Hi I’m Hank, and I bought a bus
hankboughtabus.com
hankboughtabus.com
The only stipulations coming to my mind that would stop me from rushing out and doing it /right now/, are
* What are the laws like, regarding parking and sleeping this somewhere? Do I have to find campground or something, or just live in Walmart parking lots all the time?
* What's done for cooling/heating? Does this require a pretty temperate environment, or is it relatively well sealed?
* Is all power generated by the bus? If so, does that make traditional tasks on the computer or other places hell, with the shaking, and if not, what generates it and how much can you support?
In general, I LOVE the idea, and the execution. That bus looks as roomie as my(once again, crappy, but still, a real) apartment.
Vehicles leak like sieves unless you seal them up yourself, which could be a catastrophically bad idea if exhaust starts to find its way into the vehicle while it is running.
Aside from opening windows or bundling up and shivering, your cooling/heating options are either typical house HVAC appliances, or extending the functionality of the onboard heating and cooling and hoping that you bought a diesel, which are much more tolerant than gasoline engines of idling all day. Which brings me back to the risk of exhaust gasses when the passenger compartment is mostly sealed.
For electrical power to run appliance-type HVAC, you could use a small generator.
You can seal it! Yes, you can, absolutely. The question, remember, is what happens when you seal it and accidentally miss that one critical leak (of which there are many) through which the exhaust then hotboxes you in your nicely sealed cabin.
As an alternative, a heat exchanger ventilation system may work. This way, you can maintain a comfortable temperature indoors for a bit longer while still ventilating.
- make sure it is periodically inspected
- keep a hawk eye and a dogs nose out for anything suspicious
- get a fire extinguisher and a fire blanket, learn how to use them
- make sure the vehicle is very well ventilated
- always ventilate for a few minutes before starting / igniting anything
- if you suspect something is wrong check with soap, not with a match
Gas explosions in RV's and mobile homes are unfortunately not rare at all.
Would you mind elaborating on this point? I don't know what you're referring to.
source: I've somewhat nervously watched old-timers do this. I've also accidentally discovered leaky welding torches this way.
But if you're doing it with city gas, it's lighter than air and can pool between joists.
Really, just go mix up the spray bottle of soapy water. It works great for non-flammable gases too.
No, they are not.
It does not help that, as my brother-in-law found out the hard way, one of the effects of being exposed to the gas is that you become groggy and lose judgement. He's luckily still alive, but with serious scarring on about 1/3 of his body.
Therefore develop good habits. Be religious about it. It is only the fact that it IS a habit which will cause you to do the right thing when you need to and have impaired judgement.
I forgot to add one more thing in the list, which is that gas will pool at the bottom of enclosed spaces and it can blow up on you even when you think there is none.
Used this on a house with single-pane windows growing up.
Works amazing, simple and cheap.
I'm with you on that point. What's the least flammable insulation available for body filling, fiberglass?
Edit: ceramic or rock wool perhaps, but mind the dust and know which treatments were applied.
Hank certainly has other options. He can stay at RV camp grounds and use their hookups. He can buy massive banks of batteries. He can travel only in good weather in temperate climates. I'm just speculating assuming none of these are acceptable options.
Darren from Hak5 is touring across America to hacker spaces and the like, and he did something like that[0] which surprisingly was used to power more than I thought would be feasible. And this was on a sprinter van, so with a bus like this, one could get 4x the amount of energy.
Sample window air conditioner: http://www.sears.com/kenmore-15-100-btu-room-air-conditioner...
1410 watts, AKA 2 horsepower.
Old fashioned space heater: http://www.sears.com/kenmore-oil-filled-indoor-heater/p-0327...
1350 watts
That being said, I feel like one would probably better off trying to solve the heater on the cold night problem by first approaching it from a fluid dynamics perspective (kind of like a glycol HVAC) and then using minimum energy for things like a pump. Though that is probably outside of the scope for this specific project, but it is probably worth looking into for those interested in building on what is going on here.
If one of those units is enough for the bus, and it's on 30% of the time that would mean around 250 W per hour power requirement, resulting in 6 kWh over the day.
In a reasonably sunny environment, solar panels can get 100 W per square meter. Let's say there are around 15 sqm available on the roof, yielding a total of about 12 kWh over the day - that's assuming around 8 hours of sun. If that doesn't work out due to latitude, it would be relatively easy to design panels that can be unfolded, providing extra area and serving as an extensible roof at the same time.
