Hoop House - My new half bus

[karlimh]

Hey all! I bought my bus about a month ago from a dealership in NY. She's a 2001 Bluebird half bus. We've been doing a ton of work already and I'm keeping a blog at Hoophouse - HOOPHOUSE BUS

I've never built anything before, but my boyfriend is a carpenter (a very patient one). We will be doing the whole build ourselves and hoping to get on the road by May.

Going to need a lot of advice and help along the way!

[EastCoastCB]

Hello and welcome!
Yall look like really nice people!



What IS your 20?

[karlimh]

We are doing our build in upstate NY in the Fingerlakes region!

[EastCoastCB]

I've heard its beautiful up there. well other than the cold...

[BurlKing]

Looked at your blog, and laughed at the grinder picture with the larger one and smaller one because i had the same dilemma. when i moved over the larger grinder it pretty much created a cloud tunnel of red dust through the entire bus and out the back, looked like the thing was smoking from being on fire but it worked wonders. We also had to learn to weld, a small wire feed welder worked great for us, but you choose your own. build is 92 thomas international navistar if you want to see what we have down, since you are at the point we were 2-3 months ago.

[karlimh]

Check out the new blog post about laying floors and installing ceiling vents!

[Tango]

Lookin' great guys! Keep the pix coming!

[JamesHarkness]

I'd love to see an outside picture. Looks great so far and I love the floorplan layout. Does the bed lower? Is that space underneath for storage or like an office?

[karlimh]

Had to make some adjustments to the floor plan. To read about it on the blog, click here: Post 8: New Floor Plans!!! - Hoophouse

The bed sits on top of storage space that will be accessible from the interior an exterior emergency exits.

Here's the full bus

[jroy139]

Originally Posted by karlimh

Here's the full bus

Cool pic! The passenger seat up front is key!

[QueSeraSarah]

This is the exact size bus I want to buy! Thank you for documenting your project, I'll be cribbing off you!

[pharmboi]

I agree a passenger seat up front is important but so are seatbelts, I bought a great seat out of a van at a scrapyard for $40. It has armrests both sides and SEAT BELTS. I mounted it on a swivel so it can turn, tilt,etc. Works great and is very comfortable.

You've got some great ideas in your plans. Looking forward to seeing the end result.
pharmboi

[Pshots]

I just read through your blog. Awesome job so far! and I say it doesn't matter how much longer it takes to complete a task as long as you are having fun with it!

Also I have to ask. How tall is your boyfriend? I'm 6'2" myself and am worried about having to duck the whole time so how is he doing with the height issue?

[karlimh]

Hey Guys! We spent this month framing the bathroom, building the bed, the couch, and scoring some kitchen cabinets.

You can see the full details in my blog here:
Post 9: Let's build! Walls, Bed, Couch, and Cabinets - Hoophouse

You can get the sketchup design for the couch on the blog too!

[crazycal]

Cool bus with what looks like a tall roof. Beautiful scenery. I hope you have all the leaks taken care of before doing all that work.

[mrblah]

Question:

I can't find any info on those cute half buses. Is there a wiki for past bus models?

I was specifically looking at finding GVWR for those smaller busses.

They are soo cool! Kepp it up!

Also, that co-pilot seat doesn't look legal to me. Granted I live in the land of granny-government, but NY state must still ask that all seats have seat belts and a legit RV seat, no? Just wondering!

[Hank's P-O-S]

Originally Posted by mrblah

Question:

I can't find any info on those cute half buses. Is there a wiki for past bus models?

I was specifically looking at finding GVWR for those smaller busses.

They are the same as the equivalent full size bus.
As seen on the blue bird vision home page: https://www.blue-bird.com/blue-bird/...-Diesel-1.aspx
I could not find hard Minimum numbers for the international 3800 chassis.
I would imagine the minimum GVWR is around 18000 lbs and the maximum I have seen in a school bus is 34000 lbs

here is the wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intern...bus_chassis%29

[mrblah]

Wow.

I made a google search with blue bird half buses and not seeing one in their product line up...

Thanks, should searched a bit further!

[Tekmbster]

Originally Posted by karlimh

We are doing our build in upstate NY in the Fingerlakes region!

I saw your website posting through Don Brown's FB page! Congratulations and good luck! I'm working on getting a bus through them as we speak!

[sharonmaree]

Hi Karli and Craig, thank you so much for the great detail. in the process of taking a potential small home bus to the mechanic for him to check it out for me as i live in the mountains of bc and i need to know that the brakes are working to drive down the steep mountain range grades ... hassle free. your detail has helped calm the "oh boy what am i getting myself into" thank you and i look forward to hearing more of your posts.

I live in BC, Canada so i'll be insulating the whole bus i think ??? working it out as I go along.

love this site. love this forum.

I am still deciding on shower or no shower or a small tin bath tub instead. what made you decide no shower in the end ? space and what type of toilet will you be installing.

I will be putting in a wood stove so I am going to have to work that into my plan somewhere.

the bus is 14 feet long and 8 1/2 feet wide is what i will have to play with. with the framing and insulation it will bring that down a few inches on either side i would think.

in solidarity ...