Conversion time?

[steve5B]

   I was wondering over all how long does it take to do the conversion.  I know , how much time you have , layout, ect. ect.

   I have everything I need to do mine, however I don't have the time, so I am going sub it out to some local carpenters.

   Any em put would be greatly appreciated.


   Steve 5B...

[Blacksheep]

Steve it will take a whole lot more than just a simple carpenter!

A general contractor is more like it! Somebody that can do it all!

Ace

[Dreamscape]

You will get as many answers as there are buses and bus converters!

It all depends on what type of work is needed and how much labor and materials cost.

Have a budget in mind before you let anyone use a saw! Get it in writing and agree on what has to be done.

Some have hundreds if not thousands of hours in a coach, it all depends on how far you are willing to take it.

Good Luck, I've been working on ours for five years with no end in sight!

Paul

[Jerry32]

I think the design and lay out of everything is needed for  electrical plumbing and mechanical first. do you have that?

[HB of CJ]

My younger brother did most (all?) of the work removing the school bus seats.  He did that in one afternoon.  I installed the temporary sleeping and cooking facilities in two days.  That got the Crown licensed in Oregon as a motor home.

Found most my time was spent doing little needful repairs and mods.  Required maintenance was easy.  Cleaning out the shell to sell it required a couple days as I'm not the best housekeeper.  Stripping the shell was easy.  HB of CJ

[BG6]

   I was wondering over all how long does it take to do the conversion. 

That largely depends on what you start with, and what you end up with.  A quick and dirty, pass-the-inspection job can be done in an afternoon.  This might be necessary if you need MH registration right away, then turn around and do the real conversion.

If you A), get a good running empty coach shell, B), have your layout planned, C), have all of your parts and materials, and D), have a willing helper, figure a day per module:

1) scrub the floor, do any painting, lay down linoleum for kitchen and bath (hint: do the whole floor and put carpet over it)
2) lay out and mark locations for your walls, counters, tanks, aircons, heaters, plumbing, power, etc, cut passthru holes
3) another day to redo it because you forgot something, you got a really great deal on a different model, or just plain goofed
4) put in the carpet, bedroom fixtures and bedroom wall and door
5) water and waste tanks, water heater
6) bathroom tub, toilet, sink, walls, door
7) kitchen counter and cabinets
water supply, faucets and piping for kitchen and bath
9) connect to tanks
10) electrical panel, conduit, sockets, wiring
11) electrical accessories (water pump, aircons, heater)
12) misc detail stuff
13) living room furniture, fixtures
14) finish details

That comes to two weeks.  These are ALLOWANCE days.  You will find yourself finishing some things in a matter of hours, and other things going more than a day, so it will even out.

If you have to do it all alone, the time may TRIPLE -- you will spend a lot of time dealing with anything that passes through to the outside when you have to walk the length of the coach, go down the steps, then walk all the way back on the outside, do the task, and go back in for the next part.  Some things you will NEED a helper, so be ready to take stuff out of turn while you wait for someone to help you load the tub, washing machine, etc.

[boogiethecat]

Heh!
I started with a total schooled-out Crown and worked on it roughly 10 hours a day, starting with pulling the seats, raising the roof, etc.
Took me about a year and a half to get really finished with it at the 10 hr per day rate, and an awful lot of that year.5 was 5-6 days a week.
And from what I can tell, I finished it years sooner than many folks do.  I have a friend who is supposedly full-time building his bus and it's been about 6 months now,
he's got the gene mounted, the bed built, the water and pooh tanks in and that's about it.
So what does this mean? It means that it takes a LOT of work and no-one can tell you how long it'll take because every man works at different rates.
But I can definitely tell you don't expect to start and finish in less than a year from a bare bus....

[jjrbus]

My first exposeure to a self converted bus I asked the man how long he owned the bus, he replied 8 years. I asked him how long it took to convert, he giggled and said 8 years!! I wish I would have recognized the insanity in that  giggle.  Jim

[steve5B]

     Hey everyone,

   I have read your post thanks.  I knew that when I bought my MCI-5B a few years back that it would take some time

  to achieve what I wanted to do.  However I didn't think it would take this long.  Procrastination I guess catches up to you

  in time.   One big question, how do you get everything in the bus?  remove the windshields, will everything fit through the

  door?

