It feels like things are moving right along now. Never as fast as we’d like, but we’re getting there.
Our friend Mike—whose shed we’re parked in—has been helping me out with some of the wiring craziness. He was finally able to cut the last wire off the old, heavily abused fuse panel, and wire up the shiny new one. There’s still quite a few wires to clean up and straighten out, but animals can’t nest in there as comfortably as they used to.
I replaced a bunch of rotten wood around the passenger seat. The passenger side window leaks pretty good, and the years took their toll. So that’ll be nice when I get it all screwed down, and sometime in the near future, in a much warmer place, we’ll have that window (actually it’s the entire windshield that needs to come out) removed and fixed up.
The inverter got installed today. It’s a little trickier install on the bus than on the boat because of where the batteries are located. On the bus they’re actually in that big front bumper box (which has grown on me). I would have put the inverter way back in the closet, but that’s a long way to run cables, so instead it got moved up underneath the couch behind the driver’s seat.
A couple of weeks back Ali’s dad was helping me out at the bus. I needed to remove the driver’s seat, but hadn’t been able to get it to slide off on my own. So the two of us grabbed hold and pulled with all our might. Nothing. The seat sits on a metal tube that nests inside another, and the two of them were stuck as if they were welded together. We ended up putting two bottle jacks underneath and cranking them up ever so slowly until the seat finally popped. The two tubes were covered in tar—or what was more likely grease at some point in the distant past. After making an appointment to get new tires installed next week it occurred to me that I’d need a driver’s seat again. This is what they look like after a good cleaning. It’ll be as good as having power seats now.
I got a bit of a start on the kids’ room as well. Just some minor framing for beds and storage. We picked up the beds yesterday, so I finally have exact measurements to go by. Lowe’s bed ended up sticking out past the hallway closet by an inch, which I thought looked a little shoddy. So what to do? Well, move the closet wall out an inch. It’s only one inch of hallway after all. Now the bed’s frame will sit flush with the wall from one end of the bus to the other. Sweet solution.
There are a hundred other little things going on at the same time. Every day I’m out there by seven and rockin’ it until two o’clock when I look up at the clock and can’t believe it’s time to go already.
I’ve been working out how to go about installing the ceiling and walls and think I’m finally ready to get after that bit too. Once I get going on those it’s only a matter of time until Ali and I are sailing down the back roads with these two—Partridge style.
37 Comments on “Project Partridge”
Pat, you are a refit NINJA! Looks like progress to me. Excited to see y’all out on the road! I really hope you’ll be rocking a CB Radio and a trucker hat!
That’s a real rocker girl look on Ouests face while she strums the guitar! Will we be reading about the traveling Bum Band sometime soon?!
Are you calling the rig Partridge? As in the Partridge family who rode in a bus? You’re kind of young for that show, but if so, I like it. And I agree, Ouest is quite the rocker. She’s really into it. 🙂
No, everything we travel in will forever be known as Bumfuzzle. The reference was tying up the photos of the bus with our little uke playing rockers. 🙂
Pat, I can’t tell from the pics of the wiring, but it looks like you might have a couple of twist type wire nuts going on there. The mechanics that work for me tell me that those don’t work well in vehicles because of the regular movement. Apparently they will eventually loosen up a bit and you might end up with intermittent problems. Just a thought before you cover everything back up.
Great job on the bus. I can’t wait to see the finished project.
Yeah, like I said, there is still a ways to go on the wiring under there.
Nervous mother driving?
Come on, get happy,
Looks like you are labeling the wires. I’d also make a schematic with the bus features included so you can know where connections are in relation to access points, those labels fad over time and fall off too!!! You might also want to run some electrical conduit with a chase line in case you need to pull some wire at a later time. Or even just some chase lines here and there in the bus’ walls..you just never know….:)
As a sound system designer and installer for over 30 years, the only cable marking system that has lasted the test of time are Brady wire markers. I get mine from Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003X26Y4I/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) but any respectable electronics supply store should stock them. They will last, are repositionable and never fade. One book should suffice for your bus!
Style over substance? Why not a solid, sensible, newer model RV that gets you safely and reliably on the road today? Less money and more efficient; that sounds more hippie. What your are doing is is more hipster–where “vintage” is pure asthetic? It’s sort of a disregard of everything that style stood for–not hippie at all.
