Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
 
Old 08-25-2021, 10:17 AM   #261
Bus Nut
 
Frochevy's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2018
Location: Wamego Ks
Posts: 617
Year: 2007
Chassis: Collins
Engine: 6.6L LMM Duramax
Quote:
Originally Posted by ol trunt View Post
Frochevy. Made me laugh when you said "I don't feel old enough to be saying 20 yrs ago. Lol but it would have been around the 2001-2002 time period... When I was 19-20 yrs old. Lol". Wait 'till you're pushing eighty and see what you say----
Jack
Jack
In my mind I'm still a 20 yr old kid pushing 40! 😁

at least I feel like a 20yr old kid when I work with my dad on a project and am still learning from him. He has a way of making me feel " ugh why didn't I think of that"! Or how did you figure that out!

That being said about age, I highly respect the older generations and I still try to soak up all of the knowledge I can. What you did with your bus is an art, what Johan did with that stainless sheet metal is an art. A dying art... I get really excited to see people still doing these arts as I try to learn more myself. My hope is I can be half as knowledgeable as you "artists" when I get to that age...

Frochevy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-27-2021, 06:58 PM   #262
Bus Crazy
 
joeblack5's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: pa
Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
Coachwork: 1. Corbeil & 2. Thomas
Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bert06840 View Post
Wow. Impressive!!

I’ve already trouble drilling stainless, trying to weld it isn’t something I am going to try very soon…

And I’m wondering what the pamphlet says. For or against what exactly [emoji848]
Drilling is not bad. I use harbor freight cobalt drill split point.
The pamflet was part of a protest against Penn State University selling farm land to toll brothers development.. the land was a swail draining into the water wells of State College. We occupied the land, tent camp, to protest the land use and eventually got evicted.
It is a couple of years ago. Finally the sign got it's last use.
joeblack5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-29-2021, 05:46 PM   #263
Bus Crazy
 
joeblack5's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: pa
Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
Coachwork: 1. Corbeil & 2. Thomas
Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
A little bit further but never finished.

I designed the litterbox with pee diverter to slide away when using the shower.
For that I wanted it small and strong so decided to go for a ss pan I bought from goodwill.
Grafted another piece of stainless on it that will become the diverter funnel .
Will see how the aiming goes.

Johan
Attached Thumbnails
IMG_20210829_164846968.jpg  
joeblack5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-29-2021, 11:00 PM   #264
Bus Nut
 
Bert06840's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2021
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 638
Year: 2009
Coachwork: Gillig
Chassis: G27E102
Engine: Cummins ISL 280
Rated Cap: 26,000 lbs
That is a fantastic idea!!
Bert06840 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-30-2021, 06:40 PM   #265
Bus Crazy
 
joeblack5's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: pa
Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
Coachwork: 1. Corbeil & 2. Thomas
Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
I hope so , pee diverters , not my idea. You can buy them in all sorts and sizes. For me it had to fit my shower design.. the for sale ones are to big.

Finished the welding job and I can say it is pee tight. The weld job looks like sh.t but then I am not a welder and this ss pan material is really thin and with the curves I did not make a copper backer..

Just for documentation .. here is a picture with a crossection of the floor of this bus..corrugated aluminum..plywood... Rubber.
Attached Thumbnails
IMG_20210830_180633306.jpg  
joeblack5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-21-2021, 06:21 PM   #266
Bus Crazy
 
joeblack5's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: pa
Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
Coachwork: 1. Corbeil & 2. Thomas
Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
A little progress on our recirculating shower. The picture shows a test with it loaded with 3/4 gallon of water.
A scrapyard find upcycled fuel heater is used as heat exchanger between the bus coolant system . During this picture the webasto TSL17 is powering the coolant loop.. hot out of the webasto go thru the interior heater core then thru the shower heat exchanger then thru 5/8" PIH heat exchanger for WVO then thru the dash heater and back thru another PIH WVO heat exchanger for WVO return.

The main reason that I am explaining is a so that one can see that the webasto TSL17 pump is quit capable powering this whole loop.

The webasto is running at half power and the shower water get nice and hot..

The shower pump is a small sump pump that is in the drain in the shower pan. It sits on top of a ping pong ball that is the drain valve. Without the pump the ping pong ball goes up and opens the drain... With the weight of the pump it stays closed.

The pump has plenty of pressure so an additional filter can be used.. the shower head , filter and pump back drain when the pump is switched of.

