Off Grid School Bus Conversion - FULL TOUR - The Voyager!

[Music] [Applause] [Music] hey I'm BR with wolf dog buses this is Kiara and we're going to show you the Voyager so the Voyager is the first bus I ever built out and I built this before I even knew that schoolies were a thing or there was a whole community based around it um which by the way the community around schoolies is phenomenal and I was so happy to find that out I originally bought a bus because from my experience growing up in Michigan um I knew that these had really beefy Motors and the 59 cumin is nearly bulletproof and then in the early 90s they were full mechanical and just about everything on them is simple to fix so I wanted a bus that I could drive around the entire United States and not worry whether I was in a city by dealerships or if I was in the middle of North Dakota hundreds of miles away from anything with that being said I was fortunate in that in the 20,000 miles I've put on this bus in the past few years um I've only needed uh help mechanically once and that was in the middle of nowhere Oregon where I had one of my brake Chambers um the diaphragm started leaking so I lost pressure in my air brakes and I couldn't release my brakes so I was stuck on the side of the road unable to move and I called a semi- repair mechanic which are 24 hours and generally mobile um down in Crescent Oregon and Jamie from Luke semi TR repair was out there in about 30 minutes fixed the entire thing with all parts he had on hand and had me moving and I believe it was under an hour and a half so it gave me just enough time to make dinner in my rig um so super well worth it having a rig that's easy to work on because if you are traveling that's your main concern no matter how new your rig is no matter how few miles breaking down can happen and you want to make sure that it's manageable when it happens so getting to the actual bus uh this bus I bought prepainted it came from a limousine company so to speak it was called jump on the bus uh down in Santa Barbara California and they did a house black paint job on it and I have gone ahead and maintain that so every year I sand it down um touch it up and then I keep this black black paint and I've liked it because when I do go on two tracks or Fire Service Roads that are probably a little sketchier than I should go on with this bus um and I scratch it up all I have to do is sand it down rattle can black on it good to go I did upgrade the lights to LEDs because I want to make sure I can actually see when driving at night and a lot of the old buses and trucks and jeeps for that matter come with those really dim halogens that um just aren't safe when you have oncoming traffic with really bright lights after I finished the conversion I replaced the Steer tires which is referring to the front tires and I went ahead and got Toyo Traction tires they are um the higher end that you can get and I did that because this is one of your bigger safety features on your bus if you're running old tires or dry rotted or something that can pop that's one of the worst accidents you can have on a bus so I got these to be safe and then I I also went ahead and talked with a couple of my friends that I know who do drive semi trucks because they have training on what to do in part certain situations on a big rig and what I found interesting is that if you do have a tire pop uh you actually want to do the exact opposite of your instincts and instead of slamming on your brakes you want to actually hit the gas and shift all your weight distribution backwards so that you can regain control and once you regain control um you shift over to the shoulder or wherever you can that's most out of the way and then slow down um things like that are super important and I think that if you're driving a schoolie um bus or big rig in any sense even if it's an RV you should really look into what to do in certain bad situations because it's always better to be prepared um moving on I kept the original bus door uh you'll see with my bus I kept almost everything stock that I could I thought it was super cool having a school bus um as my RV because I think they're nostalgic and I loved it um great memories from goofing around as a kid and I thought the bus doors were cool so I just went ahead and made my door um all one solid piece so it would open like a house door I put a deadbolt on it and I had a beef out the door with a piece of metal so that it would actually latch and then put a door handle on and that's all I did I wanted to try and keep the look as much as possible uh coming up next I use this bus mainly to go snowboarding um camping with friends or like floating on the river and so I wanted an outside table that I wouldn't have to like haul out and unfold so I made this guide that just flips up locks in place and I could go ahead and put my grill up there for tailgating I could put a speaker here and then I went ahead and installed an outlet so that I can charge my phone speakers um plug in a little air pump for the raft and uh that really makes the outside of the rig more usable for and practical when you are camping or living in it wherever you're at next you'll see this is my hookup for Shore power which I basically never use because uh I did make my bus off grid ready and I made it super capable in the winter so um even with only 1,000 Watts roughly of solar up top and a very small battery bank I was able to run off- grid and I think the lowest temperature I went was negative six degrees and that was in Park City Utah and I was still maintaining at 75 degrees inside and had heated floors was more than