Roam'n Iguana - Mobile Technology Center

[bansil]

Since they are heat exchangers, they don't work worth crap when its really cold.....what weather extreme to you foresee?
With a metal bus anything colder than about 15* really sucks with heat pumps and at 5* it will run damn near all the time I would think

For your mobile app. A diesel fired heater might be best or similar....just thinking out loud

[taskswap]

I lived next to a house that had a heat pump system and it ran all the time in winter. Maybe they're a good bet for Arizona, or only during summer use, but in the Northeast (or North------) I totally agree that a more traditional heating system is going to be best.

My perfect world is a large, well-insulated hot water storage tank with a variety of inputs. Solar for summer hot-water heating, electric for when you have hookups, and diesel for the winter months when you just need raw BTUs.

We're vacillating on a wood stove. I've heated with wood for years and actually enjoy it, but a lot of campgrounds around here won't let you bring in outside firewood because of EAB and other pests. If I was going to just park it somewhere that'd be one thing, but it seems like a limiting decision if we're going to be traveling a lot (we are).

[maggiemae]

That is such a cool idea!! Good for you for making this awesome bus for kids!

We just painted our bus ourselves using a paint sprayer outside. Its doesn't look bad, but it sure does not look as good as yours!

Did your students paint it? When I was in high school, I took two years of auto tech and was so bummed that the state shut down the paint booths... I could have learned so much!

What does the inside look like? Can't wait to see pics!!!

(P.S, I have only been on this forum for a couple months... there are definitely rude people on here... just ignore them. I'm not sure how they aren't banned, IMO.)

Thanks for sharing!!

[The-Breeze]

I don't see where anyone is rude.....I think your confusing rudeness with our strange sense of humor IMO.

It takes a few years on here to get to know how people are....

Just ignore us and grab yourself a beer or two (or a bottle of wine, would be better)

Right Bansil?

[maggiemae]

Really? Some of it doesn't seem like humor to the newbies, or to me at least. It seems like people being judgemental. Don't get me wrong, I still come here because of all the awesome and amazing help I get from all the great people!! I didn't mean to start anything, I just was trying to let the OP know that there are good people here, and to ignore any rude people! Let's just leave it at that, and get excited to see pictures of this bus!!!

[bansil]

...the world is like a box of chocolates...lots of different kinds...some are nutty, some creamy and then there are the most awesome ones ...in the end WE.....urgh...uh...the box has a common core...actually sugar and cocoa.....in our case it's school buses

So let's all put our purses and or murses (male purses) away, open the magic cooling machine and remember what confucius said one warm day "It is always 5 o'clock somewhere in the world"

[sir_squirrel]

You all ROCK! We appreciate all the input and can handle a little jab from time to time! There is one in every family, two in mine! That is if I include myself! lol!

We will be putting an album together when we are done and possible a video. We have few good pics already but unfortunately, the bulk of our pics decided to go fishing!!! I'm not too happy about it but I guess the lure of the big cat came calling! I think I'll be able to pull some from some text and emails though.

I'm not sure about timeline for completion at this time. We didn't get the bus out of the paint booth soon enough and many of our student will be heading off to work or summer vacation soon. Hopefully we will have a few that want to stick around during the summer and do some work or we may have to wrap it up early fall when they return.

Our local electric coop is working to provide the generators and we have discussed tapping into the diesel system if we can find an appropriate unit that fits within our constraints and doesn't create too much noise. If not, we may have to run an external unit that we can just "load" in the back. I'm sure our welding program can fab us a ramp or something to assist with that. Also, we believe the mini-spilt system will be ideal for our application. Temperatures are pretty moderate around here during what we believe our heavy usage times will be. We may have to be a little flexible at times.

Again, thanks for ALL the input!

[nat_ster]

That's the spirit.

Looking forward to the pics.

Nat

[sdwarf36]

Squirrel-1st off-I'm a grad of a vocational high school-and love the idea of introducing younger students to the world of working with their hands.

For anyone new to the site-the touch word that can get the group on edge is "grant". A couple times a year, someone will join the site-looking for someone to give them a bus-so they can get a grant to convert it and run it on WVO-and travel around the country touting their skills at "living free."

[bansil]

The dwarf.....he speaks the truth ......

[maggiemae]

Wait, the government will pay me to live on my bus? Where do I sign up?!?
Heh heh heh. Jk