Now I need to make a mesh above the pump that keeps hair and such out of the pump.
Attached Thumbnails
IMG_20210921_190355858.jpg  
joeblack5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-23-2021, 12:50 PM   #267
Bus Nut
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
Location: Mt Vernon, WA
Posts: 523
Year: 1996
Coachwork: Bluebird, Collins
Chassis: G30 Bluebird Microbird, E350 Shuttle Bus
Engine: 1995 Chevrolet 350, 1992 Ford 460
Very cool design. You are ‘stacking functions’ for the Webasto heater. Ive been thinking of something similar. My engine is a direct injection engine so it might not be a good idea to run it on WVO. Looking forward to updates. The ping pong ball idea is cool.
Doktari is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-23-2021, 06:59 PM   #268
Bus Crazy
 
joeblack5's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: pa
Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
Coachwork: 1. Corbeil & 2. Thomas
Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
Double post
joeblack5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-23-2021, 07:00 PM   #269
Bus Crazy
 
joeblack5's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: pa
Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
Coachwork: 1. Corbeil & 2. Thomas
Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
Thks Doktari,
Just was curious if the TSL17 pump was able to pressure enough and if there was enough flow to prevent the TSL17 from overheating.
Attached a picture of the ends of my WVO coolant preheaters. The 5/16 stainless line is the feed to the engine and the 1/4 is the return.. the Trees are slightly modified Pex 3/4...3/4...1/2. That is the 1/2" end is slightly bored out to accept the 5/16 ss pipe. Hot coolant circulates thru the 5/8 rubber hose.

At the fuel tank end the coolant return thru a fuel heater that is integrated in a Bosch fuel filter. It has a hand primer pump as well.
Attached Thumbnails
IMG_20210923_191945465.jpg  
joeblack5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-23-2021, 09:12 PM   #270
Bus Crazy
 
joeblack5's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: pa
Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
Coachwork: 1. Corbeil & 2. Thomas
Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
I was not happy with my rear drive shaft. With 4*4 conversion and transfer case adapter the original rear drive shaft was to long. I used the one that came with my now gone 1994 4*4 Quigley ambulance. It was very rusted and still on the long side because I left the heavier rear axle of the bus in place.
Had some leftover shaft from the scrapyard and thought to give it a try.
A 1-1/2" section of the driveshaft got split and 1/2" deleted. Then it fitted nice inside the tube. Will see if the alignment of the joint and tube is good enough.
Another length test before I weld it all around.
Attached Thumbnails
IMG_20211023_175116934.jpg   IMG_20211023_212304460.jpg   IMG_20211023_212948980.jpg   IMG_20211023_214707756.jpg  
joeblack5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-30-2021, 01:32 PM   #271
Bus Crazy
 
joeblack5's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: pa
Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
Coachwork: 1. Corbeil & 2. Thomas
Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
Well it has been a rough last couple of days. The last obstacle was a sensor in the tail shaft that the old 7.3 idi did not have but the 7.3 power stroke required..at least this year and model..
$250 later and a FB marketplace transfer case later we were in business.. next morning we left for to the outer banks. On the way out I did a weight check at a Penn State weights scale.....4100 lbs front and 5700 lbs back.. total 9800 lbs including 4 people and two dogs..

The new to me 19.5" rims and tires gave me some con ern. This was the first drive after the accident a year ago and many things had changed, were untested, not finished, you know it. All that is bad.

Many stops for coffee, temp check on tires, axles. Transfer case we made it to Nags Head.

We boondocked and in the morning ate at the Grits and Grill. Only to find that the bus did not want to start..
Before we left I did expect that one battery was bad and took a spare with me.
Luckily that was enough to get it started.
Attached Thumbnails
IMG_20211030_075721297.jpg   IMG_20211030_085840309.jpg   IMG_20211024_102735247.jpg   IMG_20211030_094834993.jpg  
joeblack5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 10-31-2021, 07:15 AM   #272
Bus Crazy
 
joeblack5's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: pa
Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
Coachwork: 1. Corbeil & 2. Thomas
Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
After our each adventure. We did got stuck on departure.. the backwheels dug in but with the help ofa 1945 us army shuffle and two 2017 plastic snow ladders we made it out. in Hatteras we spend an hour at the museum and took the boat to oceacoke.. we spend the night on the island ..sound side..watching stars and cleaning trash. It was pretty windy.
Attached Thumbnails
IMG_20211030_124756673.jpg   IMG_20211030_160135001.jpg   IMG_20211030_160038521.jpg   IMG_20211030_174249739.jpg   IMG_20211030_174759992.jpg  

joeblack5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2021, 09:33 PM   #273
Skoolie
 
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: Long Island, NY
Posts: 167
Year: 2009
Coachwork: Girardin
Chassis: Chevy
Engine: 6.6 turbo diesel
Rated Cap: ?
You have a beautiful family. Looks like you had a very fun adventure and all in all a successful trip. Congrats on this first of hopefully many more! Elizabeth.
Buster Junior is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-03-2021, 08:26 AM   #274
Bus Crazy
 
joeblack5's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: pa
Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
Coachwork: 1. Corbeil & 2. Thomas
Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
Thank you Elizabeth, that is very kind.

In the morning we drove to our favorite breakfast cafe in Ocracoke and then walked the dogs to the old light house.
After that we decided to go to the beach ramp closest to the ferry and see if we could avoid the ranger patrol and sleep on the beach..

