Bus Living, Truck Living, Boat Living. You name it, if you live in a home that is capable of moving by itself, or have the desire to, then this is the place for you.
the888...I'm glad you found your way here! This is THE best bus place for bus info I've found online. Very wonderful folks with YEARS AND YEARS of first hand experience.
And thank you for describing how to do this! I can visualize what you're saying...but I guess until I get out there and try it Sometimes my mind is bigger than my capabilities How does that saying go...
"I think, therefore I am" Ya, that's me
I hope you'll join here and tell us all about your bus. It's a strange addiction...but there can never be enough bus stories or photos
ezrablu 1991 Bluebird International
360 DT - 6 Speed
This might be a silly question but...wouldn't that back heater come in handy as a backup heater in case other sources aren't working or wood isn't available, etc.? Or does the possibility of the hoses leaking outweight the odds of needing it?
The reason I was leaving it in was because in case I had to run the bus for heat in an emergency if I don't have electric power or wood to burn. Is that overkill thought on my part?
ezrablu 1991 Bluebird International
360 DT - 6 Speed
ezrablu wrote:This might be a silly question but...wouldn't that back heater come in handy as a backup heater in case other sources aren't working or wood isn't available, etc.? Or does the possibility of the hoses leaking outweight the odds of needing it?
The reason I was leaving it in was because in case I had to run the bus for heat in an emergency if I don't have electric power or wood to burn. Is that overkill thought on my part?
No thats not a silly question. Having a backup plan for heat is always a good idea. You have to think about it and decide what is best for you. For me it was easy. My TV bus is powered by a 671 Detroit Diesel, it is a 2 stroke engine that is not designed to sit and idle for very long. So I have the heater under the dash for when I am driving. It started leaking last summer, so I took it out and had it repaired, then put new hoses on it. Had it been in the rear I might not have noticed it leaking until it was too late.
Even if I didn't have a 2 stroke engine I don't think I would keep that system in there. But if I was going to keep it, I would replace the hose under the floor with copper pipe. Just stub up out of the floor with copper, then connect the hose. Make sure it is in a location where you can access it later if you ever need to service it.
I have a wood stove already, now I'm thinking about getting one of the propane boat heaters that Doug posted on the other thread.
Thanks Chuck. I think I could sweat that copper pipe after looking at that stuff. Doesn't seem too hard. I could practice on a few scrap short pieces before I attempt anything permanent
I've had my eye on a Mr. Heater Big Buddy. The reviews are terrific and the price is right (around $120 average0. It uses about the same amount of propane as the $800 heaters and it heats fast and very well. It can be used indoors or outdoors....can be connected to small or large tanks. AND it's easy to use PLUS it's portable.
If I get rid of the rear heater, what could I use while going down the road to keep the bus warm instead? Truthfully, I couldn't even get any of the heaters to warm up on my bus. They were blowing just fine but didn't seem to get warm at all.
ezrablu 1991 Bluebird International
360 DT - 6 Speed
ezrablu... I really admire what you're doing...I started thinking about a bus/home about 35 years ago when I saw one at a crafts fair in Houston. It was owned by a guy and his lady travelling all over and being free! They ran a stained glass studio out of a tow-along trailer behind their bus. I was a leather craftsman and thought "Hey, I should do that!" I went to the Harris County bus dump and looked them all over but didn't have the cash at the time so long story short... the dream died. Fast forward to the America of 2011. Spend my evenings contemplating life for me and my family if the SHTF and being that retirement is less of a possibility I find myself dreaming of solar skoolies and strawbale homes and intentional ecovillages and the Amish had it right and all kinds of survivalist notions. This is it in a nutshell: http://homestead.org/Video/DirtyHippies.htm
The video is a bit of a downer but its not good to be in denial either. So me and my wife are planning our getaway to her family farm in Osseo, WI as soon as my daughter graduates in May. Her sister and family live on a corner of the property in a mobile home with a basement and we're looking at a 25 acre tract on the opposite end of the property with woods and pasture to put a travel trailer or skoolie on so we can gradually build a small passive solar home. This will be our family bug out location if things get seriously worse. Time will tell.
RUDY! These are perfect! I've never heard of these so I just went to amazon to get more detail and pricing...these are MUCH better than those Big Buddy heaters. And the price is even much less than you thought...a 3000 btu is $182 and a 6000 btu is $229 right now. I will buy one of the 6000 or 2 of the 3000.
THANKS!
I bought three 20 gal propane tanks that were filled. Sorry to say that 2 of them were lent out by my son to "friends" this past summer and the 3rd one is empty I keep asking him to pleeease get my other two tanks back and he keeps saying he will but it hasn't happen yet. A few weeks ago I took the one measily tank out to my bus to hide it. Next month I'll get it filled and get a couple more tanks before next winter.
ezrablu 1991 Bluebird International
360 DT - 6 Speed
hi Gr8fulden, hey thanks! I see you're signed on as a guest so I don't know if you'll be back to read this but thanks for posting that video, too. I have a feeling you and I are on the same page (about what's going on and SHTF).
By the way, I live very close to Osseo! The town I live in is on the same hwy just east of there. I actually used to live just outside of Osseo for about 8 yrs until I had to move in here with my son a year and half ago....which brought me to buy the bus to begin with. Small world.
