The Silly Been (my new bluebird)

[abacak]

I finally bought a bus. I have been wanting to do a conversion for years, as luck was to have it, I got a great deal on my bus. She is a 1993 BlueBird flat nose with a cummins 5.9 under the doghouse. 185,000 miles. Runs great. I got her for $1000.00. Most of the seats had already been removed and somebody did a military green paint job with house paint (that has to go). Overall I think it was a good purchase.

My plans are to convert the bus into cabin style RV with a very open floor plan. First phase is to pull the floors and walls below the windows and insulate and install a floating wood floor. Eventually I want the bus to have a wood stove behind the drivers seat, a sink, small fridge, an a/c unit, a shower, and possibly an incinerator toilet. The bed will go in the back. I would like the bus to be able to boondock for at least a month. I will get to all of that eventually.

My questions right now focus mainly on the bus a/c and heater units. I have found some good stuff regarding the heater removal/relocation but I have not found anything regarding the a/c system. I would like to remove it, it is bulky and takes up too much room. It works, so I would like to remove it and possibly sell it somewhere. If anyone has any experience removing these I would really appreciate some advice. Also, if anyone has a good outlet for selling these let me know. I will just be putting the money back into the bus.




Our first night camping in the Silly Been

[wmkbailey]

Nice bus, welcome to the madness.

[bansil]

Welcome
Is the ac really in the way so much that you want to remove it and not have it available over the road?

[Tango]

Welcome to the Chaos --- Great unit...love them Birds. Me, I try to work around that A/C system and count my blessings. They are rare and seriously high dollar units that typically work like gangbusters. But then, it's your rig. Make it into what you want. That's the one overriding rule here. Well..that and keep the pix coming!

[LuckyChow]

Congratulations on your new bus. Sounds like you got a great deal. Nice to see you using it immediately.

Selling the a/c unit is hit & miss. You're more likely to sell it in the summer, but it's never too early to post it on Craigs List or similar. Sometimes people are looking for a replacement evaporator or condenser but it's not a big market. Usually it's individuals looking, not repair facilities. The companies usually want to put in a new unit so they can offer a warranty. I had the same unit in my Thomas a few years back. Finally ended up scraping it. If you remove it, tape up the ends of the lines so no trash gets in.

[ferroequinologist]

Dang, I can't see the pictures for some reason.

Welcome! I had a friend who had a bus with the A/C like that, and he took the compressor off the engine, and ran it with a 120vac motor. That way he had his A/C going down the road by running his gen, or when connected to shore power.

Looking forward to (hopefully) seeing the progress you make!

[eyedeal.ink]

Welcome to the community, lot's of great info here. Can't go wrong with the wood stove, we loooove ours, especially with the winter months on the way. Looking forward to seeing your floor plan.

[inkblots84]

Welcome!! Nice bus! Looking forward to seeing what you do with her.

I hear you on pulling those AC units, they're huge!! Can they be rebuilt or repurposed into a smaller usable unit maybe?

[crazycal]

Great deal. I might be interested in your A/C.

[somewhereinusa]

I had a friend who had a bus with the A/C like that, and he took the compressor off the engine, and ran it with a 120vac motor

Any idea how big of a motor to do that, I have the same system. It uses two compressors. one for each side. I've been trying to find out how big of a motor it would take to run each one.

[ferroequinologist]

You need 1hp per ton, or 12,000 btu. So you would need to find out your systems capacity. Most likely you will only need one, as they are designed to cool that bus down with 60 or so bodies in it. You also have to remember the fans and such are 12v; so you will need a good size converter to run that stuff while it is on.

[abacak]

Originally Posted by crazycal

Great deal. I might be interested in your A/C.

Let me know if you do.

[abacak]

The a/c is big and bulky, I am 6'1" and as of now I am not planning a roof raise. There may be a VW Vanagon camper I might be outfitting for the top in the future, but for my purposes now I think the A/C is not conducive to my build. Honestly I am more worried about cold than I am heat. We are an Arizona family that can deal with some heat. I will obviously have a window or rooftop a/c for when we are stationary. I have already bashed my head on the a/c several times. Plus, with my build, I want open spaces, we won't have many walls or floor to ceiling cabinets so there wont be a lot of room to hide them.

Does anybody have any experience removing the a/c units? Will I need to reroute any of the hoses? I will definitely plug the ends of the unit itself and store it in a dry place.

Thanks for all the welcomes!!

[sdwarf36]

I had the same AC in my bus. I needed the space underneath for my (veggie) fuel tank-and the part inside was directly down the middle- chin high. I pulled all the hoses- left the wires (which Ive reused a few-I got a couple of LED lights going thru 10 gauge wire! Cuz its was there already.) The stock compressor was used + the system was looped thru the stock AC. Theres a sticker on the dash saying the rear AC must be on for the front to work. My problem is I need the stock AC hoses to get the front AC to work-and one of them is out of production.
And I tried to sell-then give away my AC parts-no takers. Too expensive to ship + no skoolies near me. Put a jack underneath the parts underneath-it weighs at least 75 lbs-and has sharp edges.

[bansil]

Before disconnecting lines, talk with some indepedant HVAC folks, thas a lot of freon,you might be able to sell or trade?
Just saying...seen it done here

[gusbus]

Sheesh, you got a good deal on that bus. Sure, its a little ugly but aren't they all. . . .well . . .excepting the old Crowns & Gilligs. they're sexy!!!!!

I like the open floor plan idea; that is what I'm doing with mine. I just got a call from the guy that sprayfoamed the underside. He says, come and get it. I'll get to work on it this weekend after all.

[crazycal]

What part of the country are you in. I'm west coast.

[abacak]

What part of the country are you in. I'm west coast. crazycal

I'm in Prescott, Arizona

[cschlessman]

Originally Posted by abacak

The a/c is big and bulky, I am 6'1" and as of now I am not planning a roof raise. There may be a VW Vanagon camper I might be outfitting for the top in the future, but for my purposes now I think the A/C is not conducive to my build. Honestly I am more worried about cold than I am heat. We are an Arizona family that can deal with some heat. I will obviously have a window or rooftop a/c for when we are stationary. I have already bashed my head on the a/c several times. Plus, with my build, I want open spaces, we won't have many walls or floor to ceiling cabinets so there wont be a lot of room to hide them.

Does anybody have any experience removing the a/c units? Will I need to reroute any of the hoses? I will definitely plug the ends of the unit itself and store it in a dry place.

Thanks for all the welcomes!!

Welcome from Saint Johns AZ. When you get the air out let me know if the time is right (money) I may be able to buy it. Ive done alot of ac work on car, trucks and homes but no buises yet. The main concern when removing it is refrigerant, your not suppose to vent to the air or the big bad wolf will eat you all up . Keep in contact .

Chuck

[nat_ster]

Before you all feel bad about venting the refrigerant, check if its the bad stuff, or a newer, harmless version that don't harm the ozone. The bad stuff has been out of use for a long time here in Canada.

Nat