Trip cancelled - going to sell bus

[belfert]

I had to cancel my big trip this evening.  We came up one day short on getting things ready enough for the trip.  The major issue is the entrance door quite working.  It is not a hinged door and needs to close to be able to drive the bus.  I suspect a bad ground and no power to the air selenoid, but haven't had a chance to look at it.  It would take a full day to finish the plumbing leaving no time to fix the door, install seats and such.

I've decided to sell the bus.  I only go on one or two trips a year and it isn't worth putting more time and money into this thing and not use it for another year.  With my luck recently, the engine would be siezed when started in a year anyhow.  I'll lose a lot on the sale, but it would take at least $5,000 more and 100s or 1000s of hours to really whip this bus into shape.  I can't afford to spend another summer of my life neglecting everything else in my life to work on a bus.

Brian Elfert

[gumpy]

I don't kinow what to say, Brian.  From what I saw the other day, I can't believe you'd let a little thing like plumbing stop you like this, but this is something every busnut has to decide on his own. Sorry to hear this.

If this is really what you want to do, figure out what you think you'll want for that new generator and we'll talk. Also, send me some measurements on those matresses, if you want to sell them (the standard ones, not the one with the cut corner.

craig

[plyonsMC9]

Brian,

That's a tough one.  Not knowing all things going on with family, work, other pressures, etc..  Hard to know what to say. 

One thing I do know with our bus.  If I push too hard, then family gets stressed out, I get stressed out, and it is NOT fun for anyone.  Then, I bear the brunt of the unhappiness.  Not good.   And believe me, I have done that before.  Once or twice, or three times.  Or more.  This is really supposed to be fun for family, friends, etc.  Maybe even providing some help, service to others as well with the bus.   

When I slow down.  Things look a LOT better.  Everyone is happier.  Take time away.  Next day, next week, month, etc., I get a better perspective.   Things which looked impossible while under pressure, later look possible.  Usually. 

But obviously, I don't know all factors involved.  So I don't want to suggest too much with that in mind.

I would just like to offer encouragement in whatever way you determine is best for you and your family.

Kind Regards, Phil

[Clarke Echols]

Someone wisely observed, "Life is what happens while you're making other plans."

As we drift through or drive our way through this experience we sometimes call mortality, things
happen and stuff doesn't always go the way we expect or prefer or want it to.  That's life.  Sometimes
we have to change the direction we've been going, even when it isn't particularly pleasant to do so.

Something I have been learning from many long years of experience is:  Never underestimate the
value of the experiences you gain by trying things, whether they work out or not.  When I was in
college, I bought a corporation that owned two small-towm cable TV systems and a retail TV repair
shop.  I ran that business for two years while going to school, and tried a lot of interesting things.
For example, I built a 40-foot-diameter dish and hung it on a 60-foot TV tower (with some help from
my wife) so I could pull TV signals from Albuquerque, NM to 20 miles north of the Colorado border,
a distance of over 180 miles.  It worked unbelievably well.  So well that I was getting a full tenth of
a volt of signal off of the antenna instead of the usual one one-hundredth of that amount (which
would have been acceptably adequate)!

After shutting the systems down because they weren't making the money I was told they made, and
pulling the plug on the TV shop because there wasn't enough business for just me and I was sharing the
marketwith eight competitors, I went and got a job at Hewlett-Packard as an electronic technician on a
precision digital voltmeter assembly line at $3.30/hour in 1969.  I was one class short of graduating with
a degree in physics with a minor in mathematics, but HP wanted people with real engineering degrees
before they hired them as engineers.  I worked that job for 15 months, then enrolled in a graduate
electrical engineering program at Colorado State University where I went to school via video tape for
5 long years.  After 2 years I became an engineer.  I never finished the MS degree, but five years later
I got licensed as a registered professional engineer in Colorado.  In 1999, after 30 years with the
company, I took my retirement and left.  I was making $75,000/year at the time.  Yet, when I
figured inflation into the picture, that $75,000 translated to barely 10% more than I was making as a
brand-new electronic tech with no credit for experience 30 years earlier!  I felt like I really got a raw
deal after figuring that out.  I made and saved that company many millions of dollars in that time!