That's a beautiful area and I almost bought land there 2 yrs ago. My sister still lives over that way and I go thru Osseo everytime I go to Eau Claire.
If you get a bus...please post photos and tell us your story.
ezrablu 1991 Bluebird International
360 DT - 6 Speed
My father-in-law used to own the Clay Ridge Stock Farm until multiple hernias caused him to pack up the family and move to Florida. He sold most of the farm including the farmhouse where my wife was raised but he kept around 140 acres with about a third of that in thick woodlands. The Amish have wanted to buy him out for years but he has a strong attachment to the place. Who can blame him...the place is beautiful and the people are the salt of the earth greatest folks around. My wife is 100% behind this leap of faith homestead plot I'm hatching. Gotta find a way to fund a truck and travel trailer to start the dream. Until then I'll stare at the property on Google Earth and continue to accumulate tools and knowledge. I'll check your blog from time to time...the links you supplied are great. Meanwhile...back to dissecting MrSharkey.com!
ahhh....I stared at my land on Google Earth for months after I first bought it...my bus was parked on it but Google Earth photos are pretty outdated so I could only pretend
Amish own most of the land around here now days. I'm LUCKY I was able to buy the parcel I got since it's sitting right smack in the middle of all Amish and it's zoned ag. They all think it's funny I have a bus parked out there and I'm fixing it up to live in. I made a deal with them a few months ago...to trade my hay to them for wood and cut lumber. So I'll have about $1500 worth of wood/lumber by next September just in time for winter and the wood stove I'm putting into my bus.
ezrablu 1991 Bluebird International
360 DT - 6 Speed
EZRABLU what do you think the Amish would do if a 100 or so Bus Dwellers and ocupants showed up at one time for a bus inn at your property, imagine the local response. they would know your crazy for sure James in da GRAYDAWG
I ONCE WAS A MIGHTY GREYHOUND
I THEN GOT OLD AND RETIRED
I LOST MY SEATS AND GOT A NEW GIG
I AM NOW A HAULIN SOME OLD DAWGS &
I BECAME THE GRAYDAWG
James, they'd probably think nothing of it cuz they do the same thing with horse buggys EVERY Sunday! 40 or more in one yard! They'd just have to bake a lot more bread to bring over
The local response would be good...this is an open arm community. Besides their love for drinking (the community, not the Amish), they like to hug alot. Might be the booze
ezrablu 1991 Bluebird International
360 DT - 6 Speed
ALRIGHT, lets go to EZRABLU"s we now have a BUSS INN location where we can circle the busses and meet each other in person, WHEN will it HAPPEN hopefully when it's warm, with all the metal in my body the cold really hurts me bad. I have very large tanks on my BUS and could probably make it a month with black water so don't need a sewer connection but would like to have 50 amp electric. I am working on upgrading my electric now, and will probably have some supplies left over, bought extra when I had some money banked up, so I could. I am willing to help you get ready for it, Just let me know, I would love to have solar power for my bus, but have to wait till I can afford it, I have a 200 amp breaker box for my BUS and will set it up right, guess I could use the genset but it eats allot of propane and is noisy. I bet the Amish would freak out at first, but all the ones I have met and bought bread and deserts from were great people, and they can cook good and healthy. I wish I had their ability to live that way but I guess I am spoiled and too soft to do it, but I have the upmost respect for the way they are able to live off the Land and prosper from it, they are some amazing people.
James in da GRAYDAWG
I ONCE WAS A MIGHTY GREYHOUND
I THEN GOT OLD AND RETIRED
I LOST MY SEATS AND GOT A NEW GIG
I AM NOW A HAULIN SOME OLD DAWGS &
I BECAME THE GRAYDAWG
James, we can't do it this year....I already have my land bartered out so we can't go parking all over my hay this year at all. I need this trade to stock up my firewood and building lumber. Maybe after hayins done or next year? Last crop gets taken off early November
ezrablu 1991 Bluebird International
360 DT - 6 Speed
I was only joking with you, about a BUSS INN, right now I couldn't afford the fuel for a trip there, I would have to walk around with a tin cup for a year with a will work for food sign right now and most everybody would say, you need to loose weight anyway so starve sucker. and the way I am moving right now, it will take another year to get my bus finished, this cold weather really effects my activity level, it's always a wet damp cold where I am. I probably need to be in the desert right now and head north when it gets hot. Along with physical problems I have been through a heart attack 11 years ago just 1 artery 95% blocked and spent 3 days in intensive care for a heat stroke in july of 04 so when it gets too hot causes allot of problems as well, I really need to be a snowbird I guess. I'm too stubborn to give up, or not intelligent enough so I just do what and when I can, take it as it comes you know.
James in da GRAYDAWG
I ONCE WAS A MIGHTY GREYHOUND
I THEN GOT OLD AND RETIRED
I LOST MY SEATS AND GOT A NEW GIG
I AM NOW A HAULIN SOME OLD DAWGS &
I BECAME THE GRAYDAWG
Sometimes my mind is bigger than my capabilities 
How does that saying go... 
I keep asking him to pleeease get my other two tanks back and he keeps saying he will but it hasn't happen yet. A few weeks ago I took the one measily tank out to my bus to hide it. Next month I'll get it filled and get a couple more tanks before next winter.