Off-Grid School Bus Tiny House - Built To Be 100% Self Reliant

this video is brought to you by rvmatters.com a brooklyn bedding site when i was about seven years old i told my grandmother i was going to live in the woods and not pay rent or utilities with my dog having a tow car has been awesome so right now i am on my nature's head composting toilet you just have to take the incremental steps to make it happen hey everybody my name is chris this is zep2 behind me you see kobuk down here today i'm going to be giving you a tour of my 2002 bluebird school bus i built this purposely to be off the grid so i'm excited to show you [Music] all right so welcome to the interior of the bus this is the very front of the bus the driving area is right past these curtains these are actually blankets from pendleton just had a seamstress go through custom make them and i use these little clips these are marine clips whenever it's time to open them just a quick little turn and it opens right up it gets very hot up there during the hot times of the year during the cold times it's very breezy so this keeps a thermal barrier to this section of the bus so right here we have a pull out couch this turns into a bed it also has storage underneath we have the pup here cobuck that typically sleeps right here and just another pendleton blanket just kind of tying the colors all together i use this mostly for when people come over if they're staying in the bus and then also with my imac over here it's where i watch movies it's where i chill we have this chair over here this came out of an rv it swivels back and forth this is one of my office areas the second being right here as i mentioned before i built this rig to be off the grid but i also built it to be my mobile office so if i'm in an awesome boondocking spot i'll just set up the laptop right here open the window able to look outside and get work done and then if i have a passenger like i said it swivels towards the front and then they're able to be buckled in has a seat belt on the rv seat as well this is a raised roof school bus you can see that there's plenty of room in here this is the main area that i do hang out wanted to have some uppers up here this is very quick grab section so my backpack for when i take the pup on a walk as well as gimbals drones it's all held up here so when i need it i can just reach up grab it and i'm good to go on this side you'll see some of my favorite pokemon cards one of the things i love to do on the road is go to garage sales and i'm always trying to track down pokemon cards it's just a fun little hobby something that i can do where i don't have to worry about work i don't have to worry about anything else it's just kind of like a very laid back fun thing to do and i also have books up there as well i also have these hue lights so i have an app where i'm able to change the color if i want more light in here if i have guests over i can really light it up in here or if it is just rainy and dark out i want some more light in here i can just control those via an app and this section right here is actually where i spend most of time in the bus if i'm not in bed so i have a large imac here this is where i get all my work done so if i'm editing videos answering emails and i also have room for my laptop right there so if i'm doing a lot of heavy editing on this or the laptop i can just switch back and forth and this is the main work area this also serves as kind of an entertainment center as well i have bluetooth speakers up front that i'll connect this to and this is just the main hub this is one of the reasons why this whole area is dedicated to office space because what i wanted to do on the road was build mobile incomes be able to do what i want when i want and working on the road was a big part of that so that's why this large area is dedicated to that and throughout the bus i have this butcher block i got this from lumber liquidators black walnut ties together well with the dark gray that i have on all of my cabinets and then my walls are white and i just really like that dichotomy of color as well as the stainless which we'll see in the kitchen here shortly so you might notice behind me there is a large skylight right here this is out of a 98 jeep loredo one of the reasons why we did a roof raise was for all the space and i wanted as much light coming in as possible this whole living room area we have four three foot by three foot windows as well as this so when i'm out boondocking when i'm out just enjoying myself out in nature i'm able to bring all that natural light in i also have some storage up here this is more of a knick-knack little shelf so it's things that i pick up at garage sales gifts that people give me and it's the first thing i see when i walk into the bus it's just a nice reminder of the gifts and different things that are important to me live right up here and then we have mona mona was a gift from my friend's life as a joy bus that helped me build this bus and they were selling their house moving to their bus and they're going to throw this away so i decided to paint it black it's my hat rack and just a nice little reminder of them [Music] hey everyone chris here from tiny home tours i'm excited to share my new mattress from rv mattress by brooklyn bedding i've had the same mattress in my bus conversion since finishing the bus and hitting the road after three years of travel it's time for a new one that is where the wunderlust memory foam mattress comes in it has five different comfort options 22 different rv sizes and 5 heights all rv mattresses by brooklyn bedding are made in arizona shipped for free to your door come with a 120 night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty if you're looking for a better night's sleep check out rvmattress.com or click the link below and use code tiny home tours for 20 off your mattress purchase trust me you won't regret it enjoy the rest of my schooling tour [Music] when i was younger i was about seven years old i told my grandmother i was going to live in the woods and not pay rent or utilities with my dog i'm just lucky enough to be born at the right time these magic little boxes we call laptops i'm able to make money on the road there's an