comfortable and um yeah no complaints there so sure power plug never gets used uh next you'll see this beefy exhaust um this is venting for what I when I originally had an incinerating toilet in here I'll talk to you more about that on the inside uh I did switch down the road to a composting so um yeah I have a few things to say about the incinerators see I added on a really beepy tailgate so my original intention was to be able to tailgate with it and put the um grill out here and maybe a cooler or something but it turns out that I used the front area more and the rear I ended up using this for um hauling stuff just like you would a truck bed so I would quick haul the paddle boards or kayaks on here um anything heavy that I didn't want to put into my truck um this became really useful for things like that and then I also have a trailer hitch on it because I did intend to um flat to a vehicle uh I did not think that I would be able to get to all the places I wanted to with a 34t school bus but turns out that you can um especially with dues and having tire chains you can make it just about anywhere as long as you can make the turns um I did put a backup camera with sensors um I think the sensors are super important because it's one thing to have the visual indication but as you're checking the front side your tail whip it's nice to have that backup of uh the alarm and the beep coming at you if you get a little too close to something uh that's definitely come in handy more than once and then to abide by the fmvss I went ahead and put a solar powered light above my license plate um some people forget about that you do technically have to have a light on your license plate at night and that was a really quick means to get that done around the back corner I did a beefier hose bib um I use this to wash my dog so I wanted something that was more like a standard hose sprayer rather than the dinky RV ones so I do have to store the hose separately but I get the hot cold and I get the nice sprayer um which is more than useful especially when you have a um snow dog type breed that does not like baths that makes it easier standard RV water fill um bunch of stowage underneath stowage on the backside and on the front this house is my favorite Appliance so in here is the boiler of the Aqua Hot 450d uh this unit is incredible Aqua Hot and rickon both make one and this basically is my hot water my heated floors and my climate control in my rig so since the date I installed this I have not turned it off means it's been on for about three years straight now awesome system it sips on diesel and the 12vt power it uses is only for the fans in the blower and a recirculation pump inside as well as an LED light on the control screen so barely any power barely any Diesel and I can basically turn the inside into a sauna if I want um it's amazing highly recommend these things especially if you're trying to have a winter r um yeah love it and I can have on demand hot water for as long as my tanks Run next is probably one of the most important features on this bus it's this uh deer whistle here it's supposed to repel deer on the road when you drive by I'm not entirely convinced it works but I put it there for my mom let's check out the inside oh coming in you'll see the wolf dog herself that's her favorite spot um she likes sitting right next to me when I'm driving and I like it too so in my bus I kept the front portion stock originally just did this cuz I thought it was cool um I like the school bus aspect I originally had two rows the seats in here for friends um I later removed one seats to accommodate more snowboards and bikes um because I liked using this as my mud room and kind of as my catch all for as I walk in the bus and then I still have two seats back here with seat belts as well as a jump seat up front for a co-pilot even though kiar can't sit up there I have a backup camera on this the screen is right in my sight of view VI so I do use that one driving and that way I can see if people are tailgating me if I should get over the only things I really added to the front were the backup camera and the jump seat as well as a few Outlets so that I can have my cooler up here when I want to I've had this rig for roughly three years and in using that time I did add a lot of stuff so if you were looking to know what you might want in your rig um I would definitely recommend cup holders simple things but having cup holders everywhere for your passengers or for you that's nice extra Outlets to charge phones um have them by different passengers so that they don't have to charge their phone by putting the cord across to you on the dash um as well as the little spots put knickknack so I put um wall hanging baskets everywhere and that's a really nice way to can set um maps and hand sanitizer or um whatever you might want while on the road there um you get a lot of travel brochures if you go to national parks and things like that and you just kind of want a good spot to put things so baskets phone chargers cup holders and then making sure that all your seats are actually safe and having a seat belt for all of your passengers um that's huge and even on the jump seat here making sure to have a seat belt on the inside of the actual build I did remove the ceiling and the walls and I reinsulated the whole thing because I wanted an R value of at least um 10 to 15 so I use mineral wool which is probably still um second best in my opinion first best obviously being close cell spray foam done properly second best I would do mineral wool I would not do Havelock wool sheep's wool things like that it's a crappy R value