rharris19

iTrader: (41)

They are off the bus since painting it. We will be putting some new ones on that aren't the strange half sphere mirrors. Those 1.6 mirrors may be too large and look out of place on something this small.

It would seem it makes a difference, but it really doesn't. The whole unit flows air very well and is pretty efficient.

No. The title has been changed from a Bus to a Motorhome. It is a fairly easy process that just needs pictures of the outside/inside, weight slip from a CAT type scale, insurance card, and "green sheet" inspection that is available at any inspection station.

Budget for this build is about $20,000. You can do it for much cheaper, but we wanted the diesel generator, two roof a/cs, a real RV fridge, tile shower, good wood floors, new shocks, new front tires, decent mattresses, quality automotive paint for the outside, replacement bumpers front and rear, LED lights, etc.

Our last bus was built for about $13,000 and it is a lot easier to swallow with three people splitting the costs.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

Haha. My family learned that lesson last summer. None of them had ever been through the south-western US, and I warned them that August was not as especially good time to be driving through New Mexico / Arizona / Nevada. With one one A/C unit in the 26' factory-built RV going full-tilt-boogie, it was more than slightly warm inside.

I have absolutely no frame of reference whatsoever for what it would take to cool a 45' bus in those conditions.


That's a hell of a good price on what is essentially a slider-less Class A, particularly since you're going to wind up with essentially all-new outfitting.

rharris19

iTrader: (41)

This is why we insulate the hell out of them with good insulation. The average manufactured RV has terrible insulation and is hell to keep cool. This bus will be much easier to cool. On the back of all the metal panels we installed radiant barrier you can get from home depot and it made a hell of a difference.

It is A LOT of work, but you can build yourself something pretty bad *** for not a lot comparatively. I will also know how every wire is run and that everything is done right form the start. Plus it is completely built to suit what we want rather than trying to find something that you have to make compromises on and pay more for.

TurboTim

iTrader: (9)

super sub scribe d

so bad ***

viperormiata

iTrader: (24)

******* awesome

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

On the subject of aircon, I'm curious about one thing.

I'm not really well-acquainted with the "state of the art" in RV electricals, but is anybody at all using AuraGens? Aura Systems Inc - AUSI


We see a lot of these in remote broadcast trucks for TV stations, as an alternative to standalone generators. Basically, it's a power system consisting of a jumbo-size alternator, a battery bank, and a controller / inverter. Whenever the main engine is running, the alternator supplies power to the system, and when the engine is not running, the batteries take over automatically. The TV folks love 'em because they are simple, save space, etc. They come in different sizes rated from 5 kW to 16 kW continuous. And they're not cheap, but the price would easily disappear in the context of a newly-purchased $500,000 Class A.

In an RV application, I'd think it would be convenient to have the aircon going when you're on the road without having to run the genny as a seperate powerplant. And for gasoline-powered RVs, I'd think that when dry-camping in a warmer area, leaving the main engine idling while parked would be preferable to running a separate generator. It'd certainly be a hell of a lot quieter and less smelly, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was even more efficient.

vortexblue

Awesome.
I thought I was the only one with a bus... but yours is so much cooler.

This was my car hauler/ moving truck:

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

so ill be privvy to see this thing in Aug?

rharris19

iTrader: (41)

Be sweet enough on me and I'll let you sit in the driver seat and act like you are driving it.

What is a good picture service to use that allows you to upload multiple pictures at a time and gives you a log in to keep your pictures? I don't mind having to pay a small fee. I know next to nothing about this stuff, but I need to do something other than uploading them one at a time to a picture service.

thenuge26

iTrader: (2)

I like Picasa, because that's where my phone pics are automagically uploaded.

fooger03

iTrader: (2)

picasa or photobucket work very well

y8s

iTrader: (8)

picasa is free if your pics are under 2000 pixels but it's not expensive if they aren't

Savington

iTrader: (31)

People still use picture hosting sites other than imgur?

rharris19

iTrader: (41)

That's pretty awesome man. Do you have any pictures of the car inside? We wanted to do one of these that way, but with it being rear engine, that wasn't going to happen.



I'll check out picasa and imgur. Thanks guys

gearhead_318

iTrader: (1)

This is defiantly something I would like to do someday

vortexblue

Not many good pics of how the car sat in the truck. The car was tied to a ramp built onto the wheel wells that kept the car on a tilt. Ghetto plywood doors, too.

http://chris.chemidl.in/images/cars/bus/

I built it to move from NJ to AZ; it never made it. I had a small ratchet strap that was run through the floor to secure my tools (didn't buy d-rings for the floor)- the excess got tangled up in the driveshaft and took out the rear brake lines and the rear end was leaking like a sieve. I would have patched it up and continued on, but my wife had had enough. I rented a Ryder truck and trailer for the rest of the trip.

triple88a

iTrader: (2)

Definitely would add spikes and a giant bumper. Turn it into a zombie apocalypse bus.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

Post pictures of Eastep's caulking job from the old bus, lol.

rharris19

iTrader: (41)

We have had some time to work on the bus for the past couple weeks and have made some pretty decent progress.

We have the raw cabinets built for the bedroom and hallway. These will require a fair amount of finishing work and then we will paint them. The one in the hallway between the bathroom and bedroom will act as towel/sheet storage.


You can see them off on the side in this picture:


The shower in the bathroom was the main focus for us and it is starting to come together. Last week we put the plastic liner in and all the cement backer board up on the walls. This was a huge pain with some of the spots as it was such a narrow piece that it would crack when installed. This weekend we were able to get all of the tile on the walls and the mosaic on the floor of the shower. Now all that is left is to do the grout and clean up any mortar that may have gotten on the tiles.



Getting the mosaic figured out:


Tiled in:




For the cabinets in the kitchen, we looked into several options. We thought about making them ourselves, having them made, and buying off the shelf ready to stain units. Making them ourselves wasn’t going to come out well and having them made would cost almost three times what the off the shelf units would cost, so we went down to lowes and got everything that would work for our application.



We still have to make the enclosure for the fridge, but that is relatively minor in comparison. The fridge is 54” tall, so we will have about 20” to work with on the top. In this area there will be a microwave and a return air duct for the middle a/c. The breaker box will have to be moved now since we relocated the fridge here.




Our back bunk beds are serving as great work tables:

Leafy

iTrader: (1)

Photo bucket here. But I'm considering switching now that they've fucked up their site so that it loads slower and I have to make 2 clicks to get to the picture link rather than just 1 with the old site. I really should start using my imgur account.