Bluebird Bus Conversion Project & Cross Country Trip

[mrsleeve]

Oh dear god I thought yours was new enough to have avoided the possibility of having a Cripple Nickel in it. I am so sorry for your impending doom that will await you at some point in the future. Hopefully latter than sooner...................................

I would not use one for a boat anchor it would fail at even that static and most mundane of jobs. I remember the outfit my dad worked for ever, having a few in the 10tons and them having a natural proclivity of coming apart in the greatest and most glorious of fashions. Seems to happen when running close to red line and then backing off the go juice.................

You should look into finding a used 3208 for replacement. I will see if I can find the one I ran across recently for a F/C for ya.

[LuckyHenriksen]

I could see a front passenger seat that you put on a swivel that folds up nicely against the engine cover.

A swiveling chair would be great. I should put some more time into figuring that out.

sleeve you are absolutely correct about the entry door being a giveaway on even the best professional conversions. And unfortunately I didn't even get the CAT 3208, my bus has the old Cummins 555 'triple nickel'. It seems to run fine though, as long as it lasts long enough to complete our trip I don't care

[mrsleeve]

^

That is the reason that nearly all of the real bluebird Wanderlodges in the F/C (forward control) drive line lay out (opposed to a SP or PT Single axle pusher or Pusher w/ tag axle) have the Mid entry door not the more traditional curbside front entry door. If they have a front entry door and real Pass front seat, the seat is set back and mounted just ahead of the front tire well, and a folding or removable floor board goes over the front entry steps. You will find that arrangement to in most all curb side front entry motorhomes and coaches even in a Pusher lay out. With the F/C lay out and the huge dog house over the giant nearly prehistoric 3208 cat takes all the walking space between the front seats up, so its a very rare thing to find both a front curb entry and front pass seat on a real F/C wanderlodge and is one of the biggest tells of even a very well done home grown school/over the road coach conversion with all the real RV trimmings

this is a traditional F/C front Pass seat lay out see no door or steps


Mid entry Curb side door Vs the front entry, and the same basic architecture as the OP's school bus

[Mlarsen]

I could see a front passenger seat that you put on a swivel that folds up nicely against the engine cover.

[LuckyHenriksen]

awesome project!


btw where does she sit?! lol

On the engine, on the bench, at the table, wherever haha. I would like to get a better passenger seat rigged up but haven't been able to yet

on the pole of course!

Hahaha that will be the next upgrade ;D

[flyboyx]

on the pole of course!

[Julien]

awesome project!


btw where does she sit?! lol

[LuckyHenriksen]

That is a pretty cool toilet. How much do they cost? How much are refills?

It was $450 and came with a couple packs of refills. To get more they are $50 or $60 a case, each case has 3 cartridges in it. Each cartridge has 17-18 "flushes" in it. It's a little spendy to operate, but nicer than dealing with a regular porta-potty. That's also why I plan on using it for backup use mostly.

[AndrewBird]

That is a pretty cool toilet. How much do they cost? How much are refills?

[LuckyHenriksen]

super nice, we need to meet up at gfest, i grew up in the aloha/beverton area...and really miss oregon

Awesome, I lived just down the road from Beaverton!

You are the fucking man! Also sweet beard

Thank you sir

[Peterkaczynski]

You are the fucking man! Also sweet beard

[PFCRayB]

super nice, we need to meet up at gfest, i grew up in the aloha/beverton area...and really miss oregon

[LuckyHenriksen]

We are using a dryflush toilet. More info here: http://www.dry-flush.com/
Pretty interesting concept, going to take some getting used to. Although I plan on it being more of an emergency toilet when there aren't any conventional bathrooms available

[rzerob]

This is awesome. Considering your plumbing is going to be simple. I am assuming your toilet is basically just a bucket? Use it only in emergencies. I was on a bus from PA to FL and I was in the middle closer to the front than the rear. The toilet was in the rear and the smell drifted up my way on more that one occasion. And it could flush. This was a little over ten years ago. I have not ridden a bus that far since. I am looking forward to future updates.

[LuckyHenriksen]

I see you already busted a window with bedroom activities.

Lololol

Hmm I am curious the weight you removed vs the weight you put in.

Does it have AC? I bet you can set up a decent HVAC system with all that ceiling space too. Your gonna be driving in summer.. rough man. very humid out here in fl as you know.

I wanted to know the weight difference too, but never went out and weighed it :/
AC would be really nice, but we are doing without for this trip. The humidity is one of the reasons why we are escaping FL while we can :)

Speaking of bedroom activities, get some curtains! Everyone will see you doing the deed.

Lindsey is about halfway done making the curtains. Takes a lot of fabric and time to make curtains for a 40 foot bus!

I spent a lot of time down there. Home Depots everywhere, and my best friends sisters condo overlooks the foxhole.
OP how tall are you?

I am 5'10''. Maybe 5'11'' on a good day. The bus has 6'4'' of clearance from the wood floor to the middle of the ceiling. My 6'4'' brother can walk though it, his hair just brushes the ceiling.