INSPIRING Shuttle Bus Conversion Tour | Heated Floors, Full Bathroom, Fire Place Heater

i'm drew i'm savannah and this is our 2017 ford e350 shuttle bus conversion [Music] this bus was the subject of our 21 part build series you can head to our channel to watch every step that it took to convert this regular shuttle bus into a home let's jump right into it and first off we're going to start up at our roof we have a custom-built unistrut roof rack this is really nice because it's completely modular if you wanted to change the configuration of solar panels and maybe mount something like a kayak up there you could change it out over time to whatever suited your needs we currently have three 350 watt 24 volt solar panels for a total of 1050 watts to the left of the roof rack you will see the chimney that vents the propane heater which is inside and we'll show you that later in between the gaps of the solar panels we have two fantastic fans for ventilation also on the outside of the bus we have our moon shade awning this awning is really cool because it has various different ways to mount it to the exterior of the vehicle and it packs up really small into a little case we can keep underneath the bed underneath the bus we have two gray water tanks as well as an under mounted propane tank on the driver's side we put an access panel with two locking doors so that you can get in there to fill your propane and dump your gray water on the passenger side of the bus we have an access panel for our vented propane water heater and on the back of the bus we have a small spot for our fresh water fill hatch that's everything on the outside of the bus so let's head inside and take a look [Music] you may have noticed we have our doors on a key fob this is a really nice feature to have if your arms are full of groceries or something like that you can easily open and close your doors [Music] as you enter the bus you'll see on the left side we have a control panel first off your main overhead lights so you're not fumbling through the dark to find a light switch a rocker panel controls a few more lights a power outlet and then a couple hooks for things like keys or a dog leash or anything you would need to hang as you enter your bus the first thing you see when you walk in the doors of the bus is this beautiful bathroom we decided on glossy black fish scale tiles for the back wall and we absolutely love how they turned out the cedar ceiling planks come down to meet the tiled wall and on the floor we have a waterproof teak mat this mat is inset into a custom stainless steel shower pan we actually make and sell these shower pans on our website they come in custom sizes with custom drain placements and one of the best parts about having a pan like this is that you can inset it into your floor and you're able to save a few inches of headroom in your bathroom which can be huge we only tiled one wall in the bathroom to save a little bit of weight so the other two walls are frp board we decided to put in a thetford 565e cassette toilet and this is just a really easy and convenient option when you're on the road we finished off this space with a glass shower door giving the whole space a luxury high-end kind of feel and it shows off all that beautiful tile on the back wall [Music] now let's move on to the kitchen on this end of the kitchen we have our refrigerator this pulls out from underneath the cupboard on its own drawer slides and this is actually a chest freezer that we converted to a refrigerator using a temperature control system the benefits of doing this is that you get a bigger refrigerator for less money it's pretty affordable overall and chest freezers are also insulated a lot better than front opening refrigerators so they stay cooler for longer it doesn't run as often and it's also top opening so you're not losing all your cold air every time you open your refrigerator here we have our propane oven and stove this has a three burner cooktop on it for something that matters matters to me [Music] but what do you want what's your biggest need we also have storage underneath the oven for things like pots and pans and there's quite a bit of overhead storage which is always necessary in a kitchen [Music] on the other side of the kitchen we have a pull out cutting board for more counter space underneath that is three more storage drawers we have our sink and of course under the sink is the plumbing and more storage space [Music] one of the best ways to store canned goods in these buses is with a pull out pantry this is one of our favorite parts of the whole kitchen it is a really great use of space to stack your cans or dry goods [Music] up top we have the faucet for our drinking water this comes from our apec three-stage water filter we have our regular faucet and next to that is an inset knife block [Music] behind the kitchen counter we put an inset planter box not only do i love having plants in my kitchen but they are secured so that when you drive you don't have to put them away take them back out if you forget they spill all over the place so they're nice and secure in the planter but also this window is an emergency window meaning that it opens outward so with this planter the backsplash doesn't go up so far that you can't reach the window handles to open the window [Music] we have these little shelves all throughout the kitchen and that is great secure storage for your spices and anything else you don't want flying around while you're driving we have a thermostat here that we use to monitor our battery compartment and the internal temperature of your living space we also have another rocker panel for all sorts of different lights within the bus closet lights the water pump as well and here we have the ignition switch for the propane water heater [Music] [Music] next up we come to the bedroom area we have a standard full-size mattress and we have this beautiful closet with these sliding bypass doors and we also have these little drawers that pull out lots of storage there's storage you can access down below from within the closet and another nice feature we've done on all of our cabinets is we put lighting inside so you can actually see what you're doing when you're in there [Music] [Music] next up is one of the coolest features of this bus and that is the projector system as you can see both the screen and the projector are attached to very strong magnets which connect to magnets