Earlier this week we relocated back to Elkhart, IN to Master Tech RV to be onsite to keep on top of all of the projects ongoing with our bus renovations. We are incredibly thankful that a kind local supporter has loaned us their RV so that we have a place to live on site and have a comfortable space to ourselves – it has proven essential towards keeping our sanity.
We arrived at the shop Tuesday morning – and it was like stepping into an alternate dimension compared to our visit last week.
Last week, there was hardly an activity going on with our bus. It felt like there was an overall negative energy all around the shop too, as many other customers were irately waiting for their projects to be completed.
We weren’t quite sure what we’d return to this week after our ‘tough love’ session with Master Tech last week, especially after taking the delays public. But we were thrilled to arrive to happy bustling activity, a can-do attitude, and visible progress being made on many fronts.
Here’s our weekly progress report video, with daily short video clips we’ve filmed at the end of each day:
Some of the highlights of the progress:
- The custom fabricated awning bracket which will allow our Domestic 9500 case awning to be attached to our curved roof was completed and sent out for powder coating.
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Reviewing work in our bays with Tim. Lots of plumbing work was done on our Precision Temp Jr. propane hydronic system. What was estimated to need just a ‘couple short days’ to wrap it up has really taken most of the week.
- We’ve replaced all of the old plumbing with brand new PEX, and while the shower plumbing was exposed – we’re also implementing a water return line to the fresh tank to avoid wasting water while waiting for hot.
- Lots of wires have been run for tank monitoring, thermostats, and more.
- Installation of a 1.5″ conduit from our roof to our tech cabinet – which will allow for more easily swapping out cellular & WiFi antennas.
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The new couch. Modifications to our couch area to permanently install our Thomas Payne Jackknife Sofa provided by Lippert Components.
- The old spare tire bay has been prepped to be our new generator bay – all wiring complete, and lined with sound proofing materials.
- We’ve also added in a Viair RV 450C air compressor to the same bay, which we can use to keep our air bags topped up without running the engine (we have no leveling on the bus other than boards – this should now keep the bus aired up and not settled tilted oddly).
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Test fitting the new windows. All of our new dual pane windows from Peninsula Windows/Motion Windows have been test fitted.
- We’ve found take-out (ie. used) front windshield drapes that we can repurpose, and have sent them out to a seamstress to hem and modify.
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Our new holding tanks… A bunch of parts have arrived to keep the progress going next week, including two new Dometic Penguin II air conditioners (a 15,000 BTU for the front and 13,500 for the bedroom), and all new holding tanks. Replacing our tanks wasn’t on our task list, and we’ll update later on how this came to be – but we will be going from 48G of black to 70G, 90G of grey to 120G and 88G of fresh to 112G.
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Kiki’s new litterbox chamber coming together – her new cat door. And there’s probably lots of other projects I’m forgetting… overall, LOTS of progress made this week. We’re thrilled to see it happen, and it’s definitely the right choice to be onsite and here to both oversee the projects, and to answer the myriad of questions that come up at every turn.
But is the progress enough to meet our goal of being back to living in our bus by next Friday, August 28?
We’re honestly not feeling it.
Lots still needs to be wrapped up in the coming days, and there’s still painting to be done.
We’ll have a sit down meeting with the team on Monday morning to review it all and make sure everyone is on the same page with realistic expectations. We certainly don’t want anything rushed to a point of having mistakes made or corners cut.
But we are also coming up to decision points about our commitments at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta for the Xscapers first convergence. Will we need to make alternative plans so that we can attend?
We’ll continue reporting from the shop – posting photos to Instagram and Facebook daily, and likely another progress report or two next week posted here as well.
Rivet Clarification: There seems to be some confusion over the damaged panels and rivet situation. For clarification, we are NOT having the panels replaced at this time – by Master Tech or anyone else. We’re proceeding with the rest of the projects, and should we decide at a later date we want to replace the aluminum we’ll fully research doing it right then when we’re not in project overload mode.
