Transforming a 2001 32' Thomas RE into a Full-Time Home on Wheels for 6

[01ThomasMVP]

Thanks! For right now I really only have a few. 1. How did you reconnect your coolant system to your defrosters and drivers heater? Did you keep any of your other heaters? 2. What did you do about your drivers dash? Do you have the original metal in there or replace? Do you have a pic of your control panel that's been gutted? We want to get every piece of old wood metal out as we can and clean and prime everything before starting our interior.

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by 01ThomasMVP

I believe the lift weighs somewhere around 300-400lbs. The second belt connected to the drive pulley in the yellow circle has the serpentine belt connected. I'm gonna be working on getting the compressor removed today and gutting all the a/c hoses.

Remove the compressor, the idler pulley, and the V belt and your done.

[cadillackid]

nice lookin bus... had the Bulletproof A-6 compressor.. that sustem would Blow wicked cold air... i had experience to work on some of those before... I guess if you like to sweat when driving you dont put it back.. but a system like that would rock to have operational..
-Christopher

[01ThomasMVP]

It's just too bulky! Even the fans underneath are taking up space for storage and my battery bank. We will be boondocking most of the time. Can only use them when driving and we don't plan on driving for more than an hour at a time. We are gonna travel a lot but gonna stop as much as we can. If you want them you can have them! Come on by and pick them up or can pay for me to ship them to you. Our zip is 88101

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[01ThomasMVP]

Originally Posted by o1marc

Remove the compressor, the idler pulley, and the V belt and your done.

Alright cool thanks!

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[Twigg]

Originally Posted by david.dgeorge07

Pretty bus! Since it is the same year as mine and also a Thomas I thought it might be similar, but it’s actually a pretty different design than mine. Got a love those wheels though! And it’s already painted something other than yellow!


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Looks very similar to my '99 too.

[o1marc]

Check and see if there is a version of this motor that came without A/C and you might be able to ditch the big idler pulley (yellow circle) and source a shorter serpentine belt.

[01ThomasMVP]

Originally Posted by o1marc

Check and see if there is a version of this motor that came without A/C and you might be able to ditch the big idler pulley (yellow circle) and source a shorter serpentine belt.

Alright Is that a necessity or something I can look at more in the future?

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[o1marc]

Originally Posted by 01ThomasMVP

Alright Is that a necessity or something I can look at more in the future?

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Absolutely not necessary, it would just delete an unneeded item and clean up the look of the front of the motor. Just an option, but not necessary at all. If it were me it would be far down on the list of priorities.

[01ThomasMVP]

Originally Posted by o1marc

Absolutely not necessary, it would just delete an unneeded item and clean up the look of the front of the motor. Just an option, but not necessary at all. If it were me it would be far down on the list of priorities.

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for the advice!

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[pickettbryan]

Where u at in nm? Close to ABQ?

[01ThomasMVP]

Yeah we are about 3 hours east of ABQ in Clovis. Near by?

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[01ThomasMVP]

What's up everyone, it's been awhile so I figured I'd give an update on what I've got going in these next few weeks. I got the paint job done and even though I sprayed my sheet metal with OSPHO, I still got some rust going thru the paint. But I'll get it fixed in these next couple weeks. I installed the RV windows and they turned out pretty good. My next project is gonna be insulation. I plan on using tongue and groove wood for the interior walls, and I'm trying to figure out why people feel the need to frame their walls with wood 1×2's? Why not screw the tongue and groove directly onto the metal ribs? There's plenty of pre-drilled holes already and I dont want to make my ceiling any lower than it already is. I also wanted to ask you guys if you think I'm going to run into any issues with my idea for a roof rack. I wanted to try to fabricate my roof rack with my bus old ceiling panels. They are metal and have holes in them. I was going to screw 2 panels together to make and 8'×10' and use angle iron as the ribs and support. Let me know what u guys think if I will run into any issues in the future or if you have any questions in general. Thanks

[o1marc]

Most who use wood secured to the ribs for securing the ceiling pieces usually secure the wood to the side of the rib and not on top to keep from loosing head room. Some say securing directly to the ribs will cause the hardware to rain inside the bus from condensation, I think this is an exaggeration.

[01ThomasMVP]

Latest update.

[PNW_Steve]

Looks like a nice job on the foam insulation.

Did you spray it or have it done?

[01ThomasMVP]

We paid to have it done. They gave us a good deal because we did all the prep work ourselves. Ended up costing about the same if we were to do ourselves. Our bus is a 32' and it cost us $1000

[Tango]

A grand well spent I'd say.

[01ThomasMVP]

Thanks I was happy about it. Just went and picked up this guy. I'm working on my plans for electrical and plumbing. I'm going to be running water lines underneath the bus and use 4" PVC to run the lines through and then fill with insulation and wrap them. The electrical lines I will run using conduit on inside. I decided to run them outside of the insulation just in case I mess up somewhere and have to fix it. Not confident in my wiring knowledge.

[Tango]

If that is a natural gas stove, you do know it will need to be converted to run LPG...right?