I bought a school bus!

[Trevor Shipman]

How did it behave at the ramp? How far out where your wheels from the water?

Must have been quite an awesome sight! Congratulations!!!!

Really well. It was easier backing up than I thought. Long enough to where I could see everything in my side mirrors. I backed it down just to where my back wheels were touching the water, which was plenty deep for the boat. Took her out of park, gave her some gas, and pulled her out no problem. It was very rewarding, ha!

 

[ChrisM]

Were you at the Lake Norman park?
I'm wanting to camp there soon.

 

[Trevor Shipman]

Were you at the Lake Norman park?
I'm wanting to camp there soon.

No, not a real big fan of LKN - too crowded for me.

 

[fatboyroy]

you have mad skills bro, great job on the finish!

 

[Trevor Shipman]

you have mad skills bro, great job on the finish!

Haha, thank you! It was a lot of work… I still have to bring the project home and finish all th details. So not quite there yet, but I can see the light at the end… FINALLY!

 

[thefortunes]

We just bought a 2010 Thomas Minotour to convert for tailgating.

Have the interior pretty much planned out, but curious what you ended up doing for electricity. I'm thinking all 110v appliances (fridge, kegerator, TVs, outlets for charging, etc...). Not planning to have rear air conditioning as we are going to have the rear wall fold down into a deck when parked.

I do not expect to have power at our tailgate, so my thought is a battery bank with AC inverters that can be recharged during the week (and possibly off the alternator when driving). Seems the simplest option.

Open to all ideas for the easiest, least expensive, most robust plan ?. Details (part links, etc... greatly appreciated).

 

[Trevor Shipman]

Sounds like a fun project! You’ll have to post pics.

As far as power goes, for what you described I would consider doing a 12v refrigerator. I bout the large Furrion one. So far I have no regrets. That way when you are not plugged in or driving down the road, it will still run, keeping everything cold. I have 2 - 6v golf cart batteries and I haven’t seen how long it will last yet but on one trip I took, it was still running after 4 hours. I want to increase my battery bank though.

From there, if you are able to do propane you have your cooktop.

Put in a water tank with a 12v water pump and you have yourself a full working kitchen without running a generator or being plugged in.

 

[thefortunes]

Sounds like a fun project! You’ll have to post pics.

As far as power goes, for what you described I would consider doing a 12v refrigerator. I bout the large Furrion one. So far I have no regrets. That way when you are not plugged in or driving down the road, it will still run, keeping everything cold. I have 2 - 6v golf cart batteries and I haven’t seen how long it will last yet but on one trip I took, it was still running after 4 hours. I want to increase my battery bank though.

From there, if you are able to do propane you have your cooktop.

Put in a water tank with a 12v water pump and you have yourself a full working kitchen without running a generator or being plugged in.

Thanks for the quick feedback.

Still going to need ac for the TVs, kegerator and outlets, so figuring to keep everything ac unless there's a good reason not too.

Not planning any cooktop or water - truly just a day trip tailgating bus for 8-10 people.

 

[thefortunes]

You just need an inverter that will switch when it senses shorepower or generator is running. We have a 10 c.f. residential fridge that we put in when our 8 c.f. rv fridge bit the dust. It fits in the same hole! Put in an inverter that is hooked to one standard deep cycle rv/boat battery. It's really only meant to run the fridge as we're going down the road and plugged into the truck. We don't boondock. If we did I'd add a second battery and probably a solar panel. I could get you the model of our inverter if it would help you. When you mentioned wanting to watch tv off of battery while traveling it got my attention. The plug that our tv is plugged into is powered on when our inverter is turned on. Don't know how. My rv mechanic that hooked everything up was surprised too. It was a bonus I guess. We really could boondock I guess. I got a fridge and a tv, other then a/c what else would I need.

@PEARCE What inverter are you using?

 

[Jim_in_Delaware]

Trevor, so I'm late to the party, but the bus conversion really turned out great!

I see some folks launching their boats with a hitch on the front of the rv, as this keeps the rear wheels much farther up the ramp when it is flatter and dryer. Just wondering if you have considered this?

Jim

 

[2kwik4u]

I do not expect to have power at our tailgate, so my thought is a battery bank with AC inverters that can be recharged during the week (and possibly off the alternator when driving). Seems the simplest option.

