The Argobus - A 1996 Ford E350 Shorty

[vroom]

Just picked up this beautiful bus from a dealership in LA, and drove her up to northern California. Here are the goodies:

- 1996 Ford E350 Girardin Minibus
- 7.3L Powerstroke Diesel with 337,000 miles
- Cabin is 10' long, 6.5' wide, and about 5.5' of headroom
- $2,500!

I'm super stoked to start this project. A year ago, I was looking at buying a full-sized bus to convert and live on full time, or a house, and I ended up going with the house—but one with a driveway big enough for any future bus endeavors. I was just patient and waited to find one that came on the market in my budget. After a year of waiting/looking, I found this one from a dealership (better than private party, in my opinion), and was about half my budget!

First projects on deck are to remove the school markings, get it registered appropriately, and remove the seats.

Now here's a few questions I've got for you experts out there:

- Seatbelt seats. All the passenger seats need to go, but I need seatbelted chairs for the girlfriend and daughter. It looks like it's pretty straightforward to go find a few at a pick n' pull, but are there any "gotchas" with mounting them? I want to make sure that the seatbelts are sturdy and safe.

- Insulation. It seems like ~40% of the surface area of the cabin is single paned glass. Is it worthwhile to pull out the walls and ceiling to apply insulation? I will be pulling out the floor to replace it, so I'll insulate that portion, but what about the rest (given that most of the cabin is leaky glass anyway)?

You guys are the best.

[weboughtabus]

Wow! That bus looks to be in great shape, considering its age! My wife and I have a bus a little longer and with a little more headroom and we're working on the demo now. Most folks on here do recommend insulating everywhere you can and that's my plan, too. At the very least, by getting down to the shell of the bus you can look for points of entry for water and delete excess wiring, some of which can be scavenged for your build-out. Best of luck and be sure to share your progress!

[pbeggs]

looks like an ok bus,.. seems to be missing something,... maybe some more mirrors?

[Johnny Mullet]

Nice bus! Not too often you see these with single rear wheels

[joeblack5]

The srw's are pretty rare. We looked all over the place and ultimately drove 400 miles to get it.
The girardin might be made out of aluminum, check with a magnet, Mine, a corbeil, Elfbu, is partially aluminum and partially galvanized steel.
The floor of our is aluminum and as so has no rust. The floor is also ribbed so that moisture can more easily run away and not stay in contact with the wood.
the nice thing with srw giradin and srw corbeil is that the inside width is about 75" so you can still sleep transverse which makes it very efficient with space.

Good luck, J

[Thomas1985]

Originally Posted by Johnny Mullet

Nice bus! Not too often you see these with single rear wheels

Yea, check the weight rating for your axles. Dispurse from front to back the best that you can.

"Based on the numbers that engineers use when designing, the average weight of a commercial 2x4 is 1.28 lbs per foot... A 2x2 weighs 0.64...

I'm using .065 wall 1x1 steel tube, that weighs .827 lbs per foot...

So, it's considerably less weight that a 2x4 and a little heavier than a 2x2..."

That information is from The Dirtybus...

[vroom]

Yep, we wanted one where we can put our bed transverse, and this gives us just the right amount of space to lay down sideways. That makes the interior planning much more spacious/easier.

[vroom]

Originally Posted by Thomas1985

Yea, check the weight rating for your axles. Dispurse from front to back the best that you can.

"Based on the numbers that engineers use when designing, the average weight of a commercial 2x4 is 1.28 lbs per foot... A 2x2 weighs 0.64...

I'm using .065 wall 1x1 steel tube, that weighs .827 lbs per foot...

So, it's considerably less weight that a 2x4 and a little heavier than a 2x2..."

That information is from The Dirtybus...

We were planning on keeping the water tanks/battery bank as close to the front as possible, but now you've got me wondering about how much the wood is going to weigh... my analytical brain is going to try (and fail) to figure out the CG.

[vroom]

Seats are out. There's no way around it, it's a two person job, but it definitely wasn't as difficult as I thought.

[vroom]

I sanded the entire exterior with a random orbital sander using 150 grit sandpaper, then wiped it down with xylene (any solvent will do, such as acetone--xylene is quite stinky, so it goes without saying wear nitrile gloves and a respirator). After that I taped it up.









I then used a Husky Gravity Feed HVLP Spray Gun, using their 8 Gallon 150 PSI Air Compressor. I couldn't find any Rustoleum in California, so I stopped by a auto paint shop and they recommended I use Envirotech 4xx Series Industrial W B-DTM paint--a water based enamel for non-ferrous surfaces. I thinned it with about 10-20% water, and since I've never used a spray gun before, you can see the quality of the job improve as I went around the bus.











I put two full coats on, one right after the other, and then did a few touch spray ups to fill in the gaps. It isn't a great paint job, but I'm just trying to make it street legal to drive around (can't have that school bus yellow in California). Once I'm done cutting up the exterior, and adding a few ports and doors here and there, I'll put on another two coats with a bit more attention and care. Also I'm going to paint the rims matte black because why not?

[vroom]

Also, I'm pretty stoked that I just picked up 40 LiFePo cells (3.2 volts, 30 amp-hours each) for $20 a cell ($800 total). I'm going to set up the electrical as a 24 volt system, so if my math checks out:

- 8 battery cells wired in series, and all 5 of these packs wired in parallel with each other
- 25.6 volts and 150 amp hours DC, or 3,840 watts
- With an 120v inverter running at 75% efficiency (on the low end, I hear), that'll give me 24 amp hours at 120 volts ( (3840 * .75)/120 = 24)
- The only real electrical devices I'll have are a mini split A/C, a small refridgerator, and a water pump (along with a few LED lights, but no TV or anything like that).

In other words, I think I'll be golden with this battery pack, especially if I can fit at least four 265 watt solar panels on top!

[weboughtabus]

Originally Posted by vroom

Also, I'm pretty stoked that I just picked up 40 LiFePo cells (3.2 volts, 30 amp-hours each) for $20 a cell ($800 total). I'm going to set up the electrical as a 24 volt system, so if my math checks out:

- 8 battery cells wired in series, and all 5 of these packs wired in parallel with each other
- 25.6 volts and 150 amp hours DC, or 3,840 watts
- With an 120v inverter running at 75% efficiency (on the low end, I hear), that'll give me 24 amp hours at 120 volts ( (3840 * .75)/120 = 24)
- The only real electrical devices I'll have are a mini split A/C, a small refridgerator, and a water pump (along with a few LED lights, but no TV or anything like that).

In other words, I think I'll be golden with this battery pack, especially if I can fit at least four 265 watt solar panels on top!

Care to share your battery source? I'm always looking for a lead on good batteries. From what I understand, Lithium really opens up possibilities since they prefer full discharge cycles, whereas car and golf cart batteries prefer 50% discharges (unless I'm mis-remembering something). Do they require anything special on the charging side of things?

[vroom]

Originally Posted by weboughtabus

Care to share your battery source? I'm always looking for a lead on good batteries. From what I understand, Lithium really opens up possibilities since they prefer full discharge cycles, whereas car and golf cart batteries prefer 50% discharges (unless I'm mis-remembering something). Do they require anything special on the charging side of things?

I know it's not what everyone wants to hear, but I got them from a colleague who imported about $8000 worth of them from China. He had to go to customs in LA because they thought he was importing them for a business and owed taxes, but he just lives full time in his toy hauler with his family. I asked if he had any extras and he sure did.

He recommended a 30 amp smart solar charger, and a few special battery voltage amp balancer (http://www.electriccarpartscompany.com/3V-1S-Lithium-Battery-Balancers-Equalizers).