      Steve 5B....

[cody]

Everything we added to ours came thru the door, nothing came thru easily, but it all did, that was a requirement for us as I have windshields that don't leak and didn't want to disturb them at all.  We've worked on our bus for 6 years now, I could have done it much quicker but the first year or 2 was spent figureing out what we wanted and where we wanted it so we had a fair share of temporary setups trying different configurations, at the time I bought our bus I hadn't heard of this board so I didn't have the resource material that is so abundantly available here to guide me.  I figure the time left to finish mine will pretty much be determined by how long I live lol,  I have a bad tendency to change things now and then.  I hear a lot of people saying that they brought their refrigerators in thru the windshields without problems, but that kind of scared me because the frige may take a poop at an inapporpriate time and require replacement when a whindshield isn't so easily removed.  Time frames vary on completion so widely that I would be very reluctant to even approach that topic.  I figure to be buried in my bus and will be adding 6 really strong handles, 3 along each side, and am recruiting pallbearers. lol

[bigjohnkub]

You will never get finished.
  big john

[edroelle]

At one time, I had heard professional conversions took 3000 hours.  With the added complexity, I would guess it is 4500 hours now.

Planning and design took me 2-3 hours for every 1 hour of construction.   This was after I thought I had a plan.  Others would use their time differently.

Are you installing pre-built cabinets or are they constructed to fit the shape of the outside wall?

I can tell you I was very naive regarding how long the whole conversion would take to build.

Ed Roelle

[TomC]

Marathon figures in the 4,000 man hours to do a conversion-and that's at a conversion factory with all supplies there an bought.  Most of my time was spent at Home Depot, Camping World, and other places shagging parts and supplies.  The actual build time is about a third of your time.  Good Luck, TomC

[Ed Hackenbruch]

I found a little notation in some of my paperwork that said that it took 3 months and $17,000 to do the conversion the last part of 1983.  He had Mennonites do the woodwork. I do not think that the John Stahr paint job was part of the total.....that was $3500 by itself. I wish i could get it redone for that price! In the 5 years that we have had it i have put about another $17,000 in upgrades in it, ie. new furniture, new glass, new solar panels and inverter,tires, etc. The biggest thing in our 5a is the new sleeper couch and i thought we would have to go thru the windshield to get it in but we managed to barely get it thru the door......took a few tries and some thinking but we did it.    Still have a few changes i would like to do as i get the money......jakes, and changing the generator are the major ones, all the rest are little things that i will get around to sooner or later......maybe someday there won't be anything left on my list, but i doubt it!

[wvanative]

Everything we added to ours came thru the door, nothing came thru easily, but it all did, that was a requirement for us as I have windshields that don't leak and didn't want to disturb them at all.  We've worked on our bus for 6 years now, I could have done it much quicker but the first year or 2 was spent figureing out what we wanted and where we wanted it so we had a fair share of temporary setups trying different configurations, at the time I bought our bus I hadn't heard of this board so I didn't have the resource material that is so abundantly available here to guide me.  I figure the time left to finish mine will pretty much be determined by how long I live lol,  I have a bad tendency to change things now and then.  I hear a lot of people saying that they brought their refrigerators in thru the windshields without problems, but that kind of scared me because the frige may take a poop at an inapporpriate time and require replacement when a whindshield isn't so easily removed.  Time frames vary on completion so widely that I would be very reluctant to even approach that topic.  I figure to be buried in my bus and will be adding 6 really strong handles, 3 along each side, and am recruiting pallbearers. lol

Cody, I'll be a pallbearer for you, but I want you to think of the part in the movie Paint Your Wagon where they are lowering the brother of Clint Eastwood into the ground, and as they do they all start seeing gold sparkling in the dirt, and as soon as the last amen was said they all yanked on the rope and the body went flying thru the air lol that was funny. So the same may happen with you as the last amen is said, and I stake claim to you bus. Just let me know when, and where to be to claim my new bus I uh mean to pay my last respects.