Good News Bus Conversion Project

BU

Bus Project

Senior Member
Joined
May 17, 2009
Posts
179
Hello...I am new to the forum and just wanted to post up what we are doing.

Bus.jpeg


This is our project. A 1995 International Flat Nose Genesis School Bus with an Amtran Body. It is powered by an International 7.6-liter DT466 Turbo Diesel Engine and has a Allison Transmission. It only has 110,000 miles on it so it should have a lot of life left. We will be doing a complete change of the interior and exterior. The bus will also be outfitted with full living quarters, kitchen, bathroom. We may end up using this as a tour bus for our band / ministry.

We are currently in the middle of this project and are doing a detailed blog of each step. Please check it out and let us know what you all think.

http://www.busconversionproject.blogspot.com/
 
Re: Our Bus Conversion Project

WELCOME to the BEST SKOOLIE site on the WEB. Great job and documentation so far, seems like your eager to finish that thing in a couple months at the rate you're going. Looking forward to more..... :)
 
Re: Our Bus Conversion Project

Thanks...

I have one question for you guys. Do most of you recommend removing the inside panels on the walls? Or at least remove just one to see how it looks behind it?
 
Re: Our Bus Conversion Project

I've been following your blog with my rss reader. Y'all are really making some progress fast!

As for removing the interior panels, I plan to do that in my bus and then potentially reinstall them with better insulation. It really is a question of what is best for you though. Think about the potential problems that might show up behind there and whether it is worth the risk of leaving them there vs finding them and fixing them. If you have no reason to believe there's no problems there (and likely, there aren't), and you can live with the crappy stock insulation, then don't expend the effort. But, really, it is your call.

I suspect, since you went to the trouble of removing a bent panel on the exterior and having it redone, that you'd be a person that would want to remove the panels and put decent insulation inside. But, I'm just guessing. :D

Good luck, and keep up the good work!

jim
 
Re: Our Bus Conversion Project

if your planing on keeping this bus for years to come, i would remove the panels and clean up any rust issues and reinsulate. You will also see that way which windows might be leaking.
if you only plan to have the bus for a couple years to get rid of the travelbug, i wouldnt bother.
But now would be the time to do it.

edit: checked you blog again and after seing how much effort you put in to get the outside looking perfect with bondo and new sheetmetal i would defenetly say go ahead and rip out those inside panels.
 
Re: Our Bus Conversion Project

Thanks for the info. I think I am getting lazy or just sick of drilling out rivets. I (so far) have decided to leave the panels. I was able to take a look behind one without removing it and all looks well. This bus is pretty much rust free for the most part. It was a southern bus so it never saw salted roads.

Also I will be covering and insulation over all the panels with foam.

Good point on the windows. I will be resealing them all with new window sealing foam.
 
Re: Our Bus Conversion Project

Oh...one more question I have been wanting to ask. Do you have to have a Black water and Gray water tank? Or can you have one that does both????

Any advice on this will help.
 
Re: Our Bus Conversion Project

Sorry for the confusion here. I was mixing people up. This is what I sent to: swinada

Power

I see in your pics that you have 3 batteries for you inverter. Does this provide you with enough power? What kind of items do you run on your inverted power? What size inverter did you go with? Is is Sine Wave or modified? Does it work well? Any advice for choosing these items.

I know a good bit about 12 volt stuff. I managed a car audio shop for some time but i am just trying to get a grasp on this RV stuff.
 
Re: Our Bus Conversion Project

Sorry for the confusion here. I was mixing people up. This is what I sent to: swinada

Power

I see in your pics that you have 3 batteries for you inverter. Does this provide you with enough power? What kind of items do you run on your inverted power? What size inverter did you go with? Is is Sine Wave or modified? Does it work well? Any advice for choosing these items.

I know a good bit about 12 volt stuff. I managed a car audio shop for some time but i am just trying to get a grasp on this RV stuff.
Last edited by Bus Project on Sun May 24, 2009 12:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
 
Re: Our Bus Conversion Project

Sorry i guess i didnt answer that question yet, was gone all weekend.
But in reality i can not even answer your question yet because i didnt start using the bus yet. It will be a few weeks before we get going. So i dont know on how long those 3 batteries will provide power. I really designed the electrical so i dont have to use inverted power to often, mostly everything will be running off 12v or propane. I have only 3 110V outlets in the bus for the occasiopn that we wanna use something like a charger for cameras and such that we dont have a 12v charger for. Or a 110v light. Not sure yet if i will buy a Microwave for the bus. My hotwater tank is dual setup for 110V and propane so is the fridge but i dont plan to use it while off shore.
I went way overboard for the Inverter, this thing is huge, it is actualy made for a backup unit for a house or cabin not for an RV its a Xantrex 1512 CR converter charger, modified Sinewave, 1500 watts 2250 peak. I dont even use the charger side for it since I use a Xantrex truecharge 40 for keeping my battery banks happy.
What will run off the 12V batteries? All inside lights, regular RV style 12V lights, total about 12 bulbs. Waterpump, fridge circuit board, the big user will be the fan on the furnace but we dont plan on using that to often. other tehn that there is really not much using power. The radio and TV are running of an other single battery i have installed up front behind the drivers seat the TV has a cheap little Blackanddecker 200W inverter dedicated. If we listen to much music that will just die, to bad i guess we live without toons until we drive again, as long as i have power for lights and pump for a few days we're good.
The actual real life test should be happening sometimes end of June beginning of July.
 
Re: Our Bus Conversion Project

Hey to all:

We just posted some more pics of the painting we have been doing on the bus. Click the link below to view our blog!

Let us know what you all think.
Day+17+-+Front+Painted.jpg
 
Re: Our Bus Conversion Project

Your bus is pretty much like ours, except it does not have the side emergency exit & ours is supposed to be 84 passengers. I would post pictures but writing this on a macintosh g5, has the capability to do pictures, but can't figure out how to post them on this site. We have gotten ours almost all painted. Been trying to get ours done pretty quick now, just got laid off, wife got bitten by a brown recluse spider on the abdomen. Sorry not trying to steal your site. You have a nice bus there keep up the good work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

PH
Project: Struggle Bus - 2006 FS-65
phager76
PH
NO
Runaway Bus - Minimalist Build
nikitis
nikitis
BU
A nICE Bus - Blue Bird CS RE 3904 - Full-Time Home
2 3
Busjamin
BU
kenkimz
Off grid Skoolie
kenkimz
kenkimz
BO
I finally pulled the trigger!
Busjamin
BU

New posts

Try RV LIFE Pro Free for 7 Days

  • New Ad-Free experience on this RV LIFE Community.
  • Plan the best RV Safe travel with RV LIFE Trip Wizard.
  • Navigate with our RV Safe GPS mobile app.
  • and much more...
Try RV LIFE Pro Today
Back
Top