Possible Skylight solution

Geom · October 14, 2015, 07:10:59 PM

Wow Darkspeed, you are crazy-fast man!

Hard to believe three hours earlier that was a hole in the roof and a few hours before that it was a vague inkling of an idea

It looks nice!

So what will you do for AC warts and vents? Do you have enough real estate up there for all of that?

Darkspeed · October 14, 2015, 09:23:24 PM

Thanks Geom, no AC warts for me.. bay mounted split system ac is the plan. Roof will be two skylights and two maxx fans.

Geom · October 14, 2015, 09:33:13 PM

Oh I bet that's gonna look real sleek without those AC warts up there.

How much space will you lose in the bay?

When we were bus shopping we came across one that had one of those AC units mounted in one of his kitchen cabinets. It was real odd and a bit of an eyesore, not to mention the interior space lost.

The bay is definitely the right place for that, but if I recall that thing was about the size of two large window units stacked on top of one another. Then there was a bunch of ducting and an additional air-handler box. It seemed to take up a lot of space. Hopefully those have improved and condensed in size somewhat.

Will that be your AC and heat or will you do something else for heat? Of course I think you're in FL so you may not care about heat, lol.

Geom · October 14, 2015, 09:47:43 PM

Another consideration, I know in the summer our bays get pretty hot. I've put up some of that reflective bubble-tape crap (skinned to the bay doors' interior) and it helped somewhat, but it's easily 15 deg hotter than ambient in there on a sunny day.

Will you be able to vent that AC coil well enough, or are you brining in fresh air to it??

TomC · October 15, 2015, 09:25:04 PM

Man you are doing a lot of structural changes. Adding a drop frame, now cutting one of the roof bows to fit in the skylight. I was very careful not to cut any structural components on my bus-just figure the bus engineers know more than I do. Just hope all the cutting doesn't compromise your bus. Good Luck, TomC

lvmci · October 16, 2015, 07:43:38 AM

Hi Darkspeed, we had skylites in our 1st bus the MCI5A, in the living room and kitchen, my wife loved to watch meteor showers, shooting stars, we would go to a mesa top park the bus go outside till later than watch from the sofa inside, while making popcorn and hot chocolate or an adult beverage, lvmci...

Darkspeed · October 16, 2015, 07:44:15 AM

Quote from: TomC on October 15, 2015, 09:25:04 PM
Man you are doing a lot of structural changes. Adding a drop frame, now cutting one of the roof bows to fit in the skylight. I was very careful not to cut any structural components on my bus-just figure the bus engineers know more than I do. Just hope all the cutting doesn't compromise your bus. Good Luck, TomC

Tom im very careful to calculate what I am taking away and make sure to replace it with equal or greater structure.

Darkspeed · October 16, 2015, 07:45:07 AM

Quote from: lvmci on October 16, 2015, 07:43:38 AM
Hi Darkspeed, we had skylites in our 1st bus the MCI5A, in the living room and kitchen, my wife loved to watch meteor showers, shooting stars, we would go to a mesa top park the bus go outside till later than watch from the sofa inside, while making popcorn and hot chocolate or an adult beverage, lvmci...

Cool!

Darkspeed · October 17, 2015, 01:12:53 PM

Ended up building a steel frame that mounts to the underside of the roof and an aluminum frame that mounts to the top.
All put together with rivets and 3M 08115 Panel Bonding Adhesive.
The two frames attach to the skylight frame with screws and 3M 08115 Panel Bonding Adhesive.
The skylight frame is there for good.

The rear skylight above the bed is going to be a little more tricky.