SKOOLIE BUILD: Getting Started... The Build-Up
We are converting a school bus to an rv. It sounds funny but, it really is super practical and provides me an outlet to craft something with my hands.
The concept began to set in for me a couple of years ago, while on a trip with a good friend in his Sprinter Van. We had just finished a week long I've climbing trip in Vail CO & never paid for a hotel room. Returning to Utah, one of the guys (3 of us on this trip) had to use the restroom, no big deal, there was a bathroom on board - no need to stop we kept on trucking. Having worked hard the preceeding days, we were now hungry... No problem, how about cooking breakfast burritos while busting down the road... All of these activities were completed with seat belts on, and no climbers were harmed in the filming...
Over the years we have used the Sprinter for distance bike races, picnics with friends, weekend cragging... This van is damn convenient.
The final piece of the puzzle came together after I saw a youtube called buslife, a snowboarder had converted a school bus into an rv, it didn't have the fit-and-finish of the Sprinter but, its highly customized extras made it more useful to them and their craft/sport (boot driers, clothes racks, usb outlets...). I shared the video with Heather and we knew that our search for an RV been permanently changed.
A school bus comes with it own list of shortcomings, some we are aware, and some that we may not fully comprehend. It is big... It is hard to make a u-turn in a Sprinter, it is simply not going to happen in a school bus. It is not made to be a camper, we are going to have to build it out. That is alright, I grew up in construction and while not as handy as my brothers, I can get things done. Whatsmore, is we will be able to build it like we want - no concessions.
We started looking for information online and found a lot of it. Search skoolie and you will find instgram groups, online forums, facebook groups, blogs... The whole tiny-home movement is also helping it get some notoriety. The real problem is if you look closely at the build-outs that people are doing, more often than not, they are glorified tail-gating vehichles: removing the seats, putting linoleum down, and then filling the cavern with ikea furniture. Safety issues aside, this wouldn't cut it for us... We do bike races in the summer, in Vegas... Ours would need air conditioning. We climb ice in the winter, ours would need heat. I also have a wife and two daughters - ours would need a bathroom and shower.
Most of the skoolie projects are documented by their owners on some sort of website. Many of them show the start then get all tired and then stop posting. Another trait that most of them share is that the people are moving in and have a deadline. Contrary to this trend, our first post starts with us actually starting to do the build up... we are demolition complete.
Our bus, is a 2001 Bluebird front engine, flat front. It has a 5.1 Cummins with an Alison 2000 transmission and hydrolic brakes. I will compare different bus models in another post, suffice to say that there are fringe groups that have their eyes set on a specific engine and model, that is different than ours. I feel like their obsession is unnecessarily narrow and unfoudned. We sought out this style it due to their durability (Cummins + Alison) and parts access. Another feature we wanted it's a great garage, we wanted a back door to store gear.
After finding it, I bought a one way ticket to North Dakota, flew up on a Thursday, test drove the bus, paid the dealer in cash, and started driving home that same night. We have since named our bus, Dakota.
Here are the basic steps we have completed to date:
- Mechanical Check & Fixes
- Interior Demolition
- Electrical Demotion
- New Subfloor
- Cargo Boxes Added
- Generator Added
We still have a lot more work to do but, I will try and document and share our tips/lessons as we go through it.
The two bands that I have discovered while out working on the bus:
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