"The Italian Connection" a.k.a. "Squeezed Daily"

[Robin97396]

With all the seats being tossed out I figured you could get a couple with the built in baby seats for free. The built in baby seats are a space saver that can be folded into the seat back allowing adults to use the regular seats.
The other folks I read about got their seats from ebay I think.

These bus bench seats are tough as nails and fit perfectly between the wheel wells of the old Jeeps, after adjusting the leg length. That's the only other use I've found for them.

[skoolie_n00bie]

Originally Posted by Robin97396

With all the seats being tossed out I figured you could get a couple with the built in baby seats for free. The built in baby seats are a space saver that can be folded into the seat back allowing adults to use the regular seats.
The other folks I read about got their seats from ebay I think.

These bus bench seats are tough as nails and fit perfectly between the wheel wells of the old Jeeps, after adjusting the leg length. That's the only other use I've found for them.

Now i get what you meant!
Find the benches with the built-in child seats, so an adult could also use it!
DOUH! (Homer Simpson voice)

[Robin97396]

It's just that I've been through that and struggled with independently strapping in child car seats or baby seats. You'll come across them given time, and they can actually be recovered so they don't look like the original seats.

Have you ever used the vinyl spray paint? I put some on these ugly boat seats that I had previously laid out in the sun on a very hot day. The plastic got so hot you couldn't touch it. I sprayed the cushions and the paint stuck extremely well, just like it was the original cushion color. Didn't rub off, which some people complain about and I believe that was because of the heat. You could make tie-die bench seats, or possibly something a little milder.

[cadillackid]

Talk to one of the bus dealers they often take seats out for people that buy busses.. You can have them hold a couple seats for you instead of scrapping them. Bga is near Tampa..

Good to know that 12,000 unit cools your bus.. I am a former HVAC engineer and did the heat load analysis on my bus and came up with a seriously hot day scenario wanting quick cool down in my bus as a bus( it won't be fully converted), and came up with 30,000 btu so I added 10,000 and went to buy a 40k system yet all the bus a/c companies told me I need 70+, my bus is just a 7 window .. I finally settled on a variable ratio system that can run up to 53k and down to 15k so I should be quite fine.. I added in extra for the fact I'll be driving the bus or running its engine a lot of the time.. Great info to get from you.

I painted my interior car parts with SEM in my hotrod days, it is designed for painting everything from dashboards to even fabric seats.. I'm surely thinking you can paint bus seats with it. I do know it took s long time to dry in humid conditions so I took to spraying in my garage with the ac on..

Christopher

[skoolie_n00bie]

Don't mean to spam everyone with a FB video, but I felt this was a nice story to share, relate-able to what some of us are trying to do.
https://www.facebook.com/techinsider...87463/?fref=nf

[skoolie_n00bie]

Hello, again!
I had one of those "Eureka!" moment last night...you know, instead of sleeping, you lay in bed thinking of ways to fix up your bus...usual business...
So I though the main reason why that single deadbolt works so well in the rear emergency door is because of that huge and long handle on the inside that rotates up and down from both sides of the door.
Then it hit me: "it's your bus, make a similar mechanism for the front!"
MS Paint to the rescue! (i don't have the patience for CAD or sketchup these days...):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Byx...ew?usp=sharing
The URL should alow everyone to view the "design" (term used very loosely )
At this point, my next question would be: do i buy a simple lever that would fit my measurement requirement (easiest IMHO), try to scavenge one from an old door (easy), or make one from scrap metal i have around, needing to mess with bearing and/or bushings for a somewhat smooth rotation (somewhat hard)

Suggestions and/or comments?

[Robin97396]

Previously someone had attached a deadbolt to the rear door handle, then I saw that someone else had installed the same deadbolt on the side of the door under the door latch just like in a house. It could be confusing to some people to have two locks on a door if you were in an emergency situation, so your idea of attaching the deadbolt to the handle may be the safest way.

Sorry but I couldn't get anything from your diagram.

[skoolie_n00bie]

Originally Posted by Robin97396

Previously someone had attached a deadbolt to the rear door handle, then I saw that someone else had installed the same deadbolt on the side of the door under the door latch just like in a house. It could be confusing to some people to have two locks on a door if you were in an emergency situation, so your idea of attaching the deadbolt to the handle may be the safest way.

Sorry but I couldn't get anything from your diagram.

Right, that what i did after finding the deadbolt idea on someone else's build.
Do you mean the diagram doesn't come up, or that it's not clear?
if it's not clear, think of it as a cross-section / top view of the front bi-fold door, the last part right against the bus when in the close position.
Hope that helps

[Robin97396]

I couldn't get it all transferred into this thread. Sorry.

Incomplete like this it's even more difficult to understand.

[skoolie_n00bie]

Originally Posted by Robin97396

I couldn't get it all transferred into this thread. Sorry.

Incomplete like this it's even more difficult to understand.

Got it...
Google drive/tapatalk combo for posting pics works great, Gdrive web forum...not so much lol.
i'll upload from tapatalk in a sec!

[skoolie_n00bie]

What about this?


the bronze pieces stand to represent the inside and outside parts of the dedbolt lock.
Grey would be a regular handle, or something fabricated.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Robin97396]

Ok, now I get it. I can see the deadbolt and now I know the thing I couldn't recognize is a handle.
I've got to do something like that or I'll never be able to leave the bus. I do have one door that locks from the outside. The rest lock from the inside except for the top hatch. Does anyone secure the top hatch when they leave their bus?

[skoolie_n00bie]

Originally Posted by Robin97396

Ok, now I get it. I can see the deadbolt and now I know the thing I couldn't recognize is a handle.
I've got to do something like that or I'll never be able to leave the bus. I do have one door that locks from the outside. The rest lock from the inside except for the top hatch. Does anyone secure the top hatch when they leave their bus?