um you're still going to have condensation you're going to have a ton of moisture that stuff is Eco friendly and a fun idea but not entirely practical for a winter rig and the worst option don't keep your bus insulation for an actual three seasons rig because up here where I keep the original kept the original ceiling and walls and all the windows and no window treatments it gets hot up here just like a car in the back where it's insulated even though I don't have an air conditioner when I have the blinds closed in the window it stays cool in there and um you do want that in the summer so coming through you'll see that there is a divider wall I did this to make sure that um if I didn't put everything away when driving and if I did have to slam on the brakes I don't have a bunch of stuff slamming forward into the driver's area that just wouldn't be safe also really easy way to insulate you lose a ton of heat at your windshield or where any glasses for that matter so I put in 2x4 walls here um super beefy super insulated and then I went ahead and sewed together two thermal curtains for the front door I didn't want a bulky door I just wanted something to keep the heat in and these do a great job walking in um the first part of my build is the kitchen dining area kind of social area and I wanted enough room to cook as if I was at home so I wanted a full oven range combo I wanted a deep sink um I wanted a full fridge because I didn't intend to take lengthy trips in here and I didn't want to sacrifice on eating I love cooking and I love having space for it and I love having space for all my spices all my pots and pans and really not sacrificing anything because I think this kitchen is better equipped than my one at home on the other side I got a I made a bar top table um I just went ahead and used a um Alder slab this was actually a reject from a local Mill it's slightly curved but I thought it was kind of artsy in that fact so I stained it and I made a form for the rear and then I filled it with rocks from my driveway and then did like about 10 layers of epoxy it was a fun project it came out really nice and it's a great spot for when I was working from the road I do do a lot of consults for wolf dog buses and most of those I'm sitting here for them under it I made a quick easy foldup table or shelf rather and I made it to accommodate the um those common Target fabric boxes really easy way to Stow extra stuff especially when I have a friend coming on a portion of a road trip with me and they have extra stuff to put there I always leave that open for them my bench seat pretty standard slide out like you'll see in a lot of other rigs it slides out this way and that way to make a giant L I did that so it's roughly a narrow twin size you can fit a fitted sheet around it and let someone sleep there I did do all these cushions myself and after several tries I found my favorite way was making them um full boxes um same fabric the whole way and zippers and then when you're making your cushions make sure they fit for multi-purposes so these guys when it's really cold and someone's sleeping here they can block the windows with them and as silly as that sounds it makes a huge difference because um when it's ne6 degrees outside even though these curtains do a good job of maintaining the heat in the rig it will be cold by the curtains and this keeps it from being drafty for passengers um fridge so I have enough space for it in this rig I went for the apartment size 10 cubic foot this is a furyon Arctic love this fridge when they first came out with it they had a couple issues to work out like they had the fuse in the rear so you had to remove it if your fuse had issues they now wire them to the front that's awesome it's 12vt only super efficient I also use the furion uh oven range combo and this was one of the first models to have self igniting I also did epoxy for the countertop so this is actually just a high-grade plywood with eucalyptus leaves glued in here um yes I glued each eucalyptus Leaf by hand it took forever but it turned out pretty cool and I like it I just used angle iron on the front and painted it black and I figured just in case my um dogs wanted to be bad and jump up here they wouldn't SC scratch it or mess up the edge of the counter you'll see my cabinets these are not Custom Cabinets I ordered these from a Cabinet Supply Company they come in pieces you put them together I did make the mistake on this build and these are frameless 3/4 inch so it makes them incredibly hard to lock with like child locks or the push buttons and so I actually had to go ahead and install a little hook up here and then I do bungee cords from here to the bottom um drawer and then I have a little boat latch under the oven and that latches up to that drawer so that when I'm driving they are actually secure and don't slam open while driving every build I've done since this I go ahead and do recess cabinet doors and Little Hook latches to positively secure them while driving that was a big lesson learned on thisy guy these look really nice and they're great when stationary but when driving you got to pull the bungee cords out on this I knew that storage was going to be a big deal especially if I was fulltime so I added cabinets wherever I could these are 6in slides you can just purchase these These are revish shelf 6in slides they're awesome they fit um 5 in MA mation jars or different kinds of containers and then I have little boat hooks to hold them in place uh for the closet instead of doing doors I sewed um uh fabric curtains and then I use little button snaps to hold them in place and I did