Oh no! The hippie elitist. Your not as good of a Hippie as I am. 🙂
Possibly they are not competing for hippie of the year but rather working to be the best version of Pat and Ali that they can.
Love the project. Enjoy the updates.
Thanks,
Solid, sensible, newer model RV? Are you new here, Kevin? Listen, it’s cool if you need to put us in a category. If that makes you feel better then go for it. Judging by this comment I’m sure that’s what you do with people. We chose this bus because we loved the looks of it. We travel, we take a hell of a lot of photos, and I have absolutely no desire whatsoever to take pictures of a 2006 Winnebago Adventurer—no matter how hippie you think that cookie-cutter ride may be.
Hey, I love you guys. But yes, I classify people for a living. I’m a cultural anthropologist at my local junior college. Everything is cool, just don’t call yourselves hippies. You are technicall–hipsters.
Figures .. Kevin is a Professor wanna be! Ha… Label yourself on your forehead… “DUMBASS”
Bobster…I’m beginning to think you are an “alter ego”
Just sayin what others want to say. Alter ego….ha. Too many Bobs on here so I will assume the name Bobster from here on! Thanks
Hey, back off Boobster. It’s obvious you don’t know anything about hipsters!
Kevin….Hipster…Hippie What I do know is that your comments were arrogant. As You are…junior college teacher…. Hey teacher…leave those kids alone! Just shut up Kelvin!
Hahahahahahaha, Boobster, you are a science guy. Do you have a degree in temperature? Hahahahahaha, what was your GPA? Absolute zero?
Kelvin… your response just shows why you are a “dumbass” Enough said!
You would fail my class because you are a name caller.
Kelvin…I didn’t call you a name… I just “classified ” you!
Okay Boobster; here you go. After showing your posts to my students, they sat in group and formulated your classification: Late-late-late middle aged housetrucker with Tea Party leanings. The only thing bigger than your urge to last-word and meddle, is your prostate. Last but not least, it seems you are an expert in incorrect diesel diagnostics and repair.
Kelvin… shut up!
Hahahahahahahaha I see you have your Blackberry setup to notify you when you are mentioned on a blog. I’m going to add narcissist to your classification. Hahahahahahahahahaha
Wow Kevin, the hippies will be so happy that they have you watching out for them. Though I didn’t even call ourselves hippies. If you’re talking about the reference to the Partridge Family, well that was a joke based on my kids rockin’ the uke and the fact that they’ll soon be living in a bus. So ease up buddy. Seriously. Nobody, including your students, needs you to throw stupid labels on them.
One comment. When we bought our first RV we thought we were set. Bunk beds in the back and the “master bedroom” up front. The bunk beds in the back worked great for our 8 and 6 year old boys…then they both grew to be 6’5″ and didn’t fit in the beds. Well that was a while ago and the boys have their own lives. Now, our granddaughter fits nicely in either of the bunks. The boys just throw a pillow on the floor when they visit.
Yeah we figure we’ve got about three years in this configuration before they outgrow it. If we’re still rolling we’ll have another project to tackle then.
Who gets to be Danny Bonnaducci?
Danny then or now?
Please, I would not insult you. Danny then.
Oh, in that case I’ll say Lowe. If we were talking about Danny now I’d say Ali for sure. 🙂
Hippie, hipster, hip replacement, whatever. Life is too short to cruise in an ugly ride. Boat or RV. The Travco is awesome. Gotta ditch the front bumper thing though. Great storage space but it really messes with the groovy lines of the bus.
Careful with that spray foam insulation. Some of it burns like it’s soaked in lighter fluid, some doesn’t burn at all. You might wnat to try to light a hardened blob of the stuff you used to see if you need to keep the wiring away from it.
I know, it really does mess with the lines. But it’s growing on me, especially because it’s an original optional accessory. If some guy had just welded that thing up front I’d probably pull it. But the fact that Dodge actually built these things like that, and that people actually paid for it, I kind of get a laugh out of it now.
Couldn’t agree with you more on the life is too short to cruise in an ugly ride line. It’s so much more fun to roll in something interesting.
In an early episode of Happy Days Fonzie is sitting on his bike adjusting his handle bar mirrors and he asks Richie something to the affect of “should I tilt the mirrors out to see where I’ve been, or should I tilt them in so I can see how cool I look getting where I’m going?” The Travco should defintiely have the mirrors titled in.
Cruisn’ is what matters. Destination? Unknown.