Converting a heavy-duty bus/coach/truck into a motorhome (page 53 of 161)

Hey everyone!!!

Haven't been on the forum in ages... I just wanted to post an announcement about the sale of my bus, a Setra Kassboher 213 H from '79 (the one in the photo beside), currently being converted, completely eco-friendly insulated, (cork for the roof and coconut fiber for the sides...). No electrical installations have been done, nor any gas. The exterior hasn't been finished either. A partition between the driver's section and the living space has been made (in wood). Due to moving abroad, I'm forced to stop the work and put it up for sale, so if anyone's interested, please contact me by email at nkhao.ems@voila.fr I can send you photos!!! Thanks, see you soon

Indeed, it goes against everything I learned in civil and aeronautical training. We come off as charlatans rather than qualified professionals. No problem, I say what I think, but if nobody wants to listen... When they hit the wall, maybe then they'll listen, thinking that us old-timers weren't so wrong😕.

If anyone's interested, they can reach me at the email I left and ask whatever questions they have... I don't think this forum is really meant for classified ads, so I'm just posting info here and then we'll handle everything outside the forum. If you're interested, nkhao.ems@voila.fr

HA the magic of electricity...

😄 IT'S UNSOLVABLE 😄 .....................so we understand nothing 😏 the more you explain the less we'll understand 😏 ..................................GX47

You're right, because looking at GASMOBILE we can find:

For series and parallel configurations we double the range but not the capacity, be careful not to confuse everything. With series configuration you double the voltage but not the amp-hours of the battery. There are indeed 2x more Ah available but two 100 Ah batteries each in series make only a 100 Ah battery but at 24V. The doubling of range comes from the fact that by doubling the voltage you divide the current consumed by 2. With parallel configuration, you double the capacity but not the voltage. To double both voltage and capacity, you need 4 batteries, 2 in series in parallel with two others in series.

😮😮😮 😏

Well, overall you're all right 😉

This was just joking around, plus I run 12 volts (2 battery cells on a battery isolator) on my motorhome; but 24 volts on my boat (an old cruiser over 30 years old) with 2x12 volts in series for engine starting, and 4x12 volts: (2x12 volts in series) in parallel with (2x12 volts in series) for service range. (all of this with battery isolators) What I wanted to highlight as important for beginners: When I bought this boat 8 years ago, the previous owner was drawing the 12 volts needed for onboard instruments and devices at that voltage directly from the terminals of one of the service batteries 😮 That's what you should never do, but use a 24V/12V converter instead. Indeed, with this workaround, as GX47 and GASMOBILE explained, you end up with unbalanced series batteries and therefore aging prematurely, but especially: When a battery charges and reaches the same voltage as provided by the charger, it opposes the flow of current: so, in the case of 2 batteries in series, as soon as the least discharged battery is fully charged by the charger, charging stops, and the 2nd battery in series (discharged more by the use of 12 volts at its terminals) can no longer charge fully!!! And the phenomenon accelerates faster and faster with each charge-discharge cycle and quickly leads to the poorly used battery becoming dead and no longer charging. So then you replace this battery with a new one, but then it's no longer balanced with the one that was in series and escaped the previous destruction, and then the entire battery bank gets destroyed again 😠

So: always put new batteries in series with equivalent capacities, and especially use a 24V/12V step-down converter to get your 12 volts.

Alright, so for this five-letter word:

Just like with electricity, we need to talk about ampere-hours, not amperes per hour. It’s like watt-hours used at home.

On construction sites, we use the term man-days. A big building project is one of 10,000 man-days: roughly 50 people working for 200 working days, which is about 10 months (in reality, a year because of bad weather and delays 😉).

So, I don’t want to see "Ampère/hour" anymore because, in reality, an ampere is a unit representing an ampere-hour per hour. (A.h/h ==> A) That’s what you’ve already done (remember, you’re not *that* out of it 😛!) and what we used to call dimensional analysis—super useful in physics to show that m/s² is equivalent to Newtons (g = 9.81 N or 9.81 m/s²). Another mind-blowing thing, but I’m going way off-topic here, and I love it lol. I’ll stop before I bore everyone. Maybe we should open an electricity thread? And ask the mods to move all the related stuff there.

François 🙂 It's all about the right units:

for example, I don’t talk in kilowatt-hours but in liters of toilet cassette 😉

Oh wow, yeah, that’s a great example.

A leisure battery is to household electricity what a cassette chemical toilet is to the municipal sewage system, lol!!!

Go ahead and turn wastewater flow into amps... (unless you’ve got a turbine at the bottom of the toilet, which for me has two advantages: it grinds up the waste and generates electricity). !

You're right: an electrical system or a sanitation network is always a current issue!

🙂 That’s not a bad idea, the turbine on the toilet outlet, where did you post it so we can try it out? For a 12V 105 AH battery, what do you size it at? ... the alternator and the regulator at the turbine’s rear, of course.

😊 Uhh, okay, I’ll leave... I didn’t say anything... you didn’t read anything.

