PNW Eccentric; Starting my long dreamed of bus build. Starting Journey

[RadioHill]

Hello,

Happy to be here. After years of dreaming of an RV build, and loitering on government surplus sites, I finally picked up my BUS.

It's a 2009 Blue Bird Vision (mid sized) Handy Bus. Runs a 6.7L Cummins with 232k miles. Western Oregon routes, no salt.

Purchased for $2,300 I had no idea I could win a bus for this price!

I've kept thinking there should be something wrong on the bus for this price; have been mostly* fortunate

Mechanically, had check engine lights flashing after the first drive. Purchased a industrial code reader from Harbor Freight to be able to read the codes ($400, felt like the good deal was slipping away, lol) Was alarming for "Fuel Metering Rail Pressure". After replacing some filters, took the bus to the shop. Who found nothing other than a strong running rig, but that "likely had bad fuel from sitting too long".... I drove another 250 miles on my own to validate

Since the clean running bill of health from the shop, have been getting much more aggressive on next step for plans. Would love feedback from anyone on how they planned out their build.

My present planning is to

1. attack the floors (foamboard, plywood subfloor, hardwood laminate) first. (Home Depot Shopping cart is out of hand!)
2. Then to look at the walls as I'm planning layout (because I'll need to run conduit and electrical AC/DC to support the floor plan)
3. Then the ceiling, where I'm on the fence about re-doing the stock lighting for continuity.

I'm sitting in the bus a couple of hours a week, thinking about my floor plan. Where I'm confident is a murphy bed in the back, a kitchen table built out of the two remaining seats on the front passenger side, but after that, I'm relatively flexible.

Thanks for letting me share,

~RadioHill

 

[Rucker]

"I'm sitting in the bus a couple of hours a week, thinking about my floor plan."

Yeah! That was me with the bus in my driveway for the first month or so!

No better feeling--other than sitting in the finished bus at a campground!

 

[RadioHill]

"I'm sitting in the bus a couple of hours a week, thinking about my floor plan."

Yeah! That was me with the bus in my driveway for the first month or so!
View attachment 2399277
No better feeling--other than sitting in the finished bus at a campground!

Apologies, the first thing I processed on your post was the need to buy more painter's tape.

 

[Mr. Beefy]

Welcome! That's a really nice size bus. Not to long, not too short. Had we the room to park one that size, an 8-window would have been our unicorn. Alas we could not, and found a great bus 2 windows shorter, but I am a wee bit jelly.

Get ready to change that floor plan about 10,000+ times! One of our early lessons was to make sure to consider everything that enters/exits any 'thing', as well as the other 'things' they may connect to, in detail... water pipes, drain pipes, wiring, etc, Doing so revealed that the location of many items was almost forced upon us. Our strategy basically ended up starting with all the things the pretty much had to be just one place (like our grey water tank, for example, as well as our horizontal propane tank), and work backwards from there.

 

[RadioHill]

Welcome! That's a really nice size bus. Not to long, not too short. Had we the room to park one that size, an 8-window would have been our unicorn. Alas we could not, and found a great bus 2 windows shorter, but I am a wee bit jelly.

Get ready to change that floor plan about 10,000+ times! One of our early lessons was to make sure to consider everything that enters/exits any 'thing', as well as the other 'things' they may connect to, in detail... water pipes, drain pipes, wiring, etc, Doing so revealed that the location of many items was almost forced upon us. Our strategy basically ended up starting with all the things the pretty much had to be just one place (like our grey water tank, for example, as well as our horizontal propane tank), and work backwards from there.

Thanks, I appreciate it.
As it were, I've been second guessing the bus size a bit myself. My thinking had been that mobility was going to bother me more than floor plan on this build, so I was actually looking for something more your size of bus.

I mean, arguably I don't completely have the parking space (see below). Where the concrete ends there, is a city easement.

But help me out if I'm being naive l here, I'd really appreciate the nuance of your journey in floor planning.

The amount of free space underneath the floor, between the frame supporting the axel and the sheet metal side walls under the bus had been leaving me optimistic I could be really flexible on spacing and routing. Especially between the side panels and axels.

What were the constraints of the grey water tank I should be aware of?

The propane tank I was being a little bit more relaxed about, had a line on a forklift propane tank so it didn't need to be horizontal.

 

[Rucker]

Apologies, the first thing I processed on your post was the need to buy more painter's tape.

And cardboard, and a sharp box cutter. You can completely fabricate the interior with cardboard to get a perfect understanding of how things fit and flow.

 

[nikitis]

I have an 8 window bus as well, and for myself it would be a perfect size, but I'm sharing it with 3 others and I'm finding it to be a little tight, but doable if you are crafty. It's the perfect size for camp grounds, and parking in parking lots.

 

[MadJack58]

Hello,

Happy to be here. After years of dreaming of an RV build, and loitering on government surplus sites, I finally picked up my BUS.

It's a 2009 Blue Bird Vision (mid sized) Handy Bus. Runs a 6.7L Cummins with 232k miles. Western Oregon routes, no salt.

Purchased for $2,300 I had no idea I could win a bus for this price!
View attachment 2399181View attachment 2399183View attachment 2399185View attachment 2399187

I've kept thinking there should be something wrong on the bus for this price; have been mostly* fortunate

Mechanically, had check engine lights flashing after the first drive. Purchased a industrial code reader from Harbor Freight to be able to read the codes ($400, felt like the good deal was slipping away, lol) Was alarming for "Fuel Metering Rail Pressure". After replacing some filters, took the bus to the shop. Who found nothing other than a strong running rig, but that "likely had bad fuel from sitting too long".... I drove another 250 miles on my own to validate

Since the clean running bill of health from the shop, have been getting much more aggressive on next step for plans. Would love feedback from anyone on how they planned out their build.

My present planning is to

1. attack the floors (foamboard, plywood subfloor, hardwood laminate) first. (Home Depot Shopping cart is out of hand!)
2. Then to look at the walls as I'm planning layout (because I'll need to run conduit and electrical AC/DC to support the floor plan)
3. Then the ceiling, where I'm on the fence about re-doing the stock lighting for continuity.

I'm sitting in the bus a couple of hours a week, thinking about my floor plan. Where I'm confident is a murphy bed in the back, a kitchen table built out of the two remaining seats on the front passenger side, but after that, I'm relatively flexible.

Thanks for letting me share,

~RadioHill

That is a perfect size bus .

 

[Lon Gillas]

Keep your eyes open on Craigslist. I got everything from a cast iron, potbellied stove, to cabinets to, to solar panels, and yes, you will be changing your layout dozens of times before you are done