Hi from Southwest Missouri

[lee.wissmiller]

I am Lee Wissmiller. My wife and I are planning our first skoolie, with a relatively short bus. She is worried about driving a larger bus. Our bus used to be a police bus, and it is 24' in length with 16' behind the drivers seat.

We have been (very basic so far) writing a blog as we work to convert our bus. Have already hit a few roadblocks (insuring the bus till the conversion is done, figuring out where to put propane tank (and type of tank) etc), but not too much.

The blog is at wissmillerbus.blogspot.com

I am petrified of attempting to insulate and wall the ceiling due to it's curve, but hoping to find some good guidance to do that. I know theoretically how to do it, but I also know it will not be as easy as I see it in my head.

Over the next few weeks to month, I intend to:

Remove the seats we are removing. This is already becoming a project. Some of these will need ground off as they are stripped, and others will need me to get more tools as they are being difficult to remove.

Address rust in a few areas that will require some welding to give me a good mountable surface (none of these are near the main floor or walls, mostly around the drivers seat and interior cowling in front. Probably going to wire brush, primer, and paint what I can, then seal under the plate and cover with a metal plate, and bolt the plate at the corners. Then a friend is going to weld the edges to give me a good seal and hopefully minimize or eliminate as much of the damage as I can.

Register and insure the skoolie as a bus temporarily, so I can use it to haul stuff and get the interior made out.

March is when I will start on the insulation and walls as well as building our bedframe.

April is when we plan to do the counters, and finish things out. Planning to hit the road in May with this. Our first month we are planning to stay close to "home" to ensure we do not need anything else that we have not planned on. After that we plan to hit the road.

I will accept any and all input, however I would like to say the bus is paid for, so I would prefer to avoid "buy a longer bus" discussions.

[farok]

I'm working on a similar size bus, with about 16' behind the driver seat. Make it what you want it to be - if the size is good for you, that's all that matters.

As for the insulation, I'm looking very closely at closed-cell spray foam for the upper walls and ceiling. Check it out - there's a lot of posts here about it.

Enjoy!

[ol trunt]

Tell us about your bus---eng, trans, dog nose, pusher, all that good stuff. My bus is a dog nose and 22.5' long and quite long enough for the two of us (most of the time). Oh, and welcome!
Jack

[Native]

Welcone to the site.


Remember that working on a bus takes more time than expected, more money than expected, and much more work than expected.

[lee.wissmiller]

Engine is a V8, truthfully I am looking up what a dogs nose and pusher is, I do not easily know what the transmission is except that it is an Automatic.

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by lee.wissmiller

Engine is a V8, truthfully I am looking up what a dogs nose and pusher is, I do not easily know what the transmission is except that it is an Automatic.

Dog nose is where the engine is in an extended nose in front of the driver. An FE would be a Flat front/ Front engine. RE is a flat front rear engine. Rear engine is referred to as a pusher, where a front engine would be a puller, though not referred as such.

[lee.wissmiller]

It is a dog nose then and a puller. It has about 5’ in front of the driver for the engine compartment (including the dash space). It will also be pulling our Fiat 500L behind as a travel vehicle at each stop.