SKOOLIE TOUR | Tiny House School Bus Conversion - Sleeps 8!

hello this is patrick with new jersey's outdoor adventures youtube channel some of you may remember about a year ago i did a walk through video with patrick from patchworks he had an older 144 sprinter that he did a diy conversion to now he's got a school bus and he's going to tell us a little bit about it today and give us a tour inside out patrick welcome back to new jersey outdoor adventures thank you patrick good to be back this is my 30 foot international school bus it has a max force engine it was a handicap school bus so the whole floor is above the wheel well so everything is already flat there's no bolts with seats through the floors so i have to grind anything out no holes no rust anything like that and i also got a bonus side door with the handicap bus so if you're looking around that might be something you're looking for i'll take you inside so right at the front here we just have easy access storage of the stuff that i throw in there and grab quickly and then on this side is just a little more cubbies keep shoes and stuff like that up top is just a little overhead cabinet they fold down again just making storage out of everywhere that you can keep a yoga mat up there there's no wall so even though that opens you take out the wall and you have longer space to store things that you need for the driver area everything here is stock um it's kind of like a cockpit all those switches do a couple little things there is ac in the bus there's two ac units that work when the engine is on not when the engine is off it is cruise control as well there's about 140 000 miles on it and it's diesel moving to the back this is kind of the living room area this is the main couches both of these pull out into beds and it's about as simple as you can get pulls out it's a full-size bed comes back up you pull the tab and it accordion folds back up just like that and then this side is the same these slide up just to keep the mattress that squeezes in there so when you have these both out they're good enough for three people um all the foam came from one mattress it was a king size mattress that i peeled apart and cut up and sewed separately so these cushions are like the eggshell part of the cushion and these are the top softer part it's all comfortable but if you're looking to get a bunch of cushions on a budget you might only need one mattress this all goes back up pretty simple underneath here is an ottoman that rolls all the way out you can put it wherever you want kick your feet up on it like that play board games and stuff and then all those games can store inside everything is made out of pretty simple plywood it's all pocket jig and stuff like that nothing too complicated a little bit of wood keep it simple but make it nice for the flooring it's a bamboo tongue and groove flooring it's dark it's pretty thick it's high quality stuff that i found it scratches a little easy but it looks good and it's durable and waterproof and all like that underneath are just a couple more cubbies they're held in with bungee cords shove whatever you want in there bags extra shoes boots stuff like that and it'll keep it from flying out on this side is just a couple more storage spots spot for the speaker fire extinguisher if there's a fire and then up top here on this armrest it's just another little storage spot that i can throw blankets when i'm not using them and then it closes up up here is the renigi rover charge controller it's the 40 amp mppt thing as well with the bluetooth so i can look at everything on my phone and all the electricals are stored under this bed and that's where that is the inverter that comes out both of these run to ports otherwise in the bus and then this door comes off too so i can get into there and from the top as well give you a peek that's everything in there so it is two 200 amp hour each renegy deep cycle agm batteries a windy nation inverter and this lucy fuse panel that everybody uses it's also connected to an isolator to the engine so when the engine is running it's charging and i never really worry about power with that isolator there's also 300 watts of solar panels on the roof so between isolator and the solar panels it stays pretty charged a little farther down it's just another big slide out drawer on rails keep more blankets tools stuff like that easier access kind of stuff um the lights are all led strip lights they come they stick together and they're changed to any color you want their dance with the music they'll time out if you want them to and all sorts of that stuff and then they run into these overhead cabinets so that's just my clothes you guys get to stare at and then they come up and with these hinges on the bottom it keeps them closed and then it comes down and it's not up and you're not worrying about it falling and hitting your head it's pretty simple way to do it latchless the ceiling is what came with the bus it came like this it was all sealed it looked nice there's factory insulation up there still so i didn't see a need for messing with it all along the sides here are racks you might be able to see it better over here tracks that you can put anything you want can get bolted in you can get little baskets that are meant for it and also if you need to tie down anything big you can they're there when the it was a wheelchair bus those tracks were also on the floor and that's how they attached everything pretty damn cool this is one of the ac units there's another one in the back there they run when the engine is on if they blow cold they work just like a car ac and pretty simple really nice to have and came with the bus um a little cup holder here you're not spilling anything a usb port that's all 12 volts and then a little cut out keep my phone at night this is just a