this because doors would take up a bunch of room as you open them whereas the fabric just kind of tucks to the side and yeah it looks kind of cute so an artsy way of doing it and then I have hanging space I have spots to set stuff I have additional drawers underneath and then a tall cabinet as well and you'll see that there is a safe for all your valuables at the bottom as well as I put like a little necklace hanger up top and what's cool about schoolies is when you're building it you really feel like you're allowed to kind of do whatever with storage and you can just screw in those extra shelves and really cater it to what your needs are like is there something specific that you're going to be storing all the time that you want a ice spot for and uh you can go ahead and put that in that being said when I saw there was a spot in the wheel hump that the box that I built over the wheel hump I definitely added a little tiny wine storage spot and people ask me if I use this that yes I do I went ahead and match the door to my um bathroom door to which is just a raw 3/4 inch piece of plywood and I just thought it was a pretty piece it had nice markings and I love the look of the black metal on raw wood so Incorporated that and through here is the bathroom which I probably went a little above and beyond compared to what I thought I was originally going to do I really wanted a nice spot to shower and this is predominantly a snowboarding rig for me so I wanted a bathtub to where I could take my absence Sal baths after a long day and it has been awesome for that I went ahead and took the pipes from my heated floor and I wrapped them around the tub so that the bathtub is heated as well kind of figured why not it's my bus and I can do what I want to it so that was super nice and I used a horse trough so that it is a small narrow tub but it's big enough to fit um my 70 lb dog in there and give her a bath and um when she's being crazy and shaking all over the place it doesn't matter because the entire bathroom is waterproofed um for this build I did just use peel and stick tiles I added an extra adhesive to them they did a great job it's been four years I have had one of them off by the toilet and I put some more adhesive on and glued it back on um no big deal because the entire bathroom behind the peel and stick tiles is waterproofed and I did make sure to do that because I did not want any water issues in my bus I went ahead and did PVC tiles on top of the shower because I do have Cedar ceilings and I didn't want them to get totally saturated so that was a nice easy way to clean the ceilings and I put the vent fan in there to keep moisture levels down when taking hot showers so I said I would talk about it and here we are I started with an Eco John Tiny John incinerator toilet and uh I thought it was a super neat idea because they made a propane 12vt option which meant that the flame and the heat came from propane and the ignition came from 12vt as well as the computer and display the unit was awesome when it worked and it would take about I think it was 15 minutes for a urine cycle and 40 minutes for a combo cycle it didn't smell like much they were correct on that and it was pretty quiet and it gave you just a tiny little bit of Ash to dispose of it was virtually zero waste it was pretty awesome the issue was um every single time I took my bus on the road something would Shake loose on it something would break and I would have to fix it I fixed the um display I fixed the computer I fix the uh igniting system I fix the airflow control I fix the uh burner itself pretty much everything there was to fix on it I fixed it and fixed it twice and then after talking with the Eco John company themselves down in Little Rock it seemed like this toilet was just not yet developed enough to be in a mobile ocation that if you wanted it mobile you really had to do the electric version not the propane um and that meant that it wasn't really off- Bri capable because as you're probably aware a electric component that generates heat takes a lot of electricity and a lot of battery power and a lot of solar power so when you're trying to use an incinerator that's full electric it's not going to happen unless you really have a sub substantial solar system or you're hooked up to shore power that being said in the Pacific Northwest with not a lot of sun and not wanting to invest that much more money into my solar system I opted for a compost toilet and nothing can break on a compost toilet it's a glorified bucket you separate solids from liquids nothing can go wrong and you're good to go that was super nice after um experiencing a toilet where I was concerned whether or not I'd be able to use it and then going to one where no matter what it's good to go there's something to be said for simple and reliable and that's what compost toilets are uh so that being said the compost toilet I went with is a sunar GTG you'll hear me talk about those a lot they don't have an agitator you just simply put a bag in the solids compartment and when it's full you take it out and throw it away people are like hey but it's compost why are you throwing away trash well compost takes about a year to actually turn into dirt until then it is still waste and so if you use a compostable garbage bag and you throw that in the garbage you're still doing a bit better than um other options and if you're using this rig as a Weekender or um traveling and not really living full-time off in the middle of the woods something like a Nature's head where you're using the agitator and having to take the entire unit out of your rig to go clean it isn't