1973 Blue Bird

[Rudy]

A report on the waste tank. It is under the bus. It got frozen this winter, making it impossible to dump. I, then, became a bear in the woods!!!
Lesson learned: mount your tanks (all of them) inside the bus.

[Rudy]

Doggies taking a nap.

[Rudy]

Night time.

[William Biffwinkle]

Rudy, your bus looks great. An awful lot of work and thinking there!

[wstcstslider]

Very nice bus Rudy!

It looks like you've put a lot of hard work into that thing.

On the frozen holding tank thing. I also hung all my tanks under the bus and live in a cold climate. I wrapped heat cord around the waste valves and put a little indoor/outdoor temp probe on it. Then I insulated the tank and valves. If it gets really cold out I keep an eye on the temp at the valves. If it gets down around 30*F I plug in the cord just long enough to warm things up a little.

I also use the heat cord on the hose going from the cistern to the bus. Being off-grid I have to be very sparing with there use but am able to run them enough to keep things from freezing.

Hope this helps.

[Rudy]

Slider, Thanks for the compliment on the bus. I like your idea of heat tape and insulation on the dump tank. I could even wire it to a switch indoors.

[Jones'n4chrome]

Rudy,

You could install an engine block heater in your holding tank, then just plug it in and let it slow simmer until the weather is better.
Who knows it might even keep the toilet seat warm too.

[Rudy]

Slow Simmer?? Chuckles, you are SO funny!!! Sounds like it would be a crockpot poo stew.

[William Biffwinkle]

That's gross...

[dburt]

Sort of a poor man's "Ince-olator" toilet set-up!

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

[lev]

Hi Rudy, the pictures of the sleeping dogs are great, we have two rescue dogs also, one we brought from the Cook Islands and one came from a first nations reserve up the coast from us. Thats the main reason I'm building a motorhome on a 5 ton truck...gotta have room for the hounddogs. Dogs love trucks....Always wonder why dogs give you that look when you snap their picture, like they are wanted felons or something.

[asavage]

A report on the waste tank. It is under the bus. It got frozen this winter, making it impossible to dump. Lesson learned: mount your tanks (all of them) inside the bus.

It can be problematic to get the shit to flow downhill, if you mount the waste tank inside the bus.

A common solution to this common problem is a waste tank heater blanket.


Here's one for $86. Has its own thermostat, and can run on 120VAC or 12VDC.



Here's another for $100.



Those appear to be JRs.

Here's an UltraHeat for $112.



UltraHeat makes a lot of different sizes of tank heaters for RVs, as well as pipe & elbow heaters. Poke around their site a bit.

[Jones'n4chrome]

Two shots of the middle table. The bug you see there was made from a beer bottle. That was some tricky cutting.

Hey Rudy,

In the top right corner these two photos, is that a bicycle seat with a face painted on it?

A real butt sniffer huh? Do you still have it?

Chuck

[Rudy]

Firstly, Chuck, I no longer have that bicycle seat. Now on to my report.


Insulation: the BIG difference.

As you may know, it got very cold inside the bus last winter. Two days ago I got an idea. I looked around the inside of the bus and formulated a plan to address the trouble zones that allowed coldness to enter.

I splurged for four sheets of 3/4 inch stiff "blue board" Styrofoam insulation, 4 tubes of silicone caulk, and a roll of duct tape. (By the way, I get a 10% Veteran's discount form Lowe's and Home Depot.)

My bus has the typical school bus windows. They are drafty. The first thing I did was to seal the tops and the middle seams of all the windows with a bead of silicone. No more air leaks.

Secondly, I cut and placed Styrofoam boards in all but 3 of the side windows. I fit them and used duct tape to hold them in. I left the rear windows uncovered. They are stationary, and do not leak air. Besides, I like the day light back there. The sun shines through and warms the galley and bathroom.

Then I put the foam boards on the galley floor and bathroom floor. I also used them for the walls of the bathroom. I taped the seams with duct tape and used the tape to secure the wall pieces.

Now, here's an interesting discovery that I made a few years ago. I noticed that my refrigerator did not work well, and at times actually stopped working during the winter.

After assessing the situation, I realized the problem was that the heating element in the back of the fridge was not able to do it's job because of the exposure to the cold temperature. So, as in my last motorhome, as well as this bus, I insulated the whole of the back of the fridge with the "blue board". I am only using the electrical heating element presently. If I was to use the propane heating element, I would not have the insulation placed there.

Also, being that I am only using the electric element, I was able to close off the fridge vent on the outside, thereby not allowing cold air to enter the cavity that houses the fridge.

My friend, Stanley is giving me some electrical "heat tape" which I will wrap the holding tank with.

I am very happy to report that the bus is immensely warmer than it was last winter. Yippee!