infrastructure where i was born in the right place too to be here in the states to have a 40-foot school bus and be able to travel where i want when i want with public lands more specifically a school bus because i've been on the road for about 11 years now going on 12 and i've had two separate camper vans and a class a and i'm in a bus now because of the weight capacity and how strong these are the class a was a really cool easy button to where you could just buy it and you have everything that you need but they're honestly not built that well like with this bus i was able to do butcher block counter tops i was able to use three quarter inch plywood this has a 36 000 pound capacity so when it came time to add 200 gallons of fresh water it was no issue for the bus if i tried to do that if i tried an extra 100 pounds of fresh water on a class a or a fifth wheel it'd probably be over capacity more specifically why i chose a bus is they are built amazingly and you're able to customize them and i could build with high quality materials that i knew would last a long time welcome to the kitchen of the bus a lot of the bus design like as i mentioned before with the dark and the gray walls of the whitish gray walls came from this stove so i found this on facebook marketplace when i first started gathering materials for the bus it was a happy accident this was from 1960 or so and just loved the stainless look you might notice the sink and the faucet how it all just kind of ties together but yeah i got this on facebook marketplace just a little propane oven and then built the entire kitchen around this also another happy accident is i created the golden triangle so if you don't know what that is it's basically you can be in one spot and you have access to everything so you have the stove the sink and the fridge and you can literally just turn around and do everything you need to do i have a section over here actually underneath here is a five cubic foot freezer because again the goal for this bus was to be off the grid so having that extra freezer storage was very important this just pops off you can remove that access the freezer and you're good to go but this is also my food prep area i also have the berkey water filter here these are fantastic if you are thinking about getting a tiny home camper van these guys can filter all the water that you want and rumor has it you can even use stream water pond water and all that and it'll filter your water but i just wanted to have a little bit of extra filtration from the water tanks to what i drink so right here i have a very large rivati stainless sink it did take up a lot of space in the kitchen area but i love it because you're able to preserve water with this big of sink so instead of just doing dishes every time they get dirty some might say it's because i'm lazy but what i like to do is actually recycle the water when you're living off the grid typically your water is the first resource that you'll run out of i do have 200 gallons of fresh water but when i'm at a place for three weeks to a month the water starts to run low so when i do dishes i just re-use the water the soapy water and then just rinse off very sparingly and reuse that water but with this large sink i'm able to collect those dishes and then wash them at once and not use that much water up above here i have upper storage these are just glasses ziploc bags all that good stuff all my plates are stored up here up here is a little bit of a technology cabinet i have a pep wave system where i'm able to insert cell phone sim cards into that device and then i have a booster up on my roof deck which repeats that signal brings it into the bus and creates a wi-fi signal within the bus with that pep wave i can have two different cell phone sim cards in there so i can have verizon on my phone at t and t-mobile and then it boosts it because if i if i'm working from the bus i need good internet and so far there's only been one time i didn't have any signal at all and that was middle of nowhere montana so far that system has been working very very well for me so you might notice a little splash of color back here with these mexican tiles i got these from amazon again with the stainless and the dark and the dark and the whitish walls i wanted just a little bit of color in the kitchen area just a quick little amazon find just used liquid nails actually to attach those to the wall with some grout in between and i really love the way that that kind of makes the kitchen pop a little bit just with some artwork back here as well that matches the muted blues and grays and whites just kind of ties everything together over here also storage underneath the stove storage underneath the sink and one little trick that i learned as well is when you're doing the off-grid living your trash piles up pretty quick so i went with two trash cans and that was something i was debating i'm very glad that i ended up doing that and i've found being that i have a tow car what i'll do is just let those fill up about half to a quarter of the way then i'll just go buy gas stations throw it in the gas station trash receptacles and then i don't have to worry about trash when you let it build up then it's a little bit harder to get rid of your trash so here i have a 12 volt fridge this is an isotherm so far this thing has been amazing i started out with a residential fridge when i first got the residential fridge the idea was again going off the grid boondocking but everything that you have in a fridge like your greens your meats and everything like that by the time i got to them they were going bad i didn't need that much space also a negative to that fridge when i first got it it was drawing about 100 watts and kicking on every once in a while as the fridge aged it actually started drawing around 300 watts it was basically on all the time so it was just pulling down the batteries so switched out to this unit so this section right here is the exact size of the fridge being that i got a smaller one it allowed a little bit extra storage with pull out pantry and that goes up here and down here as well and just having that extra space for dry goods because living off the grid when you have dry goods they last a lot longer