The selfbuild rebuild

[BFM14]

I wish I had your skills and confidence. Good luck with finishing for next summer.

 

[lee52]

I wish I had your skills and confidence. Good luck with finishing for next summer.

Not sure if its confidence or stupidity

 

[lee52]

The biggest hurdle was the decision on the layout must of looked in over a 100 motorhomes and caravans for ideas, even made a scale drawing of the bus and cut out beds and sofas etc... The ones I liked I used masking tape on the floor so I could walk through it, might seem a bit ocd but its one of the most important decisions as it dictates the location of windows and wiring etc.....

The main criteria was it must have a fixed double bed (nothing worse than having to do DIY to go to bed). The OH wanted some kind of divider between the bedroom area and the rest of the hab area.

So now the bus has an end bedroom which is 6'2 x7'4 which is not massive but has a bed to the side and gives me floor space of 3'3x6'2 for a small wardrobe and floor space for getting dressed, so now I'm left with 23x7'4 foot of hab area to populate

 

[tonyidle]

well been thinking about my hab batt charging the bus is 24v and the hab 12v the easy answer is to dip my hand in my pocket and buy a batt 2 batt charger

buts funds wont allow that at the mo more important things to buy like wall boards etc...

this is my temp idea not the most efficient system but it will work

View attachment 25594

Btw already got all the kit lying about

If there's an easy way to fit one to the engine a 12v alternator (in addition to the 24v one) could be used just for leisure batteries?

Edit: just read Snowbirds post .

 

[lee52]

If there's an easy way to fit one to the engine a 12v alternator (in addition to the 24v one) could be used just for leisure batteries?

Edit: just read Snowbirds post .

I know the dodge ambulances (cummins 5.9L) ran twin alternators so if I got the alt brackets of one of then job done.
or they did run the cummins in a 12v flavour so could junk the 24v alt and fit a 12v alt and starter motor and have the whole bus 12v,
or dip my hands deep in my pockets and just buy a B2B charger

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[lee52]

well progress is coming along i now have a washroom/toilet
going to have a seperate shower cubicle.
at the moment everything is a dry fit then once Im happy with the fit it will all be unscrewed then reassembled with glue etc... might be the long way of doing it but means changes are easier if needed

 

[lee52]

well the dry fit plan saved the day today. i miss measured/calculated where the chassis outriggers are so have had to extend the wash room by 2 inches in order to have the hole for the toilet to drop into the holding tank.

the blown air fire is all in place (carver3000 auto) blown air pipe work plumbed in the wash/toilet room and bedroom, (once the sofa is built and in place there will be more blown air,

I have also got a 500w convector heater wall mounted in the end bedroom.
the washroom will have a tube heater but not sure on what wattage.
idea been the electric heaters will keep the ambient temps up if on EHU and the gas blown air to get the temps up quicker if need be

was thinking/hoping 2 500w convector heaters in the main hab area will be enough

 

[Zains Pops]

Amazing story....your perseverance deserves a medal and then a very long trouble free holiday in your new bus.

 

[lee52]

Amazing story....your perseverance deserves a medal and then a very long trouble free holiday in your new bus.

Thank you.
the biggest challenge has been doing it on a tight budget. if I was to go out and buy all brand new kit it would just cost £1000s

I continually search on ebay and gumtree etc... and has come up trumps just a case of sticking to your max bid and been lucky lol
the toilet is a thetford aqua magic won for 99p. my fave score is the gas tank won a motorhome lpg 100L tank for £10 and to top it off the tank is 65% full.

one of the biggest problems Ive had was storage as everything was kept inside the bus and I was tripping over stuff or spent 20 mins moving stuff to do a 5 min job. so ended buying a caravan that was spares or repair, the caravan itself is knackered I reckon if it was towed at any speed or distance you would have a flat bed trailer by the time you get there, paid £50 for the caravan which has provided a dry storage place for all the stuff in the bus so makes working alot easier

 

[lee52]

Well not updated this for a few days and will have to do some pictures, the final layout is done and happy with how everything fits together the bus is going to be a 4berth fixed double in the rear and 2 singles up front. With the final layout tweeked etc... And happy with the final placement I now know where the overhead lighting needs to be and the last of the windows. The one thing I wasn't 100% sure on was the shower didnt know if to have it combined with the toilet/washroom or a separate room. Decided in the end to have it combined as for the short amount of time the shower gets used I'm left with a dead space if I kept it as a separate unit.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[lee52]

Took advantage of the dark nights to finalize the placement of the of the roof lights bought the lights nearly 2 year ago and only just got round to fitting them, when I was orig looking for the lights I quickly discovered anything with motorhome in the title is 10 times the price so after a bit of searching found some nice led downlights 3W a piece nice uniform light output wide spread these are sold as mains (240 v) operation via the supplied transformer, but when I zoomed in to the pictures of the lights could see the transformer output voltage was 12v dc. bought 1 at first to try out and was that impressed bought another 10. the units where a whooping £2.30 each the same web site still sells the same units but now £4 but still cheap as chips. they do 3 different colour temps I went for the the warm white,

they are a nice low profile only 11mm

 

[mitzimad]

i doubt that 1kw of heating will warm your bus much we had a 450 watt blowheater in our pvc and it barely took the chill of and my van is well insulated you should look out for a 5 kw deisel heater on ebay the 24v ones dont fetch as much as the 12v ones but means running it from your starter batteries

 

[lee52]

i doubt that 1kw of heating will warm your bus much we had a 450 watt blowheater in our pvc and it barely took the chill of and my van is well insulated you should look out for a 5 kw deisel heater on ebay the 24v ones dont fetch as much as the 12v ones but means running it from your starter batteries

Heating wise I have 2 eberspachers D2 fitted now also carver 3000auto with blown air and will be having a 500w convector in the end room 2 500w in the main living area. I was working on the bus the other day it was 2C outside had the carver fire on without the blown air and it was hot Tshirt job. so very confident it will be warm enough, idea been when on hook up the convector heaters will keep the ambient temp and use the carver to boost the temps if need be the eberspachers more for heating when traveling

 

[BFM14]

Anymore pictures available? I admire your perseverance. I hope you are going to enjoy the fruits of your labours soon.

 

[lee52]

Anymore pictures available? I admire your perseverance. I hope you are going to enjoy the fruits of your labours soon.

will try to get some pictures this weekend, I really hope I get to enjoy it soon as well bought the thing 2 years ago lol

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Bart]

@lee52 just read this whole thread, nice work so far,, is it on hold again?