Tonight's post provides some pictures of my Crown inside and out as well as my requirements that describe how the conversion will be constructed and what items will be included.
My approach to how and what goes into my conversion is designed to suit my wife and I (and our cats) and others would find different priorities. That being said certainly one could change their own design to suit themselves better (more beds, different seating, kitchen size, etc).
Keep in mind that designing a motor home conversion is a task and to complete that task, one has to define that task first (much like problem solving), so listed below is a set of major requirements for the finished project.
Our project has the following general requirements:
1) Sleeps only a couple (two) in one bed, which must be comfortable.
2) I must have a full bathroom, toilet, shower, sink, with doors for privacy.
3) It must have a full kitchen, Fridge, gas range with oven, two tub sink, and counter space.
4) It must have a front room with seating, dining table, TV and stereo system.
5) It must have closet space for two, storage for dishes, food, utensils, cleaning products, etc.
6) It must have adequate heating and cooling.
7) It must be constructed so that any part of heating, cooling, plumbing, electrical can be repaired or replaced by one person (me).

It must be able to be used in Winter without failure from freezing.
9) It must have solar, generator, and outside power capabilities.
10) It must have a washer/dryer (because the wife wants it to).
11) The design must follow the K.I.S.S principle.
12) It must be made so that it won’t squeak or rattle or vibrate going down the road.
13) No fresh water plumbing underneath the floor.
14) It will use Propane for cooking and heating.
15) It will be insulated to increase efficiency for heating and cooling.
16) It must be made SAFE to use for driver and passengers.
17) The Wife must be consulted for layout and appearance issue and reasonable compromise reached for these things.
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It must be easy to use and operate.
19) No structural changes to the bus. (don’t add or move entry doors, cut or modify frame)
A lot of the above items are common sense.
Some of the following design details I have derived from the above requirements:
Power system:
1) Solar Power – The solar system shall use flexible solar panels mounted to the roof. The solar array shall be capable of generating 1 Kw on a bright day. I am using 100 watt panels. The power generated by the array will be passed through a charge controller to a battery bank located in the trunk of the bus (Most Crowns have a large trunk located at the rear of the bus).
2) The battery bank shall be capable of storing 1000 KwHr of energy.
3) There shall be a 65 Amp battery charging system that will, in addition to the solar array, charge the batteries when the bus is using shore or generator power.
4) The DC power from the batteries (12VDC) shall be available to a 3Kw true sine wave inverter, and to various 12VDC circuits.
5) All 12 VDC circuits shall be protected through circuit breakers in a central panel.
6) All 120 VAC circuits shall be protected through AC circuit breakers in a central panel
7) The 65 Amp battery charging system will only operate when external or generator power is being used.

The washer/dryer will only operate when using external or generator power.
9) The AC power source switching (External/Generator/Internal) shall be mutually exclusive, meaning only one at a time is available.
10) When connecting to external power, the system shall be capable of accepting 240 VAC and distributing such power to 120 VAC circuits.
11) When using Generator power the system will accept 240 VAC and distribute such power to 120 VAC circuits through standard electrical boxes with circuit breakers.
12) When using internal power, the system will accept 120 VAC from the inverter and distribute such power to 120 VAC circuits.
13) The 12 VDC circuits will have power available regardless of which power source is selected.
14) The power system shall have voltage/current/frequency monitoring at all times, in all power source modes.
15) The power system shall be capable of complete shutdown by use of switching.
16) The Crown bus electrical system shall be isolated from the motor home electrical system, except when cross-connected through a battery switch for emergency use to start the bus engine if the Crown bus batteries become unable to start the bus.
17) A second 250 Amp alternator shall be installed on and rotated by the bus engine. This alternator shall be connected to provide additional charging of the trunk mounted battery bank.
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The second alternator shall be capable of cross connection to the bus batteries for emergency charging if the bus batteries become excessively discharged.
19) The generator shall be an Onan 6.5 DKD diesel generator, capable of 6.5Kw at 240 VAC.
20) The generator shall have a 20 gallon fuel tank mounted forward of the engine compartment.
21) There shall be a semi-automated fuel transfer system to transfer fuel from the main engine fuel system to the generator fuel tank. The fuel transfer system will stop fuel transfer when the generator fuel tank gets nearly full or when the main fuel tank get down to 25% full.
22) The generator fuel tank shall have a manual fuel filler capable of being fueled using a standard fuel pump as found at a gas station or truck stop.
22) There will be a 20 gallon fuel tank mounted in the trunk, capable of transferring fuel to the main fuel tank through the main tank fuel filler. This transfer shall be manually operated.
Kitchen:
1) The kitchen shall have a Suburban 3 burner range/oven operated using Propane.
2) The kitchen shall have a 10 Cubic foot refrigerator made by xxxx, operating from 120 VAC.
3) The kitchen shall have a two tub stainless steel sink xxx X xxx X xxx inches. The faucet shall supply hot/cold water through one spout and a sprayer.
4) The counter tops shall be acacia wood butcher block 1 ½ “ thick and 25 inches deep.
5) Under the sink/counter shall be a 40 gallon fresh water storage tank. This tank shall be filled from a standard outside RV water connection through a manually operated valve.
6) The outside water supply shall be passed through a pressure regulator and a filter.
7) When connected to outside water, the water shall be distributed through the bus using outside water pressure.

