84 Thomas - The Yankeflyer

[yankeflyer]

I've posted pictures of the progress to date here, in the gallery. Progressive refused to renew my insurance this time. I'm sure this subject has been discussed somewhere in this forum. I could use a good lead on insurance providers.

http://www.skoolie.net/gallery2/v/Skoolies/84+Thomas/http://www.skoolie.net/gallery2/v/Skoolies/84+Thomas/

 

[Sojakai]

Gmac?

 

[tfdfyrman]

I used GMAC to insure my bus, as a bus, and it took about 15 minutes and for only $20 a month.

 

[yankeflyer]

Ok GMAC insured me - cost a lot more than 20 dollars a month - two or three times that.

 

[yankeflyer]

tfdfyrman-the next time I'm out on the road, I will let you know so that I can come by and see your project. And of course you're welcome to see mine. I'm parked at my family's acreage southwest of Guthrie. Man I miss that Arizona weather.

I sure like the work you are doing on the bus.

 

[yankeflyer]

It's amazing and inspiring to see how many people have started school bus projects and lots of very skilled work going on.

I hope to finish mine over the course of the next 12 months.

http://yankeflyer.com/default.aspx
http://www.skoolie.net/gallery2/v/Skoolies/84+Thomas/

 

[newbusser]

I would love some more info on the axel swap. Is it discussed anywhere?

what type of rig did it come out of?

how difficult was it to fit in?

and also, is your coolant fan direct drive? I have an 84 blue bird that mine is hydro powered.

 

[yankeflyer]

The axle came out of a beer delivery truck that had been scrapped out. It had been used in a conventional set up as a reardrive axle. So to use it in my pusher configuration I had to turn the axle upside down drill and tap new vent hole and gear lube drain and fill plug holes. To use my old drive shaft we had to use a blowtorch to cut off the old U joint. In that process and torqing the shackle bolts down to 800 ft.-pounds I broke a lot of tools including the torque multiplier of the mechanic who was mentoring me on the project, a good guy and I found a new part for his torque multiplier.He used to say he could have done the job in nine hours in his shop. It only took me nine months 8) in my defense, I must add that I was parked on the North Carolina coast behind the best hot dog stand in the world http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...&cd=1&ved=0CAYQBSgA&q=Paul's+Place+NC&spell=1 just a few miles north of Wilmington and not far from my old stomping grounds as a young Marine stationed at Lejeune. The last time I'd been in that area I was 19 and had the rest of my life before me. So every time I took the old Porsche out for a drive, a 1967 912 and almost 40 years later, it was a great trip down memory lane.

Retirement is good http://yankeflyer.spaces.live.com/ I have pictures of the axle swap and the rebuilt Ohio Drive not much detail mostly just couple glamour shots.http://yankeflyer.com/Mobilestudio.aspx I must admit to being pretty proud of that axle swap job. I spend a lot of time on my airplane project http://lazair.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=902 I hope to get back up in the air this coming spring and summer. I must confess that my last time out Tucker flats got the best me and I bift it pretty bad.

The next thing I hope to write about is that I've hooked up my plumbing freshwater to gray water.

 

[yankeflyer]

I've updated my pictures at the gallery http://www.skoolie.net/gallery2/v/Skoolies/84+Thomas/

 

[yankeflyer]

A winter's day here in Oklahoma, a good day to update the bus project. It just can't go without saying again how impressed I am with everyone's work, you can spend all day here getting inspired to start your own project.

This is your basic 20 gal. water tank that fits under the bed, looks like there's room enough for two. The waterline will go straight to the tankless water heater. Inlet fitting and door for the body to tank should show up in the mail soon.

 

[yankeflyer]

the tankless water heater

 

[yankeflyer]

connected to LP gas

 

[yankeflyer]

I bought it http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_tr...ess+water+heater+LP&_sacat=See-All-Categorieson eBay probably two years ago from an outfit out of Phoenix. I would've thought I could go to paypal or eBay to recover that information, but I guess that goes too far back because I couldn't find it. So the link to tankless water heaters on eBay today, that I just posted above is how I found the one I have. If I remember correctly it's around 12. liters per minute for the rate of flow and the temperature increase above ambient is something I'm going to have to go by feel and hopefully it will feel warm enough for a shower. Since the water tank that supplies the shower will be inside under the bed, it will be somewhat insulated itself. I don't really have a firm plan A. because I felt that would restrict my possibilities, potential to use the materials that I found in my environment at any given time. Of course I travel a lot so I have a lot of possibilities and can follow a good lead. Oh ya the money - I think it was just under or over 300 dollars, most of the LP tankless water heaters at Home Depot or Lowes were in the 500 to 1000 or more.

 

[yankeflyer]

ready for the shower drain hole to tank and plumb for the grey water dump valve, looks like standard threads coming out of the tank/barrel.

 

[browncrown]

Your tankless hot water heater looks great...let us know how it works!

 

[yankeflyer]

for sale on ebay today-http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1984...8QQcmdZViewItemQQptZBuses?hash=item35a5f5a3ac

 

[yankeflyer]

Found someone to help me get into an old hard drive and found a few pics of the early days of the project and the axle swap.
http://yankeflyer.com/Mobilestudio.aspx

Miles

 

[browncrown]

Those are some serious looking springs...you should be able to put all kinds of extras inside and not worry about the weight as much

 

[yankeflyer]

They tell me this thing was built like a dump truck with dump truck brakes. Long on wo short on go.
The axle swap was simple and straightforward and yet it was still very hard to do, as you can see the pictures, and required a lot of lumber to hold it in the air and the axle weighs as much as a piano. The perfect place to work on your bus will have a pit that the bus can drive over and allow you to stand up and work comfortably on everything underneath. The other way, rolling around on creepers and that's how I had to do mine, sucks.

 

[yankeflyer]

Anyway back to the gray water tank -- found some hardware at the local RV shop -- around 50 bucks.

The adapter, the white piece that screws into the tank was in the plumbing department of Home Depot and the reducer for the inch and a half PVC came from the RV shop and as you can see there is some gray PVC that was in the electrical department.