really practical for most people so I like the sunar simple easy nothing to break I don't have to take the whole unit out to clean it yeah definitely sticking with that one now moving on to the bedroom area I kept my bedroom area simple I have a queen siiz bed I have shelves and then I also wanted an additional sink so um for getting ready in the morning brushing my teeth I have a personal sink back here someone else can be using the bathroom area I put outlets on both sides because I didn't know which side I'd want my head at and maybe I'd want to charge my phone or have a projector going so 12 volt 12vt Outlets are everywhere in this rig and every rig I built after this just because um you don't know where you're going to want it until you're living in it and it doesn't hurt to have extra I also have my fresh gray water uh tank level indicator up here um this unit is not great and I'll just say that the only tank level indicator I've seen that actually works really well is the sea level indicator they're a bit pricier but they work and they're stick on um strips that go on the side of your tank uh this guy just always has issues the sensors are internal to the tank they get gunked up uh you will get slime build up in your tanks and it's not accurate uh the pump switch does work and that's nice cuz I can turn my pump off at night or when I'm not traveling for a while but yeah that's my little water system control unit um the back you'll see so yeah this is my snowboard rig and my main snowboard stays uh back here uh because it looks cool and it's a good spot to keep it out of the way this shelf over here uh is my dog sleeping spot that's why it's Giant and then this center part that's got the cushion on it actually folds down into a bench seat that goes out the rear um that was supposed to be for tailgating I didn't end up using it too much but it is nice to use as a hatch into the garage and I can kind of check on things or look out the rear window if um I hear something outside at night it's just always nice to have access to the garage from inside on the other side you'll see an additional thermostat and that is because um my heating system in here has two zones I heat the bedroom and bathroom independently from the kitchen area yeah so that Aqua Hot that I talked about that I absolutely love super bougie and I have two climate controlled areas because why not uh above me is a marine hatch Skylight uh so a 24 by 24 inch Skylight I believe um this is pretty much your best option for an openable Skylight in your bus I wanted this because I wanted to make sure that I do have an emergency exit on the top rear and front of the bus in case of an emergency and also because it gives me private access to my roof deck which how can you have a schoola without a roof deck let's be honest coming up a recent ad I did to this roof deck um to make it easier to get into or out of it is I added a Marine ladder it collapses up and down and then you can climb right out of here without pulling yourself up and this is the 10 by 8ot roof rack system made exclusively for strapping down equipment and absolutely not made as a roof deck as RVs have for sitting at racetracks and hanging out on top of them up front you'll see the solar rack which houses my I think it's 120 watts of solar it's a zamp solar system I went with zamp because they are americanmade um the company's in Oregon and for this bus I did want to try and source as much as I could that was USA made I thought that was really cool so these decks are made with uh conduit the front is half inch conduit the rear is 3/4 inch and I angled them so they' go into the roof and I screwed in well rather bolted in the top three uh it's a great system super sturdy I used unistar going across so it would be low profile that means that my entire bus still only has a total height of 10 foot6 which is incredible because if you want to ship this bus it does ship inside of a um uh shipping truck rather than having to pay extra for special shipping so that was something I thought about and then you can see the max air fan on top pretty standard schoolie roof very usable very functional um and it's nice to be able to get up here easy especially when you want to clean your solar panels and make sure they're performing at their uh their Peak Performance levels ready so the aquaa in this bus um not many people do these I don't think many people know about them when converting to schoolie but it is a rather expensive component however it is one that I would not do without an a rig now uh it is basically a diesel boiler that maintains a vat of antifreeze at 180 to 190 degrees and every time my thermostat in the kitchen or in the bedroom trips it goes ahead and turns on a recirculation pump and that recirculation pump pumps antifreeze through the flors in that zone and through the heat exchanger in that zone it brings it up to Temp within like third I don't know 30 seconds to a minute it's quick and then um the thermostat realizes that it's the right temperature and it uh turns off that recirculation pump and that Zone's good that vat is always maintained at that temperature so the aqua hot does turn on even though it's say 70 80° outside but it is nice because it's always ready to go if you want to turn up your temperature inside or if you want to run hot water you don't have to turn your rig on like so in the winter I generally use this for about a week at a time snowboarding and then I come home and work and when I go to leave for my trip I don't have to do anything I just like stock my fridge bring my clothes in and go I don't have to turn the heat on