That turned out to be easy, no ranger, but the tide came higher then we thought and cut us of , so we had to stay.. we parked against the dunes and the high water came up to 6 feet away from the bus.. altogether a bit stressful.. high tide was a 4 pm and I did not want to drive at dark on the beach so we stayed for another high tide at 4 AM..
Leena had dug a barrier around the bus to divert , the incoming water , the first one failed but the second one held up...must be some dutch heritage, haha
Attached Thumbnails
IMG_20211031_164050283.jpg   IMG_20211031_165830280.jpg   IMG_20211031_165747086_HDR.jpg   IMG_20211101_081651299.jpg  
joeblack5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-04-2021, 08:30 AM   #275
Bus Crazy
 
joeblack5's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: pa
Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
Coachwork: 1. Corbeil & 2. Thomas
Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
In the morning we walked a bit with the dogs... No one there, perfect, I guess the high tide beach cut off is keeping people away. Ready to leave but bus battery jran out of juice. Messing with my spare battery turned ns it over but no start. Waiting for the sun to recharge the batteries. Another stroll.. ranger drives by but takes off when I run back to our bus to ask for a jump..fortunately another kind soul sees the whole thing and decides to drive to our more secluded beach part.
Jumped and started right away.
We are happy and let Elfie idle for a bit.
Then we want to take of no luck. The sand has dried up or changed somehow and we sink in immediately.
Shuffle and sand track to the rescue.. 3 ft forward. 5 ft forward and so on. After half an hour with 20 ft more to go to reach harder sand the plastic sand ladders brake..they were made for snow and passenger vehicle use. Now what..
By luck a visitor with a Jeep shows up who was very excited about seeing a bus on the beach. He offers to pull us out. Easy going and no problem,sure beats more digging... Other wise the next step would have been a sand anchor and the winch.

We drive of the beach take the ferry back to Hatteras. The ferry crew is cheering us on as we drive on the ferry. Couple of nice sprinter camper Vans on the ferry also but our bus draws the attention. The two gsd's are a bonus as well.. in Hatteras we have breakfast to celebrate our adventures.
Attached Thumbnails
IMG_20211101_102825854.jpg   IMG_20211101_121439535_HDR.jpg   IMG_20211101_121035112.jpg   IMG_20211101_130534409.jpg  
joeblack5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-04-2021, 09:39 AM   #276
Bus Geek
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Columbus Ohio
Posts: 18,751
Year: 1991
Coachwork: Carpenter
Chassis: International 3800
Engine: DTA360 / MT643
Rated Cap: 7 Row Handicap
getting stuck in the sand is NO FUN! ivew been there a couple times with a jeep.. only way I got out was a winch and an anchor.. (I hated carrying that damn anchor but dad said I might need it in the sand since I didnt have real wide tires).. he was right.. even airing down sand robbed every bit of power that Jeep had...
cadillackid is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-05-2021, 09:24 AM   #277
Bus Crazy
 
joeblack5's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: pa
Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
Coachwork: 1. Corbeil & 2. Thomas
Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
Yes a sand anchor, never have used one but helped
Others dig a hole for their spare wheel. So that would have been my approach.

After the late breakfast in Hatteras we drove back direction nags head. Stopped at the light house and back to beach at the opposite side of the road. We decided not to push our luck and left Elfie in the parking lot.

The night before we failed in making a campfire and so the new idea would be a campfire and sleeping under the sky in the dunes.

We were fortunate. The dumpster nearby had a lot of cardboard to help start the fire.. and even enough to cover the sand where we w
Planned to sleep on.. our youngest got less keen on sleeping under the stars when darkness set in and with sufficient stories about " haloween beach alligators" and land sharks we had a hard time changing her mind. After we extinghuised the campfire and the beautifull sky with milky way showed up and with our " the croods" sleep pile approach with a dog on each side she was very happy after all... The sleep pile shots were made early in the morning.
It was nice to see how the dogs understood there duty and cuddled right up but stayed on guard..
Attached Thumbnails
IMG_20211101_143106474.jpg   IMG_20211101_180033477.jpg   IMG_20211101_184755478.jpg   IMG_20211102_065404863.jpg   IMG_20211102_065401254.jpg  

joeblack5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-09-2021, 06:41 PM   #278
Skoolie
 
Join Date: Nov 2020
Location: Long Island, NY
Posts: 167
Year: 2009
Coachwork: Girardin
Chassis: Chevy
Engine: 6.6 turbo diesel
Rated Cap: ?
Oh my goodness!!! What an adventure. Sounds quite nerve racking and fabulous all at once. All's well that ends well! Thanks for the pics...really helps share your experience��
Buster Junior is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-09-2021, 07:04 PM   #279
Bus Nut
 
Join Date: Mar 2021
Location: Central Kentucky
Posts: 330
Coachwork: Busless for now
Johann, I envy you!!!
Kentucky Dreaming is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-11-2021, 06:09 PM   #280
Bus Crazy
 
joeblack5's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: pa
Posts: 2,498
Year: 98
Coachwork: 1. Corbeil & 2. Thomas
Chassis: 1 ford 1998 e350 4x4 7.3 2 mercedes 2004
Engine: 7.3 powerstroke & MBE906
Thanks all, we had a good time and fortunate with nice weather. Made it back home.

Still need to finish the shower. Improve the heat and some more sound and heat insulation. Got some more ideas on better sleeping construction..

Johan
joeblack5 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by

Powered by vBadvanced CMPS v3.2.3

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:43 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.