School Bus conversion, 14" roof lift.

[Abbott]

My wife and I are in the process of converting a 1990 International Harvester School Bus into a Motorhome. The bus is powered by a DT 466 diesel engine that is tuned (at the present time) for 220 horsepower. The engine is coupled to an Allison MT 643 4-speed automatic transmission. We have raised the roof 14â€

[Abbott]

Work in progress.

[Griff]

. . .Hm-m-m-m. . .there's something strangely familiar about that bus. . .

Lookin' REAL good there, Abbott, love the pine and the way you trimmed that window out!

[Abbott]

Hehe, hiya Griff! We are also pleased with the way the conversion is progressing. I am going to try and get the rest of the trim on in the front room and galley tomorrow. That will pretty much finish the carpentry from the wheel wells forward. Except for the dash area which I plan to do something with.

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

Hey there Abbott & all

When I built my first school bus/home I gave myself 6 weeks from buying the bus to moving in. First I found and bought my bus from a place in Ohio. In the 2 weeks that it took for them to deliver it to me in N.Y. I started to order all the tanks, appliances and such. Then off to the local home depot for lumber pex tubing and pipe for gas and all other parts needed to make a bus a home. Then it off to meet the farmers to see if one of them would let me park and build my new home. That went pretty well. Now I’ll cut to the chase here. First the bus arrived the all the stuff started flowing in and the work started. From gutting the bus to insulating to moving in at the end of the sixth week and ready for winter. Because I was in a hurry I cut a few corners. One was using store bought paneling. I posted a few pic not long ago so you can see it came out ok {pretty hommie} but real woodwork it so much greater. I’m going to go pretty heavy on the woodwork in my big blue home cuz it going to be home for a long time and im not really not in a big hurry. So anyway, Your doing a nice job on your rig, keep posting as the work goes on.

[Abbott]

Hi Dennis,

I have seen your name around other Skoolie forums, glad you posted. 6 weeks is pretty darn fast especially if you don't have much help.

[Abbott]

Bunk beds.

I planned to use the bottom bunk to cover the passenger side wheel well and to hide my House batteries. As with everything else in the bus I have no idea what it's going to look like until I build it. Here is how the lower bunk turned out:



The disappearing wheel well.



Then a 4" deep storage tray.



The house Battery box is 28"X32" by 13" tall.



Lower bunk framed, the lid lifts up for easy access.

[Abbott]

I also wanted some storage space incorporated into the top bunk.



Top bunk storage 27â€