Advice on raising the roof?

[Redbear]

I am guessing the available metal pieces are the side rails from standard 19" or 23" open "relay racks" used to house electronic equipment manufactured in 1-3/4 inch increments. How tall are the racks? If they are 7-foot or 8-foot racks, and you can access a lot of them, how about using an entire side rail at each hat-channel post running from floor to ceiling on the inside of the bus, instead of cutting the rails up for outside spacers. This plan assumes you are pulling out the inside steel wall panels to add Alaska-grade insulation in the walls, and putting up new interior wall material over the insulation. The flat surfaces of the rails would provide great attachment points for wall materials. They would also support attaching wooden studs to minimize thermal bridging and increase insulation space. The continuous rails would add stability to the bus structure, as well.

Just thinking out loud here.

 

[Redbear]

One last thought on the inside rails - if the roof is 8' 6" at the sides, cut a bunch of 18" rail pieces, put them down starting at the floor and then stand a full 7' rail on top of each one. The junction will be down behind the walls where the original rail is not cut, so they will support each other. It's great you have a source of material like this.

 

[SHORTS]

what Smitty said about welders, I have a Hobart 210 ironman and like it lots.

as far as where to cut the front of the roof, I like the thought of cutting 1 panel back and then scribing a new taper for an aero look. Lady Franklin did a steped raise on his roof and has a detailed blow by blow on his blog about how he scribed the tapered panels.

 

[TygerCub]

1" EMT is wonderfully strong stuff. There are a lot of folks who use between 1" and 1/2" conduit to create geodesic domes - though I'd recommend going at least 3/4" to support any type of weight. Besides being a relatively inexpensive it's also readily available in most big box stores. Size selection may be a little limited, though.

The only thing I'd worry about with EMT is welding. The stuff I've seen in the local Lowes appears to be galvanized. May not be, but sure looks like it. I have heard that welding on galvanized metal is highly toxic. May want to double check just to be safe.

 

[Abbott-SKO]

The only thing I'd worry about with EMT is welding. The stuff I've seen in the local Lowes appears to be galvanized. May not be, but sure looks like it. I have heard that welding on galvanized metal is highly toxic. May want to double check just to be safe.

Don't breath the green smoke, it can make you sick. I weld galv when needed, I just take a few precautions.

 

[Abbott-SKO]

Emberglow I raised the roof on my Carpenter body bus 14". It was a pretty easy job just a lot of labor. My wife added a 36" wire splice to every wire in the wiring harness that ran thru the wall behind the driver's seat. This allowed for some leeway in placing the thick wire bundle inside the wall during the conversion process. I used 1 1/4" X 2 1/4" X (3/32" wall thickness) rectangular tubing that was cut 8" longer then the distance between the upper and lower body struts (after they were cut). I have plenty of photos I could send you if you are interested in viewing them. After framing in a flat drop ceiling with 3 1/2" of fiberglass insulation (R-11) I have 7 feet of clearance between the floor and ceiling and I really like the flat ceiling look when I enter my bus.