Ok, so this won’t be brief but it has some interesting info.

From time to time (usually one every couple of weeks) we look online to see if their are any cheap places that we could potentially rent. Rarely do we see something that we are interested in. This is mainly due to our criteria. We are not interested in a place that is really all that nice, but just something that is right. So I will explain what “right” is.

We do not want to live in Visalia or Tulare. Exeter is the only place we were thinking we could stand around here but we figured that we are likely to end up living in either Visalia or Tulare. So if we were to live there, we need a to find a really inexpensive place that is not in a ghetto area of town. Unfotunately, that is near impossible to find. If we cannot find that, we want to live near the mountains (as we are nature lovers) and commute to Visalia for work. We have looked at 3 rivers but it seemed too far away. We watched for places available in between but nothing ever came up available. So, it started to seem that our only hope was either get lucky with cheap city house in a non-ghetto area, or get lucky with a random house available in the country between the mountains and Visalia. Eitherway, we needed to get lucky or settle for Exeter.

To make matters more difficult, we have 2 children and a dog. Most renters refuse to rent to a family unless there is a room for each child. Most renters do not allow dogs for inexpensive rentals. In fact. we only found a handful that would allow dogs that were under $1,000 per month. That is not inexpensive at all and most of them are large homes. Let me remind you, we don’t have any furniture. Could you imagine? haha. Empty house.

Our ideal is to find a one bedroom that is inexpensive and located between the mountains we love and the city I need to work in. Now back to the random searches for said criteria. We had no luck in the 9 months we have been here now. Can you believe it has been 9 months???

Yesterday we gave it a try to see what was out there and as luck would have it, there was a one bedroom in Lemon Cove that allows dog and is located between the mountains and Visalia. Woohoo! So we are in communication with the owners and things are looking good. The only issue we had was that there was a really heavy cat smell in the house that I am sure cannot be washed out of the carpet. In addition to that, the carpet really needs to be replaced. Considering how cheap the rent is ($600 mo. to us it is cheap, we paid over $1,250 for the past 6 years for rent and peaked at our last rent of $1,400), I was willing to negotiate getting the carpet and pad changed out. I told them that we would only be there for 6 months maybe slightly more and they were ok with it. The house isn’t obviously a palace, but it is perfect for us. Country roads, animals, a quick drive to Sequoia National Park, and most of all NO SHADY PEOPLE WALKING AROUND. We can actually take our kids for a walk, see some beautiful things and not have to worry something bad could happen.

So it looks like this place could be exactly what we need right now and Avira is VERY excited. She is already imagining it which means she will be heart broken if it doesn’t pan out. So I hope it works out mainly for her and my children, but I am looking forward to it too. They really need to have their own environment again for the first time in 9 months. Wish us luck and I will report what happens.

Next…

I was contacted by a gentleman today who tracks double decker buses. It was really awesome to get that email and he had some cool info which I will post in a sec. Here is a link to his site with my bus http://bcv.robsly.com/414pta.html

Here is quotes from the email because I am not a big fan of retyping what people have already typed. hehe

“US history is somewhat sketchy, but it is known that its first RV conversion was done (to a very high spec for the time) around 1982 and it is reputed to have been used by no less than film star Richard Dreyfuss…Prior to your discovering it in Paso Robles it was last reported by the network of interested bus enthusiasts (mostly Brits abroad in the US) in March 1992, for sale for $25,000 in Sun Valley…414PTA was new to the Western National Omnibus Company as their fleet number 2034. That company operated in the South West corner of England, in the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset.”

There was more in the email on a more personal note that I will not share but I thought that info was interesting enough. The guy we bought it from told me about Richard Dreyfuss owning it so I did know that. I can see how the conversion was very 80’s as it still seemed to have a disco remnant design to it. Can you believe it was selling for $25,000 in 1992??? Whoa, I think we got a great deal!

That is it for now, more to come!

I am investigating insulation for our bus. It is perhaps THE most important thing we will install. I have been concerned greatly about pest infestation in our future home. This bus has a tremendously greater potential for pests than the average bus conversion because of the way it was constructed. Literally holes and cracks they can fit through everywhere. Obviously they did not care much about insulating this thing. So I need to take great care when insulating, not just from the elements but also from pests.

