1998 Ford e350 Shuttle Bus to Convert - Tigeritaville!

[MemphisFan]

We just picked up a 1998 Ford e350 shuttle bus that we plan to convert to a tailgating/camping rig. We don't plan on going as far as installing pluming or toilets. Mainly just a fridge, TV, heat & air (mainly through shore hookups) and a bed area and such.

Right now we are knee deep in planning and searching for what we want to do with it. My biggest question we have right now is regarding the fiberglass shell on it. I've been reading on here and have seen where people are hanging cabinets to the fiberglass and attaching other things to it. How secure is this? I'm wary of having anything hanging attached to the fiberglass walls/ceiling but not sure if it's good or not.

We're looking forward to the project and plan to pull a bunch of ideas from here and hopefully gain some good knowledge from everyone. Here's a couple pictures of the outside for now. We used it this weekend to tailgate for the football game, with just throwing everything inside for now.

 

[ol trunt]

Re: 1998 Ford e350 Shuttle Bus to Convert

Nice bus. It kind of sounds like you have your needs covered with the bus in its present configuration. I've spent 40 years or so camping out of the side of a Suburban (still am because my bus isn't done yet) and there is a lot to be said for it. Easy in with stuff and easy out when you need to spread out. If you don't need all the creatuer comforts in the bus--don't get your kinckers in a knot trying to build one out--it'll take fout times as long as your best estimate and cost four times as much as you figured. I'm not complaining, I'm enjoying the build. Its just that I, like everyone else on this blog, am a little bus nutty. Have fun, keep the pics comming and good luck. Jack

 

[roach711]

Re: 1998 Ford e350 Shuttle Bus to Convert

I have a 2000 Ford E450 with an Eldorado Aerotech fiberglass body and the interior 'glass skin holds screws real well. I hung my upper storage cabinets using sheet metal screws and "L" brackets and they're still secure a year later. The fiberglass is tough enough that I've twisted heads off a few screws if I didn't drill a big enough pilot hole.

 

[sdwarf36]

Re: 1998 Ford e350 Shuttle Bus to Convert

Welcome!. I attached most things to the metal framework.

 

[MemphisFan]

Re: 1998 Ford e350 Shuttle Bus to Convert

thanks for the replies. For our upper cabinets they'll never hold much weight so it sounds like we should be good.

We are keeping things fairly simple from what we can tell. Our plan for now is as follows:

1 - Build a little platform up in the back even with the double-doors, ~5-6" high in order to have a little storage area under it for tables/chairs etc.
2 - Put in a sofa bed type on top of the platform. Comfy seating for tailgating and fold out bed for camping
3 - Install a few base cabinets for other storage
4 - Install a chest freezer w/ a temp. controller to use as a fridge (would need an inverter set up for this). Would ad a veneer top to it to match the counter top of the cabinet.
5 - Upper cabinets on one side for a little more storage

Power is our next step to figure out. When driving down the road, the only things that would be running on the inverter would be the fridge, a tv, and charging phones. We want to set up a plug in for shore power to run the fridge, tv, a heater/fan, crockpot (sometimes), blender (sometimes) & phones for when we get to camping or tailgating (our tailgating lot has built in power for us, but not RV-type plugs just regular outlets). If anyone has any suggestions on this feel free to chime in. I've been reading up on it here and other places and will continue to read some more to fully understand inverters and the lot.

I did a quick little excel sketch while trying different options. Everything is done to scale. The sofa bed is supposed to look like a couch from the side. My wife laughed and said it looked like an 'L', lol.

 

[roach711]

I haven't found any metal in my bus body at all.

Check out the Dometic Coolfreeze coolboxes for another refrigerator option. They run on either AC or DC and can be set either as a refrigerator or a freezer. The large sizes draw only 65 watts. Best price I've found is at adventurerv.net

 

[sdwarf36]

Hmm-my Champion has metal ribs throughout it.

 

[thetootall]

Would love to hear what happened with this!

Nothing like a Saturday tailgating outside of the Liberty Bowl right? Go Tigers! Lived in Memphis 25 years of my life so I know how awesome a good tailgater would be.

 

[MemphisFan]

Would love to hear what happened with this!

Nothing like a Saturday tailgating outside of the Liberty Bowl right? Go Tigers! Lived in Memphis 25 years of my life so I know how awesome a good tailgater would be.

I'll start posting some updates soon on this. Surprisingly we just got back to working on it. Time & registration issues kept us from touching it for nearly a year. Here's the little we've finished so far:

Raised platform in the rear is built
Seats removed to make room for cabinets
sofa bed bought, assembled. Will be installed into bus next week

so, not much, lol. I'm researching cabinets right now to install, so hopefully will have those done in the next few weeks.

Go Tigers! We bought this to add to our tailgating experience on Tiger Lane. We've been using it, but mainly just shuttling everything back and forth. But it's slowly coming together now!

 

[schoolmarm-SKO]

Will be at my house in Memphis next week and would like to see your bus (if ok with you).
Mary Ray
731-538-3775
or just pm me on here.