When water source is internal the water in the storage tank shall be distributed by a 3 GPM electrical pump operated on 12 VDC.
9) The kitchen walls will be covered with sheet aluminum for ease of cleaning and fire safety.
Bathroom:
1) The toilet and bathroom sink shall be enclosed in a “water closet”, installed on the right side of the bus. The “water closet” walls shall be covered with FRP.
2) The Shower shall be installed on the left side of the bus and shall be 30” x 30”. The shower will have plywood walls covered by FRP.
3) The water supply for the shower shall be passed overhead in the transition between the bathroom and utility cabinets/closet to the rear.
Bedroom:
1) The bedroom shall have a custom built queen sized bed mounted to the floor. The pedestal under the bed shall have two drawers installed for storage.
2) The bedroom shall have access through the emergency door for egress if needed.
3) The back wall of the bus shall be enclosed to provide storage cabinets, shelves and electrical power.
Front room:
1) The front room shall have three sets of reclining “tour bus” seats. Two of the sets will be mounted facing each other, with a dining table mounted between to provide a booth for dining. The booth will be mounted on the left side of the bus. The third seat will be mounted to the right side wall of the bus in a forward position. The third seat will be a single modified tour bus seat with cup holder, phone holder, and USB charging connections
2) The front room will have a 55” 4K TV mounted on the right wall across from the booth. The TV will be mounted to a lift mechanism to raise the TV up for viewing and lower it when not in use.
3) The front room will have a stereo system with:
a) Two 350 watt per channel amplifiers.
b) Peavey graphic equalizer
c) Preamp/FM/Tuner
d) Power control panel
e) 300 watt subwoofer amplifier
f) 15” subwoofer speaker/cabinet
g) Two Carvin speakers (2’ x 3’ cabinets)
4) The stereo system will be connected to a Raspberry Pi 4 single board computer using the Libre Elec /KODI software to play movies/music and to the TV through HDMI interface for playing movies.
Heating:
1) A 40,000 btu suburban propane burning ducted forced air furnace shall be installed underneath the gas range/oven. Ducting will provide forced air heat to the front room, kitchen, and the bathroom. The furnace will operate using 12 VDC and be thermostatically controlled. The intake air to and exhaust from the furnace will be through the left wall of the bus.
2) A 16,000 btu suburban propane burning unducted forced air furnace shall be installed on the left side of the bus in the bedroom. The furnace will operate on 12 VDC and be thermostatically controlled. The intake air to and exhaust from the furnace will be through the left wall of the bus.
3) The original factory installed heating system in the front of the bus will be retained.
Cooling:
1) There will be two 13,000 btu coleman roof mounted air conditioners installed, one over the front room and one over the bedroom. They will operate on 120 VAC.
Wall/Cabinet Framing:
1) All walls and cabinets and counters, tank mounts will be constructed using UniStrut.
2) Where needed the UniStrut will be welded using MIG.
3) Rivnuts will be incorporated where attaching framing to bus ceiling where needed.
Generator mounting:
The generator will be mounted in the spare tire well of the bus, as well as its fuel tank. The generator fuel tank can be filled using fuel transfer from the main tank or through manual filling through conventional car type filler inside generator access panel.
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