17 October 04 - In early September we decided to use the bus for transportation to Lake Shasta for our annual vacation there. We normally use our Class C Beaver Motorhome but it needs new tires (all 6!) and gets about 6.5 mpg on Premium gas. We thought putting the money and extra effort into doing a "quickie conversion" on the bus would be worthwhile. Our departure date for vacation was October 2nd so we certainly didn't have much time to get things together.
I purchased a bunch of 2x2's and a few sheets of paneling and went to work; I figured I'd just use a staple gun (pneumatic wide crown) and do the construction much like a typical production line RV. I didn't follow the floorplan as I've shown on the site here because the emphasis was on seating 4 adults, hauling 4 dogs and all our "stuff". I decided that the area in the back that was intended for a queen-sized bed would work best as a big "trunk".
While I worked on the interior, my wife Shelley and my business partner Kathy (half of the "other couple" going to Shasta) started painting the outside of the bus white. When I could break free from the interior I climbed up on the roof and started laying on coats of white Kool Seal.
In the interior I built a length-wise couch on the driver's side (just behind the driver) and faced that with two swivel seats on the passenger side (I got these from the local auto wrecking yard out of a '92 Astro van for a $100 for both). Aft of the couch was a 7' long kitchen counter with a sink and 10-gallons of water below. Opposite the kitchen (and behind the two swivel seats) I built an enclosed bathroom with a portable toilet). Aft of the bathroom and kitchen I built two bunks; one on either side of the bus. At the foot of the bunks I built a full-width partition with a door to section off the "trunk" area where all our stuff would end up. I also installed a 1200-watt inverter for our Espresso machine.
We made it! The interior was in and the bus painted white when we headed out. I also made it to the local welder and had him install a hitch so we could tow our boat with us; I needed the hitch anyway so this worked out well.
Doing the "Quick & Dirty" interior was worth the effort; not only did it serve us well for the trip but I learned a lot about how to install things in the bus, and Shelley and I got a bit of a "real world" feel for how things would work in the bus when we do the "real" conversion. It made us rethink the way we would use the bus and which functions needed to take precedence. Since you can't get everything you want in the space of a bus and there are always compromises about what gets placed where this process really helped quite a lot. Here's our new revised floorplan:
A bit of explanation is probably in order. After utilizing the rear of the bus for the "trunk" on our trip we realized just how nice it would be to have the work shop back there with all the windows and with the ability to use the large door at the rear of the bus. Once the shop got moved to the rear of the bus on the floorplan it became a matter of juggling things around until we ended up with a workable floorplan again. The wheel wells presented the most problem; I couldn't put the toilet or the shower where they are located and I also couldn't utilize a side passageway because you'd have to go up and over the wheel well on whatever side I chose. That left me with a center-aisle arrangement and trying to move the bed, storage, toilet and shower around until the wheel wells were dealt with. I finally decided the only way I was ever going to get things to fit was to break down and give up on the queen-size bed. I hated to go to bunk beds but it's what really made the floorplan work. The top one is pretty low so it's not really a struggle to get into and the bottom one will pull out into a double. For the moment we think we'll use the bunks when traveling and pull the lower bunk out when we're stopped for longer periods. Since pulling out the lower bunk really affects traffic flow to the toilet and shower it will have to be pushed back in after an evening's use; at night we'll just bail out at the rear end of the bed so that's not a big deal. It's not the ideal situation but for us it's worth the compromise to get the rest of the floorplan to work.
The living area is pretty changeable. You probably noticed in some of my other floorplans that I had a Yamaha electronic piano and a boat-type diesel-fired stainless fireplace in the front area. I decided the Dickenson Antarctic fireplace could be eliminated (it would be nice but it utilizes a lot of floor space). We can still opt for couches or chairs in the living area or eliminate one or the other in favor of the Yamaha piano. The quickie conversion put a 7' long couch where it's shown in the above floorplan and the two Chevy Astro van swivel seats opposite of them; that was a very nice layout when we were all sitting around in the bus and it matches the interior we like so well in our Beaver Class C. I really want Shelley to have access to a nice piano (a portable keyboards doesn't make the grade) so I've got to work on that compromise a bit; maybe I can come up with a way to have the seating and then have something fold, flip-up, flip-down, or move to make space for the piano.