I don't make sure it's working I don't have to think about any of that stuff and I don't have to winterize I don't have to blow out water lines I don't have to pour antifreeze anywhere um it's just ready to go and if you're from a colder climate you realize how nice that would be coming from Michigan we had to winterize everything down to pressure washers so they wouldn't freeze and lines would break um my bus no matter where I go I'm fine uh so that Aqua hot is super super nice it gives me those heated of floors and I can actually use them I've seen a lot of examples of people putting heated floors in their bus but then running them off of the onboard coolant which is great when you're driving um but if you're not turning your bus on for a half hour for it to come up to temperature not using your heated floors and then if they run them off of a propane system or something else that's really fuel hungry um again you're not going to end up using them you see those people commonly install Chinese diesel heaters and then predominantly use that which is kind of a waste of all that hard work putting the peex in um anyways yeah Aqua Hot ricken whatever system you want to use if you do want heated floors and you do want to be off- Grid in colder climates it's an awesome way to go and your bus feels warm it doesn't feel drafty um big thing in making it feel homey I really like that uh my dog however being a malm arctic wolf does not like it she likes the cold ground so she goes up front where the floors are stock and they're freezing in the winter so she still has her spot uh another thing is uh with your bus I always suggest personalizing them as much as you want put the fun things in so I put eltrak on the Cur the upper part of the Walls by the curve and I use those for hammocks so if I have more than a couple friends staying in the bus with me I can hang up to two hammocks uh diagonally through the kitchen and they can sleep up there uh that's worked out great it's a super fun spot to hang out I can also use these L tracks to tie down stuff if I'm traveling with a lot of gear um that's nice I added in rope lights in this sofit area so if I want blue lights or purple or whatever if we're watching a movie at night I can turn those on it's kind of fun lighting and then I don't know what else I did a lot of personal touches here I have like my glass pasta containers tied to the wall and I velcroed them so they wouldn't break while driving and honestly I I kind of thought they were still going to break it's really thin glass but they haven't they've held up and I love those all right someone's going to mention it so I'm going to talk about it bus Windows yes there are better options no you don't have to get rid of them I kept everything I could stock on this bus because I thought it was cool I think it's coool um the bus Windows give you a ton of light and I love the pain in the butt they are to open and close it reminds me of going to school with my friends in the morning um I don't know they hold a special plate in my heart place in my heart I like them and I wanted to keep them I don't regret it um the biggest thing if you're keeping them have proper window treatments cuz any glass whether it's bus windows or fancy RV windows with tints on them will feel hot when the sun's on there and they will have the magnifying glass effect where there's a ton of heat inside because of glass um having the curtains completely prevents that and then also when it's really cold outside this gives you an air gap which helps insulate and keep your heat inside so I had absolutely no issues I camped down to Nega 6 in my bus I'm G to be honest I didn't see any buses or RVs staying where I was staying off grid so um the windows is not the determining Factor uh when I built this bus I did consider the fact that they're going to leak because bus windows are basically designed to leak uh they did a terrible job cutting out the sheet metal and just bending it and having this huge slit on both Corners where water can just pour in so what you got to do is you got to keep up on the COA on the outside and then on the inside I went along the Hat channels at the floor and I drilled a hole and that allows the water to drain out rather than pool in the floor um yes that will eventually R 30 years down the road I'm okay with that whole resting um I built this bus to be able to withstand flooding so I have the holes drilled at the bottom of the windows for leaks and then say I have a water tank explode I um went ahead and drilled holes in my floor at the corners of the framing so that water that gets down into the floor has an Escape Route um that's huge because otherwise if you have a major Plumbing Leak in here you would basically have to take up your entire floor to dry everything out um so I built to um prepare for worst case scenario probably because um I was coming from being a nuke in the Navy and we plan for plan a plan B plan C and we have safety features on safety features on safety features so that's kind of the mindset I had with this bus and I'm glad I did because um I haven't had any issues yet and I know that if I do there's a plan B and there's a plan C and there's a way to fix everything so yeah super cool on that note you'll see I have super beefy window sills I went ahead and built out my walls with 2x4s and I did that so I can do a ton of insulation and I have an R value of 15 of my walls um this is not only nice for keeping heat in but it's also nice because I have a little bonus Shelf at all of my window sills and I use it all the time you can set cups there um when I'm working at the bar top