Juicy Lucy, where all my hopes and dreams lie

[Robin97396]

Thanks, good to hear from you too.

I ain't right trying to build one of these from memory. I was offline for ten months.

My insulation didn't go as planned either. You're right, roll with it. We're in to deep now.

I think just about anything we do towards improving insulation will benefit us. Some ways may be better or worse. We'll know in 20 years or so.

I had one of those pinholed acustical ceilings, which is apparently a good thing with a bus full of screaming children. The outer skin condensated heavily on the inside and dripped through the acoustical ceiling grid. Kind of distracting to get water torture while you're trying to do anything inside the bus.

The brew offer still stands, but it would have to be microbrew at this time. I haven't been brewing lately. It won't have my illegally high alcohol content though.

A few more tweeks and I'm ready to start traveling. I was planning on being up in the Toledo area sometime this spring. You're pretty close.

I like how your wheel wells turned out. They look like wooden crates sitting on the floor.

You're some tough competition.

[TAOLIK]

We spend so much time improvising solutions to problems people outside of this community can barely comprehend, it's maddening either way. You seem to be doing very good for yourself running off memory/instinct.

Have you heard about the PNW skoolie palooza (you can click here for a link to it) coming up in May? Maybe that's a good opportunity for us to share a toast together! I'll(probably) come with my go to sake and a case or two of some local IPA's.

[Robin97396]

These projects are all about learning to roll with it. On the fly solutions are the name of the game, but yeah it's so frustrating sometimes. As has been said many times on this site, you'll know every nut, bolt and screw in this thing by time you're done and you'll be able to fix anything on it. That means a lot if you're far from home and don't want to end up in an RV shop. I'm already thinking about my next bus if I ever find that unicorn.

I'm still chuckling about your website, the profile part. I wonder who wrote that? Your "better half" has a good sense of humor.

You're doing good. These things take more effort than money.

[TAOLIK]

Hey Everyone,

I got 400watts of solar panels up


Life has been pretty wild, I left my old restaurant and found 1.5 new restaurants to manage with a hearty pay raise, most of which I use to increase rent to my landlord as a plea to extend our eviction notice to the point of completion with the bus. I get more money, but I have been starved of time to get bus work done as well as slack-off time I once used to diddle around on my computer for hours on end.

It will still probably be a few days until I finish writing up my webpage update, I'm going to dump a few photos here because I desperately want to share. Another day I'll leave a few abbriviated words to describe my setup with a little more detail.

I got my electrical setup running without too many hiccups. The inverter is powered by a power inlet, so I can just plug an extension cord into it.



Got my battery monitor trimetric 2030 + Inverter remote installed, a little crooked heh...



Got my 12v Fuse box installed as of yesterday, and now have lights running off the battery bank


Filled that empty void between my solar panels with 200 more watts of solar


My neighbors are crazy, but this has helped take a LOT of heat off me from my landlord who's been trying to evict me. Dare I say I threw them under the bus?


Feels really good to reach this milestone. However the satisfaction reached when I hit these milestones never quite equates to the effort gone into it, it leaves me fiending to get back in there and get more work done!

One day at a time.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by TAOLIK

Feels really good to reach this milestone. However the satisfaction reached when I hit these milestones never quite equates to the effort gone into it, it leaves me fiending to get back in there and get more work done!

One day at a time.

Baloney. You have the satisfaction of accomplishment. Man vs Machine. You conquered the mechanical- this time. Net time a' round, the busses will be cyborg hybrid computers.

PS You have the coolest menagerie.

[dopamine16]

Holy cow.!! & goats that must bring alot of flies. that looks like prison for those animals. seems like you know electrical pretty decent, without my dad helping me my bus probably would have burned by now. keep it flowin.

[TAOLIK]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Baloney. You have the satisfaction of accomplishment. Man vs Machine. You conquered the mechanical- this time. Net time a' round, the busses will be cyborg hybrid computers.

PS You have the coolest menagerie.

Hah, thanks Rusty! My satisfaction only inflates more every day. I love the idea of having a cyborg bus, some day I suppose. I got myself a book "Rolling Homes" by Jane Lidz, featuring the finest skoolies of 1979, and it really helps me feel blessed for living in the day and age of free 2 day shipping and internet forums/blogs. Though my level of craftsmanship is a joke compared to the skoolies in that book. My neighbros zoo definitely makes me appreciate my deck!

Originally Posted by dopamine16

Holy cow.!! & goats that must bring alot of flies. that looks like prison for those animals. seems like you know electrical pretty decent, without my dad helping me my bus probably would have burned by now. keep it flowin.

Hey Dopamine, good to see you on this side! Their farm brings tons of flies, but I'm okay with it since I enjoy their entertaining livestock, and they entertain my helpers during idle moments as well! I feel confident enough with DC electrical to wire things up, but the shallowness of my knowledge will likely get me zapped sooner or later. I'd love to have the mechanical knowledge you have though, My Lucy's got nothing on the cannabus mechanics. Which is what really matters when your home rolls on wheels. PS: I don't remember if I hit you back on your side, by my bad mistaking someones else's shorty as your own, I was a bit embarassed to realize that..

[dopamine16]

The place were i work at has live stock all around me all day i feel like the dam goats are callin my name everyday MAAAAATT.. but dont feel embarressed the one who should be is me i spend all my dang time on them dating websites talking to cute girls & not being as productive on here or in life as i should be. lol.

