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Toyota Coaster Motorhome Conversion – Installing Wall Insulation

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With only a few hours today, we wanted to finish  our bus insulation. We still needed to remove the remaining roof insulation and then it was time to start on the wall insulation.

Roof Insulation Removal –

Toyota Coaster Bus Conversion - Bus Insulation

Finally, time to finish the roof insulation removal. This was a huge step for us and both Shane and I were so excited to finish it; it meant it would be time to start putting new things in the bus instead of removing the old.

After our last trip to the bus when we started the roof insulation removal, we received a tip from one of our subscribers suggesting we use Goo Off – Goo and Stain Remover to help with removing the old glue. It was a great idea. Previously we had tried to use this on the floor but, because of the public holidays over Easter, we didn’t get a chance to purchase any. We still wanted to mention this just for anyone else struggling with removing the glue.

There have been so many frustrating jobs on the bus so far but the original bus insulation is one that sticks with me – using a paint scraper we pulled it off, piece by piece.

Finally, it was done. No more original fire attracting bus insulation!

Installing Wall Insulation –

Finally something going in the bus rather than coming out! This is what we were looking forward to.

Our Toyota Coaster bus originally didn’t have wall insulation so we are hoping it will make a big difference.

Shane and I decided on a wool insulation from our local hardware store Bunnings. We chose this one for a couple of reasons – price, thickness, and insulation rating.

After researching what others were using, we decided whilst the more expensive options seemed good, they had the same ‘R’ value as the cheaper options. ‘R’ value is basically a measuring system where the higher the ‘R’ value, the better the insulating and thermal properties it has.

Of course we wanted the highest ‘R’ value as possible – 5.0. We quickly learnt that this was not an option. With wool, the higher ‘R’ value, the thicker the insulation. We didn’t have room for this and didn’t want to protrude into the bus too much.

We opted for an Earthwool with an ‘R’ value of 2.0. Even this had a thickness of 90mm, so we concerned this would be too thick, however it was cheap enough that we were willing to try.

Toyota Coaster Bus Conversion - Bus Insulation

It was extremely easy to tear apart and fit into the walls in the bus. We did decide to use a little bit of adhesive to keep it in place, but learnt quickly this is not necessary. I strongly recommend using masks, gloves and long sleeves. The earthwool is made from recycled glass and little particles get in everywhere. We had masks but didn’t prepare with long sleeves and when we do the roof, we have learnt our lesson and will make sure we are better prepared.

After it started to come together, we both agreed we could have gone with something thicker; the wool condenses so much that a thicker insulation would have been fine.

Undecided, we may cover this in foam board for an additional layer. Our plan at this stage for our roof insulation is again wool, and then foam board so we can get better insulation.

The whole process only took around an hour and it was done. We were surprised how quick we managed to finish it and we excited we were finally moving forward.

Our plan for next time – window tinting, new door installation and roof insulation. Keen!

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.

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!

Toyota Coaster Motorhome Conversion – Bus Heater Plugging, Sub-Floor Removal and More!

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So you have decided to do your own bus conversion, and you’ve gotten to the point where you are needing to do all those small miscellaneous jobs. It’s the things no one ever talks about and you should just ‘know’. But really, it never is that simple. And that’s what this post is for us; the small jobs we had to work out on our own for our Toyota Coaster, and now we can share them with you.  

Heater Plugging – 

Time to plug the heaters that we removed in the middle of the floor in our bus. If you haven’t already read it and need to, you can check out our post here where explain how to remove these heaters.  

Since we removed them, we have had a few people ask us how we went about plugging the heaters in our Toyota Coaster Motorhome Conversion. Well we can tell you it was a success. 

School bus conversion - heater plugging - Toyota Coaster conversion
  • Shane started by hopping underneath the bus and traced the heater hoses back towards the engine bay until he found where they clamped onto some metal pipes. 
  • Then, he cut the hoses approximately 10cm from this join and, using a bucket, let the coolant drain out until empty. 
  •  After this, he then plugged them with 19mm rubber plugs (purchased from Bunnings) and sealed the ends with hose clamps. 
School bus conversion - Heater Plugging - Toyota Coaster conversion

We have not had any issues with overheating or coolant leaks, so can confirm for us the heater plugging was a success.  

Sub-Floor Removal –    

Claire measuring the damaged sub floor - Toyota Coaster converison

If your sub-floor has any damage, it may be a good idea to replace it now during the conversion, rather than needing to deal with it later.  

Our standard Toyota Coaster sub floor was in quite good condition. However the rear 30cm or so had water damage from a leaking seal. So Shane and I both decided the most cost effective method would be to replace just the back 30cm with water damage. 

  • Start by removing any seals, and measuring the back portion you want to cut out. For us, this was 30cm across the rear.  
  • Remove anything that may prevent you from cutting the floor up.  