People thought I failed when I shut down the business in 1969.  Some thought I failed when I didn't
finish the MSEE degree.  I have tried other things that didn't work as planned.  Did I fail?  Absolutely
not!  We have nine *good* children who are productive adults.  Our youngest daughter is pursuing a
PhD degree right now (I think she's nuts but she wants to do it).  Our youngest son was inducted into
a the Beta Gamma Sigma international business honor society last spring (he's a junior at CSU studying
international finance and is learning Spanish and Chinese -- he already knows French).

The whole point of this is to tell you, don't be afraid to try stuff, and if it doesn't work, learn to
appreciate the value of the experience.  When really bad stuff happens, as it sometimes does, don't
sit and feel sorry for yourself.  Always try to look for the hidden value in the experience.  It is true that
in every adversity in life lies the seed of an equal or greater benefit.  So when garbage lands in your
lap, start looking for the benefit whle you deal with the garbage.

After a few years, you'll be able to look back and see the value.

But if you do what many do -- get a case of the po' po' pitiful me's -- plan on having a lot of pitiful
days in your life.

We have the power to choose how we look at life.  Within that power lies the key to personal
happiness.

Happiness doesn't come from always doing what you like to do.  It comes from learning to love what
you have to do, while keeping an eye on the eventual reward if you don't give up on the important
things.

Don't let what matters most suffer at the hands of what matters least.  That is what wrecks lives,
marriages, nations, and societies.

Clarke

[boogiethecat]

Dang, Clarke.... the longer you hang around here, the more I like you!!!! 
GREAT story and GREAT advice!!!
I agree with every word... 

Brian- maybe just call it a bad day and remember that at 30,000 feet it's ALWAYS a beautiful one...

Cheers
Gary

[ChuckMC8]

Brian, looking back on 4 years plus working on my bus and very little use of it, I realized early on that working on it is my hobby and something that I enjoy doing. If you read back a few years on the BNO board or look at old issues of BC mag, you'll only recognize a few names that are still around now actively posting and sharing info. I beleive for these guys, buses are a hobby also.
   I dont know of another way that it works. After buying a bus to convert, it either becomes your hobby or you get discouraged and sell and move onto something else.
We are all in search of the thing that ignites our passion....when we find it, the motivation is easy, without it, it's only a struggle and a hassle. If its not the bus for you, then perhaps its the next thing you try. You gave it a shot. Congratulations.
   Either way, I wish you the best of luck. Chuck

[Ross]

Brian, looking back on 4 years plus working on my bus and very little use of it, I realized early on that working on it is my hobby and something that I enjoy doing.

I'll second that.  4 years for me too and it was all worth it.  If doing the conversion isn't something you enjoy...Well....That's why the manufacturers build them every day. 

Ross

[belfert]

I put so much time into the bus that I've neglected every other thing in my life this summer.  Heck, I haven't even mowed my lawn in more than a month!  The inside of my house looks like a tornado hit it.  Luckily I'm not married and live alone.

I don't really want to put another summer of my life into a bus if I am never going to be able to use the darned thing.  No, it doesn't have to be a Taj Mahal, but it least has to have functional plumbing which it does not right now.

I didn't really see any point in spending $1500 on fuel for a trip in a steel tent when a conversion van will get 4 MPG better and cost less per gallon for gasoline instad of diesel.  I am not going on the trip anymore, but my friends are taking a conversion van and just staying in a tent out in the desert.

Brian Elfert

[belfert]

I'll second that.  4 years for me too and it was all worth it.  If doing the conversion isn't something you enjoy...Well....That's why the manufacturers build them every day. 

No manufacturer makes any production motorhome anything like what I wanted for my use.  They don't exactly come with six or eight bunks.  A custom manufacturer could do it, but I could never afford it.

I should have bought the custom motorhome I saw for $75k that had six bunks, a 450 HP motor,, and a 12 speed automatic tranny.  It was a 2004 built for some race team or something.

Brian Elfert

[Hartley]

Brian,

I have been there so many times that it's scary. Just face the fact that you lost focus and were rushing far ahead of the reality of the conversion process. The fact is that we all do it many times after starting a bus conversion project.

