1935 Chevy school bus

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

This little rig really is remarkable

[somewhereinusa]

Great story and love the pics, you are having waaaaay too much fun!!!! Don't you wish you were still working?

[tango]

Outstanding Jack! --- Quite a shakedown cruise. And many thanks for sharing the adventure & pix. What are your thoughts on some of the "back-up" camera systems? Given the visibility limits of these rigs, I am considering a three camera arrangement myself. One out the back, one as a passenger side view and maybe a roof mount to check clearances. The new units are actually quite good, can see in the dark and have come way down in price. I'm thinking probably cheaper than running into a tree or another rig.

Anyhow, thanks again and please...do keep us up as you refine that beauty.

[ol trunt]

Hey Tango, I think your idea of 3 cameras is a good idea. The camera on the back of my bus covers a fairly wide angle which helps with the blind spots. Just as the image on the screen disappears, it is replaced by an image in the side view mirrors which makes lane changing much safer. The wide angle, however makes it hard to judge distance on the monitor and things are MUCH closer than they appear to be. That could be a problem for guessing roof clearances unless the roof camera had a different lens set up. As to the night vision part, my camera would better have been described as low light vision as it was totally useless in the pitch dark forest when I was trying to park Honeysuckle Rose in the camp site--hence the docking lights. Jack

[tango]

Hmmmm --- The low light thing sounds like the difference between "water resistant" and "water proof". Worth reading the fine print. As best I can recall, one system I looked at had a wide angle in the rear but the two "side" cams were conventional view. All had distance scales.

[ol trunt]

Hey Tango, I didn't spend a whole lot on my camera and now knowing just how important it is, I should have been more choosy. Now that you mention the distance markings I guess I could mark the screen somehow to reflect a couple of known (measured) reference points. That would probably overcome the "THINGS ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR TO BE" wide angle lens problem. I'll give it a try and let you know. Jack

[GoodClue]

... Ditto to all the above congrats
Great to see talented people enjoying their work ... incentive for all.
Keep on keepin' the adventures and projects going. Who knows, may see one or more of us out on the road again.
Thanks for contributing.

[ol trunt]

Hello All. Thanks for the kind words. We are scheduled to attend a short "Non Rally" at Lake Mead with several folks from BCM forum in mid November so I thought I'd better get moving on a few of the improvements that will make travel in Honeysuckle Rose more pleasant. I mentioned the soft hanging storage idea in an earlier post. When I did the conversion I provided attachment points on the inner roof for a hanging rack but had not designed the rack itself. I wanted the rack to be strong yet flexible and light weight. I figured that since the thing would be over the bed, it needed to be built with soft material. What I ended up with involves a nylon mesh material given some form by a "package tray" cardboard floor. The thing is supported by nylon webbing and carabiners which attach to eye hooks affixed to the roof. each mount is good for 350 # which they will never see. I used velcro along the top edges of the mesh. The velcro sticks nicely to the carpeted roof and provides a finished look to the rack. For once I have built something I can hit my head on and not draw blood . Despite its wedge shape, the rack provides 3 cu ft of storage in a space that would otherwise go unused. Whoopee!

On another topic, The real reason I decided to overnight in "Beautiful" Bakersfield ( I can say that because I lived there for seven years and it ain't that bad----unless you think about it----and that can be said for those other places I've lived as well I guess.) is that the low beam headlights on the bus were about as bright as candles. The high beams were OK. Anyway, the problem is solved. It seems Isuzu isolates the headlamp ground from the chassis ground and then uses the headlamp ground as the switched leg on low beam---but not on high beam . This makes "ringing out" a circuit a PITA. Add to that that the left and right headlamp circuits operate independently from each other (separate fuses and different color wires) and it is head ache time . lest I forget, Isuzu also has daytime driving lamps that use the low beam headlanps at a lower voltage which just happen to reverse the +tive and -tive terminals . A box of 20 amp fuses, a multimeter and a lot of luck later everything now works and I can safely drive at night Jack

Pic of eye hooks in roof.

