Next step in the conversion process MCI

[Tom Y]

I would remove the walls and ceiling and put in new insulation. ( I did ) The old insulation has little R value. My 5 c floor was 1/2 or 5/8 plwood. You can see the plywood above the bays. I insulated my floor also.

HB, I used the pastic sheet for my bathroom ceiling. I glued it to the alumium ceiling, it looks good. Hope it stays up there.            Tom Y

[BG6]

Just curious here...after removing the "silver heating vents" will a person still be able to use the otr system for the AC?

Sure, if you run new ducting.  The question is why you would want to.

The original aircon is only good when the engine is running, so if you want cooling when parked, you need a couple of roof mounts or a basement mount.  If you are doing that, you might as well pull out the heavy original system and use that space for something else.

Besides, the old system uses something like 25 POUNDS of refrigerant, so recharges are a bit expensive.

[Airbag]

One thing I've learned driving buses, and we had non airconditioned buses converted both ways with engine driven compressors and generators with roof units and the engine driven stuff wins hands down.
Never ever get rid of the oringinal engine driven system. Take it from a man from Tucson that drives buses all day in the 110 degree heat.

I was dumb enough to buy my MCI with it removed and I would give my left nut to have it back.

Simply my opinion

[JackConrad]

Is there metal under that? Any pics?

On our MC-8, no metal under the plywood. In the area of the 3 bays, if you look up at the bay ceiling, you are looking at the bottom of the plywood (except the area of the "tunnel" that runs down the center of the bays. Over the wheels, there is fiberglass insulation under the plywood, then the wheelwell.  Jack

[Jerry32]

I kept the front ducts so I would have heat on the road but the cooling seems not effective maybe to lo on refridgerant. I have never noticed any bd smells so I left the floor alone. Jerry

[Paul]

Look at this to see what under the plywood floor and some of the dirt removed from there.


http://www.incredibus.com/Floorremove.htm

Hope this helps
Paul

[Freedom Rider]

Sure, if you run new ducting.  The question is why you would want to.

The original aircon is only good when the engine is running, so if you want cooling when parked, you need a couple of roof mounts or a basement mount.  If you are doing that, you might as well pull out the heavy original system and use that space for something else.

Besides, the old system uses something like 25 POUNDS of refrigerant, so recharges are a bit expensive.

Reason I wanted to keep the bus air was that I read in a lot of these posts that the roof or basement airs that are added really can't keep up when driving down the road.

[JackConrad]

Reason I wanted to keep the bus air was that I read in a lot of these posts that the roof or basement airs that are added really can't keep up when driving down the road.

There are many variables that determine the effectiveness of roof or basement ACs while driving down the road.
   Among these are bus insulation, amount of glass that the sun is shining through, your position in relation to glass sun is shining through, location of AC ducts, efficiency of your particular AC system, color of bus exterior, type of curtains (if present), outside air temperature, etc.
   Our bus is pretty well insulated, exterior mostly ultra white, with average amount of windows that are tinted. Our AC system is one basement unit (24,000 BTU) and we no problem staying comfortable.
    Now, that said, if we are driving west in the late afternoon, our bodies are absorbing so much radiant heat through the windshield, that it would be difficult for any system of overcome that completely. We have 2 of the small fans installed above the windshield that re-direct the cool air onto us. this make a big difference.  Jack