Roof raise, loft bed

[Princess-SKO]

the SO and I have been discussing general layout ideas the last few days for our skoolie. We haven't bought our bus yet, mostly because we are trying to decide how much space we need.

My questions are:
Is there a structural reason not to do a roof raise on the front half only?
How much of a raise do we need to accomidate both the driver during travel and still being comfortable at night for bed time?

We are discussing doing a roof raise to allow for a loft bed above the front of the bus. I've tried searching around for an answer, but from what I've seen most raises are either the entire length of the bus, or the back half only. We are primarily looking at Blue Bird buses and want to be smart about our space. Currently we are wanting to full time on the bus.

 

[Sprocket-SKO]

We have also toyed with idea of not raising the roof but adding on to the top i.e. Like vw bus or just building something for our bedroom over the cab. I work in auto body so the actual work for either is not our concern as is weight displacement and height concerns.

 

[TheBodegaBus]

We raised our roof

Ours is a 40' Bluebird. We cut off 24' of our roof and saved some of the side structure to reinforce new walls and roof. We opted to raise just past driver compartment and used part of the roof piece to construct an air dam. We left the back 10' the original bus line because we built an upper deck on the back. That back section also fits a king size bed that can convert to L shaped lounger too. Please check out our pics at Facebook.com/TheBodegaBus & feel free to ask questions. Best wishes! I'm sitting in mine now as we comfortably travel down the interstate.

 

[milkmania]

Ours is a 40' Bluebird. We cut off 24' of our roof and saved some of the side structure to reinforce new walls and roof. We opted to raise just past driver compartment and used part of the roof piece to construct an air dam. We left the back 10' the original bus line because we built an upper deck on the back. That back section also fits a king size bed that can convert to L shaped lounger too. Please check out our pics at Facebook.com/TheBodegaBus & feel free to ask questions. Best wishes! I'm sitting in mine now as we comfortably travel down the interstate.

I updated your first thread

 

[Princess-SKO]

Ours is a 40' Bluebird. We cut off 24' of our roof and saved some of the side structure to reinforce new walls and roof. We opted to raise just past driver compartment and used part of the roof piece to construct an air dam. We left the back 10' the original bus line because we built an upper deck on the back. That back section also fits a king size bed that can convert to L shaped lounger too. Please check out our pics at Facebook.com/TheBodegaBus & feel free to ask questions. Best wishes! I'm sitting in mine now as we comfortably travel down the interstate.

Awesome example of some of the stuff we wanted to do! Looks rad! How hard was your roof raise? Best of luck in your adventures!