Hmmm...good point on the hatches...These should be at least secured from the inside, even just a few thumb screws.
Specially if the bus was my residence, I would want to avoid someone with a tall ladder to play M:I on me.
Right?

[Robin97396]

You've never seen anyone climb up the mirrors like a monkey? They don't care if they bend them while climbing.
That's another reason to have the deadbolts on the other exits. You can't get much out through the top hatch with all the exits locked, well except small valuable things.

[skoolie_n00bie]

Robin, i completely agree; it's important to lock up as much as possible, specially with lil ones traveling with you.

So here goes the question, and i apologize in advance if , but my search didn't really bring much material to answer this: what to do with household fridge and other "delicate" appliances (portable AC, for ex.) and vibrations?
I'm asking because, as the fridge i spent blood sweat and tears restoring (some sanding and a spray can of glossy grey) died without a warning (you know, warn a brother before you die, you stupid fridge!), i was looking at this lil fridge that apparently only uses 25W, which is great for my "lil genny that could"; however, the first thing i see on the pamphlet is "not for RV use".

I presume that is posted because it's a regular 110/120V unit, and most commercial RVs are 12/24V DC, so ppl would have a nice surprise trying to plug it in lol....

As i see most of the other builds do use household appliances, what do you do? rubber mat under them? nothing at all?

i have an old car tire (don't ask...) i don't need in the garage, and thought maybe to cut strips out of it, and lay them flat to cover the floor, making a "mat" for it?

Lack of sleep made me turn a simple question into a book...good night...

[Robin97396]

Personally, I just moved my 110v fridge right in here. I figure take the risk. If it doesn't work I'll have to get something better when this one dies.
Buses are relatively level most of the time and I haven't been experiencing any problems from vibration, except when I forget to latch the fridge door before traveling. Sometimes I go around a corner and everything inside the fridge hits the door and the fridge kind of pukes on the floor. That's when you want to put the bus on cruise control and go back and pick things up so they don't continue traveling down the center isle.

I certainly don't know what refrigerators will hold up in an RV or not. Probably RV refrigerators? Generally I think it's good to keep a fridge level, so I try to avoid rolling the bus.

I do question how this fridge might react if it were actually running during the vibration of operating the bus on backroads. If I had house batteries I might be attempting to run the fridge while traveling and maybe that would damage something in the compressor or whatever fragile valves or parts there are. I don't know. It just happens that I have to unplug it when I travel but I do have a small genny to use if I can't plug in somewhere.

So far I've been putting my appliances right on the floor. The fridge seems fine, but I have some flat bottom file cabinets that seem to need to be slightly off the floor to allow some air flow. I have an uninsulated floor and water barrels also gathered moisture at the base on cold winter days. I don't know what will work well yet. I was going to try making some kind of mats that would allow airflow under these larger heavy objects. Rubber door mats might work pretty well. Welcome mat under the fridge?

[dgorila1]

Originally Posted by skoolie_n00bie

Robin, i completely agree; it's important to lock up as much as possible, specially with lil ones traveling with you.

So here goes the question, and i apologize in advance if , but my search didn't really bring much material to answer this: what to do with household fridge and other "delicate" appliances (portable AC, for ex.) and vibrations?
I'm asking because, as the fridge i spent blood sweat and tears restoring (some sanding and a spray can of glossy grey) died without a warning (you know, warn a brother before you die, you stupid fridge!), i was looking at this lil fridge that apparently only uses 25W, which is great for my "lil genny that could"; however, the first thing i see on the pamphlet is "not for RV use".

I presume that is posted because it's a regular 110/120V unit, and most commercial RVs are 12/24V DC, so ppl would have a nice surprise trying to plug it in lol....

As i see most of the other builds do use household appliances, what do you do? rubber mat under them? nothing at all?

i have an old car tire (don't ask...) i don't need in the garage, and thought maybe to cut strips out of it, and lay them flat to cover the floor, making a "mat" for it?

Lack of sleep made me turn a simple question into a book...good night...

Almost all of the middle to high end RV's use regular household fridges with no issues. My buddy has a Monaco 35' pusher rv and installed a fancy $2700 fridge with all the bells and whistles in his about a month ago. After a week or so it slowly started losing the ability to cool. Ended up being a factory defect. They had to drive back to Home Depot, remove the window and disassemble the fridge to get it back out but Home Depot did give them a full refund. They ended up buying a much cheaper basic fridge that had a mechanical thermostat for about $700.....following the KISS rule. The more gadgets you get on anything the more chance for something to fail.

[dgorila1]

Originally Posted by Robin97396

Rubber door mats might work pretty well. Welcome mat under the fridge?

Maybe something like the mats used for gym and garage floors. High density rubber that should insulate well between the appliance and floor.

[skoolie_n00bie]

Originally Posted by dgorila1

Almost all of the middle to high end RV's use regular household fridges with no issues. My buddy has a Monaco 35' pusher rv and installed a fancy $2700 fridge with all the bells and whistles in his about a month ago. After a week or so it slowly started losing the ability to cool. Ended up being a factory defect. They had to drive back to Home Depot, remove the window and disassemble the fridge to get it back out but Home Depot did give them a full refund. They ended up buying a much cheaper basic fridge that had a mechanical thermostat for about $700.....following the KISS rule. The more gadgets you get on anything the more chance for something to fail.

Oh wow I thought mfg RVs had the "special" stuff....will try the small fridge, then!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Tango]

Some RV's do have "special RV stuff"...and it is mostly crap. The 3 way fridges being among the worst and most problematic.