The Bus Capades: Month 5
Howdy! If you don’t know by now, my name is Tammy, and I’m converting a 1992 school bus into a home on wheels. This journey has been absolutely wild, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’ve learned so much, from using power tools for the first time, to learning how to balance a job, the bus, my family and a social life. While I’m educating myself on things like plumbing, electricity, and woodworking, I’ve also learned quite a bit about myself intrinsically. I’ve discovered that I don’t work in order, I jump around, and sometimes have multiple projects going at once. I’ve learned I can’t do bus work right after I eat or else I get a tummy ache. I’ve also learned I need to get to the gym more so that I can actually lift and install the air conditioner I bought. Let’s get into it.
A looooong time ago, way back at the beginning of the build, I bought a small window AC unit for $47. It was a steal, and I couldn’t say no. Jump forward 5 months; summer has ended and I decided it was finally time to put in my AC, ya know, since I won’t be using it for another three months (I’m in Florida, so our winters run short). But at least now I’ll be able to reap the rewards come next spring.
My dad helped me out with this project, claiming it would be easy, and we just need a piece of plywood (I stressed over it for weeks, claiming it was going to be harder than he thought. He was right). The AC unit came with all the necessary hardware for a regular house window, all of which were useless to us. We were going to have the AC unit compatible with the emergency exit windows on each side of the bus, because those were the only ones that opened all the way up. We measured out how big to cut the plywood so it would sit inside the window perfectly.
Once done with that, we had to measure the AC unit itself, figure out where the plywood would sit, and cut out that size hole into the plywood. This too was fairly simple, but we ended up having to make a million little adjustments to our plywood. Go look at your ac, and you’ll see a whole bunch of little divots and bumps. Yeah, we had to shave off little bits of plywood for each of those. However with that finished, the biggest hurdle had been overcome.
We dry fitted to make sure the plywood would fit into the window, then dry fitted to make sure the AC unit fit into the plywood, then dry fitted the whole thing together.
When we were both satisfied with how it was fitting (it was damn near perfect, by the way. I guess my pops and I both have high expectations when it comes to things we’re building.) We fastened the AC unit to the plywood. The AC unit already had holes where we would have fastened it with the hardware they supplied us, but I wanted something a little bit sturdier. Luckily, my dad had some spare metal brackets we used instead (Not sure if ‘brackets’ is the right word, it was a long strip of metal with holes in it that we bent into a 90 degree angle.) We screwed one side of the bracket into the holes provided, and screwed the other side into the plywood. We had a bracket on each side, and one more bar running along the top. That baby wasn’t going anywhere.
Like I mentioned earlier, the plywood was a perfect fit into the window, we even cut out a little notch so it’d fit snugly into the grooves along the window. But just to be safe, we used some more of those metal brackets, bent them to how we needed them, and those got screwed into the walls of the bus. When the AC was in the window, we just had to turn them around and they’d hold it in place.
What I think is super nifty, is that I can take the AC in and out as I please. I actually will have to take it out while I’m driving, because we didn’t build it to be suitable for the road. But even when the weather is cooler- like it is right now- I can take it out, and enjoy the scenery without having to look around a big bulky eyesore. Another plus, since it can fit into both emergency exits, I won’t have to worry about facing the bus a certain way to use the AC. If you didn’t know, window units have to be at an angle, so excess water will drip outside, not into your home. I didn’t know that until very recently, so we got lucky with that.
In other news, I slept in the bus for the first time! By now, I’ve actually slept in it a handful of times, and it’s wonderful! Even though it’s not set up at all, I just throw a mattress in there, grab my Bluetti power station, a flashlight, and I’m good to go. I must say, i don’t know if it’s the sound of the crickets and cicadas in the background, or the nice weather at night, but I sleep like a baby in the bus. I have had some of my best nights of sleep recently in the bus. It makes me oh so excited to be sleeping in there every night.