What about a little honda generator on the roof? Those things are super quiet and run for hours with enough juice to keep a TV and some peripheral doo-dads running all day. Putting it on the roof gets the noise and pollution away from the crowd.

 

[thefortunes]

What about a little honda generator on the roof? Those things are super quiet and run for hours with enough juice to keep a TV and some peripheral doo-dads running all day. Putting it on the roof gets the noise and pollution away from the crowd.

We run one now for tailgating, but that won't cover all power needed and we'd have to run it while in motion (for fridge and TVs).

 

[thefortunes]

Did the floor today. Bus will have a "retro diner" theme.

 

[Trevor Shipman]

Trevor, so I'm late to the party, but the bus conversion really turned out great!

I see some folks launching their boats with a hitch on the front of the rv, as this keeps the rear wheels much farther up the ramp when it is flatter and dryer. Just wondering if you have considered this?

Jim

Hey Jim,

Now that you say it, I have seen that in videos before, but it never crossed my mind. Luckily, I’m able to back it up no problem. It’s odd, almost seems the longer the setup you have the easier it to back up, which I guess makes sense, backing up a single jet ski trailer is really hard.

I lucked out being able to back it up, I would hate I have to unhitch it from the back and then rehitch to dump the boat.

View attachment 163882

Did the floor today. Bus will have a "retro diner" theme.

Hahha! Love it! I see many beers being spilled on that floor! Keep us posted with the updates!

 

[thefortunes]

Primed

 

[JetPowered]

We just bought a 2010 Thomas Minotour to convert for tailgating.

Have the interior pretty much planned out, but curious what you ended up doing for electricity. I'm thinking all 110v appliances (fridge, kegerator, TVs, outlets for charging, etc...). Not planning to have rear air conditioning as we are going to have the rear wall fold down into a deck when parked.

I do not expect to have power at our tailgate, so my thought is a battery bank with AC inverters that can be recharged during the week (and possibly off the alternator when driving). Seems the simplest option.

Open to all ideas for the easiest, least expensive, most robust plan ?. Details (part links, etc... greatly appreciated).

Depending on your power loads, I’d shop for lithium RV batteries, a combo charger/inverter from Victron that can use the generator and batteries to meet the load requirements without overloading the generator and a DC to DC charger to charger the lithium’s from the alternator.

 

[thefortunes]

Depending on your power loads, I’d shop for lithium RV batteries, a combo charger/inverter from Victron that can use the generator and batteries to meet the load requirements without overloading the generator and a DC to DC charger to charger the lithium’s from the alternator.

Excellent advice. This is exactly what I came up with based on my research (although haven't selected an inverter yet).

Luckily, no plans to road trip the rest of this year (just tailgating at home games), so we have a while to add these (wiring will be put in place to drop them in).

 

[JetPowered]

I’ve been looking at all of the stuff to add to my Airstream trailer, so this is more or less what I would go with. Prices on the batteries vary pretty greatly depending on brand and capacity. Look at Costco for the ReLion brand in what I think is a group 27 size.

The Victron gear is also expensive but I’m not sure I’ve seen another system that combined all in one like they do and allow you to combine sources.

Can you do a 120V mini split for the AC system?

 

[Seadeals]

@Trevor Shipman I have loved watching your build. Awesome work and never figured a bus project like yours would hit so close to home until my neighbor’s son parked a bus out front. Check out his build! Nothing done inside yet; but I am impressed with his work and shared your post for info as he builds out the interior. Also…Jocassee is my favorite. We just camped there two weeks ago. I am lucky I’m only an hour away and have even run up just for a Sunday afternoon cruise.

 

[PEARCE]

@Trevor Shipman I have loved watching your build. Awesome work and never figured a bus project like yours would hit so close to home until my neighbor’s son parked a bus out front. Check out his build! Nothing done inside yet; but I am impressed with his work and shared your post for info as he builds out the interior. Also…Jocassee is my favorite. We just camped there two weeks ago. I am lucky I’m only an hour away and have even run up just for a Sunday afternoon cruise.
View attachment 167592View attachment 167593View attachment 167594View attachment 167596View attachment 167597

That's a cool bus build! He could haul a vehicle that he can launch and retrieve a boat with and tow the boat with the bus to and from home. Man, that's got my wheels turning!