table that's pretty narrow I can set my drinks my phone whatever I want up there and it's worked out really nicely so let's take a minute to talk off grid um a lot of people use the term off grid and it gets thrown out and around a lot but um I want to talk about what that means to me and what I talk to um other bus Builders about when we reference off- grid capable um so it can mean a bunch of different things and first I always start off by asking where are you using this rig are you going to hot climates or are you going to cold climates are you chasing 70 and sun0 degree weather um because if you're staying in hot hot climates and wanting to work inside and have air conditioning you're going to need you know 2,000 to 3,000 watts of solar up top and a big old battery Bank to accommodate the nights if you're like me and you're going to Winter climates you have an aqua hot and when it does get hot you go to the lake or you go to a river and you're not just sitting inside at the best part of the day um then you don't need as much to be off grid I run roughly 1,000 Watts up top and about 300 amp hours usable battery bank or 3600 Watt hours I have a 12vt system and that is accessible for me um I barely ever run my battery Bank below 70% capacity and um I keep it as warm as I want in here and when it gets hot I turn on the fan open the windows I'm super comfortable um that being said I also live a minimalist lifestyle when it comes to cooking I don't use an insta pot I don't use a coffee maker and I don't use a toaster um I'm more than comfortable using a kettle on the stove and cooking in the oven and that keeps my power consumption way down if I do want to use a toaster I do have one on here and I plug it in and use it in the morning for breakfast which works out great because then I got the Sun up all day to charge up the battery bank and it's kind of like n or it's uh I compensate for my heavy usage in the morning by having the sun throughout the day um that's really important because people don't realize in having off system they not only need something that is capable of filling their needs but they also need to be able to live a lifestyle that suits that system because no matter how much solar you have no how many batteries you have you can always overload that system depending on how you're using it the last systems I want to talk about are Safety Systems so no matter how sure you are of your electrical connections and everything else you always want to make sure to have smoke alarms and carbon monoxide dete on board just that last Surefire way to know that you will wake up if anything goes AR and that when you're cooking on a propane stove you know when your carbon monoxide levels are getting high and you know when to turn your exhaust ban on to make sure that you are safe and healthy so suming up this tour this is obviously my personal bus my first bus and will always be my favorite bus this has brought me so much joy I absolutely loved building it and I loved using it now that I've been in this industry for U more than a few years I do a lot of consults with people and a lot of them quite frankly are based around motivation and can I do this am I capable um like what does it take and can a can a female do it by herself can can one guy do it by himself like hey I'm 16 and want to do this or hey I'm 75 and want to do do this um quite frankly if you want to do it you can do it um especially now there are so many how-to videos Chuck Cassidy's got all of his incredible videos out there um you can see examples of what to do what not to do and if you want to make it happen you can make it happen um personally I uh converted this bus nearly entirely by myself with the occasional by friends but mostly they were just holding a beer kind of laughing at me at the side wondering what the heck I was doing um and keeping me good company I was getting out of the military so I was still working full-time and did this in my off time it took me about a year um but I will admit that I'm a little crazy in that regard and I committed all of my free time to this bus because this was my main priority and I had fun fun doing it and my friends were willing to hang out with me in the bus building the bus so I still got to be a little social while I was doing this project this allowed me to do exactly what I wanted to do I got to travel um bring my whole house with me I got to go to the ski resort and stay there for weeks on end um Crystal Mountain knows me as the bus girl I think that's so funny um my dog absolutely loved it I had space to travel with my dog um I had done the whole sleeping in my truck bed before this and while that's kind of fun and cool once or twice it gets real old real quick um and my dog did not like it as much whereas here she's got room to sleep um I can bring her food she's got her space and then um in the morning she wakes up to see where we're at and if we're at ski resort she loves running around in the snow and if we're at the beach she can go swim so yeah bus life is a lot of fun if you want to do it do it if you don't know where your motivation lies don't do it because it is an undertaking it does take a lot of effort you are going to make mistakes um and it's going to be a journey but if you want it go for [Music] it [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Wolf Dog Buses

Views: 190,273

Keywords: Skoolie, Timelapse, van, off grid, offgrid, off-grid, time lapse, bus, bus conversion, school bus, full build, female build, luxury, tiny home, rv

Id: SSNosDr3OHw

Length: 48min 7sec (2887 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 09 2023