When looking at all the green insulation options, there is a clear advantage to using an expanding spray foam insulation called Icynene. It will seal everything. It will literally turn our bus into an air tight ice chest. This is good for filling in all the places where pests could squeeze through and it’s R value can be maintained because it will seal the bus from air flow through these spaces. It is supposedly a green product and turns up on websites claiming this due to the fact that it is water blown and has no chemical fumes that come off of it.

I have my doubts. Why? Well…. One question I could ask that will probably answer that question for you.

Could a product possibly be “green” that requires you to wear this when spraying on?

I mean come on now people, Really? Green?

So I have been looking around for weeks now trying to learn about so-called “Green” products for the RV and all I can say is, everything is green these days. I have seen chemical products claiming to be green because it is packaged in a bottle made with recycled material and nearly anything that saves power is claiming to be green even if it used enough toxins to kill a village to produce the product. I know being green is all the rave right now, but good lord there needs to be some standards out there. Some educated, non-corporate sponsored sources that really look into the elledged greeness of products. All I know as I look into this more and more is that things are not what they seem in the world of environmentally friendly products. Some websites are founded to push products of questionably eco-friendliness by the manufacturers themselves and others are hippy types who obviously don’t think much beyond the ingredients in the product. What about manufacturing process? Are they using chemicals? Are they dumping it and where? What kind of waste is produced? How is it transported? What if it is shipped on a small plane from China and releases outrageous amounts of exhaust into the atmosphere? There is more to being green than a label telling it is so but it is getting really difficult to get legitimate info on being “Green”. I am doing my best though!

I have been in turmoil the last couple of days trying to figure out if it is wise to pay to have the electrical done in the bus and spend a bundle of money I could certainly cut in half (if not more) if I installed it myself. It seems like there’s lots of info out there on how to do it and much of it is free. In addition to that, there are several forums where people did it themselves and that makes me feel like it is completely possible to do. I have never done electrical but I get the basic idea of it. A good thing is that I will learn all about my electrical system intimately and likely be able to solve any future problems myself saving me what would be even more money. A bad thing is I can messs up and install a faulty system that gives me nothing but problems. I am going to fish around to people who have done it and see if I can get some assistance. In the mean time, I am waiting for a response from a local rv place that is going to give me a quote on installing it. We will see how that is before I make an official descision but I suspect it is going to cost me body parts.

The plan with the JB Weld was a success and it it holding well. So that solved our radiator fluid leak. Here is the video of me showing that it works.

So, once we let it run for a good 15 minutes with no leaking, we decided to see if it would drive. I drove it forward and then couldn’t find the reverse gear. In this bus you actually have to pull up on the stick a good inch and then it shifts all the way to the far left and up to get it in reverse. So here is the video of me driving it forward and reverse successfully.

By the time we were done and ready to drive it, everybody from the shop had left and I thought it was a bit to risky to take it farther because if something happened there is no way I could have gotten it back without dropping money in a tow truck. There is little reason to think that something will happen but I was be cautious so I was not sorry. Monday it might go up to the gate but I don’t want to take it on the road till it is insured.

Everything we possess that is not necessary for life or happiness becomes a burden, and scarcely a day passes that we do not add to it.  ~Robert Braul

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter… to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring – these are some of the rewards of the simple life.  ~John Burroughs

Maybe a person’s time would be as well spent raising food as raising money to buy food.  ~Frank A. Clark

Live simply that others might simply live.  ~Elizabeth Seaton

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.  ~William Morris

Our affluent society contains those of talent and insight who are driven to prefer poverty, to choose it, rather than submit to the desolation of an empty abundance.  ~Michael Harrington

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.  ~Vernon Howard

Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.  ~Edwin Way Teale

We don’t need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants.  Not wanting something is as good as possessing it.  ~Donald Horban

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.  ~Hans Hofmann, Introduction to the Bootstrap, 1993

As of today we have finally decided on a basic plan for the interior bus layout. Of course it may change as we get further along. Top is top level, bottom is bottom level. If you have any suggestions or ideas, let me know.

Oh, this is not dimensionally accurate but pretty close. I chalked this up so that I can begin to mark all the electrical outlets and lights so that the electrical guys can give me a quote.