little phone mount sit there you know becomes your movie theater and then a fan that's 12 volts with a lithium battery built in so you're looking for a fan for a vehicle opolar is the ones to get they swivel every which direction they charge they got three different speeds and it's one button can't be easier moving back we get towards the kitchen this is a dometic cx-50 i believe it's a 50 liter fridge that i have kind of empty right now it's a drawer so the cold air stays in and doesn't slide out cymbals can be locks when you're driving pretty simple the booth is kind of what you see it this leg is not attached so when you're moving around it'll sit by itself gives an extra support but when you're sitting you can move it around you have multiple people it's never hitting anybody's legs with the raised floor you get a bonus drawer with a whole bunch of storage and it comes out just a little more and there's a little more back there where you can keep things that are a little harder to get to worry about that on here another three full length drawers that's where i keep all my junk big old drunk drawer and these pull out as well uh the back is just two by fours that i stripped down and sanded to round the edge stand them polly them and scoot them on there and they give you a nice look and that also helps along with the cutout back there to aerate behind the fridge so it doesn't overheat for blinds i have it's corrugated plastic that they use for making signs on magnets and they just slide up block out the window and when the sun's out they kind of grow a real nice white as simple as can be i built everything a half inch off the wall so they can slide and then all of these rails are magnetic so just put them through can't be much simpler a rack up here just simple uh hardware hold it up put a piece of wood this came from home depot and a really good friend of mine did all the painting to make it look nice for the kitchen it's pretty big everything pulls out everything's on soft drawer slides so when they close they pull themselves in and then these latches just go into each other all the way down and holds everything to the floor a couple more of them out stuff like that up top this folds down and this is where i keep my two burner cook stove slides in stores as he flips up this drawer is some extra cutting space if you want a little more of an angle and this comes up and there's storage under there as well the counter itself is actually doors from habitat against humanity they're hollow kind of they're built with cardboard and i just have i bought a couple of them they're super cheap out them up stand them nice painted them nice and all sorts like that as well as up here this is one piece of plywood that i cut an angle painted and stained to come out looking like that the sink is about as big as i could get it fits in there there's a water pump a sureflow water pump underneath that comes on swivels as well down here this is a fake face with just this but this pulls out a couple little storage spots for you know under the sink things and a trash can and then this one opens up and that's where the water is there is a garden hose quick connect on this so i just disconnect it pull it out you can bring this in anywhere and fill it up if you get a big water tank you got to bring a hose when you use little tanks you can kind of take it anywhere so that's kind of what i prefer more of the bench behind using the same wall saving as much space as we can is a little bar area this comes up there's power there to charge your things this little area down here pops up for a little bit more storage and then this back wall as well has a couple of shelves built in a couple hooks for hoodies pretty good use of space set up there as comfortable as can be turn the fan just like that over here is the bathroom they're supposed to be a nature's head but with the virus everything is back ordered so that's in there for now there's wires to be run and then a little medicine cabinet up top here that are that's built into the wall this is a curtain about as simple as you can get and this is the insulation since it's not covered yet that you'll find along the whole sides and all of the plumbing that you can also see peeking through there everything connects onto one line and into a gray water tank underneath the bus use that to store you know brooms and stuff like that often it's more storage than it is anything else there's a bit of a cam crusher here which you would think is a joke but when you're living in a small space with a small trash can being able to crush those as small as you can are pretty damn helpful there's a privacy curtain here it's a blackout curtain nothing too complicated but i had eight friends in here with me and being able to cut off the space and that kind of stuff the whole ceiling is magnetic so you can stick whatever you want use hooks as well little hooks like this yeah a million uses for hooks when you're living in vehicles you never have too many hooks moving into the back is the bunk area there's three bunks here this bottom one as well can pull out into a fourth sleeping spot like this sits on the edge and then i have a second piece of foam that would fold out when you need it just doors away just as easy and back to that underneath both top bunks our big old storage space a little leg like that holds it up you can move around keep a lot more in there than one might think that's under the bottom bed as well but with the slide it gets a little more complicated underneath is just storage space that's an inflatable kayak that's on my snowboard gear and this bin is actually a easy pop-up shower that i can show you takes only a minute move this stuff out of the way this guy pops out and there is a pipe down there just cut a hole in it and then this piece down here which