skoolie days

[Tango]

Funny...that Pup doesn't seem to mind at all.

But truly strange weather this year. We just had two days of record setting LOW temps here in Houston and may well be in line for another.

[LuckyChow]

Skoolie Days, I can sympathize. Yours is white, ours is just wet. Seems we can't get a break on the weekend weather here either. Lately it has been raining or cold or both every weekend. For us weekend builders, that's not helping.

I went down to the bus today to work on my 120V electrical. Got a little done, but need to paint the trim covering on the plastic conduit. Can't do that in this weather. Can't do it in my garage either unless I want to smell paint in the house all weekend. Can't finish installing the fridge until I get the electrical finished on the wall behind it. Hopefully better weather will be soon.

[Diesel Dan]

Hey GBstewart, I tried to get pics of my hitch install, but it was difficult to get a good pic. Here is what I was able to get:

[gbstewart]

Thanks Dan, that's pic I wanted to see, how low the tube was from the bumper, looks like a great install.
Tango yes the old dog is happy in the snow, in fact he didn't move from there most of the day, he looked like a snow ball
Luckychow, yes this weather sucks, today is overcast and damp here, Im sure Monday when we head back to work it will be sunny

thank folks
gbstewart

[gbstewart]

part-time I see what you mean, my frame goes to the end like DD , only the last inch is missing. With the way the hitch kit I got you can use just side plates, and that's the way Im going to mount it, im going to back off the bumper bolts and slide up the plates, and drill and bolt, the receiver tube will be right at the bottom of the bumper, it will work our great, now if weather holds, should be able to start on Monday, I will post pics
gbstewart

[bansil]

Originally Posted by gbstewart

Well its my day off and I was planning on starting to install my hitch today, got up ready to get at it till I looked out the window there it was, 2 inchs of nice fresh sticky snow

That is no excuse ....a pcs of card board and your set.....
.
.
oh if your welding, for shiats and giggles ,throw a fire proof blanket "over" the card board....don't ask why

[gbstewart]

Originally Posted by bansil

That is no excuse ....a pcs of card board and your set.....
.
.
oh if your welding, for shiats and giggles ,throw a fire proof blanket "over" the card board....don't ask why

I know I know, but Im just getting to old , or maybe a bit smarter it looks like some nice weather is a coming, so Ill hold out
gbstewart

[Diesel Dan]

My hitch is definitely the lowest point in the rear of the bus. I lowered my clearance by probably about 6" because of the way I mounted it. Honestly, I didn't even consider mounting it higher and using a long drop hitch. I suppose the less drop you have, the more weight you can safely haul. Anyways, it will also act as a sort of skid plate to protect the water holding tanks I will have back there, so in the end, I'm happy with the way I installed the hitch.

[gbstewart]

Well I started to mount the hitch today, Im bolting it to the sides of the frame, I got 1 bolt form the bumper mount to the hitch , I still have to drill out the rest of the holes and finish installing more bolts. I wanted it as close to the bumper as I could, I had to cut a bit of the bumper so that the receiver tube would be square.
Hopefully Friday I can finish it
here is the cut out

receiver tube

starting to bolt to the frame, have to drill out holes

will post more when done, hopefully the weather will hold out and we can go camping this weekend!!
gbstewart

[gbstewart]

got hitch installed, now Im working on mounting the scissor jacks to the frame on the rear of the bus.
when all is done Ill weld them up as well, just to give it that extra


Ill post pics of the jacks when I get them done
gbstewart

[lornaschinske]

Originally Posted by Diesel Dan

... Honestly, I didn't even consider mounting it higher and using a long drop hitch. I suppose the less drop you have, the more weight you can safely haul....

That's not the way it works. And the reason you run dropped hitches is so that you are towing what ever it is your are towing in as close to a level position. Other wise if you are towing too high, the tow will sway too much as it "tip-toes" down the highway. You have less control over it.

[lornaschinske]

Originally Posted by gbstewart

... Im working on mounting the scissor jacks to the frame on the rear of the bus...

Using a cordless drill/driver with a socket works great to speed up the cranking (which gets really tiring on a hot summer day after you have been driving for hours). Spin it down until it hits the ground and just snug it to the ground (you don't want to use the scissor jacks to lift your bus). You need to just use them as stabilizers. Also speeds up cranking the things up. I had a long racket plus an extension and socket just for the rear scissors on the class C (about 24" long). Things went much faster using them. But slapping the socket into a drill we had made things go much faster. I still used the ratchet to snug up the stabilizer jacks.

Hint: Keep an extra socket and a manual ratchet tucked away for the day you forget to charge the battery for the battery drill/driver that you left at home. Not that anyone would do that...

[gbstewart]

I got the rear jacks done, bolted to the frame they work great. and yes lorna I have a drill as well as a back up to lower/raise the gear
gear down,

gear up, they tuck away just nicely free and clear

not sure if you can see the crank ends one on each side of the hitch

know I can wait and go somewhere and try them out.(I have to tighten the ball on the hitch)
gbstewart

[JakeC]

Love the jack install! Pretty much going to completely copy that

[bansil]

I so have to do this,its amazing how much the bus moves and sways

[Accordion]

My bus weighs 22,000 lbs. It has big springs. It does not sway or rock.

I do like the scissor jack idea. I will most likely do that some day.

[bansil]

Originally Posted by Accordion

My bus weighs 22,000 lbs. It has big springs. It does not sway or rock.

I do like the scissor jack idea. I will most likely do that some day.

It must be the airbgs and 11x22.5s lots of sidewall tha allow the sway when parked

[lornaschinske]

Originally Posted by bansil

...
It must be the airbags and 11x22.5s lots of sidewall that allow the sway when parked

Put a washing machine in it and see what happens when it spins out! We have a fair amount of movement in our bus too. Hopefully the jack project will get done this summer as well.

[gbstewart]

Well it warmed up a bit and we went camping may 24/25 had fun, weather got cold at nite had to use the heat , daytime was warm.
The scissor jacks worked great at stabilizing and leveling the bus, it was a very noticeable, later on Ill work on some for the front, but I think you really don't need them.
heres our campsite we had electric hook

gbstewart

[lornaschinske]

I think you need to get farther away from that power pole! It's a tad close.

Reminds me of Shellmound TVA in Jasper, TN. I had to buy two 25 ft heavy duty extension cords to add to my 30 ft power cord on the popup. And it rained (of course, we were packing the TN house up) so I slit a hole into the top shoulder of an empty 2 liter soda bottle, removed the cap so water didn't get in it, slipped the connections inside to keep the water off and bungie corded the bottle upside down to a DollarTree screw-in-the-ground dog tie out. It rained so much that we had several inches of water standing right where the power cords ran. It was amazing how many soda bottles popped up during that week. I guess others thought my "dumb idea" was a pretty good fix.