bLEEp
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i guarantee this will be a wordy thread, so hold on to your britches folks.
My dreams of travel began many years ago, when as a child in primary my father travelled N. America for work and would bring me home souvenirs and stories from his travels. Eventually he had the opportunity (and an awesome company) that allowed him to bring his 7-10 year old son on business trips. I can still remember putting on my little shirt and tie and feeling like I was hot shit getting on those airplanes. My wanderlust never dissipated, in my teens my pals and I would pack into my late 80s dodge Omni 5 speed and hit the road just to see what we couldn't see.
Later teen years found me following a little band known as The Grateful Dead across the east coast and Midwest. As I aged and had children of my own I purchased a hobby farm in the Ozark mountains and turned it into a sustainable, safe place for me and mine.
I lost it all in divorce which is when I first truly became houseless. That was 2011.
I couch surfed, slept in parks, tents in yards.... you name it I did it.
I was then diagnosed with adult onset epilepsy in 2014 and had both shoulders completely rebuilt as result of a TSA agent holding me down during a seizure in an airport.
I spent recovery time with family, got off the massive quantities of narcotics they were feeding me and met my amazing Mrs b.
Thankfully Mrs B and I both share the need to travel, camp and just be.
So we saved and saved and saved. I count these forums and quickly made a couple very good friends, one of whom just happens to live in the same city as myself GotSmart.
We hunted and searched for vans and short busses.....
Then we just happened to answer a Craigslist add and found our baby.
She is a 2000 E450 V10 27' shuttle bus with 166xxx miles that had just been pulled from DVD in STL MO, my parents live there. So we made the appointment, asked if we could crash at mom n dads and got on the road.
We got to the resale place and there she was.... all shiny and sooooo full of potential.
The one we bout was listed at 4500, I had three grand in 100 dollar bills in my pocket. It was the last of four the guy needed to sell, he loved our story, and I found a couple minor issues so he came down to 3, then 2500. He asked if we needed the seats or wheelchair lift. I said I'd sell em to him for 300. So I got the bus for 2200.
We drove it home the next day and the fun begins.
First things first as I had nothing else to do I replaced the factory 6x9s and 5.25" speakers to kickers. The six speaker stereo is awesome, we have a DVD/GPS pioneer head unit going in soon, but for now we have tunes.
I pulled all the interior lighting and upper corner panels to increase space and get to the ribcage steel to mount cabinets and what not.
Then I got in touch with GotSmart and we started chatting about the electrical system.
As of now it looks like there will be three Renogy eclipse 100 watt panels, 2ntrojan 6v house batteries at 315AH, controller and inverter are being discussed to see what renogy will make a decent deal on.
GotSmart and I mounted solenoid and built the electric box yesterday, and today Mrs B and I are going to get lumber and stuff for the wardrobe where the fuse box will be mounted.
The wife is beckoning me to get ready, pics soon.
Lots of love from the bLEEps
My dreams of travel began many years ago, when as a child in primary my father travelled N. America for work and would bring me home souvenirs and stories from his travels. Eventually he had the opportunity (and an awesome company) that allowed him to bring his 7-10 year old son on business trips. I can still remember putting on my little shirt and tie and feeling like I was hot shit getting on those airplanes. My wanderlust never dissipated, in my teens my pals and I would pack into my late 80s dodge Omni 5 speed and hit the road just to see what we couldn't see.
Later teen years found me following a little band known as The Grateful Dead across the east coast and Midwest. As I aged and had children of my own I purchased a hobby farm in the Ozark mountains and turned it into a sustainable, safe place for me and mine.
I lost it all in divorce which is when I first truly became houseless. That was 2011.
I couch surfed, slept in parks, tents in yards.... you name it I did it.
I was then diagnosed with adult onset epilepsy in 2014 and had both shoulders completely rebuilt as result of a TSA agent holding me down during a seizure in an airport.
I spent recovery time with family, got off the massive quantities of narcotics they were feeding me and met my amazing Mrs b.
Thankfully Mrs B and I both share the need to travel, camp and just be.
So we saved and saved and saved. I count these forums and quickly made a couple very good friends, one of whom just happens to live in the same city as myself GotSmart.
We hunted and searched for vans and short busses.....
Then we just happened to answer a Craigslist add and found our baby.
She is a 2000 E450 V10 27' shuttle bus with 166xxx miles that had just been pulled from DVD in STL MO, my parents live there. So we made the appointment, asked if we could crash at mom n dads and got on the road.
We got to the resale place and there she was.... all shiny and sooooo full of potential.
The one we bout was listed at 4500, I had three grand in 100 dollar bills in my pocket. It was the last of four the guy needed to sell, he loved our story, and I found a couple minor issues so he came down to 3, then 2500. He asked if we needed the seats or wheelchair lift. I said I'd sell em to him for 300. So I got the bus for 2200.
We drove it home the next day and the fun begins.
First things first as I had nothing else to do I replaced the factory 6x9s and 5.25" speakers to kickers. The six speaker stereo is awesome, we have a DVD/GPS pioneer head unit going in soon, but for now we have tunes.
I pulled all the interior lighting and upper corner panels to increase space and get to the ribcage steel to mount cabinets and what not.
Then I got in touch with GotSmart and we started chatting about the electrical system.
As of now it looks like there will be three Renogy eclipse 100 watt panels, 2ntrojan 6v house batteries at 315AH, controller and inverter are being discussed to see what renogy will make a decent deal on.
GotSmart and I mounted solenoid and built the electric box yesterday, and today Mrs B and I are going to get lumber and stuff for the wardrobe where the fuse box will be mounted.
The wife is beckoning me to get ready, pics soon.
Lots of love from the bLEEps
