I am constantly learning and changing my understanding of bus conversions..sometimes slowly and skeptically!.On 4th now:wanted to start a list of basic lesson learned will list a few and hope others will chime in::: 1st Insulation now,as much and everywhere you can.--2nd lay your floor plan out with duct tape or chalk..can change to make measurements work..not everything you do will stay like the first installation...shop cabinet,appliance and elect close outs at Lowe's and Home Depot...Others PLEASE add to the list and tell us what didn"t work and did....I'm still building 4th bus and have allot to learn..... PS I ran a screw thru air line and didn't know it till I needed it much later....Bob
Closeout cabinets are great, but they are likely to need customization for most buses. You also really want good cabinets built with plywood, not MDF or particle board unless you're not concerned about weight.
The first thing I did (after stripping the interior of the bus) was to install any roof mounted wiring needed, then had 2.25" of spray insulation done. Because of this, I can easily cool the bus in 90-100 degree weather with just two 13,500btu roof tops running while driving.
As to cabinets, I would never use pre-made cabinets. They are compartmentalized-meaning they are each an individually made cabinet. Custom made in place cabinets can be made to be continuously flowing from one cabinet to the next. And with our very limited space restrictions, we need all the cabinet space we can get. On my bus, the only drawers I have are 4 in the kitchen. Drawers are another space eater. Better to have a shelf that can utilize the entire space available. Good Luck, TomC
My first was a 1965 Chevrolet/Wayne schoolie conversion that I finished back in the late 70s. It taught me a lot, like not to use premade cabinets for one. While the full-size kitchen turned out really nice, it only took a couple of years of south Florida humidity to do a number on the "glued sawdust" that the cabinets were made of. I had two air conditioners, but apparently even that didn't keep it dry enough inside. I ended up replacing those premade cabinets with ones I built in place from plywood and lamination, they lasted for decades. I gave that schoolie away to a friend in the mid-80s, and he's still living in it. The only thing I pulled out of it before giving it away was the old C/Ku sat TV receiver, I left the homebrewed az/el dish mount and 6' Andrews microwave dish on the roof. I homebrewed a lot of what went into that conversion.
Even back then I was into alternative energy, that schoolie had 2,000 A/H of 2V flooded cells wired in series/parallel for the 12V house battery bank. The price was right... free, they were pullouts for emergency exit lights in high-rise buildings. The 12V inverter was one of the old vibrator type, it was not used for the A/C units but it powered everything else. Had dual starting batteries under the hood. A starting battery selector allowed selection of either starting battery, or the house battery bank. The bus came with a 150A alternator, ran that through an isolator to the dual starting batteries, and an additional welding rectifier on a huge heat sink was added for charging the house batteries via a solenoid to enable it if desired.
My fresh water tanks were a pair of waterbed matresses that were snug fit inside of a pair of insulated aluminum boxes on the roof. The solar panels were mounted flat on top of those boxes, they kept most of the sun off. I used hose adapters with plumbing pipe dope to make the connections to the matress fittings through holes in the roof from below. They did add a funky plastic taste to the water for a while, so we drank filtered water until the funky taste finally flushed out. Had usable gravity feed water pressure, and a pump could be switched into the loop if more pressure was needed, like for refilling fresh water. Had to watch the pressure guage closely during refilling, as pressure would rise quickly when each matress would totally fill its space, sorta like a bladder tank without precharge. Worked well, though it did slosh around a bit if driving with a partial fill. They eventually leaked after I gave it away, but he just turned off the valves to them and used a hose connected to a well pump. The boxes had removable tops to change out the waterbed matresses but he didn't want to mess with it.
My blackwater tank was the can from a "pole pig". A large pole mount utility power transformer that I gutted. The pole mount allowed me to bolt it under the floor horizontally, hanging lower than the greywater tanks. I plumbed the toilet fitting to the top, and the dump valve to the bottom. My greywater tanks were a pair of salvaged electric water heater tanks plumbed together and set up so I could open a valve to dump them into the blackwater tank for gravity flushing it out at dump time. I also had a hose bib on one greywater tank for watering plants or dumping the greywater seperately through a garden hose.
Propane stove and water heater fed by a 20 gallon undercarraige mounted vehicle propane tank salvaged from an LP fueled phone company van at the junkyard. The engine was fitted with the LP vaporizer and carb adapter plate from the van so I could run it on propane or gasoline. In addition to the factory 45 gallon fuel tank, I added a 160 gallon fuel tank salvaged from an old city bus, had that slung across the frame rails behind the rear axle. The fuel selection valving was mounted in the dash.
Doing things a lot different this time around with the RTS conversion. Less salvaged materials, and more time being spent on each step of the project.
Bob