Bus Updates & Info:
Zephyr’s Summer 2015 Renovation Hit List – the original project list, including our decision points for various items (such as why we’re going propane and not diesel on the hydronics & generator).
Bus Renovation Progress Report: A Riveting Tale of Why We’re Way Behind Schedule – Last week’s ‘progress’ report.
All about our Bus – A little history on our bus from start to now.
Some of the products mentioned in this post that we’ve selected:
Next Live Video Cast:
When: Tuesday, August 25, 2015
9pm EDT / 6pm PDT
Topic: RV Renovations & Remodeling
Unless you custom build your RV from scratch, more than likely there are going to be changes you want to make to any RV you buy. Some can be done yourself if you have the time, tools, skills and space — and some you might need to hire out.
In this live video chat, we’ll talk about deciding when it’s right to hire it out, picking a contractor (do they need RV experience or not?), adjusting to reality and especially considerations for handling projects on the road as a full timer. We’ll of course also talk a bit about our current project, and the lessons we’ve learned.
If you’ve not joined one of our Livestream hosted chats before, you’ll need to setup a free account with them first. Plan to do that before the start time to make sure you’re ready to go (click the link above to get started)! We will be archiving this for viewing later if you can’t make it.
Hope your bus remodel is still going better. I noticed in reading your articles that you use the wifi ranger go2 and you also have the Victron Color control gx. Do you use wifi to connect the two or is yours hard wired?
I have been trying to use wifi because I can’t get an Ethernet cable through the wall between the two. I should have checked that before I cut the big hole for the GX. But you know how hindsight is.
Yes.. we have our CCGX hardwired.
Hi You Two,
Saw you live last night on Livestream, I really feel for what you’re going through. My wife and I are actively shopping for a motor home and find your experiences extremely valuable. We plan to be on the road full time in 17 months.. Thanks for doing what you do and give em hell getting this project done.. Scott
PS> Left a little tip for Kiki 🙂
Glad to hear the crew made the choice to learn from the debacle and have upped their game with a positive attitude. All their customers should benefit from the “adjustment”. Still, there is no way the remaining work will be completed in a few days. It sounds like there’s enough left to do for you to take another Alaska trip 🙁 You’re going to love it when it’s all complete and functional and pretty, and you can put the stress of the job behind you. Looking forward to your creative solution to making the festival in ABQ!
I’d love to be in Alaska right now – but this project is so hands on that I’d be a nervous wreck anywhere else but here. Being here in person makes all the difference – and the end result will be better for it.
Fingers and toes remain crossed that we get out of here soon!
– Chris
I feel the pain of your situation. My meticulously planned summer route was trashed by a six week stint in an RV repair parking lot in Junction City Oregon. Fortunately for us, our wait was on a new slide from the manufacturer and not due to any challenges with the shop itself. It was frustrating enough having to wait that long on Winnebago/Schwintech. Also, there could have been a lot worse places than the greater Eugene OR area to be stranded. We will have been on the road full time for a year next month. We have spent over a month of our first year in various repair shops for two different (Fifth Wheel and Class A) brand NEW RVs. I keep telling the husband there must be a lesson in all this the universe is trying to teach me. He says hurry the hell up and learn it then!
We’ve heard many stories of people with new RVs spending a huge percentage of their first year in the shop – it seems to be almost an expected occurrence. It seems that sometimes it pays to let someone else shake all the bugs out – buying a 2+ year old RV can avoid SO many issues.
I sure wish the RV industry was more focused on quality.
– Chris
Good luck, Chris and Cherie!
It’s good to see so much progress and positive vibe back I things after a week of work. I hope this continues thru the completion of the projects on your list.
Best of luck as things progress.
WOW ! What a project, but what a great home you will have when its over.
Makes me want to restore our old bus…. 🙂
Your bus is so classic and awesome just the way it is! 😉 How about getting Zefyr down south and you can drool all over ours instead as we sip cocktails, spoil the critters and catch up?
Good decision to defer the “rivet decision!”
It’s just such a huge undertaking, and one we’re not willing to do right now.
