Contemplating doing the roof raise in the next few months and wondering what the estimated weight of the stripped out roof was. Anyone got an estimate? Anything I should know before, during or after raising the roof?
Kenny
The roof raise is easy. It helps if you have a person on each corner and jack all at the same time. I did a 8" roof raise. Which left me 7' ceiling height after putting in 4" of insulation in the roof and raising the floor 2" for 2" of insulation in floor. Here is a link to some pictures of the roof raise. http://mcibustalk.com/bbs/index.php?topic=32.0 (http://mcibustalk.com/bbs/index.php?topic=32.0)
I welded lengths of threaded rod onto each upright and wound the roof up using nuts on the threaded rod. No muscle power needed other than turning a spanner, and completely controllable by one person working alone.
Jeremy
Roof raise on my MCI-7 was quite easy.
I set up 2 sets of scaffolding in the bus (one near the front, one near the back). I then placed 4 threaded rods (1" diameter) with nuts and flat washers into 2 pipes of the rear scaffold, and two pipes of the front scaffold, then wound the nuts til the rods just touched the roof ribs above.
I marked the ribs where the rods contacted, then welded 4 real short pieces of 1" pipe to the rib, to keep the rods from skating away.
Two of us then cranked the nuts on the rods to raise the roof, first the front by 1/2", then the back by 1", then the front again by 1", etc, etc,.
We ended up with an 8" raise in about 20 minutes.
Keep the bus level and well blocked when you cut the roof clear, and weld it all back up before you remove the blocking.
Wish I could find my photos.
Welded threaded rod and scafolding, both great ideas. Sounds as if the roof is light enough to be supported by the scaffolding which I have plenty of. Thanks Kenny
Jeremy
threaded rod sounds like a great idea. Would it be possible to give me some more detail on how you did this and how many posts you did it on. Some pics would be fantastic.
Thanx
Glen