Roaming on Rubber

Unplanned and Unstoppable

Archives for March 2018

Toyota Coaster Motorhome Conversion – Roof Insulation Removal and Finishing Underlay

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So after taking a break from our Toyota Coaster bus conversion and heading to Bali for a week, we are back now and it’s time to get stuck into it and finish building our home! Today’s goal was to finish sealing our bus floor so we could install our underlay, and remove the roof insulation.

We were both so excited when we arrived because we knew that the day earlier we received a pallet of goods we had ordered. And there it was; a shining cling wrap film of hope. It was beautiful. We opened it up to find our shower module, specifically built to fit a Toyota Coaster, our new toilet, water tanks, roof vents, hatches and more. Besides our fridge and washing machine, this was our first large purchase.

Toyota Coaster bus conversion - bus insulation and underlay

Once we had both gotten over the excitement of our new goodies, it was time to check out the bus and where we were up to.

Finishing The Sub-Floor –  

Toyota Coaster bus conversion - bus insulation and underlay

You might remember that from our last trip to the bus, we had replaced the back portion of our sub-floor and had glued it in place.

If you missed it, check out here.

Now it was time to screw the new sub-floor in to the chassis of our Toyota Coaster for extra support. Using a drill and multi purpose self drilling screws, Shane attempted to screw these into the into the chassis. The screws of course were unable to penetrate the metal, they were general purpose screws and not metal specific. It also would have been a benefit if we had an impact driver, rather than just a drill. Shane tried this with such grace that he ended up detaching the wood from the chassis which we had glued down last time. After some much needed advice from my brother, Shane and I decided against securing the wood with screws. We reapplied glue and left it to settle.

Silicone Sealing –  

Shane finishing the floor sealing - toyota coaster bus conversion

Finally we finished sealing the sub-floor!

After the decision was made to leave the new sub-floor without screwing it in, it was time to finish sealing it. We decided to leave Shane with this task, how hard could it be? I had managed to seal the rest of the floor, surely he could do the last little bit. Again… watching from the sidelines, my brother stepped in to give him some advice. After this, Shane managed to do a good job. All the cracks, gaps and holes in the floor were finally sealed.

Roof Insulation Removal –  

Shane and Claire removing the bus insulation in the roof - toyota coaster bus conversion

This part of the renovation we had not been looking forward to; removing the bus insulation in our Toyota Coaster motorhome. Removing this insulation was one of the first decisions we made regarding the bus. After researching online, we realised that the current bus insulation in the Toyota Coaster is highly combustible. We came across a video someone had posted on a Facebook forum, comparing the current bus insulation with a new Earthwool insulation. Considering we are turning it into our home, we decided to remove the current bus insulation and replace with something a bit more fire retardant and with better insulating properties. To read about which bus insulation we chose, read our post here.

Back to the removal of the insulation. For safety reasons, we used a face mask during this process as we do not know what the current insulation is made of and being a 17 year old bus, didn’t want to risk anything. The majority of the insulation just pulled off, however, we had issues removing parts where glue was applied. We used paint scrapers to try and remove the majority and I ended up settling on a chisel because of the sharper edge. We were unable to remove it all but we were satisfied with just removing the majority.

If we could go back, we would have worn gloves and full cover clothing. The glass fibers from the bus insulation get stuck in your skin and can be very harmful.

Removing bus insulation in the roof - Toyota Coaster school bus conversion

Finalising Underlay –  

It was now time to lay the remainder of the floor underlay. We were so excited to cover the last bit of our sub-floor. It feels like we have been working on the floor so long now and both Shane and I are so excited to be able to start on something new. You all know we love to start new jobs… and if you don’t, please refer to our two part ‘Day of Halves’ posts.

Part 1

Part 2

Shane and claire laying underlay in their Toyota Coaster school bus conversion - bus insulation

So we cut and measured the final foam underlay. We choose a thin, 3mm, underlay so that we did not reduce the ceiling height as much as possible. This underlay is made to be laid under floating floorboards. At this stage, that is what we were thinking of using, so thought it a good idea to lay down early and cover our sticky floor. We simply laid it down and used insulation tape to join the underlay together. This is a thermal tape we purchased with the intention of also using it throughout the rest of the bus.