[cadillackid]

ha! I gave up trying to date years ago... ever since.. ive had more time to build b usiness, enjoy life, make $$, and no one can tell me driving a school bus to starbucks each morning is ridiculous..

im loving this build, the solar roof looks great!!.. also will help shade the bus roof too from the hot sun!.

-Christopher

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by dopamine16

The place were i work at has live stock all around me all day i feel like the dam goats are callin my name everyday MAAAAATT.. but dont feel embarressed the one who should be is me i spend all my dang time on them dating websites talking to cute girls & not being as productive on here or in life as i should be. lol.

Those dating sites are counter-productive unless you're into drama and std's!

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

Those dating sites are counter-productive unless you're into drama and std's!

Even I know that you yada yada'ed something between the drama and the STD.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Rusty

Even I know that you yada yada'ed something between the drama and the STD.

Indeed, I did!

[dopamine16]

taolik-sorry didnt mean to turn your thread into a dating webinar, ha.

cadilackkid- if you are not into dating there is always the stricly platonic section on craigslist.lol.

eastcoastcb-life to short to worry about std's & if the drama starts just throw him/her in the gutter & get another

[TAOLIK]

Hah, you guys crack me up! The last thing I expected today was to visit this board with my 5th of July hangover and read over your guys dating discussion. Maybe it's naive of me for being married, but I always imagined living out of a skoolie to be a HUGE chick magnet. Skoolies enable travel, sight seeing and camping, with the luxury of having your house within walking distance most of the time. It also is a great demonstration of one's skills and handiness. The building of it however, can be a bit of a time suck. And if it breaks down, that can be a bit of a turn off too.

@cadillac, thank you for the kind words! My lovely wife has been very supportive/patient given the lack of options she has in terms of how my time is used. 90% of the our dates we've had in the past year have been "home depot dates" where we go through home depot and do the skoolie shopping thing. I will pray to the skoolie gods that one of your starbucks skoolie runs brings in herds of pretty women to your skoolie with minimal desire to distract you from getting your work done.

[TAOLIK]

Oh yeah, since I already got this thread bumped up. Let's throw a few more pictures on here.

Here's how my electrical looks more or less.


I got a handful of these cigarette lighter/usb sockets, so I threw one in a cardboard box to charge my phone/run some accessories.


And here's the latest interior pic.


I am now resuming the shower project, but unfortunately, July looks like a busy month. Progress will probably be halted for a few weeks.

[TAOLIK]

Hey guys,

Life's been real busy. I've been working between 50-96 hours (usually around 60) opening a new restaurant Tentenyu in Seattle. I'm making a lot of overtime though, so my finances have never been happier. My sleep schedule is all messed up so I'm struggling with getting proper bus work in. I'm maybe getting 8-12 a week. But I'll take small progress over no progress any day.

I'll update my website at some point, though that's really more for myself than anyone else. Gonna dump some pix here though, because I want to publicize my progress.

Clamping the last FRP shower wall. Unfortunately there's still an airpocket...but good enough for now. I'll deal with the consequences in a half dozen years.

Selfie

Pre-moulding

Clamping up the moulding, used with 3m 3200 marine adhesive sealant. Takes 7 days to cure.

I used some liquid tight conduit scraps to get a better fit on the inverse round moulding

After moulding


CLose up of the moulding


I made this water tank holder

I did a mockup draft of the bus to boost moralle


Improvising for the Solar Eclipse


I got solicited by one of my good Japanese Food Vendors at 10pm to host a sake tasting, so I thought it would be fun to host it in the bus.



Beginnings of my gray water tank holder

After painting it with POR15, I used their metal prep because the metal wasn't rusty. Just kind of experimenting.

Gott 3/6 RV tiedown straps on for the grey water tank holding.


A little mockup for moralle


Just got it underneath the bus with about 22x5/16 bolts


Oh yeah I put vinyl faux wood flooring in the bathroom. You can see my toilet framing in the right corner too.

[oredigger]

That's looking really great! Coming along nicely. How did you attach the bolts for your tank storage under the bus?

[Rusty]

Very nice work. You could sell those drum cradles.

Shower looks very good-waterproof, even.

Keep the pics coming !! Thanks for sharing.

[TAOLIK]

Originally Posted by oredigger

That's looking really great! Coming along nicely. How did you attach the bolts for your tank storage under the bus?

All stainless: 5/16" Bolt, Washer, bus frame, washer, nylock nut (not sure why I didn't use steel lock nut). I will try and take a picture tomorrow (or more realistically thursday) before work for you of where I attached it. But every 2-3 U frames, there were two Angle iron(ish) frames beneath the bus. I attached to those angle iron frames.

Very nice work. You could sell those drum cradles.

Shower looks very good-waterproof, even.

Keep the pics coming !! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Rusty you made my day! I don't know if I would buy a drum cradle from a fool like myself, but I am pretty happy about how it turned out. it also seems pretty sturdy. One of my senior servers gives me little welding pointers and taught me the importance of grinding the edges of my tubing before welding them together. My next tank holder I'm working on is a propane holder, so I'm a little more nervous about that.

But I already got the hole cut out yesterday!

[TAOLIK]

Originally Posted by oredigger

That's looking really great! Coming along nicely. How did you attach the bolts for your tank storage under the bus?

Hey Oredigger, to my surprise I actually took some pictures this morning. To the best of my ability without soiling my barely fancy work clothes too much.

Here we have the 5/16" bolt going through the frame


Below we have misc pictures of bolts joining the two metals.






Don't be fooled by the illusion of a plumbing system. The piping/drum is in there temporarily for storage, tests and moralle. I'm hoping to finalize it soon though.