that are embedded in the ceiling now this is a downloadable plan we've made we'll show you all the steps and all the components you need to make this happen it's a really cool feature because it gives you flexibility so if you want to watch a movie in bed you can set your screen up here but if you have friends over and people on the couch want to be able to see you can move the screen to the front of the bus or wherever you choose it's a great space saving feature much better than a big bulky tv on this end of the bed you will see this nice headboard feature which really brightens up the space in addition we've done more lighting underneath for reading in bed and this is a really big storage space we put that on a strut to keep it open right next to the bed we have another control panel first off we have a light switch that controls these lights in the bed area independent of the house lights so you can turn them on or off which is very nice there's an outlet here to power devices and then the last one is sort of a hidden feature in this bus is heated floors so the thermostat actually is in the bed area so you don't even have to get out of bed in the morning to take that edge off the floor you pop them on wait 10 minutes you get out and you got warm feet just to start the day it's really nice in those cold winter months [Music] underneath the bed is by far the biggest storage area in the bus as well under there we have our 75 gallon fresh water tank the water heater and the water filtration system we put the bed on struts so once you have it up there it holds itself open [Music] with the larger cabinets and storage areas we made sure to put lights in so you can actually see what you're doing and this one is probably the most important with that off you can see it's pretty tough to see what you're looking for and with it on it just makes it really easy to find whatever you need [Music] this area may look like just a couch but in reality it's actually five separate things this is one of the most functional things we have ever designed for our buses so let's show you all of different modes that this area has [Music] next to the couch we have our dickinson p9000 direct vent propane heater this heater is really cool because it has a glass front where you can see the flame burning this almost gives you the feel of having a fireplace in your bus as we said it's a direct vent heater so it has a double wall chimney that goes outside of the bus because of the way that our solar panels are situated we weren't able to bring the chimney straight up out of the roof as you saw on the exterior of the bus we made a little chimney extension to bring that cap and the chimney out the side of the bus instead above the heater we have a heat shield to protect the cabinet and next to it we have a core distribution afg fireball this is a really cool fire extinguisher alternative we love these fireballs because you don't have to be present for them to still protect your bus underneath the heater we have a little end table this has the same inch and a half thick butcher block countertop that we have in the kitchen both of those countertops are sealed with water locks underneath all of that is a pull out food and water dish if you've ever had pets with you on the road you know that having a secure place for a food and water dish is an absolute game changer having it pull out from underneath the counter in a secure spot is just one of our favorite parts of our own bus as i mentioned outside we have 1050 watts of solar on the roof those feed in through the wall and underneath the couch is where all of your power components are located your battery bank and your charge controller your inverter charger and your distribution box for storage capacity we installed two 200 amp hour 12 volt lithium batteries we put them in series to create one 200 amp hour 24 volt battery which powers the whole system in this compartment you can see there's access to turn off the main power or turn off your solar panels with a circuit breaker [Music] [Music] over in this compartment you can see our 24 volt inverter charger which allows you to plug into shore power which will both power the bus and charge your batteries as well as we have our distribution panel which sends power out to all of your lights and outlets the last component of this power system is the display screen this allows you to see how much solar you're bringing in your battery voltage and change any settings you want to on those devices [Music] now we're back where we started in the front of the bus and this over cab compartment is all storage so of course we have extra lighting there is an access door to the vehicle's electrical panel we also have an outlet in here and we have two other smaller storage spaces next to the larger compartment here we have a curtain that hangs in between the living area and the cab so that at night you can kind of section those two spaces off in between the driver and passenger seat there is a box that houses the freezer the freezer itself is on drawer slides you can just conveniently slide it in and out when you need it up front is your pretty standard ford cab but the really unique feature of this bus is that it has a passenger seat a very small percentage of shuttle buses actually has a passenger seat and this bus is one of them we're back in the entryway and above the bus doors we have a panel where you can monitor the levels of the fresh and two grey water tanks there's also a handle for the bus door motor you can engage and disengage the motor and that's what controls the key fob that we showed you in the beginning we also have a curtain on our bus doors for a little bit more privacy all right guys that wraps up the tour i hope you've really enjoyed it and i hope you enjoyed watching our second bus build we documented every step of this build in our series so go take a look on our channel to catch all of those episodes but until next time we'll see you later later

Channel: Our Way To Roam

Views: 359,555

Keywords: shuttle bus build, shuttle bus, shuttle bus conversion, shuttle bus camper, shuttle bus tour, bus, bus tour, bus build, bus conversion, buslife, van, van tour, van build, van conversion, vanlife, skoolie, skoolie tour, skoolie build, skoolie conversion, skoolielife, couple, diy, tour, home tour

Id: 3IpmyI5sGhk

Length: 17min 20sec (1040 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 28 2021