just looked at the time..I'll finish the update tomorrow.

[CaseyBrown]

Ok...looks like more homework..pics didn't show up I'll try again later

[CaseyBrown]

Weird..posting from my tablet seems to work...anyhoo this is the stock jack...



And here is the modified jack..






Will continue after I upload the rest of the pix.

[CaseyBrown]

I forgot to point out the last jack mod...



I welded on a bracket that I attached a bubble level. Sadly this doesn't work as well as I had hoped...the accuracy is lacking. I'll try better levels later.

Next up was figuring out the cross beams. I decided to tackle the hardest first...the front beam. The obstacle is the very limited space between the fuel tank and the spring shackle, about 3". To give some space for shackle travel I reduced this to 2". I couldn't find any standard material that was only 2" wide and still support the weight of the front of the bus, so I made it ...



It is a 2"W x 2 1/2"H beam with 2 1/2"W x 3"H sleeves on the end. I fabricated it out of 2" wide 1/4" stock. I ground a 45 1" wide about 3/16th deep every 3 inches on the vertical pieces that were filled with welds.

By far the hardest most physically demanding part of the project was drilling and tacking (mostly drilling) the brackets...



I drilled 3/16' pilot holes in the brackets, clamped brackets to the frame and then positioned the beam with a tranny jack. After tacking the the brackets to the beam, I stepped dilled up to 3/8" through the bracket and the frame. This was done sitting legs under tank and reaching in with a cordless drill..like I said HARD. I used some grade 3 bolts I had on hand to finish the test fit...these were replaced by grade 8 during assembly.

The beam/bracket assembly was the removed and taken back to the shop where I finished the front jack assembly...



The fit was perfect during Install. The back assembly was way easier in every way, and other than not having to fabricate the cross beam (I used 5/16" wall 4") the proccess was the except I upped the bracket/beam holes to 1/2". Here is the back assembly installed (I'm slanted not the bus)...



And here is the finished product all leveled out...



I operate the jacks with these tools. On the left is the socket I made that fits the jacks, in the middle is a Ratchet Buddy 5:1 torque multiplier, on the right is a Hilti 10W-22 4 speed drill. This combo gives me approximately 300 ft/lbs of torque. I have lifted the front wheel off the ground during testing ...



It isn't quite push button easy, but it only takes 5-10 min to level everything. Sadly I'm not quite done yet. I'ts house solid in the verical plane, but still has some side to side wiggle. I am going to put some simple swing out jack screws on the four corners of the bumper. In the meantime I kicked in some 2x4's to stop the shimmy while I lifted the roof...





I used the Transcendence All-Thread Jack method for the lift of 27". I had to weld extensions on the All-Thread to give me the travel I needed. Thank you Wes for sharing that trick to the world...it worked a treat.

Currently I'm welding in the tubing in the hat channel, and framing in widows. Before I can skin it I have to work out the mechanics of the folded deck.

Hopefully it won't be so long next time for an update

[PNW_Steve]

Looking awesome!

I love your leveling Jack solution.

In my last bus I carried around a pile of short 2x6's to drive up on to level. I had figured that I would do the same with my new one. You have me reconsidering. I may have to copy your example.

Keep up the good work!

[CaseyBrown]

Hi Steve,

Thanx for the compliment.

Leveling is 1 of 3 reasons I went this route. The other 2 is to eliminate "bounce" when walking/moving around and being able to support the offset weight of the planned 6 x 8 foldout deck.

The plan is to live in it full time starting in 2023 (when I retire) and I want it to feel as solid as a conventional home when set up. Based on the results so far I think I can get close anyway.

Casey

[joeblack5]

Cool build .Nice score on the stirling whispergen. Mine has a computer problem. Do you work on it yourself? I have two other natural gas whispergens that need gridtie.
Later j

[CaseyBrown]

Hi joeblack5

Three whispergens ..wow.

As far as working on them, I have not even installed one yet. I have only lashed together the wiring with a small battery and confirmed the diagnostics were OK...still sitting in my living room

Check out..

WhisperGen Service & Parts

This guy worked for them and does all the service and has all the parts. He was very helpful to me via email. He lists the control board as available.

Casey

[joeblack5]

three. I know, I have been a long time admirer of stirling engines and it is a bit of an addiction...The whispergen natural gas version was used for some time in europe ( germany) as super high efficiency home heating system. You can buy the used ones of ebay.de pretty often and easy.



Later J

[CaseyBrown]

The plan was to go full tilt working on the bus this weekend to take advantage of the break in triple digit temps we are in the middle of right now. Life had other plans. I did manage to get in half a day and put the back end back together...what a PITA. It was like nailing jello to a tree with all the unsupported sheet metal. After the appropriate amount of colorful superlatives I was successful ...





Back to triple digits starting tomorrow so it will be slow going for a while.

Casey

[magnakansas]

I was considering 6" chop on mine......... but decided with all the other things I am doing....... nope not now anyways.
Nailing jello was funny, thanks for the laugh.

william

[CaseyBrown]

The front transition has definitely taken me some time to settle on a plan, but I managed to finally break though my "Paralysis by Analysis. Never being one to do things the "normal" way, the transition starts half way between the front 2 ribs. The first thing I needed to do was fabricate a rib somehow. I decided on a fiberglassed plywood approach...



I used the back sheet metal over the back window as a template and cut 3 pieces 3" inches wide out of 1/2" plywood. I screwed and glued the 3 pieces together. I then applied 2 coats of fiberglass, wrapped the top with a layer of fiberglass cloth and put on 3 more coats of resin.

Next step was to make the attachment points...





I carefully cut back the channel without cutting the roof and welded 1/4"x 2"x 5" plates on the end of the channel.

With Angies help, we placed the new rib...





I applied Gorilla Glue construction adhesive on the roof where the rib would mate and the steel plates. We then used the jack arrangement from the roof lift to hold the rib while I positioned it and started the c-clamps. When I was happy with the centering I cinched down the clamps and cranked on the jack until the adhesive oozed.

After It's sat for a day or 2 I will drill and bolt the plate-plywood-plate sandwich's. The unwelded plates on the forward side of the rib will be the tie points for the tubing that connects the transition.

All I got for now,
Casey

[joeblack5]

Nice work , you probably would like building boats too .


OMG .. paralysis by analyses.. where did you get that?.. That is about half my life.


Later johan

[CaseyBrown]

About half my life as well...the other half is realizing there was a better way in the middle of whatever i was doing

Casey