And that was it. I walked away feeling as though we had not achieved as much as I had wanted. After re-reading what I have just written, I can now see it was a successful day. We got multiple jobs completed which allows us to start something new and exciting in our bus conversion.

It’s always a fun day at the bus – let us know your thoughts on our progress.

The Newcastle Caravan, Camping and Holiday Expo

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Is a Caravan and Camping show worth it for you? Does it cost to get in? Are the bargains and information stalls worth it? Let me tell you our experience and you can decide for yourself.

Shane and I decided to take a day off from renovating our Toyota Coaster school bus and head into town to check out the Newcastle Caravan, Camping and Holiday Expo. I can tell you I was a little skeptical; a $15 entry fee even had me asking myself if it was going to be worth it. Nonetheless, we went to explore, and I realized quite quickly just how wrong I was.

We knew from our troubles trying to find a park it was going to be busy, that was a good sign. Best advice is go early or catch public transport so as to avoid issues finding a car park. There were people milling around the streets and heading towards multiple entry points. As we approached the counter and paid our money I was beginning to get excited for what lay ahead. Most shows allow you to pre purchase tickets online, saves the line-up when you arrive.

So in we went to the Caravan and Camping Show. The first stall we came across was a company called Seacoast. They were selling all sorts of caravan, camping and marine bits and pieces. What a great way to start. It was so overwhelming and we were both wishing we knew more about what we were looking at in case it was worth the purchase. This was at the very beginning of our Toyota Coaster bus conversion and we had no clue what the majority of items were. If we could go back now…

Carrying on,  we went into the pavilion; a large area filled with business’ advertising holiday expos and new products. Due to the rain which had started there were so many people inside, crowding around each site, checking out the specials and offers for the weekend. It was a great atmosphere and very pleasing to the senses as you had colours everywhere and smells wafting the corridors.

By this point we were so overwhelmed we needed a hot drink. This gave us time to think as there was a 15 minute wait. While we were waiting, we decided to research Evakool fridges as there was a stall just outside.

Now we had already researched the Evakool fridges, so this is something we knew a bit about, and we were… let’s say 90% sure we were going to buy one. This was one of the main reasons we decided to attend the Caravan and Camping show, we knew they would have some fridges on sale. So of course, we just had to research one last bit prior to investing our money. A fridge is not a small purchase. It is definitely worth the time and effort it takes to compare. And we decided that for what we want, and the special they had it on, it was worth it.

We purchased the Evakool DC 175 Platinum fridge . There are so many great options available for fridges, so if you would like to know why we chose this one, please check out our blog post which tells you about it here.

Now that that stress was over with we could carry on investigating the show.

Caravan after caravan we entered and looked around trying to get ideas and inspiration for our bus. Motorhome after motorhome we stepped up into and compared the size to our Toyota Coaster. And finally van after van we checked out knowing these were closest to what we have. This is a fantastic thing to do for anyone looking to do a school bus conversion. There are so many amazing layouts, plans and hidden storage ideas out there and it gives you a chance to see them all.

This is where things became concerning.

What if we don’t have enough space in our hallway? These bathrooms are amazing, can we really not fit one in our bus? Wow, look at all that storage. So many thoughts ran through our heads. So many brands and companies and information. It was all becoming extremely overwhelming.

After deciding we would do one more lap around the gazebo, we ended up running into a stall there – The Caravan and Motorhome Club of Australia. We had read about this club and it had been suggested to us to sign up previously. We were here now and the lady explained what the club was and what benefits you got as a member. There are so many amazing benefits; maps and apps available with dump points and camping spots, members who let you stay on their properties, forums, magazines and more! That was it, we were in. And to top it off they had a competition to win petrol vouchers if you signed up. What more cohearsing do you need?

So that was it. We decided the amount of information provided to us, and the special we got on our fridge were definitely worth the $15 entry fee. Everyone’s experiences are different, so if you are unsure, just go and check it out. You will know for next time. For us, it just made us so much more determined to hurry up and get our Toyota Coaster bus conversion finished so we can live in it.

Not to mention the next day we got a phone call saying we had won the fuel vouchers!

A day well spent I’d say.

Toyota Coaster Motorhome Conversion – Floor Installation and Wheelchair Lift Dismantle

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There are some days that are just disappointing and our last day on our Toyota Coaster had us walking away with a frown. Not today, today would be great. We just knew it. Our goal was to dismantle our wheelchair lift and replace our damaged sub-floor.