i might only be able to know i've got it opens up to the pipe to the same gray water tank that will pop in there and then i use those magnet hooks put up a curtain and then those same eight gallon tubs put inside there with you keeps all the water out when you're done open it up let the fans blow on to dry and then it all stores up it stores in sideways so that bottom pipe doesn't hurt and then gives you all the extra space to store all the other fun stuff you have underneath on this side is the inside access to the garage but it's also pegboard you can hang what you want you've got clothes you need to dry or anything like that knees open up and we'll get a better look at that from the outside but if you need to get from something in here you can under here as well as another storage spot same as the other side on the very back wall is a bench that folds down somewhere to sit and then this also serves as support for this bed when it comes out so you don't need an extra leg keep this up all three doors are accessible this is the back one opens up same as always i use reflectix on some of the bigger windows to get more direct sun those white things work really well but when you're really trying to block out the sun reflectix and magnets use best hop back here i'll give you a look of the outside i painted it with just normal exterior house paint sand down the spots that are bad um it's not really too complicated you're living in a bus you don't need to do it professionally paint on there roll it on there the colors um are a bit more muted so when you're parked in the woods or it's dark like that it kind of blends in and when you're a big 30 foot bus blending in with a dark color is a lot better than the bright this is registered and insured in vermont they make the laws for that a lot easier it's a big process this is already registered as an rv but it was a process a little bit better than jersey had to switch addresses and all that kind of stuff but sometimes that's what you need to do to get onto the road for security the school districts weren't too worried so it is just simple locks and bolts i have a couple of locks that i can show you on the other doors that are actually directional for the flooring everything is insulated with just one inch and then everything on top and there's actually there's no ribs in between that you see in a lot of builds uh with everything being so flat as it is you will have some compression and that will ruin but when you have you know 30 windows you're not worried too much about insulation so it's just a piece of insulation a piece of plywood and the flooring gives you about an inch and a half of insulation and keeps it pretty simple on the roof there's thirty three hundred sorry uh amp hours of rendering solar panels um nothing else you could put a roof rack i've thought about it it's up there and set up but other than that uh there are security cameras as well that connect to my phone there's one at this back corner to watch these two doors and then one as well at the front never be too safe this is the outside into the garage this swing is open this hole is shut here and then this is actually an outdoor shower as well it's just a pvc pipe floats up these go around and hook on can't get much simpler than that and then the same shower curtains that i can use for the inside one i can use here and then this is just a water pump that you drop into a thing like that this is not much more complicated than that another pegboard to keep some stuff hang climbing gear disc golf gear this is also all movable nothing in here is attached so when i do different things or people are coming in i need more space i can move everything around and store what i need to store moving a little farther down we get to the table the simple gate there bring it down comes out gives you a nice outdoor kitchen as well as a plug that's run from the inverter usps and stuff like that it's run on diesel the gas tank is here it's a 50 gallon gas tank and it gets about 10 miles to the gallon which you know isn't the greatest but for a school bus that's pretty damn good another important thing to consider when you're living on the road is your wi-fi and for this trip i came up with something cool there's a company called skyrim you have to buy the router that's it right there and this is the box that comes in you buy the router and then you buy a monthly data plan that if you're anywhere that you have phone service it'll also give you wi-fi it's about 50 bucks a month and you can also buy bigger plans to go international and stuff like that it gives you i think 30 gigs before it slows you down but technically it is unlimited another thing to mention is the gray water tank and how that works so like i said everything is connected to one line that runs into the grey water tank underneath it's a 25 gallon grey water tank it just fits into space really well and to empty it i just have a switch down here i can attach a whole a host at this point put it into a dump or whatever it's going and open it up what kind of advice would you give our viewers if they were attempting to build one of these buses i know you hit on a point in the beginning that this was an accessible bus so things were a little bit easier for your conversion yeah what other things would someone look for when they're shopping for a bus or schoolie of course yeah you definitely want to make sure that there's limited rust it's definitely hard to find something especially when you're going back a couple years that doesn't have rust but if you can keep things to the surface you don't want holes a lot of times when you get a bus and you have to grind out the seats you're going to get 100 little holes through the floor and that makes things a lot more complicated so being able to find a wheelchair bus that is