you don't have to worry about them going bad and the size difference really isn't that much of a difference i'm just gotten a lot better at stacking things buying things from the store that will fit and then cycling through a little bit quicker once again i do have a tow car so that helps with replenishing the food when i'm off the grid so moving further back into the bus to the side of you right here is the pantry more dry food storage pots and pans and all that good stuff this is actually my third office area right here is a window this is my standing desk area i do have a stool here i really don't use it too often but i like to stand here work on the laptop you know if i'm out boondocking somewhere i have this massive window here that i'm able to look outside while i work i also have a dry erase board to write notes on so this is typically where i make phone calls negotiating something trying to get something figured out i can write notes on the dry erase board have my laptop right here for notes as well so this is just kind of a change of space for my work area and sometimes i'll eat here as well down here i have my vinyl record collection again garage sales traveling around asking people if they have pokemon cards vintage video games or vinyl records so i collect all those things and that is my collection right there and again to the side of you i have a drape right here that allows me to section off the bus so the reason why i mention that right now is i have a diesel heater and then also above the bed i have a mini split so if i need to heat or cool the bus all i have to do is heat or cool this particular section as you saw at the front of the bus i have a lot of windows that allows a lot of heat in and out and also cold so that's a lot harder to keep the temperature controlled back here it's a smaller area i'll just shut the bathroom door and then i have this small area so the reason why i went with a diesel heater over a wood burning stove that was the original plan to get a one of those cubic minis is insurance companies do not like you having wood burning stoves in your tiny home so if you're considering one for like a school bus or a camper van just realize if your insurance company finds that out you may not be covered so this was a workaround i talked to my insurance agent and diesel heaters are totally fine this is a dickinson alaska marine heater and on low it burns 1.3 gallons of diesel every 24 hours it is gravity fed so i just have a small diesel tank here that i'm able to take out fill it up with diesel throw it back up there and this thing has been awesome one issue with it it was my own fault basically i let a bunch of so collect in the bottom had to clean that out and it's good to go i've had this for three years and absolutely love it so next to the diesel heater you'll see my barn door and this leads into the bathroom one thing that i did do with this barn door this was just a lowe's typical barn door i just have this pin whenever i'm driving i lock it in i just drilled a hole in the arm of the ruler and the guide and it fits right in and this is the one thing i always forget about when i'm about to drive i start hearing this bounce around i realize i have to pull over put this pin in and it locks so let's check out the bathroom okay so right now you are in my shower i went with a 32 by 32 shower i've been blessed enough to be on the road for 11 years now um i had a 32 by 32 shower before this in the class a actually the entire bathroom is the exact size of the class a bathroom that i had a lot of people in camper van sometimes schoolies they don't have showers it was very important for me to shower i like to hike every day i like to work out and it is very hard for me to go to sleep if i haven't showered i just hate being sticky so the size of this is perfect i tiled all this myself i learned how to tile through youtube university and yeah really proud of it so doing the shower was very simple if you're thinking about doing a diy shower it's just red guard and then use liquid nails to put the tiles on and then grouted in between with a silicone grout and a lot of people always ask about the tile if they ever break if they ever chip because you're in a moving vehicle and it bounces around a lot and so far the liquid nails that i use to put these up with has worked fantastic and then down below me i just have a little teak wood platform in the bottom it just helps keep everything clean makes it look pretty nice and i really enjoy this this little shower so right now i am on my nature's head composting toilet i get asked questions about the nature's head all the time no it does not stink it is very easy to clean and yes i absolutely enjoy it little hack that i did with my nature's head is i drain the urine down to a 40 gallon tank that usually will last about a month to two months typically the nature said people just have a little urine diverter and then they have to empty that outside they have to deal with it for me i randomly come across dump stations at truck stops or rv parks and then i just drink there it's never a second thought and it works awesome i mean especially being off the grid like i said before water is typically the biggest thing that runs out first when you don't have a flushing toilet you save a ton of water so if you are considering building a rig that's off the grid like this one i highly suggest getting a nature's head airhead's good as well honestly any of the composting toilets will will do an awesome job with helping you preserve [Music] [Music] a lot of times people come up and they say that they want to do a bus it's something that they want to do and one of the tenants of my life something that goes through my head all the time is don't talk about it be about it and i know that's a very simplified way to look at it but if you have the desire to do something like this if it's something that you want to do you just have to take the incremental steps to make it happen so it's a situation where everybody thinks they have all this time to do what they want and the reality is we only have about 27 000 days if we're lucky enough to live the average age so if it's something you want to do if you're talking about it you need to