Grassroots Toyhauler

I bought a schoolbus. The plan is to park the car in the back and use the front for a sleeping / lounge area. It's an early 90s International 70 passenger. It doesn't have air conditioning. My limited understanding is most RVs use only the dash air while driving down the road and use the roof air while parked with either a generator or "shore power". I'd like to be able to carry a few people comfortably in the Tx heat.

I can cobble together a system from some random parts car to have dash air, but I doubt it will help cool off the rest of the bus. I could try to get a dual air setup out of a Suburban, but the difference in cubic feet and insulation would probably leave that system lacking. If I could find it, I'm sure I could get a system out of another bus and adapt it, but cost would be an issue.

I'm thinking while parked I'll use either window units, an RV air conditioner or both.

The budget for this is as close to zero as possible.

Yes, I've read plenty on Skoolie.net.

Advise?

seal off the part of the bus you are not using while driving?

I'm considering it.

I think sealing the hauling compartment from the 'living' section would be pretty desirable anyway. You're cooling a lot less cubic space, you have a more reasonable area to insulate, and you get shelter from various fumes and other dirty racecar stuff. You could always cool the storage section separately for some respite from the heat, if you plan on wrenching back there and such.

How about a generator to run an AC rooftop unit or 2?

Actually, it wouldn't be difficult.

First: make a bracket to hang another alternator on the engine. Many alternators can easily be modified to make 110V. There's your power for 'on the road'. Just one example: http://ratrodsrule.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-1537.html

Second: seal off the passenger compartment from the race car hauler section.

Third: Use a small house AC unit to cool the cab. A simple transfer switch would allow you to flip the unit from the onboard alternator to 'shore power' and back. As a bonus, you could add in wiring for a TV etc. It would be easy and reasonably inexpensive to bring a generator set to run all this 'off the grid' so to speak.

get a DC/AC inverter with a big alternator, run a portable A/C unit strapped in, exhaust out the side...

Intersmashable used a few different alts on buses. One popular one is a LARGE delco unit with a red plastic square connector on the side. That unit is 140 amp continuous unit. Problem is getting 60hz AC to run a window shaker with start up load is going to take a huge inverter. There are two common sizes of AC units used on top of RV 13500BTU and a 15000BTU the 15000 btu needs 4200watt (38amp 110v ac) to start up I've got one on top of my toy hauler Never had AC in my buses but did have divider wall made out of plywood with shelf / bed that went back over the hood of the car.

This is a little off topic but how do you get the race car into the back of the bus. I have a hard enough time getting mine on to my open trailer.

why are there no pictures!?

I had planned on a divider, however the distance from the back of the bus to the back of the front seat is about 29'. Subtract 16' for the car and there's not a whole lot of space to sleep a LeMons team, and have a place to relax / cool off between driving stints. I think the way back will have to be sleeping quarters for our arrive and drivers, so I'll have to be able to cool it and access it, albeit not while driving down the road. I was thinking with a distance of 5' from the bumper to the windshield I could have a permanent twin bed and a permanent 2' shelf / workbench on the other side of the divider.

I understand there are problems with running A/C off of an inverter as 44 alluded to. I know nothing about ac power. I'm too used to 12v dc.

The floor height on the bus is @36". Some guys have dovetailed theirs, but that would make sleeping back there a drag. I'm thinking of building a fold down ramp with the original bus skin over it and adding additional ramps to fold or slide out of it. If we get lazy it may be just long ramps.

fritzsch wrote: why are there no pictures!?

'Cause you've seen a bus before. Pictures come later.

Also, I have a source for good used UPS batteries. What kind of battery bank / inverter would power A/C and maintain it's charge off of the alternator? Is it even doable?

Paint the roof white if it is not allready. My sister lived in a school bus and she said it helped a lot.

Love the project! Id love to come scope it out sometime if i pass by you.. i seem to remember asking where you were in Tx but ive forgotten the answer.