If batteries and inverter don't swallow more than 50% of that yield, it should be enough to drive a normal AC, lighting, and a laptop, maybe even a small fridge. You'd need a backup stove for the winter though.
This is why some full time RV'ers are picky about what state they are in for a given season. If you're in Texas, or another hot climate in the summer in a large bus, you'll need two or three tons (24,000 to 36,000 BTU) of A/C capacity (sometimes more!) to keep it habitable through mid-day and late afternoon.
If you have a large (cover the roof) solar/battery/inverter system, you can run all night without having generators start (and interrupt everyone's sleep) in most cases.
Most people that I know of use LP for heat.
Many of the comments here about cooking fuels being heavier than air are correct about the danger- nothing that proper ducting and a bilge pump could not handle. In order to live like this you must adopt a camping lifestyle. Everyday life activities, such as cooking and bathing, become more like camping and require more preparation.
edit-poor formatting, sorry. I meant the asterisks to be bullet points.
Natural gas would be ideal, gasoline in a good engine second best.
It's far better to run an old one into the ground.
You don't even need to go looking for the production "costs" of the vehicle. Just think of the distance that all the different parts of your new vehicle have travelled before they're put together... and then shipped to your country.
This has some interesting references: http://www.salon.com/2008/04/21/ask_pablo_cars/
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/readerschoice/4368147/A...
[1] Past personal experience: Many of the elderly people I have seen go through car crashes in which the airbag deploys experience injuries from the airbag that often lead to their death or convalescence. Of course, they would have fared no better without the airbag.
But from a pollution point of view not even close.
PS. Shipping is not really that expensive in terms of energy.
The best of both worlds is to ride an old chassis with a modern/freshly rebuilt engine. Both frugal and low pollution. There's no reason to run the chassis into the ground using an engine that's burning oil and choking on the gas.
Partially agree! Modern engines, or a properly rebuilt & maintained engine, can do great things for an older chassis. That said, a rolling chassis can and will wear out. There comes a time where replacing all the failing parts is a losing proposition both for you and Earth.
Your purchase of that already-extant vehicle will trigger production of another in today's very tightly-managed-inventory world.
Increasingly, even automobiles are made to order (c.f.: Tesla).
They're cheap and you can plumb them right into the main tank, a bus would likely require several of them. If you insulate a vehicle besides exhaust fume collection you'll have to be very wary of condensation as well.
My experience is limited to converting a Fiat Ducato delivery van into a small RV:
http://pics.ww.com/v/jacques/cars/ducato/
On something the size of the bus in this article you could stuff the roof full of solar panels and install an inverter + a battery pack, then use that to drive a regular AC. A bit over the top maybe but with that much roof surface it is an interesting option.
Myself and a few friends are working on slightly more 'extreme' motorhomes (based on military 6x6's), designed for unimproved roads and long-term travel.
We're all somewhat independently employed, so the transition to a mobile life is a no-brainer. Hope to see more people in our industry take advantage of their freedom, too!
Any link to your projects? 6x6 sounds interesting :)
j
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/expedition-vehicles/955676-ma...
Naw, man. You need a _big_ generator.
source: I also bought a bus.
Next year I plan on going solar, when time permits.
What kind of Bus? Where are you starting out from?
If you hit the Bonneville salt flats at night, you might find fire-dancing on the flats near the rest areas.
The rest areas in Nevada have fresh drinking water, so you can save some weight by waiting to fill your water tanks.
Shoot me an email electrodynatronic von gmail if you like. I might have a few more tips if you're interested.
-Good luck
Of course, not everyone even wants something that fancy, there are a lot of more utilitarian designs that are done quite well too.
Those being fresh, gray, and black water, as he hasn't installed real water using fixtures. That takes a bit more knowledge than laying out some plywood and having a rats nest of wires. Which leads into the next point, I would love to see the electrical panel if any. A supplemental electric system would be good to have plus input for high amp electricity that many campgrounds offer and most appliances require.
Of course that roof has lots of possibilities, provided panels that can be secured for highway speeds can be found, let alone conform to the shape of the room.
School buses are interesting, most conversions are pretty bad like he said, you end up with a submarine effect which can make some people queasy when its rolling.
Modern homes wheels are at times better inside than many homes I have been in. They don't need to cost an arm and leg either. For anyone wanting to travel the RV style their best bet is to rent, as a lifestyle choice go buy a used one.
As for public spaces, I don't know about US, but in my country it's regulated by the law where you can park Buses and Trucks overnight.
