the wait is over

[Hvbuzz]

After a long hard week the bus is painted. Just a glimpse of early photos in the paint booth. I know, I know, dont paint it black, but I really wanted it black. I figure I can make up the difference in insulation and roof top airs. It is only a recreational bus for us. So here it is

[dirtygoat]

Originally Posted by CAMO-MONSTER

you should see the BEAST of my truck 71 k10/k20 on 40s

Nice... We should start a thread about wheeling rigs that skoolie owners have...

[dirtygoat]

Hvbuzz, nice progress... I had a couple of weeks without working on the bus... Kinda nice to get away from it... Had to work on the Blazer for a wheeling trip... It was a buddies bachelor party trip, had a blast... Like I mentioned in the post to Camo, we need a wheeling thread for those that are using their skoolies as tow rigs...

[CAMO-MONSTER]

Originally Posted by dirtygoat

Nice... We should start a thread about wheeling rigs that skoolie owners have...

cool i'm game!!!!!

[browncrown]

Paint job looks great!

[Hvbuzz]

Thanks. I really like what you did with the carpet on the ceiling on your bus. I think I might do the same kind of thing, but maybe even run it on the walls too. I have my eye on two different shades of carpet, one for the walls and one for the ceiling. I want to thank you, because of your bus, and showing the wife, made it for an easy sell on converting our own.

Nate

[browncrown]

I haven't finished out my bathroom area yet, but some of that will have carpet on the walls too. It's easy to work with and helps to give some added insulation. I like the look of it too. I have a lot of paneling in the bus, so the carpet helps to break the pattern and give it a special look. It's easy to put up with Liquid Nails. The only thing that sticks better is the gum the kids left behind when the skoolie was a school bus

[dirtygoat]

I'm on the carpeted walls and ceiling band wagon as well... I'm actually gonna carpet the bunks and seats after they're framed in... Then garage floor shop padding for the flooring...

Hvbuzz, are you looking at the indoor/outdoor stuff at Home Depot???

[Hvbuzz]

At menards they have two different shades of a light beige and and brown indoor/outdoor carpet. I was thinking the darker(which is still pretty light color) on the ceiling and the lighter color on the walls. I think I will be pulling up the old plywood flooring now. Smitty's right, easier now then wishing I had done it later. Paint and seal floor. Here's a question/comment, I see everybody using the red rosin paper, I actually have a huge roll of tyvek from a old housing project. I was thinking of using it on the floor under the pink insulation, and maybe even on the walls. Any comments? Then plywood over the foam. I've also been debating,,, I'm going to do a cheap laminate floor, but was thinking it would be alot easier to just do the entire floor of the bus while its open, and then build on top of it for walls. I'm not sure that is a great idea, but it seems it would be alot easier than cutting and fitting pieces later. Cons I see are, wasted material, if the flooring is ever damaged it could be real pain to fix, also I believe the stuff is meant to be used as a floating floor and having walls and such on it might not be great. Pros eaiser now. Any suggestions?

[browncrown]

I have wood laminate in the center portion of my bus in the kitchen area. It makes for a great floor, but you are right, it is meant to be a "floating" floor. The cold and the heat does make the section I laid down expand and contract. I didn't build any walls over mine, so I don't know if that will be a problem or not. The movement of the floor is minimal in the expansion/contraction, but all materials are going to do that anyway.

[Hvbuzz]

Thanks everyone for the positive comments. Timing was everything on getting a large enough paint booth. It was last weekend, or pretty much wasn't going to happen till spring. It's great having alot of friends in different trades and facilities. However, I think I've used up alot of my favors. But, I'm always willing to help them out when need be too. So after neglecting the family this week, I will be spending as much time with them as I can this week.

Lulu what was the reason for staying away from tyvek, just curious?

[Hvbuzz]

Question for Smitty.. I've tried searching alittle, but I was hoping someone could post a link on how to convert a chest type freezer to fridge. I read alittle about the condensation, any other drawbacks, and what's involved in converting?

Thanks
Nate

[Hvbuzz]

Sorry, for the stupid questions. But its easier to ask, then to try and look them up. So are you running a converter (dc to ac) to power the freezer off your solar panels/batteries?

[mikeandemily]

Hey nice ride man! The Dt 466 is an awesome powerplant. Even though I have a cummins in my bus( I trust it to no end) I have the 466 e in my 02 IH dump truck and it has plenty of power to pull. I always liked the look of that hood on your bus too. Overall the bus looks soild, good luck on your build

[Hvbuzz]

