I Want a Bus

[TWC3]

Mort, I have been looking at this idea for several years now. A few years back my father and I built a Teardrop trailer.




It was not all that complicated and got me to thinking about building my own RV. My vision when I retire is to live in my RV 50+ % of the time and my big concern is the quality of standard RV’s is really questionable. Albeit nice my sister’s 35’ 5th wheel has the quality of a 1970’s mobile home.

Here are several links that I have collected in the past few years on projects that others have done including some commercial conversion.

Luxury Coaches:
http://powerhousecoach.com/coaches2.html
http://www.dynamaxcorp.com/
http://www.motorcabin.com/

Custom/Other
http://www.sellabus.com/
http://www.mobilehomestead.com
http://www.resourcesforlife.com/groups/mobilehermitage/construction.htm
http://www.housetrucks.com/
http://www.mrsharkey.com/busbarn/
http://www.mrsharkey.com/busbarn/damien/damien.htm
http://www.rv-busconversions.com
http://busconversions.com/
http://www.canadiancontent.net/dir/Top/Recreation/Outdoors/Camping/Recreational_Vehicles/Bus_Conversions/
http://www.geocities.com/crazy_hill77/index.htm
http://n6ecv.net/bus.htm
http://www.robgray.com/index_files/index_graynomad.php - Kewl Motor Home

Slide Out Components:
http://www.barkermfg.com/product_pages/slide_out_systems.html

I had a few others but I am unable to locate them at this moment.

TC

[NumbSkull]

TWC3- Thanks for the links. That has been keeping me busy this morning. I have some of those and have not seen others. I like Mr. Sharkey's sight but he tends to lean toward the hippy-dippy look in buses. That is OK but I understand pay campsites tend to turn their nose up at outfits that look like hippy buses. They think they are unsafe and when you are talking about propane and such I guess I do not blame them. Looking through some of the pictures it occured to me we have a '38 ton and a half Chevy truck down in the bone yard. Once upon a time it had a stock rack on it. Then it served as a fuel wagon. If memory serves me correct it is still in pretty fair shape. I do not think it has too many bullet holes in it and I think it still ran when dad parked it down there. A guy could put a modern drive train in it and build a pretty decent little house truck on the chassis. I think by the time you got done you would be better off buying a modern chassis. The problem is these things are not usually set up for over the road use. They would be geared lower and probably ride like a lumber wagon. That is why I was thinking a bus would be ideal. I am thinking of living out of this thing for four to five months out of the year. It needs to be comfortable as well as road worthy. I do not want to break down in the middle of nowhere and not be able to get parts. So I do not know. I guess I just need to do more reading. I could not start on such a project until next winter anyway.

Mort

[TWC3]

You are welcome - any time I can assist in wasting time on the internets.

Ya, mr sharky and some of the people on his site are rather hippy like and you are correct about the commercial RV grounds turning noses up over some home-conversions. The average DYI guy can do nice conversions unfortunately most are obviously homemade.

This is one of the nicest off-road RV I am sorry I cannot find the link to this guys build but fortunately I was sent the images via e-mail from a friend.








TC

[Thirsty Mallard]

TWC that teardrop trailer is sweet! How much and how long did it take you to make that? My dad and I could use a new project now that we are finishing with the renovations on their house, and I could use a trailer like that for my frequent camping trips... its damn near perfect!

And more pictures or specs you might have that I could take a look at?

[BrewBum]

See, to me this is a damn near perfect tear drop, too bad you have to drop some coin for it. Check them out.



www.tab-rv.com

[Thirsty Mallard]

And that one comes with A/C! I need that camper...

[TWC3]

Thank you Thirsty Mallard. We started sometime in August of 2003 was finished by October of 2003 and cost just under $2,000. Here is the build page http://www.twc3.com/DynaPage.asp?Pname=TD0001

I looked at the T@B but it was more money than what I was willing to spend for something that I use for a few weekends a year. I already had the 4X8 trailer and I did not need much of a trailer because we spend most of our time around the campfire or hiking and fishing not watching tv in the trailer.

Many on the Tiny Trailer Forum have added A/C to Tears http://www.mikenchell.com/forums/


TC

[NumbSkull]

Lots of neat stuff on that tiny trailers forum. Those are neat weekend type trailers but not practical for living in for months at a time. Those would make a neat fishing camper though. Liked reading about your trailer build.

Brewbum that is one fancy little trailer. I bet the price tag on that one is pretty good too.

Mort