be about it on top of the fact that we don't have that much time so for me it was easy to pursue something like this like it was building this bus was not easy it took a lot of time a lot of energy a lot of money but just knowing that it was something that i wanted to do on top of the fact that i knew that i really don't have that much time to live that combination just made it to where there was no hesitation and i just went for it so i always tell people those two things if they're thinking about living this life welcome to the bedroom section of my bus you might notice that i'm a little bit higher that's because i have two steps one of the main reasons to do a roof raise was this back bedroom section that i had an idea for so in between the wheel wells are my batteries so i have nine battleborn batteries for 900 amp hours of lithium batteries again this bus was built to be off the grid having all the power that you want was a key key component of that and that's why the batteries are there also on the bottom of the raised section here i have 200 gallons of fresh water that lasts me if i'm just you know showering every day water for me and the pup doing dishes that'll last a month and a half and if i'm being conservative that'll be anywhere from two to two and a half months worth of water also i have plenty of storage up here so another reason for the raised roof school bus is you can have really high storage so over here is my closet area hanging clothes over here and then back here is gear as well so just like the front section with the uppers this is grab and go if i need to grab a lens if i need to grab some audio it's just right here load it into my camera bag my camera bag lives right here underneath that i have another vintage map just like the maps up front on the ceiling um just put an epoxy on there and it looks fantastic and then lower storage all the way down to the floor this is outdoor gear so running shorts during winter time i have my thermals and then on this side this is more of hobby area so drunk drawers all of my pokemon cards just all the random stuff all my random hobbies on the road are right over here and then this storage is more of the blankets so for example up front i can completely close off the driving area i just store that in here as well as extra thermals and all that good stuff okay so welcome a little bit further into the bedroom area i have a queen size bed this does lift up for extra storage underneath i also have uppers on both sides of the bed and my mini split kind of made a mistake with only getting one head unit as i mentioned before i have to section off the back section of the bus if i want to heat or cool i really wish i would have put a double head unit on this is like an extra 200 bucks i just thought this would be fine turns out it doesn't cool the front of the bus so i would change that but this is a fairly decent sized bedroom area it's a little bit bigger than most school buses and i went north to south so i would have storage on the side here and able to walk on both sides of the bed also a little pro tip if you have a fluffy dog that sheds a lot i typically start at the back of the bus and then just blow all the hair and dust out the front door and when my dog's blowing his coat it looks like a rabbit's jumping out of my front door because there's so much hair but that is a nice little addition if you are thinking about getting a school bus or a bigger tiny home just getting one of these to clean works awesome to the left of my bedroom i have all of my solar components i have a shut off switch for the solar coming in just in case there's something going on with that then i have two mppt controllers and a 3000 watt victron inverter and those components have been working awesome and then up here you're able to see some of the vintage maps that i have on the ceiling this goes from the back of the bus here all the way to the front these were garage sale finds is actually a gift a lot of these were gifts from my friend wes with transcend existence and just mod podged them up and again just adding a little bit of color to the bus and it's a unique feature the original plan was to do the whole ceiling but i ended up only doing the middle i like that just because it doesn't overpower the whole ceiling but it adds a nice unique touch and then one of my max air fans is here as well i have one over the kitchen for cooking and then i have this one over the bedroom area i do have two windows on both sides so i'm able to open those windows and then suck the air out and then also i kept the emergency window in the bus so this can open up so you're able to get a lot of nice ventilation back here especially if it's a little bit warmer instead of kicking the ac in all night even though i have 900 amp hours of battery if you run your ac all night that's going to drain them where if you're able to just get that natural airflow through the bedroom it works awesome all right so welcome to the exterior of the bus you might notice that i have large under bay storage with this bus this was done by wes at transit existence his email will be down below this is all custom welded under bay storage that he put together on the bus in the first bay here open this up for you is my generator so this is a v-twin honda it's a 15 kilowatt generator just in case i ever run out of power if i'm in cloudy weather for days on days and i need to get work done i can just kick this on also my friend aaron with broccoli bus six their email will be down below as well if you have any electrical issues or questions he put in a receptacle and breaker box here to where i'm able to power four other rigs so if i'm around a group of people and they need power as well they can plug in and this v twin honda generator which is random propane can power everybody and the fuel source is awesome with this because all it is is your typical propane tanks that you use on a grill so i'm able to go to gas stations go to places exchange this fuel source and i'm good to go i have two propane tanks down here one is for the oven and stove uh which lasts a long time like one tank will last me three or four months and with the propane generator just depends on how much i'm running it sunny