84 Thomas - The Yankeflyer

[yankeflyer]

A brief introduction, I started my bus in 2003 and have made many changes but have yet to actually start on the inside of the bus.

http://www.yankeflyer.com is where I have posted most of my activities since I retired late 2002.

It's great to see this site with all the progress that others have made and I feel reinspired, if that's the word, to hang in there for one more year and hopefully see this through.

The bus was purchased from a local heavy equipment and truck dealer. In Gillette Wyoming after it was traded in by the Campbell County school District for a new Thomas. The dealer gave the school district $500 trade in and I bought the bus for $800.

The 3208 Caterpillar was reported to be a fresh rebuild with only 15,000 miles on it and the Allison T6 transmission was dry and no leaks.

The Eaton 5:31 differential was replaced with a 2:90 Rockwell. Fuel mileage increased from 6 miles per gallon to 10 miles per gallon, cruise rpm reduced from 3000 rpm at 60 miles an hour to 2300 rpm at 75 miles an hour.

It's great fun to drive and pass all the semi trucks that are governed at 62 mph.

I've added a bay with two 5000 W generators and installed 80 gallon propane tanks underneath. I plan to have tankless water heaters for the shower and kitchen. The toilet is the incinerator's style, hopefully eliminating any need for black water tanks.

The interior is still to be done and the installation of fresh water and gray water holding tanks and all the associated plumbing wiring cabinetry and carpentry, flooring and hardware.

I'm headed for quartzite Arizona next week with my project and my tools.

Tow car is an old 67 Porsche 912 that could stand a few weeks in the garage itself.

Between my interest in guitars, computers, arts and generally just having a good time at being retired takes up most of my day and leaves little time for bus conversions. Good thing I'm not a deadline.

But I do have a question I've converted to LED lights everywhere and I can't remember if the rear clearance lights on the sides were amber or red, does it matter?

Miles B. Mulloy

 

[pervy2u]

Howdy - I took a quick tour of your site. I envy your location in the summer having spent a a few great vacations in Wyoming. Winter? Not so envious! LOL This is a good forum to bounce ideas around and get those valued "been there done that" comments that save time and money! I think you'll enjoy the place. I know I have.

Larry

 

[Griff-SKO]

. . . rear clearance lights on the sides were amber or red. . . Miles B. Mulloy

They are red.

 

[lblampman]

Hey there...and welcome!

Yeah! Another Thomas bus owner. Jay Smith in Colorado (TomCat here on the forums) also converted a Wyoming Thomas; he's got a photo web site of his conversion here.

Another one in the works in GoneCamping; he's got a site here. There are four pages there and you have to look through the posts to get the photos and narrative.

I've just started on my new-to-me 1982 Thomas Safe-T-Liner. I thought I got a good deal on my bus; you've got me beat by a mile! Mine has a Cat 3208 as well with an Allison MT643 automatic. I've got 4.56 gears which lets me cruise at 60 at 2200 rpm or 65 at 2400 rpm.

Be sure and let us know how your project is going and post some photos in the gallery if you get the chance.

 

[yankeflyer]

Headlight switch failure

Well after so much boasting of my great accomplishments and work on the bus, wouldn't you know, today's first test of all the LED lights including the new red side Marker lights for the rear, turned up a new problem with the headlight switch.

I have had problems with the switch before when using the switch to dim or brighten the dash lights. The switch would not always perform as it should and yesterday after five hours of having the headlight switch on and a trickle charge on the battery while I removed old lights and installed new ones around the perimeter must've proved too much.

Though certainly no expert with electrical problems, it can`t go without saying I sure wish that I had a Thomas mechanic working on this instead of me. I've pulled the instrument panel and took a look at the headlight switch and it is a full-fledged looking antique.

Gillette is full of heavy equipment and truck dealer parts suppliers so I assume there is a new part available. Very close working quarters.

It is my understanding LED lights use less amps than the old style -- or do I have that just backwards.

Anyway the guy down and Colorado sure is doing some nice carpentry on that bus. To say nothing of the pretty sophisticated infrastructure of electronics and plumbing and all the other modern conveniences.

Lots of great pictures -- lots of good ideas

 

[pervy2u]

The way LED was explained to me for house lighting was that the LED equivelant to a 40w incandescent bulb would be maybe 1/5 the wattage with slightly lower lumins. In a 12v lighting system the drop in lumins is less.

Larry

 

[yankeflyer]

Good news bad news

Good news is the brake lights still work and the turn signals still work so I guess that narrows it down to the headlight switch. Hopefully I'll be able to find one Monday.

Thanks for the replies.

One other thing to note as I have received a couple of e-mails about the price I paid for the bus, it was probably a mistake to boast of the deal that I got. However Jack's trucking in Gillette Wyoming is still the supplier for buses for the Campbell County school District, the last I heard.

I called back a year later to see if there were any more great deals and the price had gone to 1500, but the buses were newer than the one I bought.

