The basics of our skoolie

So far I’ve only discussed our skoolie briefly. I know that’s what many people what to hear about, but until now, we’ve been immersed in repairs and upgrades. Finally, I’m at a point that I can stop and give everyone an initial tour.

This is our 1992 Ward International. She’s 40 feet long and was modified into an RV by the previous owner about ten years ago. The conversion was not done by the standards that are recommended in the skoolie blogs and post I’ve seen. The seats were removed but the bus was not gutted and rebuilt. With that in mind these are the things we had to accept from the beginning.

1. The rubber floor and middle slip prevention strip are still there. This is most likely hiding rust and provides little insulation.
2. The walls still have the factory insulation and are probably hiding rust as well. When walls were put in, on top of the bus walls, some insulation was added. I’m not certain of the R-value of the added insulation.
3. The bus heaters are still on the floor, which takes up valuable space.
4. The roof was not lifted, so we have roughly 6’3" of clearance in the center — less in other places. It’s good for me, 5’8", but my husband has trouble as he is 6’2".
5. The craftsmanship of the conversion was low. I’ve already encountered some wonky work that I’ve corrected, and we’ll have plenty more as we go. I'm equating it to house renovation; nothing is square or level.
6. The RV parts that were used are from an older model. Things work but they’ll have to be replaced soon.

I wish I could say we went into this with our eyes wide open. However, in reality is that ever true? Nevertheless, it’s what we have. So here is a mini tour. These photos are from our trip back to Denver after we purchased it in Iowa July 4, 2015.

The kitchen

The kitchen has an LP/electric refrigerator and the range/oven is LP. The stove hood has controls and gauges for the tanks, control for the water pump, a light, and a fan. We know that the tank level gauges are not hooked up and we’ll have to do that at some point. We aren’t sure if the water pump switch works as the water pump was damaged by repairs done by Camping World (more on that another time). The light and fan do work. The sink is a double basin, which is nice for doing dishes. There is a lot of storage in the cabinets and we’ve been able to get most of our kitchen stuff in easily. Some of the shelves will need adjustment and repair, but overall it is working so far.

The other side of the kitchen had a long heavy table. This broke within minutes of getting the bus. The table top was so heavy that the plastic brackets holding it on the floor busted when my husband leaned on it. The table was so close to the bench seating that only small people could fit behind it. We are not small people. On the ride back from Iowa, I sat to the very right in the photo, directly behind the driver’s seat. Every time we took a corner, I was either pinched between the table and the seat back, or holding on to the table so that it didn’t slam into the cabinets. When it finally came crashing down during a trip to a mechanic, we were not surprised or upset. It was a poor design to begin with.

The living room

The living room has an old RV couch and the old owners had two chairs placed across from it. These chairs were the first to go. It is a good space and we are using it to the fullest now. The chairs have been replaced with a TV center and we use the couch fully extended in bed mode. We are not sitters, we are loungers. So we brought our pillows from our Indian daybed couch and have something similar to what we are use to. I’m still working on a topper to make up for the old and worn out padding.

The one piece of equipment in the living area is the air conditioner. It is an RV model that the old owner used to pipe cold air into the bus through the side sofits (the place where the bus running lights are). He thought he was being cleaver, but it’s just a waste of cold air forcing it through those channels.

On the very left of this photo is the kitchen pantry. It is decent storage for dry food goods. I’ve put it to good use.

The bunks

Moving down the bus toward the back, after the living area, are the bunks. The old owner had a large brood and created a set of bunks on either side of the center isle. When it came time for us to move, this was perfect storage for all our stuff. Again, the craftsmanship was poor and the emergency hatch was left in place. You can see in the upper right corner of this photo how badly he handled the accommodation for the emergency hatch. On top of that, the hatch leaks — which he told us at the time of purchase. His advice was to put petroleum jelly around the seal and edges, “that always works for me”. We sighed inside. Never use petroleum jelly on rubber seals. It degrades the rubber.

Finally, you can see in this photo the floor vents that he installed. His idea was to push heat from the furnace back through the bus by taking it under and back up. This guy had no experience in HV/AC. He used dryer vent hose, loosely strung under the bus to connect the vents. “I could never get it to work well” he said to us. Eventually he abandoned that idea, and ran the heat straight out of the furnace, which is under the refrigerator. Some day soon, we’ll need to take those out and seal up the holes he made. With winter coming, I want to do what we can to be warm.

The bathroom

After the bunk area is the bathroom. On the right is the RV toilet. It is a Thetford toilet with the flush and rinse handles on the back right. It is connected to a very large custom aluminum black water tank. I have not measured it to find the volume. After a month of usage, we’ve emptied it once and I’m not sure that it was full, but there was enough waste in there for a fast flowing exit. For those of you familiar with RV black water tank maintenance, I think we are avoiding the dreaded black pyramid. I’ve noticed the smell twice. When we first starting using it and after it was drained. Both times it was easily handled with Campa-Chem, a deodorizer and waste digestion product that the old owners left for us. Overall, I’m happy with this system. However, to reduce the weight of the bus, I’m considering replacing the black water tank with a composting toilet.

Across from the toilet sits the shower. I removed that ugly stiff plastic “curtain” as soon as the hot water tank was working, and we could take a hot shower finally. The hot water heater was our first major system repair. We are not quite sure what was wrong with it. We attempted to diagnose it for repair, but nothing would come apart. Every bit of the damn thing was rusted in place, or corroded so badly that repair seem a waste of time. So we bought a new/used one from a trusted source.

Now that we have hot water, regular showers are nice. For a couple weeks there we were truly living as hippies. We’ve got six gallons of hot water and as long as your don’t dawdle , it’s perfect. It’s a bit shorter that we’d like but that keeps us from hanging out too long. The shower and the kitchen sink drain into our grey water tank.

The grey water tank summary is a bit of a longer story. I’ll give more details on this another time. On our way back from Iowa we had a blow out that caused significant damage. Which included cracking open the custom aluminum tank (the same size as our black water tank) like a tin can. Camping world did the repairs under our insurance claim. We now have a fiberglass tank that is less than half the size of the old one. It fills quickly and we’ve had a couple overfills. I’ve added inspecting all of that piping to my list.

The bedroom

The bedroom has an RV queen bed, storage above, and two side cabinets. There are reading lights and it even came with a fan on my husband’s side of the bed. Which works perfectly for him.

The bed has small hydraulic arms underneath to provide assistance when raising the bed to access the storage. We need a new mattress but other than that, its a cozy space.

So that’s our bus. It’s not perfect and we’ve got a lot of work to do. We may not strip it down to the bare bones, but we’ve got plans to upgrade and solve issues. We’ve made some progress on the kitchen table and we’ve made a closet and book area out of one side of the bunks. The list in my head for repairs is longer than I want to actually write down. I’m afraid it will scare the shit out of my husband if I do.

Most importantly, she is our home and we are warm and dry. We may not live in her forever, but she’s got lots of life left in her.