places like arizona i don't have to run it too much as long as everything's working well so moving a little bit further down more under bay storage one thing i will mention real quick with this bus this was the emergency exit door for the side ended up keeping this lock mechanism so it opens up to my breaker panel electrical gear if i need to change fuses if a breaker goes off i have everything in one section and this is off right there under here the under bay storage goes all the way through so i also have my umbrella under there also have my bench i work out on the road on the other side of the bus i have a pull up bar as well it's very important to me to stay in shape on the road and also walking the pup three to four miles every day helps with that as well and then in this last door on this side is where i store my rad power bike and behind that is the urine tank so this is the 40 gallon tank that drains directly from the composting toilet down to here and then i just have a little valve this hose basically goes into the dump connects to this pex line and then i'm able to drain the urine from the composting toilet okay so here we have my honda element tow car with a 40-foot bus it is not the easiest to park in cities so anytime i need to go into town anytime i need to grab supplies having a tow car has been awesome it does take a little while to get used to driving a 40-foot bus with a tow car about 60 foot total going down the road so you have to be mindful of driving and making sure you know the traffic pattern in front of you and watching people cut you off but having a tow car is honestly a night and day difference if you're thinking about getting a bigger rig it is a little bit more expensive you have to worry about two engines two transmissions it's a lot more to deal with but in terms of the day-to-day life it is so much better to have a tow car if you have a bigger rig so one cool feature with my bus i have a roof deck i didn't want a ladder on the outside so random people could get up on the roof deck so what i did is above the fridge here i have a little bit of storage and i have one of these fancy ladders that can expand and access to the roof deck is through my emergency exit just pop that guy up extend the ladder then you're ready to head up all right so welcome to the top of the roof deck you can see the solar panels behind me depending on what day you ask me i'm glad that this isn't all solar panels and i did a roof deck some days when it's very cloudy out i kind of wish i had more solar panels but overall i'm glad that we went with the roof deck this is another design from wes at transit in existence basically the roof deck is held down by these little custom pins that he made you're able to screw that in hold it in four points of contact and then the deck folds up and then they're all interconnected so when you're up here hanging out you have something solid to hold on to and you don't have anybody falling off your roof deck which would not be cool but whenever i'm in the middle of nowhere and i'm able to come up here and hang out i also have an umbrella that can come up here to block the sun so i can bring my laptop up here just work 360 view of whatever beautiful situation i'm in and i'm really glad i went with the roof deck overall [Music] this bus has been an iteration of about nine years when i started traveling and because of this bus it's allowed me to progress in life because i'm able to live very simply and very cheaply so if you add up my cell phone my health insurance vehicle insurance funimation account netflix every single expense i have is about a thousand dollars a month and i always add an extra 200 in there because stuff will break eventually but overall this lifestyle allows you to live cheaply which allows you to invest in things that you want to do and it doesn't even have to be financially whether it be time with friends time with family or just getting out and clearing your head and not being surrounded by the rat race that you always have to produce you always have to do whatever this just gave me room to breathe like northern rig like i said i've had multiple other rigs but this is set up as my mobile apartment that i can live very cheaply be in the places i want to be and then freeze my days up my return on investments the time that i have to be able to pursue new projects new investments and work on projects with talented people and this bus allowed me to do that any tiny home can do that so if you're on the fence of doing this lifestyle and you're hearing those voices in your head telling you that you can't do it that it's not worth it ask any nomad somebody on youtube somebody on instagram if they regret doing this lifestyle i i can't imagine one person i know on the road that would not suggest to somebody this will allow you to live the life that you want to lead and for me i feel blessed every single day that i get to wake up in my little off-grid tiny house on wheels so thanks for watching if you do want to keep up with me in this bus business ventures all the cool stuff that my talented team and i aren't doing you can follow us at tinyhometours.com you can follow me personally on the off grid schooly and that's through youtube facebook instagram all the socials i mentioned some people that helped me with this build um want to give a big shout out to them i could not have this home without my talented friends and they definitely helped out if you're watching this and you're considering it hopefully this was just a little bit of a push over the edge to get you to do it thanks for watching [Music] you

Channel: Tiny Home Tours

Views: 431,668

Keywords: tiny house, tiny house on wheels, living big in a tiny house, tiny house movement, tiny home, small house, small spaces, small house design, alternative living, architecture, affordable home, off the grid, small space living, tiny house life, diy tiny house, diy home, tiny house tour, digital nomad, van life, skoolie conversion, tiny house living, remote work, mobile home, off grid living, remote work setup, tiny house design, tiny house build, tiny house on wheels diy

Id: PPXxKXcOe68

Length: 31min 28sec (1888 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 30 2022