The wheelchair access in our Toyota Coaster was at the rear of our bus, and opens like a ”clam shell’. It is not a standard lift however, and when discussing with people who install the wheel chair ramps, they stated it looked like it actually came off a Ford van or similar, and was made to fit the Coaster. 

As it was made to fit, it has been completely welded to the chassis. Of course we would pick one with something non-standard and difficult to remove. Either way, we decided to still give it a go, and remove what we could. 

Dismantling the wheelchair lift – 

Shane and Claire trying to dismantle and remove the wheelchair ramp in our Toyota Coaster bus conversion.

The easiest place to start was the hand rail, and fold out ramp. These were held in place by a few bolts and were easily removed. 

This now just left the main lift. There was a steel plate on the main lift area, and underneath it ran all of the electrics. The electrics looked like they were connecting each bit of the lift, and needed to be disconnected for us to be able to remove the pieces. So it made sense that we had to start by removing the steel plate.

A lot of the small screws in the steel plate were threaded so it took a fair amount of effort and frustration to try and undo them. Two of the screws were unable to be taken out and a grinder was required to cut the heads off. 

After all of the screws were removed, we were able to remove the steel plate. This allowed us to access the electrics underneath. 

Shane trying to use the grinder to dismantle and remove the wheelchair ramp in our Toyota Coaster bus conversion.

We were right. The wires ran under the metal plate and linked everything together. 

After reviewing the wires (and much to my disagreement!) Shane decided to cut the wires leading to the first piece of wheelchair lift he detached.

‘Check it’ he says. Of course I was not surprised to find it no longer worked. Shane had broken the electrical circuit and now we were stuck with the wheelchair lift down. This became priority number one now as without the electrics, there was no manual way that we were aware of to be able to close it again.

To fix this, Shane got some female insulated electrical blade terminals and a switch. He stripped the wires back, crimped the terminals on and connected them to the switch. 

For anyone out there like me who doesn’t understand that, he basically fixed the broken circuit by adding a new end and reattaching it to where he had cut it off from before. Kind of like cutting a circle, taking part of it away, and reattaching the ends to make a smaller circle.

So now the pieces of the lift had all been disconnected, and the electrical circuit was fixed, we were only left with the ‘clam shell’ doors. 

Replacing the Sub-Floor – 

If you haven’t read the previous post to this one, Shane and I had some damaged sub-floor at the rear of our Toyota Coaster motorhome. Water had leaked in via some damaged seals, and the back 30cm needed replacing. 

If you want to see how we removed the damaged sub-floor, you can read about it here. 

It was now time to replace the floor with some new wood. 

The original sub-floor we removed was 15mm thick. We wanted to replace this with marine plywood in case there were any future leaks. Unfortunately, we were unable to find 15mm marine ply to replace it. We decided to buy 6mm and 9mm marine ply which we would glue together to make the 15mm.

Photo of the new marine plywood cut and ready to be installed in our water damaged floor in our Toyota Coaster bus conversion.

So how did we do it?

  • Start by measuring the wood, and mark it up with a dark sharpie (or similar). 
  • Use some clamps, and secure the wood to a solid and stable spot ready for cutting. 
  • Use a jigsaw to cut along your marked lines. 
  • Make sure the wood fits into position, and adjust and cut as necessary. 
  • Once the wood is ready, remove it from position and spray the metal floor of the bus with some sort of Rustguard and allow to dry. 
  • Apply a layer of liquid nails to the metal of the floor, ready for the new wood to sit on top. 
  • Lay down the first layer of wood, and then apply more liquid nails in between the layers, and place the second layer of wood into position. 
  • Place something heavy on top, and allow to sit until set. 

Shane replacing the floor in our Toyota Coaster bus which was water damaged.

The sun was setting and it was time to reflect on the day we had had. The day started well. Then after multiple trips to the shops and the issues with the electrics we were feeling quite certain it was going to be another day of disappointment.

But it wasn’t!

We fixed the wheelchair lift and removed what we could. We cut all the wood, and replaced the sub-floor. It was a day of teamwork with our wheelchair lift and sub-floor, and we got there.

It all went well, except our sunburn… that was another story!