The deal that I got on my bus was more a case of dumb luck and being at the right place at the right time when they had six for sale and of those three were spoken for, I thought at the time that I should try to buy other three, but now after this three years of working on this thing, I'm wondering about the wisdom of buying this one.

School districts in your area would be the first place to make inquiries about the older buses they plan to replace.

 

[lblampman]

One quick (I hope) question if you don't mind...

Where did you get your propane tanks; not the name of the business specifically but what kind of place and what (if it's a used tank) was its prior application? Jay Smith has an 86-gallon propane tank on his bus but I've been unable to turn up any of the size you or Jay are using. I suspect I'm just not looking in the right places yet.

Thanks!

 

[yankeflyer]

Propane tanks

I got the tanks from a local propane dealer. Once again just dumb luck, I had been looking for a horizontally mounted propane tank, at least a 100 pound tank. I don't remember exactly how the conversation went but knowing me when I'm on the hunt for something I asked anyone and everyone everyplace I'm at, and hope to get lucky. Hundred and 40 bucks

Specifically these are called saddle tanks and are actually two 100 pound tanks that had been installed on a light-duty commercial truck that ran off of propane. Loaded to about 85% which is recommended maximum and is approximately 40 gallons.

The thing about the saddle tanks is that the mounting brackets were already welded on, so in my application I was able to fairly easily fabricate mounting brackets to add to the ones that are already on the tanks that I bolted and welded as applicable.

When I get a chance I'll figure out how to post some pictures.

 

[GoneCamping-SKO]

Welcome aboard!! I've had my Thomas for a little over a year now, and work on it only for a few hours on Sundays. Wish I could do more, but I'm doing the conversion at my place of work, and it get's in the way where I park to work on it....and they are open 7am - midnight six days a week...so Sundays will have to do.

Right now mine is coming along fairly well. I completed the plumbing today, and next week will start the electrical. That should be faster than the plumbing was.... unlike the plumbing, I actually know what I'm doing with the electrical stuff!!

The link posted above goes to my camping & racing forum, but eventually I'm going to build an entire website around my conversion, which will make negotiating things easier (not to mention I can load larger pictures there too!!). For now I just post away in the forum....

 

[vonslatt]

Oooo . . . I'd love to see more photos and information on the axle change! What did the Rockwell come out of? How standardized are truck axles?

I also like the way you "shaved" the chrome off the front and fitted the amber lights into the wiper plates - clean!

Cheers,

 

[yankeflyer]

Detailed pictures

Thanks for the generous words,

It definitely has been a lot of hard work -- and I did take many pictures of the axle swap.

I have just arrived here in quartzite Arizona for my first official winter down south. And today I finally got the satellite up. So gimme the rest of the week to get pictures updated to my web site and to post more information to this web site.

 

[yankeflyer]

Quartzsite

Talk about motor homes of every description in size -- wow

More later

 

[yankeflyer]

Here we are one year and a half later, since I pulled in to Arizona. Fortune has favored me with the place to work my bus so I will post a few pictures to show where I`m at. I have to add that making a home in a school bus is harder than it sounds, so I will post the few pictures to show where I'm at.

http://www.yankeflyer.com click on the Bus project

I have a ultralight airplane that is also about to arrive at a test flight time.

And though they might seem unrelated they are very much parts of a single package. If it all works out the bus will be pulling a fine example of the 1980s ultralight airplane in a trailer that also houses the tow car.

As for the interior of the bus -- kitchen --shower --bedroom will pretty much some it up.I have an old that RV that that will provide some interior infrastructure -- Windows -- the refrigerator -- beyond that, I assume the rest will be custom fabricated here at the shop in Winslow.

More later over the next couple months -- I AM Miles B. Mulloy

 

[yankeflyer]

So much for plan a, when this project started out, diesel sold for $1.67 and gasoline was already high at $2.20 a gallon back in 2003.

60 gal. of diesel at the going rate of $4.59 a gallon is about $275 to fill the tank. I guesstimate that to be about $.459 a mile to drive my 40 ft. Thomas, powered by its 3208 Caterpillar diesel. And it gets about 10 mi. to the gallon. So the bad news is, a trip that would have cost me $250.00 in fuel cost, will now cost about $365.00 Winslow Arizona to Oklahoma City.

And I had hoped to make a trip to Oshkosh Wisconsin this year that would cost over $790.65 just in fuel. At this point it's not just about whether or not I can afford to take a trip in this bus anytime in the near future, but whether the investment of my time, energy and money into this project has become a fool's errand.

Just yesterday a friend of mine who travels that interstate 40 between Flagstaff Arizona and the New Mexico border said that he only saw one or two large motorhomes, compared to last year at this time when the same trip would have seen hundreds.

No doubt the big rigs are still out there hauling all the the NASCAR boys around and I hear that even they are seeing that there spectators numbers are down.

I will be close enough to Quartzsite Arizona in the fall to see the numbers for myself, I know what it looked like 2006 2007 Winter in the 2007 2008 Winter has been here and Winslow.

