MCI 102c3 roof raise or not?

Jcparmley · September 15, 2018, 06:51:30 PM

I am at the point in my conversion that I need to make a decision as to do a roof raise or not. I have the tools and am a pretty good welder. Any advice will be appreciated. Also, if you have raised an MCI 102c3 and have advice that would be great.

luvrbus · September 15, 2018, 07:12:29 PM

Quote from: Jcparmley on September 15, 2018, 06:51:30 PM
I am at the point in my conversion that I need to make a decision as to do a roof raise or not. I have the tools and am a pretty good welder. Any advice will be appreciated. Also, if you have raised an MCI 102c3 and have advice that would be great.

how tall are you ? the C3 has 6 ft 7 inches

buswarrior · September 15, 2018, 08:09:23 PM

Are there caps available, or will you have to fabricate your own gap fillers?

It is all about headroom in my mind, I am 6'4", but left an MC8 at stock height and stock insulation.

If it is about insulation, price what another 15 to 20k of BTU in heat and cooling costs, then decide if all the work is worth saving the increased HVAC price.

That's the trouble with rolling your own... both ways are correct for someone...

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

Jcparmley · September 15, 2018, 08:24:15 PM

That's a good point. I never thought of it that way before. I am 6 foot but wanted to raise the roof so I could add 2 or 3 inches of floor insulation and have standard upper kitchen cabinets. I am not sure if there are caps available or if I would need to fabricate my own. I was planing on using a mini split ac and I am trying to decide what I want to do for heat. I was debating between a diesel fired unit or electric. What are your thoughts?

Quote from: buswarrior on September 15, 2018, 08:09:23 PM
Are there caps available, or will you have to fabricate your own gap fillers?

It is all about headroom in my mind, I am 6'4", but left an MC8 at stock height and stock insulation.

If it is about insulation, price what another 15 to 20k of BTU in heat and cooling costs, then decide if all the work is worth saving the increased HVAC price.

That's the trouble with rolling your own... both ways are correct for someone...

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

neoneddy · September 15, 2018, 09:39:45 PM

I made my own cabinets with maybe $300 of wood (oak ply).

I don't know if wanting to use standard cabinets is financially worth it. Even hiring it out would make more sense, but you do you.

In my MC9, I think I'd have liked a raised roof, but it wasn't in the budget.

buswarrior · September 16, 2018, 04:13:35 AM

Pre-made cabinets are often constructed in some way with particle wood.

Do NOT put particle board in your conversion. It absorbs moisture and swells up, bursting it's seams and in many cases, adds a smell to the coach as a result.

The interior of a coach has wild humidity swings, along with the temperature.

Leave a book lying open , or some papers, on a table while the coach is stored not in use, the open pages will show you what's going on.

Happy coaching!
Buswarrior

PP · September 16, 2018, 08:14:47 AM

If you don't raise the roof and still want insulation underfoot, consider spray foam insulation under the exterior floor and fender wells. That will also help insulate your bays and you won't lose any of your headroom.

lvmci · September 16, 2018, 09:15:15 AM

Jc, particle board and pressboard cabinets that you would buy at most places including Home Depot, won't withstand the twisting and vibration of the bus, the screws will strip out and they will swell up over time with the humidity increases inside every time you take a shower or wash the dishes, lvmci...

eagle19952 · September 16, 2018, 10:51:20 AM

more cooling heating capacity is always cheaper and easier imo.

Jcparmley · September 16, 2018, 05:25:15 PM

I was planing on building my own cabinets with 3/4 birch ply. I was planing on using doors I already have. That is why I wanted to use standard upper cabinet size.

Jcparmley · September 16, 2018, 05:28:01 PM

That is actually a good idea. So insulate under the bus? How much could you get under there and won't the road debris ruin the insulation? How would you recomend insulating the bay doors?