In the SF Bay Area, it will probably cost a minimum of $600 per month to rent a lot. For about $200 more you could rent a room in an apartment with other housemates. Getting further out of the metropolitan area (about a 3 hour drive) an RV lot is going to run in the range of $300 per month.
RV lots are a luxury, not necessarily a way to live cheaply. For dirt cheap living, look into urban boondocking in a van or small RV or look at buying cheap rural land and parking something like this bus on it permanently (in impoverished parts of the country that setup could cost about $10,000).
This is a brilliant project - I really like the wide open feel - something you rarely see in a Class A motorhome (which is what this should be compared to). However, you would need something stronger than translucent screens to make this a go. You would need screen that block out all light and most heat flow. Otherwise, this thing is going to be hell to heat or cool, but honestly, that's a minor issue. The translucent screens look nice, but I am betting something completely opaque would be more efficient and hence a lot more useful. But on a temperate day that near-panaromic view would be amazing and something you don't see in class A motorhomes.
RVs and boats need to be designed differentlty, a house rarely moves.
I drove Alaska->Argentina in 2 years, and now I'm in the planning stages of an around-Africa trip which will flow into a Europe->SE Asia->Australia trip.
For anyone interested, checkout http://wikioverland.org for all the logistical info you'll need, and forums like http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum and http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/ to meet people actually doing it.
Do you speak German? www.kohlbach.org/Download/kohle_afrika.pdf
There are extra restrictions for commercial driving.
A 15 passenger van requires no extra license, but that's about the largest you can go.
The bus has been converted and should be registered as a non-commercial recreational vehicle, so it would be the same license for that... probably a Class A, depending on gross vehicle weight rating.
It's a slight step up in training from your normal vehicle, and would probably require a health certificate, etc... but not as expensive as a CDL (commercial driver license), which would usually entail a few weeks of training and ~$2,500 in costs.
Disclaimer: I own an RV.
We're building military 6x6's into motorhomes, and as soon as they meet the requirements for a living space, there's no special regulation.
Little hard to swallow the fuel cost if you're planning on back-and-forth trips, but my route is a long, drawn out squiggle across north and south America, so we'll only be doing a few hundred miles a month. And, hey, no rent to pay!
My employer provided training and I had to pass written and operating/driving tests in addition to medical exam/requirements. This was in Washington state. Similar in the several other states I have lived.
I sure hope he used Formaldehyde-free plywood though. It would be terribly noxious to live in if he just used the standard stuff.
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/formaldehyde.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanal
After smell of VOCs, etc. Fire is the other concern. Exits gotta be clear and plenty.
He posted two great summaries of the bus interior and construction on his newer website: http://steampunkworkshop.com/bus2.shtml http://steampunkworkshop.com/bus1.shtml
Here's a UK couple that converted a double-decker bus: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-18651140
It wasn't supposed to be completely novel. As a senior project, I imagine it blows the lid off the school requirements.
If I'm not mistaken, this is one such example:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Fox+Hollow+Rd,+Eugene,+OR,+US...
( I'm kind of amazed that I managed to find that - I haven't lived there in years, although I did ride my bike up and down that road dozens of times )
That doesn't sound too bad until you discover there are currently TWO residential moorings for sale in the entire UK. It's crazy.
I'd still be tempted to do it with a constant cruising license, if only for a few years. I need to start paying money into something I own rather than wasting it on rent, but it's not exactly cheap to get into the housing market.
But even with a mooring, you still pay rent for it.
Here's some example numbers: Saw a lovely boat moored in residential moorings near Kings Place (really central london). Price was £90,000, which is a lot but when you compare it to flats in the same area it becomes attractive.
But ... the monthly mooring charge would still be around £600 a month, which is like paying rent anyway. Actual boat-on-its-own was valued around £50,000 which means you're paying an extra £40,000 for the mooring and then have to keep paying £600 a month to keep the mooring. A bit like paying a mortgage, but without any capital gain. If you give up the mooring, you're boat is instantly worth 40k less. Also bear in mind that its hard to get mortgages to buy boats.
I know a chap who's got a boat without mooring and its a lot of fun but yes he does have to keep moving it.
edit: for fun, foxtons search of houseboats for sale in London http://www.foxtons.co.uk/search?search_type=SS&openhouse=&oh...
tldr: boats and stuff.
Ideas for the empty space currently being used as overflow storage:
* Water and/or fuel tanks (more necessary on a boat than on a bus)
* Shower
* Brig
* Pantry
* Rifle stowage
* Server room
(I went on to be a naval architect for a short while but never had a real project as fun as the catamaran design.)