As I said this is basic. Upstairs we plan to incorporate a washer/dryer, clothes closets and drawers, as well as a craft desk/storage for Avira. Across from the bunks will be a play area for the kids. Downstairs will have plenty of cabinetry in the kitchen, and the breakfast table will have some kind of drop down design so that we can serve espresso and goodies out of that window when we go to events It will be a lovely home.

So after considering what a task it would be to deal with the issue I posted about before this post, I decided to say scew it. I am going to JB Weld that hole shut. Why? Well, I have no intention of keeping this engine. Once I sell it, it will likely be parted out and that part is beyond repair. In addition to that, I am only intending to drive it 40 feet a day from where it is currently parked to the front of the shop and back to where it is now. The only reason we need to drive it at all is so we can get the bus close enough to the shop door (that it doesn’t fit through) so the equiptment can reach it and the body work can get done. I talked to my cousin about timelines and they will start it as soon after Christmas as they can and will likely have it done by the beginning of Febraury. In addition to that, I have located a few different companies that can make a “reversing gearbox” that will reverse the rotation of the driveline so we can put a domestic engine and transmission in without changing out the rear end. Don’t ask, that is a long explanation but trust me, we can’t change it out or switch directions on it. The reversing gearbox will be finished mid to late Febraury if I order it soon.

So here is the plan. I am going to JB Weld that hole shut just so it can drive without shooting out radiator fluid, that way it can make it the 40 or so feet it needs to each day in order to get the body work done. At the beginning of Febrauary the body work will be done and by then we will have replaced all the windows to the kind we want. We will also have our engine and transmission. Once the reversing box is done, we will put the engine, tansmission and reversing box in, then sell off the old engine and transmission. Toward the end of Febrauary when we get this done, we will drive it over to have all the electrical and plumbing installed which will take about a week. Then we just build our new home. Once the Bathroom is done, the kitchen is done, we are going to throw some matresses down and start living in it that way we can tell through experience where we want all our lighting, cabinets etc. We got a pretty good idea but nothing beats actually experiencing it and taking your time to make sure it is done intelligently and right.

I am planning to install the DT466 Turbo Diesel Engine and the Allison MT643 Automatic Transmission. I have located a few different ones for really cheap and in good running order. One is $1,000 for both and the other is $2,500 for both. The cool thing is I was told my engine would easily sell for $3,000 running  (which it is now =) hehe) if not more. Not sure what I can get for the transmission but already that pays for my engine and tranmission.

The current reversing box quote that I have is $3,000-$3,500. I will be getting another tomorrow and I am expecting it to be lower. I will post once I know how much it is.

So there is the current plan. I want to be living in this bus by mid-spring! We have to take it one step at a time and I will post the details as time goes on. Wish us luck on everything because we are gonna need it.

Today we started our engine to let it run for around half an hour after filling the radiator with anti-freeze/coolant. After starting it coolant poured out from the side of the engine like niagra falls leaving a huge puddle under the bus (and beyond). My wife and son yelled to me that it was happening and I imediately turned off the engine. It took a while before it stopped pouring out but I investigated and found a hole in the side of the engine where it was coming out. Luckily, this part with the hole in it comes off and can be replaced IF I can find a replacement. Considering how rare the BVW engine is, I doubt I will have luck. The cool thing is that even though I don’t know what to call this particular part, a part number is actually on the unit. It is the 293bvw. Basically put, it routes coolant from one hole in the engine to a hole next to it. There are about 4 of these parts on the visible side of the engine. Here are some pictures of the holy part and the non-holy part for comparison. You can click the pictures to see them bigger.

Here is a farther view back from the engine.

Ironically, I need to remove the fuel injection pump so that I can replace a choke valve that is all rusted out and not turning the engine off. I was dreading taking it off just for that because of all the work involved but now I have to take it off to replace this part, so now I am not dreading it. haha. See, the glass IS half full.

As of Thursday December 11th we have a running bus! =)

Friday we spent the day changing the oil out and fixing a radiator hose before we started it for the second and third time. The second time it died after running for a while and then the third time it ran better and better the more we let it run. By the end, it was running beautifly. The only problem now is to deal with what sounds like a fuel line or air line issue. We aren’t sure but it is causing it to run a bit rough. Sooooo, we video taped the events and here they are.

Second time starting the bus

Third time with interview of Wenn family