Quote from: PP on September 16, 2018, 08:14:47 AM
If you don't raise the roof and still want insulation underfoot, consider spray foam insulation under the exterior floor and fender wells. That will also help insulate your bays and you won't lose any of your headroom.

neoneddy · September 17, 2018, 07:40:11 AM

Re:cabinet construction

Yes that's one big reason we made our own in our kitchen remodel (stationary home) and that gave me the confidence to build my own here. To buy store bought cabinets that don't use particle board is a very premium price. I want to say $300-500 each (with soft close hardware).

Knowing everything is solid oak or nice oak ply that will stand up to moisture is good peace of mind.

Edit: You can make your own doors, come on, where is your can-do attitude? :-)

Jim Blackwood · September 17, 2018, 08:47:19 AM

I recently built a cabinet for the boy's S&S where a roof leak had gotten to the particle board in one of the old ones . It wasn't hard and allowed a perfect fit to the roof.

For this one, we went to a local stair builder and bought a 5/4" oak board about five ft long and 15" wide for either $40 or $60 and they planed and sanded it down for us to the thickness we wanted to match the old cabinet sides. We got 3 sides out of it and enough wood for one more left over. Solid red oak, damn near flawless. A trip to Home Depot yielded a 3"x 6' x 3/4" red oak board for less than $10, and I had some scraps of 3/4" red oak laminated plywood for the bottom. Table saw and radial saw for the cuts, nothing fancy there. Belt sander for smoothing, clamp, glue and screw for assembly with some use of a pneumatic brad nailer. Judicial use of wood putty before finishing, and it looks as good as a commercial cabinet and is much more solid. Re-used the original door and hardware. Took less than a week to complete including gluing and 3 coats of urethane, just occasionally doing a task.

Guys it isn't that hard to do. Now I do have the advantage that my dad was an amateur cabinet maker and he made quite a few of them, learned the tricks and bought the tools. I learned from him but never set up to do that work, I just used what I had on hand and you can too. Chop saws are cheap these days and very, very good.

If you want to make doors, I suggest you see if you can buy the pre-shaped mouldings and picture frame gluing clamps. Other than that, a 1/2" router and router table can be used with the proper cutter. That will take a little finesse and a great deal of care and caution but is more than possible. Or maybe you can find someone like Dad who has the moulding cutter, a big floor machine made of cast iron that can run miles of the stuff. Way easier if you can just re-use your old ones, but if you don't have old ones I wouldn't worry. You can make very nice doors, they don't necessarily have to have raised panels, but remember that you can always glue a layer on to do that.

It's fun to do and very rewarding for a long time to come, so take your time and do it right. Make sure all your cuts are sharp and square, all your surfaces are sanded smooth, and all your corners are smoothed. (except where they join of course) Take time on your finish, and add at least one more coat than you think you need. Maybe two. Or three. The cost of materials is minimal compared to what custom built cabinets cost, and the only other expense is time, which you have more than enough of.

Jim

Fred Mc · September 17, 2018, 09:19:26 AM

A good alternative to solid wood is 1/2? Baltic birch. Nice surface for finishing and with stain and poly gives a nice finish. A lot easier and cheaper than solid wood.

richard5933 · September 17, 2018, 10:06:33 AM

I was furniture maker for a number of years, and we often used solid wood for facings and even doors. Unless a customer insisted on it, we would never build the carcass of a piece from solid wood however. We always used either furniture-grade hardwood veneered plywood or Baltic birch plywood. Solid wood has far too much seasonal movement to be used for cabinet carcass building, is too expensive, and is very time-consuming to work with.

Solid wood will generally change in width about 1/4" per 12" of width through the seasons, and unless the construction is done with proper expansion/contraction allowances there will be either cracking in the winter or buckling in the summer.

The reason most solid wood doors are made in a frame & panel construction style is that it gives room for the large panel to move (contract/expand) through the seasons. Very hard to do that with cabinet sides, especially if they are connected to a countertop.