Roof Raise on e-450 with Wheelchair door

[awilder]

Wondering if anyone has done or seen a raise on a bus with a wheelchair door, and how that door might come into play.

Where to cut? Cut through the door and make it taller?

[BeNimble]

Originally Posted by awilder

Wondering if anyone has done or seen a raise on a bus with a wheelchair door, and how that door might come into play.

Where to cut? Cut through the door and make it taller?

A shuttle bus has a taller roof, might just get one of those instead.

As I have raised my shuttle bus roof, the wheelchair doors are going to have the windows removed and cut in the middle and a section added to make them taller, and in fact will be the new entry doors. Best place to cut is where it is straight edges if possible.

Perhaps you can just replace them altogether with some regular doors.

I found even the fiberglass handicap doors were very heavy, which I attribute to the glass, so if you remove the glass, that is where to cut.
The old entry doors were VERY heavy as they have even more glass, might want to ditch those too..

[ol trunt]

I'd agree with BN about ditching the original doors. I adapted the pneumatic door mechanism from an airport shuttle to work my bus door. The shuttle door was very heavy and heavy duty having a 1" tubing frame and 1/4" thick fiberglass cover with glass. It weighed 150 pounds. I welded the two piece school bus door together and even with the shuttle hardware it only weighed 85 pounds. Jack
.
.

[o1marc]

Do the raise, frame above the door and leave it as is.

[Danjo]

This is a Thomas, so the walls pitch inward starting just below the window. If you do your raise above the window, the walls will be narrower than the roof. Some others may want to give input on this but I think you’d want to raise midpoint between the window and the chair rail

[o1marc]

Can anyone verify that the shorty 5 window E-450s taper in the windows? Looked at some others and I don't see the taper. It would be evident in front of the flat side door, it's not. Easy lift.

Straight sides:

[Danjo]

Originally Posted by o1marc

Can anyone verify that the shorty 5 window E-450s taper in the windows? Looked at some others and I don't see the taper. It would be evident in front of the flat side door, it's not. Easy lift.

Straight sides:

Marc, that 6 degrees is hard to see from the front. In a photo of the rear you can see it if you compare it to the border of the photo.

I have an ‘07 Minotour on a Chevy cutaway. Do you think it’s different on a Ford? I wouldn’t think it would be.

To the OP, if you look a the hat channel between the windows, just below the window sill, do you see a little crease?

[awilder]

Originally Posted by Danjo

Marc, that 6 degrees is hard to see from the front. In a photo of the rear you can see it if you compare it to the border of the photo.

I have an ‘07 Minotour on a Chevy cutaway. Do you think it’s different on a Ford? I wouldn’t think it would be.

To the OP, if you look a the hat channel between the windows, just below the window sill, do you see a little crease?

I did not get to look at the hat channel today (was busy getting the battery back in after charging and voila, it started after I left one of the many switches switched)

But I think it's safe to say there is a slight pitch. I've read with the pitch, you cut beneath the windows.

I guess I hadn't thought far enough on the door. For a hot second I thought 'oh no, I can't do a roof raise with the wheelchair door!' But, seems doable.