Ned Bulken
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Interesting. That unit has to be extremly heavy......
If I didn't KNOW, (not think KNOW) That I'd a) go broke in a hurry, and b) give the DW grounds for immediate divorce, I would Love to convert a Skoolie. (school bus into camper) ...
Ned, I seem to remember you mentioning that you were pretty tall?
I used to live in Edmonton, and there was a fellow there in my church who had converted a school bus into a camper. However, he was also pretty tall, about 6'5" if I recall correctly. So he had sold off that bus and instead bought a surplus/used Military bus. It looked just like a school bus, but the roof was a good 10-12" taller, so he could now stand up inside the thing without banging his head. It was also a bit longer than his older bus (which had been a shorter school bus) so it'd fit his family better.
I left Edmonton 9 years ago, and sometimes I wonder how that project of his turned out. (It was about half to 3/4 done when we left. )
Oh, and I agree with the other guys on weight. I love working wood, but this is one situation where I think aluminum and stuff like that would make more sense. I also would worry about safety. Just how solid is something like this?
...art
a standard bus can get taller with some effort, but not unreasonable effort.
Agree -- Wonder if he has thought about how he is going to stop that thing once he gets it moving? Especially coming down a mountain!
Glad he lives on the other side of the country!
Frank...he lives in Covington, WA....he don't have to go far to be in awesome camping country....ocean or mountains just a handful of miles away!
Neat camping rig...probably outlast any of the commercial units being build...and not a Festool in sight!
Doug
hah!
After posting, I spent my "veg" time googling for "bus camper conversion" and read 3 or 4 stories that people posted about their experiences converting a bus to an RV.
Not one took less than a year. Heck, most were 2+ years.
That's quite a lot of effort!
I like this guys work: http://www.vonslatt.com/ He is a scrounger among scroungers. And the end result was a very nice fit and finish. Classy old colour scheme (interior) at the end as well.
This one was cool also: http://homepage.mac.com/rbumann/eagle/Alotta.htm It was what I'd call a "greyhound-style" bus, though. And they raised the roof on it. What was interesting about this is that this couple included a small workshop in the back of the bus for their scrollsawing. They don't talk about it much at all in the story, but it is there in the plans and photos.
And this one: http://seanf.smugmug.com/Bus%20Conversion It's another flat-nosed school bus conversion, and this one really drove home to me the huge amount of work involved. The Vonslatt guy above was very can-do in his blog, and made it look easy. This guy shows all the effort -- 2 years and it doesn't look like he's done yet.
oh well. On the upside, as the scrollsawing couple illustrated, by doing it yourself you get to build it the way YOU want it. Also I note that all of these involve a full-size shower, instead of those tiny tiny things that you see in commercial RVs. So another thing that DIY gives you is some comfort tweaks.
Not to worry, it's nothing I'll ever be attempting - I live on a city lot, and there just ain't no room for something like that!
... I'd probably start on a Skoolie to learn the metalworking etc... Either way, it would take awhile. You landed on a couple of my favorite example busses, I've been in contact with Von Slatt, whose bus is a very clean and relatively straight forward conversion, one of the nicer skoolies out there.
...
In my case I would need three bunks for my kids, a queen sized bed in the back for the LOML and myself and a bathroom. The kitchen can be as simple or elaborate as you want. I'd go pretty basic initially, since we'd just be camping, not living aboard.
So what is the pro and con of a flat nosed vs long nose school bus? I guess that is more a front engine vs back engine question, isn't it?
And I'd need four bunks, so I'm even in tougher straits than you.
But I wonder... if you're always staying in a campground, then there should always be a bathroom available. So if you really wanted to cheap things out, you could even just skip the on-board facilities.
oh well.
...art