Reech Bus Build

[phrogman265]

Good Morning Everyone,

I am still in the demolition phase, but now have a chance to post a few pictures. The name stands for REar Engine Crawler Hauler, and there will be a ton of work. After demo, I will work on the roof raise and rebuilding the rear wall. I will post pictures as I get them, enjoy!

[Seriousracer]

Interesting

[Mr4btTahoe]

I'm curious how you're gonna have room in the rear for a hauler build. Keep us updated!

[Seriousracer]

Kind of what I was thinking

[phrogman265]

Based off of the length of my Yota, I will need to form the rear wall about two feet in from the cut as it sits now. It will take away from my available inside space, but should still have plenty of room for activities. Thanks for the interest, and recommendations are always welcome!

[WIbluebird]

Wow, this is very intruiging. I too am curious to see how you're going to work around the engine hump in the rear.

There's a reason why most people doing flatbed hauler builds choose FE buses.

[Seriousracer]

We are referring to the rear engine

[phrogman265]

Yeah I know what you guys are talking about. Trust me, it wasn't my first choice, but when a good deal pops up, sometimes you just need to work through a small problem. In this case.....the rear engine. I definitely know the problem is workable with some imagination and fabrication. I will keep you guys posted

[o1marc]

Tell us more, is your intention to load from the rear or the side? I don't see rear loading as feasible.

[phrogman265]

It would be a rear load. I am aware that the box around the engine is not structural and need to create a loading area. After that area is reinforced, I will make foldable ramps pinned to the top deck of the engine bay. I know this sounds crazy, but it seems workable.

[WIbluebird]

What kind of vehicles will you be hauling? I hope its something with high ground clearances because that will be a steep loading angle unless you have 30 ft long loading ramps.

Another thing to consider will be height, especially if we're talking lifted wranglers etc.

[phrogman265]

Absolutley,
My crawler is an 85ish yota pickup. It has 5.71 gears, stacked transfer cases, locked front and rear, driveline lift, 38.5" tires, on propane. This would be loaded in reverse and the length and width will fit.

[Artor]

You might consider a carriage you can roll forward so you can side-load a pallet, then have room for more pallets.

[phrogman265]

Originally Posted by Artor

You might consider a carriage you can roll forward so you can side-load a pallet, then have room for more pallets.

What do you mean?

[Artor]

Sorry, I misunderstood your purpose. I thought you were using it for cargo.

[phrogman265]

No worries

[phrogman265]

Good Afternoon Everyone,
I know it has been a few months but I have been busy on the farm getting up to date on all the other projects. Now that the Rock Crawler is fixed, green house and shed are built, I was able to get a little work done on the bus. I was able to get all the school bus specific wiring chased out, then started cleaning up the body work from the previous owner. Since the rock crawler will be going on the back, I went ahead and trimmed up some of the body to get it one step closer to where I want it. Also you see I had some help from the chickens...anyone who owns chickens understands the struggle.....
Enjoy!

[phrogman265]

Before going into the RV portion of this build, I want to finish prepping the bus. This past week I was able to get the heater removed, front ignition fixed, rear light wiring harnesses moved under the floor, scraped all the foam from the rear bench seat, and reconnected the front heater. I want the front bus heater to remain in tact so replacing the heater hose was a must. After this, I will begin raising the roof caging in the engine to support the weight to drive over it. Does anyone know how much weight the floor is rated to? This could impact the rear decking options for the bus, and any info is appreciated.

[phrogman265]

Good Morning Everyone,

While I have been home more due to COVID, I have been able to make some good progress on reinforcing the engine bay. If you remember, this is a rear engine crawler hauler so reinforcement is a must. I started by figuring out how to reinforce the rear deck without hindering my ability to potentially remove the engine if I ever need to. I decided to feed some 1.5" Sch 40 pipe through the rear corners. This had its own challenges, specifically how many decks do I need to go through, and how do I get the pipe through them.
https://www.skoolie.net/forums/membe...cture23845.jpg

This hole saw worked out relatively well to cut through 2 levels of decking in those corner caps.
https://www.skoolie.net/forums/membe...cture23844.jpg
https://www.skoolie.net/forums/membe...cture23843.jpg

Next, I had to fabricate the lower brackets with enough strength to support the toyota, so using 3/16 plate and 2x4 1/8 wall tubing, I fabricated some brackets that fit behind the bumper pretty well.
https://www.skoolie.net/forums/membe...cture23842.jpg
https://www.skoolie.net/forums/membe...cture23839.jpg
https://www.skoolie.net/forums/membe...cture23838.jpg

The top bar is 2x2 3/16 tubing and it will serve as the starting point for the top part of the reinforcement. More pictures to follow when I have more updates.
https://www.skoolie.net/forums/membe...cture23837.jpg

[phrogman265]

The day finally came when we were able to put the toyota onto the back of the bus. The first try didn't go well with only 8 foot ramps. I ended up hitting the frame on the engine compartment frame that I built...so longer ramps were ordered. The 12 foot aluminum ramps did just the trick, so now i know where to place my rear wall. Roof raise and rear wall build are next!