Through some eyes, his website looks like freedom.
It's quite pretty and the bed arrangement is novel although I'm not sure how practical it would be for a couple over time.
The loo is very basic considering what you can rip out of a 15 year old caravan.
I don't like the long central aisle design although it makes everything look bigger. Most boats, vans and caravans tend to use L shapes to break things up a bit.
Still, an interesting part of the USAian dream... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travels_with_Charley:_In_Search...
I do like some of the details, such as the ceiling lighting and the modular bed/storage. But the kitchen and dining and bathroom areas are uninspired. I much prefer the little U-shaped kitchens in modern sailboats, where everyting is easily reachable. Also, if I had such a project, I wouldn't be constrained by the existing ceiling either: I'm thinking a pop-top loft sleeping area or a roof terrace with interior ladder/staircase access.
Not to be overly negative, but I don't see the connection to architecture here. There are a few tenous links, such as the shape of the ceiling (dictated by the bus) and the thought that went into the bed-storage. But all the rest seems more like rough out interior design (fit and finish of the furniture)--and the unfinished bathroom and kitchen aren't appealing at all. I do think he got a lot done for a short project, but is it architecture?
Once completed, he'd take weekend trips. Leave SF Friday evening and drive an arbitrary direction until he was tired. He'd find a place to park and in the morning wake up in a new and unknown location to explore for the weekend.
Now imagine it being electric and solar powered.
Is that the future of cities? On wheels.
And leave at least one window fully open (or the sunroof) for fresh air and the other cause (suffocation) is eliminated as well.
I'm not sure vehicle's AI would gracefully handle a case of meeting some idiot full-speed cruising through a red light.
Is each individual transporting herself in a massive land-yacht truly the future of cities? I sure hope not.
Can you legally sleep in a vehicle?
It's definitely a challenge though.
Solar panels are much better these days and a bus has obviously tons of space to put them.
AGM batteries are also the way to go.
If there were an raspberry pi + app to remotely report battery charge level on a mobile, that would be awesomesauce.
Converting school busses into RV's is quite a hobby, there are lots of them out there. But more importantly there are lots of good resources for not getting screwed in terms of buying a bus with 3M miles on it that needs a new engine or something. Also "filling up" is not for the faint of heart when you drive a bus.
Things I like about this conversion are the simplicity and ability to re-configure easily. Things that might be a challenge are stuff flying around when you turn corners and what not.
I did a 6 month stint over winter, in the UK, 'stealth' living in a converted Ford Transit HiTop LWB Van (had bed, cooker, toilet, bank of 3 batteries and a diesel heating system.) It worked well, but primarily it worked because you could pull up anywhere and park for the night without calling attention to yourself.
Showers where provided by whichever local sports centre I could find :)
Oh and this is an exceptional site if you ever want to try this http://www.parkopedia.co.uk/
Lots of design and construction pictures.
Of course you'd need to rent a truck to drive it around, but it expands similar to some RVs.
Another, slightly more lived-in one, slightly lower-design one.
Wood is also extremely heavy, which makes it a terrible choice if you actually plan on driving.
If he can figure out how to convert it to a serial gas/electric hybrid that would be cool. cover the roof in solar panels - blinds could be solar panels too.
I've seen much nicer converted railway carriages in Scotland, and there is at least one converted railway carriage you can rent for holidays. These are static of course.
This chap should do a line of those storage bed units for people in small flats!
My own grandmother actually lived in a school bus back in the 1970s while she built her home in Alaska.
[1] http://www.hankboughtabus.com/a-tour-of-the-bus/#comment-508
He could have saved around $2000 if he didn't include the riced Macbook.
The housing market in the US (and the UK) always surprises me. People here just rent medium-priced parts of boxes, often far after they found a family and only move into their own homes in their thirties/fourties, if at all.
In the US/UK, on the other hand, it appears to be much more common to buy and sell houses like commodities whenever you feel like moving.
I'll be the first to say this is a sweet bus & transformation and kudos to Hank for finding something he wanted to do and going after it. BUT, I think it's a bit of a stretch to say it's going to change the world. Maybe Hank's got bigger plans for it - but is it too much to ask to just call this a "freaking awesome project" and congratulate Hank on his out-of-the-box thinking without saying it's "revolutionary", "world changing" or some other hyperbole?
It's a horrid picture.
Overstatements are hell.