Happy holidays everyone! Its been awhile since I've actually worked on bus but have been busy reading on here and trying to figure out placement of things in the bus. I haven't really worked on it much, because I didn't want to blow our christmas budget on the bus. I have torn down my old travel trailer to the frame and kept what little I could use in the bus. I also scored some deep cycle batteries that were only 2 yrs old and are still in good shape. My plans are to keep as much 12volt as possible. Smitty I read a couple links you posted in another thread and it was great info!
http://www.marxrv.com/12volt/12volt.htm
http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/batt_con.html
I still have a few questions I guess. I need to figure out what is a good power inverter and size I need,and charging system? I plan to run the battery insulator to charge off the engine while running, but what should I look at for a good battery charger when not running? I do plan on running a generator when need be, but hope to only use when running the air. I would say most of our camping will be 50/50 primative/campgrounds. The only AC I see setting the bus up for is the air, and a 35"lcd tv, surround sound, and maybe some sort of gaming system for the kids. I think I would like to keep the fride DC. If I have the money I would like to get an arb type fridge/freezer cooler. http://www.arbusa.com/Products/Fridges/20.aspx If I run out of money I was thinking about this http://www.amazon.com/Avanti-Supercondu ... B0028MOZI6 The arb would be great as I could use it for other times and not just in the bus. I had contemplated about the chest type freezer like Smitty did, but I'm thinking I am not going to have the space for it in the bus. I also have decided I don't want a lp fridge just because it would eliminate having to vent outside and one less hole in the bus to leak later.
Couple pics to share


Oh I forgot to mention I got the big brackets that mount a 45gal fuel tank to the frame rails. I was thinking they would make a great start for mounting the batteries under the bus. I figured I would use the 5 deep cycles batteries I got out of the 8.

Couple pics of the bus after paint. Just crappy cellphone pics though.



Nate

[Hvbuzz]

I will get a closer number of watts when I get a chance. I remember reading in your thread Smitty about having a bank bigger then you solar output, so you where thinking of dropping a battery. Does the same thing apply here? I think your right on these batteries 100ah. So my hypothetical question is- say you have maybe a 10 amp draw on this 500ah bank would you really need a 50 amp charger to stay ahead? Just because you have a big bank and don't use the potential do you need that much charger? Would it be better to only use the size of battery bank you really need? Or have the larger bank? I helped my work recycle the batteries, so I got them for free.

Another question
Has anyone just added another alternator to their bus just for charging the battery bank?

Smitty I really like the arb fridge, especially because I could use it in other vechicles. I like my beer on ice anyway , so need to clutter up a fridge for that. I just wish it wasn't so expensive. But I'm sure I'll find a way to get one.

[dirtygoat]

Nice score on the batteries... It does say 100AH right on them in the pic...

[lornaschinske]

A 1.7 CF fridge is very, very small. Go to Wal-Mart/wherever and look at their little dorm fridges and pay attention to the interiors of the different sizes. We are running a 3.2 CF under counter refrigerator. There are three of us living in the RV... (my freezer is 4.4 cf) I cannot put a full gallon jug of milk in the fridge (we use non-fat dry milk that I reconstitute in amounts as large as 1 quart... it lasts longer than regular milk). I am very limited in how much "leftovers" that the fridge can hold. I make a lasagna that is made with uncooked noodles and sits overnight in the fridge before baking. The 13X9 pan will not fit in the fridge with everything else. The inside dimensions are 16W X 21H X 10D (not counting the "door" area that you can't put anything in because the door shelf fits in that area when closed) and there are shelves in there too. If at all possible, go with a 4 CF fridge (we also have one of them). The difference between what we can put in the 4 Cf fridge and the 3 cf fridge is amazing... the extra 1 ft means many bottles/containers can stand up not lay down (and leak). Measure things like condiment containers, drink containers, a dozen eggs (I cut egg boxes into 6 packs as they fit better that way) and see if they will fit. We used to have a 1.7 cf fridge in our pop-up. We also camped for a week at a time and lived long term in it as well. During the summer, we would keep drinks a cooler simply because there wasn't enough room to store milk, plus eggs, sausage, meats, cheese and the like.

Rather than a 1.7 cf refrigerator, I would invest in a couple of Extreme/5 day coolers and freeze jugs of water at home added to a couple of bags of ice. Line the lids (interior) with Reflectix and that will make the ice last longer (mine are held in place with Velcro). Keep them in shade as well.


This is what we did with the lids of all our coolers. It will help hold ice for a longer time. This one is a Coleman 5 day cooler.


This igloo cube is our soda can cooler for the food cart. We have a water/ice slush that will freeze up the sodas during the day, even during the summer. We have the coldest sodas in town during the summer. Overnight, David has had to chip the ice off of the cans.

The pics are of our coolers that we use on the food cart. They are open/closed all day long. We often have ice the next morning (we buy ice daily Monday-Friday in the AM). On weekends they stay shut. Sodas tend to hold ice thru to Monday morning when David drains off the excess water to start all over again. Prechilled sodas help the ice last longer. Warm sodas will melt ice pretty fast.

[Hvbuzz]

Thanks for the explanation Smitty. Thats what I was confused about. I will start to figure what I will actually use for watts. Also start looking into inverters with chargers. I think I woud like to look more serious at the pure sine wave also. So what do you think about adding a second alternator to the bus engine? Have you heard about anyone doing it to a bus? Seems like it wouldn't be to hard to acomplish.

Lorna, I agree the small dorm fridge would probably be to small. I'm really leaning to the arb at this point.

[lornaschinske]

Use care with an RV propane fridge. They can and will catch on fire. We saw an RV being towed off Flour Bluff that had the fridge area burnt to a crisp.