above the wheel wells without any holes in the floor and stuff like that is really a bonus and things like the ceiling that we saw inside that's a lot more clean and stuff like that it'll make your life a hell of a lot easier and that's really what you know you're worried about keeping it simple you're trying to get on the road you're not trying to you know spend all your time building so keep it simple make it work for you and you know get out there now we we talked a little bit about the vermont registration and how a lot of people have challenges registering school buses and that's one of the process what about insurance what do you do about insurance so insurance works the same way once you get it uh registered insurance gets a little bit easier you have to find a company that works for you and that's really just calling around it'll take some work and some like working talking to people and you know smiling at the right people but keeping it simple not putting a roof racks on if you're doing it makes a little easier and and stuff like that but really it's just about putting in the legwork and talking around and finding out who's going to help you out now some of my schooly videos that i've done in the past a lot of people had questions about driver's license is that no longer a problem because it's registered as an rv yeah yeah once it's registered as an rv or a private vehicle there's some states where you can actually get it registered as like a station wagon and stuff like that so as long as it's not commercial and you're not moving people with it then you don't need any sort of special license no sort of cdl there are air brakes and stuff like that so sometimes different states just because it has air brakes will still require a special license my state doesn't but that's something to look for when you're looking for it and that's something to be mindful of you have to have a basic understanding yeah of bus and air brakes to want to be comfortable driving one so that is something maybe you want to take a course at a truck driving school just to know that part of it i kind of had a learning curve going up the first set of mountains you have to watch the gauges and all that sort of stuff but it's nothing anybody can't do it's just something you've got to learn now i'm going to link to your social media because i'm sure people are going to want to follow you a lot of people loved your original build of the sprinter so we'll definitely want to make sure our viewers get to check that out again so what's next for you what's the next project i actually just purchased a new sprinter van it is a 171 extended it's about as big as you can get and i'm going to turn it into uh i'm calling it the snowmobile and it's going to be specifically built so four people can take a snowboarding trip around the country that's that's what's coming up i'll keep it updated i'm going to try to do better about posting stuff what kind of time frame would someone estimate for a build like that um me with the experience that i have i'll probably be able to knock it out in about a month if you're coming at it new and you're still learning probably under two months it's really not too complicated i would suggest learning everything first you're going to learn as you go but get a good base everybody's watching all the videos get a good base get an idea be flexible things are going to change you're not going to get everything that you want but we got a lot of budget questions on the channel when when i feature these builds people are kind of wrapped their head around how much does this cost i mean you look at this bus and you compare it to a motor home an rv of the same size i mean you could spend over a hundred thousand two hundred thousand of those what what does something like this cost setting the bus purchase aside because yeah you know there's different price ranges for buses but to get to a build like this i know most of the money is in batteries and electronics but what is an overall cost estimate that someone should budget for something like this i would say using the resources that i did and that's a good way to keep your price down going to restores doing reclaimed material that kind of stuff and also building smart everything that's built in there there is no place where two walls meet up all the walls are shared everything meets together there's no extra wood spent it also gives you more space but it's also a good way to keep your price down for this build i'm probably under 5000 for all the materials that's used and that's including a giant electrical system that you know was enough for eight people if it was just me i could have kept it a lot smaller and things like that would stay a lot down patrick thank you very much for taking the time today to meet me here in this beautiful park and give us a tour of your schoolie i'm gonna link to his original video of his sprinter van just you can see where he was a year ago and where we are today as well as the social media if you want to follow the build of this new sprinter that he has well this is patrick with new jersey's outdoor adventures youtube channel hope you enjoyed this video please like this video comment share subscribe i love it and we'll see you soon thanks for having me

Channel: New Jersey Outdoor Adventures

Views: 326,994

Keywords: school bus conversion, bus camper, skoolie, shuttle, diy, build, builder, converted, sleeping, living, full time, tour, shortie, shorty, conversions, bus build, upfitter, convertor, navigation nowhere, new jersey, new york, for sale, buying, buy, price, new, used, government, purchase, solar, batteries, internet, tiny house, sprinter, freightliner, international, cat, bluebird, prevost

Id: vShHChUMA00

Length: 26min 29sec (1589 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 11 2020