The other "break-through" if you will on the floorplan was going to a split kitchen; it's a little unusual but putting the stove on the opposite kitchen counter really opened things up and allows for much more counter space. It leaves a large prep/clean-up area next to the refrigerator and sink and there's still decent space next to the stove/oven to do some serious cooking. Things will move around a bit as I intend to get a full height pull-out pantry in the "wall" between the stove/oven and the head of the bunks. There will also be a trash compacter underneath the espresso machine counter; we've used these on the houseboats we've rented for the last 6 years and they're just fantastic for reducing the number of bags of refuse you've got to deal with at a stop.
I've also come to two other conclusions (I sort of knew they had to be but was resisting). One is, I'm going to have to opt for a permanently mounted generator. We've got a family of pets (at this time 3 dogs and 2 cats) and if we're traveling in hot climates we're going to have to be able to keep a couple of roof-mounted air conditioning units going. The problem is the diesel units are very expensive (and seem noisy) and I don't want to have to carry gasoline (since the bus is diesel). I can use a propane-powered genset since we will have propane aboard but the only appliances that run on propane in our conversion are the stove/oven and the water heater so I hadn't intended on having a large quantity of propane and I'm a little concerned I'll burn up our supplu pretty rapidly with a generator. I want to utilize portable tanks so that I can go get them filled without having to move the whole bus to accomplish that (I'd hate to have to leave a beautiful location where we're all set up just to get more propane). I wanted to use 1 or 2 Honda EU2000i portable generators (and I still may) but I'm not sure how practical that is if we're running into a store for an hour or so; in hot weather it means I've got to haul out the Honda's, get them started and crank up the AC, then put them away again we we get underway. Using the Honda's would also preclude having the genset available while motoring but we'll have an inverter that should take care of those few needs. The biggest reason for the generator is for air conditioning.
The second conclusion that I've come to is that I should probably bite the bullet on the Webasto diesel-fired hot water heating system. Hot water heat is the only practical source of heat while motoring (just like in your car and how the original bus heaters work) and since the small radiators will be installed throughout the bus anyway for that purpose it seems to just make sense to use them for heat even when the main engine is shut down. But this means coming up with a source of hot water other than the main engine and that's where things seem to get sticky.
One option that I've still got to check out is "pony pack"; I used to see these on semi-trucks, especially those with custom sleepers. It's essentially a small diesel engine that runs off the main fuel supply and is mounted to the chassis frame in it's own box (usually stainless or aluminum). The pony pack diesel is liquid cooled and gets plumbed into the main engine cooling system; this keeps the main engine warm in really cold weather and also provides hot coolant for the heating system. In addition the pony pack has a generator (around 2kw or so as I recall) and can optionally be fitted with an air conditioning compressor; then you just run the AC ducting to vents in the bus and voila! They're expensive critters but maybe pretty cost effective when you consider they provide heat, power, and AC. I've got more research to do. The downside is anytime you want any one of those things you've got to run the diesel pony pack.
I'm really inclined toward a quieter solution which is why the Webasto system seems so good; but at close to $4000 it ain't cheap! It's uses very little power and very little diesel so you can stay warm and toasty without burning up all you fuel and amps.
Since I purchased a water heater that is heated from the main engine (as well as 110v and propane) I'm researching the possibility of using it's heat to keep the radiators doing their thing when the main engine is shut down. The problem so far is that the radiators really want to see about 180-degree (F) coolant to get their job done; I'm not sure how efficiently you can heat if you're only get 120-125 degree coolant out of the water heater.
All-in-all there is a lot more research do do on these items before final decisions are made.