I couldn't say that what motivated you to was entirely out of line but like most of us you probably should have stepped back to look at the longer term of your project and not so much of the short term. Which over the past months has appeared to me to be more like you were trying to compress 2 years of work into 6 months and doing everything by yourself without help from anyone.

All that I can say is " Don't Bail Out Now ! " You have come so far in such a short time. Maybe just work on getting the rest of your life back to normal a little. Get a BIG tarp and cover your bus up, Park it and go back to it later when the time and motivation returns, Maybe it will take 6 months maybe 2 years. You have spent way too much money and time to waste it now.

Please don't sell your bus. The other problem is that you will start looking for another one within months....

You already have the "Affliction" or "Disease" and there is no cure !!

Dave....

[belfert]

Please don't sell your bus. The other problem is that you will start looking for another one within months....

If I sell this bus, there isn't the slightest chance of being able to afford another for several years given all the money I will lose on this one.  I would never buy another Dina and I could never afford a 102D3 or 102DL3 with Series 60 and B500 which is the only other bus I would ever consider.

Brian Elfert

[Ross]

I'll second that.  4 years for me too and it was all worth it.  If doing the conversion isn't something you enjoy...Well....That's why the manufacturers build them every day. 

No manufacturer makes any production motorhome anything like what I wanted for my use.  They don't exactly come with six or eight bunks.  A custom manufacturer could do it, but I could never afford it.

Brian Elfert

That's why we build our own.  If you can't build it, you have to buy it, and that gets expensive when you step up to a converted bus.  I almost sold mine a couple times over the last 4 years, but I stuck with it and now I'm traveling full time in a finished bus.  There is no way I could have afforded to buy this bus done or even have it built.

No offense, but what gets me is you've only had the bus a few months.  Surely you didn't expect to knock this out in that quick, especially after reading this board.

If I sell this bus, there isn't the slightest chance of being able to afford another for several years given all the money I will lose on this one.

There's a perfect reason not to sell it.  Just take a break, regroup and get back on it after you clear your head.  We all go through the "What the %^#* did I do.  This thing will never get done" stage.

Ross

[Dallas]

Brian, I have to agree with Dr. Dave.
I haven't really put any effort into my bus in the last year or two. It just sits and we survive in it.
However, now that some of my medical problems are being taken care of, I've found a renwed interest in getting things done.

And, like Dave said, just throw a tarp over it, and walk awayu fromit for a while until you've had time to slow down and reflect on what you actually want to do.

I think that you have focused so long and so hard on the one thing that you've lost sight of the journey itself. This is suppose to be a labor of love not a sentence of hard labor.

Give it a break for a while and see if things look a little brighter later.

Dallas

[belfert]

No offense, but what gets me is you've only had the bus a few months.  Surely you didn't expect to knock this out in that quick, especially after reading this board.

I way underestimated what it would take in terms of time to get a working bus.  I would have never started on this if I knew I wouldn't have a usable bus to leave on Sept 27th.

If I just had one more day, the bus would be ready, but I don't have another day.  I can't take any more time off work as I have training Monday and Tuesday.

Brian Elfert

[H3Jim]

When I get sick of working on mine, I just stop and do other things.  I have used mine as a steel tent ever since I bought it, and although it didnt make sense to use it that way, I still enjoyed it.  I have left it for months at a time, but its patient and always waiting for me when my motivation returns. I just love that bus.

its true, we all have to find that balance in our lives. It seems that you have been putting so  much of yourself into this for a while, and it really seems a shame for the rest of us to see you walk away.  We have all been rooting for you.  and still are.

And why loose so much to sell it right now? 

Maybe we shouldn't have all talked you into trying to finish before your trip.  I think we have all appreciated your enthusiasm and your energy and the quantity and depth of the questions you've asked.  It would seem to us from reading your posts that you are doing a great job.  If you do hang in there, it will be rewarding.

Whatever you decide, I'm sure this community will support you and try to help you.

It may have missed this trip but it will be there for the next one if you stop and take a breath.

Good luck to you.