As for the UPS batteries, you could definitely build a cool system with enough of them, but what you dont spend on the battieries you WILL spend on inverters..

I can imagine picking up two or three of the big harbor freight inverters and syncing them with a bit of rewiring, or using a collection of modified car stereo amplifiers running off one 60hz input, but either way would require a fair bit of electrical know-how. To simply buy an inverter big enough to run a decent a/c unit would be pretty expensive (as far as i know). It might be possible to lessen the pull of a compressor starting up with more/better starting capacitors. Really all of these things are slightly above my comfort level to theorize about..

pimpm3 wrote: This is a little off topic but how do you get the race car into the back of the bus.

Is it possible to do an axle flip to lower the bus?

School bus's are really a poor choice for race car transportation. They are under powered. They take forever to climb a 4% grade.I was a scool bus driver, that is how I know. Most won't go over 60 mph. The floor height is too high for loading a race car. The wheels houses get in the way. When you open the back for a loading door,it seriously deteriorates the body structure. Don't mean to rain on your parade. There are better choices. When i was driving, we didn't have no stinking AC. . just opened the windows and let the brieeze blow through. through.

You may be right, but I'm willing to try it. I bought the bus for something at or below scrap value, so I can give it a go. This one has the DT466 so it won't be as underpowered as a lot of other options. I'm in Dallas, we race around TX with the occasional trip to LA or OK. There aren't any hills in this part of the world. It is governed at 60 mph, but if I can get 5 more mph out of it I should be ok. The right ramps will make loading possible. The wheel houses will be an issue, but I should be able to drive over them. I plan on framing in the rear body where the door opens.

I have an F350 crew cab and an 18' car hauler now. The goal for the bus is to be able to haul one car, tow another, and have a place to sleep and hang out for the price of a decent used RV. We should be able to have the Bus ready for far less than the cost of a useable enclosed trailer.

Kool bus

I like this thread ,,,,, We grinded one of the slide down windows and popped a window ac in there for when we are stationary . But when driving I run in swim trunks and I fashioned a flex hose to pipe in air from outside on driver .

if you're planning to pull a trailer and it doesn't have a tire rack and other such bits at the front of it like many racing trailers do you could just run the trailer as an extension of your ramps... pull up onto the trailer then into the bus...

also i'm sure you've looked into it but I know some locations require the bus NOT be yellow... or at least that used to be the rules for an "RV" conversion

Yeah, I'm on top of the trailer then bus approach. It has to work both ways though. "National school bus yellow" is the color. In some states being that color requires you to follow a different set of rules. We're painting it white for that and the temperature reasons.

My bus hauled a 67 dart sport special drag car. Busses have a "roll bar" (up and over folded metal hoop) ever 3 ft what i did was saz-all the back end cap off right after the last roll bar then cut along the floor and removed the back panel as one. Weld in square tubing with holes in it (sign post stuff) and ran a section of 2x2 angle iron along the bottom. Then placed the panel back on the bus shimmed it up off the floor with wood shims and welded a long piano hinge (McMaster Carr) to the roll bar and the back panels square tube. Added some flip latches and was done. For ramps i has 2x12x20 with 2x2 angle iron running down both sides so as to protect the edges and across the ends and every 4 ft so so. In the middle of the ramp i would place a jack stand at max height and let the ramp flex down one inch to hit the ramp. I had a 8300lbs Rule brand boat winch to pull car up and let it out slow. I've got Polaroids around somewhere...

Ya it may have been poor choise of a vehilce but it was cheap! Up here buses have max life on 5 years by law other parts of the country come here to buy used buses cheap....My bus was not bid on....it had motor with bad wrist pin. I got it for free if i moved it right then and there. Two months before i got a buss whith tree damage but good motor same way... Free is good for me.

Please post a pic when you get a chance. Sounds bread. Love to see it.

Edit: sounds neat. Damn you, autocorrect.