I'm not saying I'm giving up on the project but that now that I'm in a position to put in the large steel bay that I have in mind, at the very least I got to rethink what I want to use them for. An alternative to diesel fuel prices, assuming they are going to stay this high for the foreseeable future, must be found if I am to travel.

I went back and checked my numbers and these numbers though more accurate are still at the tipping point for plan a.

 

[bus-bro]

.... a fool's errand! A fool's errand?

And just two minutes ago I decided to damn the fuel prices and proceed with the conversion. The problem is I can't afford to drive it, let alone convert it--which makes the whole endeavour most interesting. We must realize the value of our buses is directly tied to the price of scrap steel (which is currently quite high). If you make it a comfy live-aboard that would seem to justify the fool's errand.

Yankeflyer, you do seem comfy in your bus.

 

[yankeflyer]

Quite comfortable indeed -- in an uncomforting sort of way -- but your point of course is well taken and when I was crunching the numbers about the new fuel costs reality, I think I got hysterical for a moment.

Wise Council Brother........ hang onto your dream

 

[yankeflyer]

The fly in at Oshkosh is something I've promised myself for longtime and have yet to get done. I'm doing the final assembly on a lazair, series one. And of course I would love to set it up and the fly at the Oshkosh flyin.

There were the lazair owners from Australia, Canada, maybe Sweden and of course from all around here in the US.

The most likely scenario that I see right now is that I find a inexpensive to operate vehicle to pull my airplane and trailer up to Oshkosh and then camp out with the planes.

At $.50 or better mile a trip like this to Oshkosh, round-trip is in the $1500 area or more, for the bus. I still hope there is some way for hydrogen to be used as fuel.

We'll see how the summer progresses along and my progress on the bus, and if I actually get ahead enough that I can make the trip all certainly check-in with you before I leave. One other thing I have to admit -- I love driving the bus.
http://www.lazair.com
http://www.yankeflyer.com

 

[yankeflyer]

Hi Craig - thinking of Oshkosh -- reminds me of the time that I was flying low over the tulip fields of Mount Vernon Washington.

And I know - it was totally a no-no - but we sure were having fun and I was following a Robinson B1 RD and we were playing follow the leader. I had paid for a coworker to have a short introductory ride in ultralights. Arlington Washington is just down the road from Mount Vernon Washington where there are thousands of acres of tulip fields. Giant splashes of color as viewed from our ultralights. Following one of the head guys of the Robinson's B1 RD's and my coworker we headed out from Arlington Washington for a short flight to the coast and over the Mount Vernon tulip fields.

The B1 banked and descended sharply and what fun that was to follow that move and in seconds we are in a low-flying formation only feet above the tulip fields.

Coming up to the end of the tulip fields was a few lines of electric and telephone wire on your typical telephone poles. I had just watched the B1 RD pull-up and head for altitude and the coastline. I firewalled the throttle and pulled back on the yoke, my little 40 horsepower 447 Rotax Super Cadet pulled me right up to 40 ft. above the telephone lines and the road and then seized.

Silence and 40 ft. instantly turn into 35 ft. and luckily I had hundreds of acres of flat farmland spread out in front of me to land. And just like that -- what - three seconds at the most I went from good time flying to sitting in the cockpit of my little plane, intact and on the ground, stunned at the silence and stillness. Still watching B1 RD disappear into the distance I jump out of the plane and ran swinging my arms and my helmet hoping they will turn and see that I'm not behind them. But it becomes clear in seconds that they're not going to hear me hollering or see me................ and I'm not alone.

All my jumping up-and-down and running and hollering had captured the attention of a small herd of dairy cows. As an experienced farmhand, I had little concern for myself but mostly what those big old Holsteins could do to my airplane. I took a last look at the boys in the B1 RD and by this time they were just speck in the sky. And that herd of Holsteins was moving fast.

By the time I got to the airplane the cows were on me, easily overwhelmed by their size I was pinned between them and the airplane. Suddenly I have cows sniffing my butt, rubbing their head in my crotch, sticking their wet mucus dripping nose in my helmet, then the big one stuck her head into that group right in my face.

She sends that tongue out and runs it up into one of her nostrils and I'm thinking oh no, isn't the engine quitting bad enough? Then she sent that tongue out again and it went up the other nostril and I screamed -- not the tongue! And in that startled dairy cow moment they blinked twice and I was gone sprinting for the fence line with a half a dozen heifers behind me. My adrenaline sent me up and over the fence line and into the country road of, the tulip country of Mount Vernon Washington, where I had just buzzed the community's prize tulip fields.

One minute it, you are on top of the world and looking down -- -- and then -- -- the next minute you are standing in the middle-of-the-road next to the tulip fields you just buzzed and with a bunch of dairy cows standing at the fence looking at you with hungry eyes. It was a humbling experience to stick out my thumb that day. It was 1987.

So here we are in 2008 and hopefully only a couple of weeks away from the test flight of my series one project. Turning 60 this year and sometimes these days I sort of feel like I’m standing on the side of that road again wondering what the heck just happened --
http://www.yankeflyer.com

 

[bus-bro]

That's sure a funny story. Glad you survived to tell it.