Pic of long time friend at his sewing machine. He is so fast that his pic is a blur.]

Hanging storage as viewed with the slide out retracted.

View of hanging storage with the slide out extended. There is 37" of headroom above bed platform.

[tango]

Thoroughly elegant (in the original sense of the word) Solution! --- I hope you left the assembly line set up for those suckers. Something tells me you could easily sell a boatload Jack! Sweet. Get a patent!

[stuartcnz]

Thoroughly elegant (in the original sense of the word) Solution!

I concur with the above statement. Well done!

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

Nice

[ol trunt]

Hello All!. I can't believe mid November is almost here. We'll be heading out for a few days to Lake Mead Recreation Area where we'll be crashing a Big Boys bus gathering with our little skoolie. This time Clarence (the Morris Minor toad) will get to go along. I've towed Clarence around a bit and he seems anxious to follow along behind Honeysuckle Rose without complaint. Because I tow 4 down, I am concerned about proper lubrication of the transfer case while under tow. The owner's manual for the underlying Geo Tracker says 4 down is OK as long as the engine is started each 200 miles and the vehicle is put in drive for two minutes to slosh oil around. I hope that is true because I had to replace the transfer case when I bought the Geo--which came with a 4 down tow setup. Soooooooo, we'll see. I bought an infrared temp sensor and will be checking temp readings on the transfer case as I travel (under its own steam, the transfer case reaches 135 degrees F which does not alarm me).

I did manage to get the docking lights installed, but I'm not happy with the incandescent lights--I'm sold on LED's. I also had just about decided on using oak strips (from a roll front desk) to complete my over kitchen counter cupboards when I ran across a small amount of coregated stainless steel sheeting. I have no idea what it was used for, but it is beautiful and just begged me to take it home . I never learn. I had the sheet cut into 15" X 3/4" strips which I glued to black canvas to create my own roll front doors. Four cupboards required over 50 strips which had to be hand carded to remove the burs left over from the cuts--400 strokes per strip--20,000 strokes etc. etc. Of course now that I had the roll up doors I needed a proper steel cabinet to use them in. So I built one. It provides about 2.5 cubic feet of kitchen storage in otherwise waste space. Wiffy is very pleased. I'll share a few early pics now and more of the completed cupboard when I remember to take some photos. Jack

Cut strips of stainless.

Filing process.

Strips glued to canvas.

Construction shots.

Trial run on roll doors.

Ready for finish paint.

[tango]

Very extremely cool Jack! --- And actually, it has kind of an old school art deco look. Kinda like a breadbox designed to go 200 mph.

[roach711]

I'm filing away your net storage idea for later use. Very cool idea!

Great pics of the Yosemite trip. That's one place we definitely want to go eventually.

[ol trunt]

Hello All. We met a nice group of "real" bus owners at Lake Mead this past weekend. My, it must be nice to have all that room . We all met for a pot luck on Sat night--amazing what can be cooked up in a bus kitchen! Wiffy spent most of her time painting a water color of the sail boats on the lake while I went about sniffing diesel fumes and admiring other's conversions.

Honeysuckle Rose didn't seem to mind towing the Morris despite its nearly 3000 pounds of extra load ( we used the Toad as a trailer and what with its 4 X 4 setup it got heavy fast. The average fuel economy for the 700 or so mile trip was 14.1 mpg down from what we got on the best leg of the Yosemite trip which was 17.5 mpg but without the Toad. I suppose that's not too bad considering its only a 5.2 l engine.

It was a fun 4 day weekend and both of us are anxious to head out again. Jack

"On the road again".

I set the cruise control at 55 and enjoyed the scenery.

The Morris as seen in the rear view camera.

We arrived at our lake side camp site which had 30/50 amp service, water, sewer and cable. We used the 30 amp service.

A pic of the "real" busses.

The view from the kitchen windows. You also can see the completed roll up cupboards.

A pic of my wife cooking up dinner Sunday night. The LED lighting is as good as I had hoped it would be. No flash was required to take this pic.