😉What do you think about composting toilets? I discovered them at a festival. It’s a mix of wood shavings. The advantages: no pollution, biodegradable, no odors, you can put everything in there (tampons, pads, wipes, etc.), very clean. Just add the equivalent of a 20cl plastic cup for a small commission and double that for a big one. For me, that’s all there is to it.

I knew this well as a kid at my maternal grandmother’s place, plus recycling the previous day’s newspaper🤪

I’m visiting a bio house set up like this in November, but it’s nothing new—just pre-war designs with a few upgrades. Adding wood shavings helps with odors, though, right? Personally, I doubt using it as a motorhome (how do you empty the tanks? And where? All of that’s regulated—maybe by 2025). Anyway, for a modern take on something as old as time, I’ll have more to say in November.

Hi Patrick, hi Benhurd, Gx and others. Here, I'm attaching an image of a bus My question is, what is this model? (I have it in AutoCAD format; if anyone's interested).

So for those questions, you need to contact lineoz.com!

In their bus and coach driver forum, they have a discussion about the different bus models....

I'm sure they'll find it!

PATRICK26

😉Hi Patrick, do you have any news about the weekend photos? If any of you forum readers have images, you can send them to this address: fatipic@cegetel.net Thanks in advance. Fab from 82.

It's coming, it's coming...

I'm still waiting for photos from one or two participants that haven't reached me yet, and then I'll compile them!

Probably this weekend...

PATRICK26

Good evening, I’m writing a few words—not to be pessimistic, just when you read a lot of posts on this thread, you can see that safety takes up a lot of space, and that’s a very good thing. I noticed during the weekend of the 16th/17th and also in this thread that many camper van builders or converters don’t yet have their HGV license. So, you’ll sign up for a driving school, and for some of you, the hardest part will probably be the theory test, 😉 but once you pass, then comes the driving. You’ll climb into a truck, your instructor will teach you how to drive it, and you’ll pass your HGV license. Since your coach, once approved, will also be somewhat of a truck in the eyes of the law—but be careful, YOUR truck, the one you’ll drive later, doesn’t handle the same way at all. You’ll learn quickly, but it’s very different. Often, coaches are 12m long, with a 3.5m rear overhang and up to 2.5m at the front. It would be a shame after all that work and enthusiasm to sweep a sidewalk with a stroller or pram, or rip off your undercarriage on your first outing. So, I’d advise you to talk to your instructor and, if possible, why not take one or two driving lessons in a coach? That’s all, sorry if I was long.

Hey there!!

You're absolutely right—driving a coach and a truck is a bit different, so for my first spins behind the wheel of a coach, a bus-driver buddy’s gonna give me some "good" tips to avoid the accidents you mentioned. Personally, I’m not too worried; it’s like anything—you just gotta get the hang of it. Plus, I’m not exactly new to the game—I’ve driven all sorts of things in my life, even exceptional convoys.

And because I’m buzzing like a kid on Christmas, I just *have* to say it—I’m getting my coach delivered tomorrow night!!! We’ll post some pics. Oh, and I *think* I read in one of the 40-something pages the name of the Renault guy you need to contact to ask for permission to modify the coach. If anyone remembers, thanks in advance—otherwise, I’ll dig around and find it. No big rush since we’ve got all the conversion plans to draw up first to present to the DRIRE guy and Renault before any work starts. So for us, the project madness starts tomorrow, but the headache’s already begun

On the electrical side, thanks for the info—it’s super helpful!

Nice job on your rig, shanko! And you're right about the headaches🤪—if it's Renault Trucks, the guy's name is David. His email is: piere.david@renault-truks.com, and his number: 04 72 96 89 46. He's a really friendly and super helpful guy. That's all!

Thanks for the guy’s name. My seller told me that if there’s any trouble, he’ll try to put pressure on Renault to make things easier for me. In return, I absolutely have to show him the coach once it’s finished.

SMALL CLARIFICATION!

Not all modifications require manufacturer approval!

If you have a bus with a chassis and want to make body modifications that won’t affect the vehicle’s rigidity in any way (like cutting windows, for example), you don’t need the manufacturer’s approval.

If you want to cut into a self-supporting body, however, you’ll need it, because the vehicle’s rigidity will change.

For the opening of my rear door (1.78 m high by 1.82 m wide), I needed the manufacturer’s approval. In fact, Heuliez sent me a letter confirming that the tube hoops were sufficient and that the rear face didn’t contribute to the vehicle’s rigidity.

So, before bothering the rep at Renault or another manufacturer, check what kind of work you’re planning. And know that in no case is their approval necessary to reclassify a bus as a camper if you don’t touch the body (no cutting, just things like wraps, for example, and interior fittings approved by Veritas).

Some manufacturers charge for unnecessary requests or refer you to private firms (Vanhool refers to Guyez Conseil, for example).

Look into it, talk to an industrial bodybuilder for their opinion, or post your plans on the forum!

PATRICK26