Wishing you well with the latest bus project! I’ve enjoyed lurking and following your RV adventures and appreciate you taking the time to detail out your RV experiences.
As someone who will (hopefully) eventually go RV’ing this blog is a great resource for future dreams.
Thanks again,
C
Thank you.. glad you have found our little corner of the web (and hopefully we’ll soon be back to the scenic fun stuff of RVing!)
Picking up a used Roadtrek Calss B in September. I’m a new reader and see you have a cat. I eventually want to start taking at least one of my cats with me on short trips. What suggestions do you have? What type of containment when containment is necessary? Thanks.
It might be more appropriate to say Kiki has people.. we are totally owned by her 🙂 She occasionally blogs here, and has shared some of her tips about traveling with humans: https://www.technomadia.com/category/life-on-the-road/from-a-cats-perspective/
So glad to hear things are moving forward! I noticed your “blowing sanitaries” sign in the head. A gift from your submariner dad I assume.
Hahaha… good eye! You might be the first to recognize the origin of the sign. Yes, it was actually a gift given to my father by a dear friend fascinated with his submariner background. After he passed.. it was one of the few things I wanted of his to keep. Odd? Yup. But I think it’s totally appropriate 🙂
Glad to read that things are moving along. I am imagining you are breathing a bit easier at this time.
It’s definitely good to see progress and to be onsite.
You know I must be getting old in my old age although this is the first time I’ve heard you mention the fact that you lose air from the airbags
Don’t put this on your project list at this time I will give you some solutions to that problem
The next time you go under the bus on the back ( there’s two )or the front the front will have one leveling valve find the air supply line where the air supply line connects to the leveling valve right at that point it’s a check valve the easiest way to check that
Block the body of the bus up to not allow it to come down while you’re under it
Block the body of the bus up to not allow it to come down while you’re under there
You could also run it up on a wooden block ramp
remember safety first safety first
OK when you find the line going to the leveling valve Front or back if it is a cloth wrapped line (air equip corp, is usually the manufacture of that line )
They leak worse than the Titanic
One line to the inlet and one line going to the airbag (s) need to be sprayed and checked
the easy way to check that is to build up your air take soapy water and spray the cloth line and look for soap bubbles if they haven’t been changed in five years it’ll look like you’re going to get a soap bath
If by some miracle you don’t see any soap bubbles leave the check valve there and take the airline off the inlet side
once you take that line off moving it to one side and spray into the check valve if the check valve is bad it’ll blow bubbles back to you ( if not check valve is good )
If no bubbles The line to the airbags or the airbag leak
You can spray the airbags Or any airline on the coach with soap water as well. also
Know if the check valve happens to be bad you can get that from any GM bus parts you can also get the same valve from MCI /TMC coach they use the same valve
However the oddball the fact the GM might use a eight digit number MCI uses her numbers similar to this 16G-12-123 ( it stands for group /page / and part number ) so you would need to find somebody that has an MCI parts book
Now seeing that you’re not going to do this right away the next time I go to my toolbox in storage I’ll look and see if I have any if I do I’ll let you know and I’ll send it to you enjoy your day sounds like you made a good decision On the panels
Enjoy your day today
Q: Do I need to install a check valve to prevent the air system from bleeding down when the air compressor is not running?
A: Unlike our competitor’s products most of our valves come with a check valve on the air inlet. When the air pressure drops on the air compressor side of the Leveling Valve this check valve will keep the air from flowing back towards the compressor, preventing deflation of the system.
See how old age is setting in anybody that has MCI on bus nuts nine out of 10 times has a parts book I’m sure they could scan and send you that page
And just a thought … the conduit idea seems like a great idea. How are you capping it on the roof to prevent water intrusion?
Thanks.. we’ll cover that in a future post, as well as details on many of the other projects.
Yeah. It’s all a pita now. But it will be forgotten after a few weeks of getting back on the road. And all you’ll be thinking is how much you’re lovin’ your tricked out ride. Hang in there!
Zephyr will indeed be one sweet ride!