New shorty owner!

[Nomis]

Hi all,

I'm about to buy a 2000 Chevy 2500 propane bus, so figured I'd sign up here!

I'm buying it direct from a reputable school bus company that was retiring their fleet, so it's been well maintained and inspected every 60 days for its entire life.

I pick it up on Monday. I've got plans for the longer-term build, but in the meantime, I need to put in a quick-and-easy plan in order to insure it as a camper (and use it for some short trips in the coming month or two).

Does anyone know if there are some older discussion threads here, discussing that topic (tips for a quick and dirty, but temporary, conversion)? I'm brand new to the forum, so I'm still learning my way around, and how to search old topics.

Thanks!

-Simon-

[o1marc]

Go to the UserCP in the upper left here and fill out your profile, it'll help us answer your questions better.
You will need some variation of 4 of the following 6 requirements.


Cooking appliance with onboard fuel source
Gas or electric fridge
Toilet with exterior evac
Heat/AC with power other than engine
Potable (drinkable) water supply
110v power supply

[peteg59]

Not sure I'd want a LP powered bus. Unless I wasn't planning on any long road tripping in it.
What happens when an unexpected out of fuel situation happens, as gas gages on LP are notorious for their inaccuracy? Can't just go get a 5 gallon can of fuel to get to the nearest gas station.
If you're planning on converting it to gasoline, that's another story...

[Sleddgracer]

Originally Posted by peteg59

Not sure I'd want a LP powered bus. Unless I wasn't planning on any long road tripping in it.
What happens when an unexpected out of fuel situation happens, as gas gages on LP are notorious for their inaccuracy? Can't just go get a 5 gallon can of fuel to get to the nearest gas station.
If you're planning on converting it to gasoline, that's another story...

I drove a propane only truck for several years and had very few problems finding propane - in the NWT and through the Canadian prairies I had to plan ahead about where I was going to stop, ( had to do that with gas powered trucks too ) but further south in Canada, down the west coast of the US, Idaho, Montana I had no trouble finding fuel - I did carry a couple of 20 lb bottles of propane and a propane syphon hose just in case - came in handy a couple of times

[peteg59]

Not trying to discourage this buy, but there are serious considerations in going the LP powered route. If all issues brought up are moot, disregard anything below.

I guess one could get around the lack of readily available LP fuel supplies out on the open road with proper planning, but there are other issues in running LP fueled vehicles.

Not sure where Nomis lives or where the bus came from, but unless it's got a LP heating system onboard, any cold weather driving will also be nothing but headaches.

[Sleddgracer]

Originally Posted by peteg59

I guess one could get around the lack of readily available LP fuel supplies out on the open road, but there are other issues in running LP fueled vehicles.

Not sure where Nomis lives or where the bus came from, but unless it's got a LP heating system onboard, any cold weather driving will also be nothing but headaches.

the heater in my propane truck was exactly the same as any other truck - i spent several winters in the north or prairie country, temps down to -40 and the heater worked fine - basically the same problems with a propane motor as a gas motor - slightly less power, barely noticeable, but close to 40% cheaper to drive - auxiliary heat, if that's what you mean, is readily available with propane

[peteg59]

Originally Posted by Sleddgracer

the heater in my propane truck was exactly the same as any other truck - i spent several winters in the north or prairie country, temps down to -40 and the heater worked fine - basically the same problems with a propane motor as a gas motor - slightly less power, barely noticeable, but close to 40% cheaper to drive - auxiliary heat, if that's what you mean, is readily available with propane

My apologies for any confusion in my post above.
What I am referring to is a pre heater for the propane line entering the injector on the engine.
Without a preheater system, the line(s) as well as the injector will likely freeze up leaving you with a no start condition when temps drop below freezing.

[Sleddgracer]

Originally Posted by peteg59

My apologies for any confusion in my post above.
What I am referring to is a pre heater for the propane line entering the injector on the engine.
Without a preheater system, the line(s) as well as the injector will likely freeze up leaving you with a no start condition when temps drop below freezing.

l had a block heater on my truck - the truck would start reliably at -27 c ( -16.6 f ) without being plugged in - I didn't have any problems with -40 as long as l plugged in the block heater

[ol trunt]

Peteg59 does bring up a valid point at least with propane. As the propane in the line expands at the carb, injector or burner it looses heat because of the expansion of the gas from relatively high pressure to relatively low pressure causes a temp drop in the line temp which then reduces the amount of fuel reaching the the carb etc. Sledd, I'd guess that your block heater produced enough radiated heat to keep you going. A sort of case in point is the propane single burner camp stove I use when camping with my toad. On a chill morning I can't even manage to boil a pot of coffee before the small gas cylinder freezes up and the flame goes out.
Jack

[peteg59]

Originally Posted by Sleddgracer

l had a block heater on my truck - the truck would start reliably at -27 c ( -16.6 f ) without being plugged in - I didn't have any problems with -40 as long as l plugged in the block heater

Hopefully that's the answer for you, then.
When I was working driving LP forklifts in an earlier life, we could only go outside for less than 5 minutes when the thermometer was below freezing before the fuel systems iced up to the point of stalling the engines.
We'd have to use the diesel lift trucks to pull back into the warehouse, a stranded/stalled/iced up LP lift on many occasions and temps in NH don't reach -40 very often!
The good thing about that scenario, was the freezing of fuel lines wouldn't do damage to the engines and they would fire right up after thawing out inside for a few minutes.
Good luck on your potential new to you, bus...

[Sleddgracer]

Originally Posted by ol trunt

Peteg59 does bring up a valid point at least with propane. As the propane in the line expands at the carb, injector or burner it looses heat because of the expansion of the gas from relatively high pressure to relatively low pressure causes a temp drop in the line temp which then reduces the amount of fuel reaching the the carb etc. Sledd, I'd guess that your block heater produced enough radiated heat to keep you going. A sort of case in point is the propane single burner camp stove I use when camping with my toad. On a chill morning I can't even manage to boil a pot of coffee before the small gas cylinder freezes up and the flame goes out.
Jack

l've had that happen with a propane stove - something else I learned the hard way, is you have to have anti freeze in your radiator, even on the hottest day of the year if you're on propane, or the water freezes right up and the propane stops flowing