We had some wheelchair seating mounts which needed removing.  These are the mounts that were used to hold the seats in at the back of the bus; the seats that were removable to put a wheelchair in if necessary. These were a little tricky to remove; I used an allen key on top of the mount to hold it in place, while Shane unbolted a nut underneath the bus. WD40 was our best friend here. We used a lot of it to loosen the nuts and remove the 4 bolts off each mount. If we were not replacing our sub-floor, we would not have bothered to remove these mounts as they will be located under what will be our bed. However, we decided that considering we were replacing the subfloor, it would be easier to remove these now. Other we would need to cut and shape the new floor around them.  

  • It is time now to measure the depth of the wood. We measured our sub floor depth by taking multiple measurements at different levels and established it was around 15mm thick. Due to the water damage and age of the wood, one measurement could not be relied upon accurately.  
  • Now it was time to remove the wood. We set the circular saw to a depth of around 12mm. Close enough we should be able to pry the wood off; not too deep as to touch the metal of the bus underneath. We cut as much as we could with the circular saw, and used a crowbar, chisel, and anything else we could to scrape the remainder of the wood off.  

So this was our experience of removing our sub-floor. If you want to continue reading about our new sub-floor installation, check out our next post here.  

Shane replacing the damaged sub-floor - Toyota Coaster conversion

Seal Replacement – 

Claire - Toyota coaster conversion

Now that the damaged sub-floor was removed, we had to fix the leaking seals prior to laying the new floor.  

This part was easy; at the back of our bus we have a wheelchair access door. The seals were old, dry and cracked. It’s important to fix the issue otherwise you will continue to have problems later. 

We were able to purchase auto seals from our local hardware store. We purchased Goliath rubber seals. It was a simple task to cut the old cracked seal and push the new seal on in its place, ensuring a snug fit.  

Sub-floor Hole Sealing and Filling –   

Our Toyota Coaster motorhome sub-floor had a few holes – this was expected after the seat, heater, hand railings, and trim removal! 

Shane and Claire sealing the sub-floor - Toyota Coaster conversion

In NSW, it is a requirement that a vehicle not have any holes. So be able to get signed off by the engineer, we had to fill any visible holes. Not only this, but we want it to be completely waterproof.  

As this was a bus we are converting to a home, we decided to use a sealant suitable for wet areas (just in case there are ever any leaks!).  

After research, we decided on Selleys 100% Wet Area Silicone Sealant in white. Even though the sealant won’t be seen underneath the floor, we chose white in case we decided to use it for our bathroom.  

  • For the larger holes (particularly the ones from the heater plugs we removed earlier), we purchased a thin sheet of aluminium and tin snips, and cut some small rectangle pieces. 
  • Once these pieces of aluminium were ready, we placed a layer of silicone around each hole, and used it to adhere the aluminium in place.  
  • We also used the silicone to seal around the edges of all the subfloor, and joins in between.  
Claire using tin snips and filling holes in our Toyota Coaster conversion

So these are just a few of those jobs that no one ever talks about. Glad we can finally say they are done!  

Make sure you subscribe to hear more about our Toyota Coaster conversion, or watch us in action below ?  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQVJ7qFUJUo&t=2s 

Toyota Coaster Motorhome Conversion – Heater, Floor, Roof and Wall Removal

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Day two of renovations on our Toyota Coaster motorhome conversion – we were excited! Our first day of removing the seats had been so successful that were keen to do more. The goal for today; remove the heaters, vinyl floor, and the internal roof and walls. In other words… IT’S DEMO DAY! 

The only concerns we had for demo day, was the removal of the heaters. There is not a lot of information online regarding this and we were a little concerned about the process. 

I had even tried that morning to call around our local auto stores to try and pick up a Toyota Coaster manual… who knew this would be so hard! All we wanted was a guide to work out which hoses to cut for them. We rang multiple places and looked online and have come to the realisation that they no longer publish them. There is only a CD or an online, downloadable version. 

So we decided we were going to wing it. We will eventually get the online version, and possibly even look to print it as a hard copy. It will just be convenient if something were to go wrong. If interested, you can look here for the CD.

The Heaters –

Shane pointing out the heaters inside our Toyota Coaster bus prior to removing.

There are two heaters located in the middle of the bus floor. For anyone wanting to install anything like a kitchen, bathroom, or even just a lounge room, there placement is quite inconvenient. You could look at building over them, or making a box to sit on top, but if they are not required, it is much more space friendly to remove them. So that’s what we decided to do. 

They would have to be the most difficult thing we were to remove today in our Toyota Coaster Motorhome.

The Process –  

  • The heater is bolted into the floor, with the nuts of the bolts located underneath the bus. The location underneath the bus can be quite difficult to find on your own. Try and have someone on the inside of the bus, tapping the floor at the location of the bolts, while a second person searches underneath. 
  • Once the bolts are located, there are 3 to remove. These can be done relatively easy with a wrench, or socket. One of our heaters was covered in built up dust and grime. If this is an issue, maybe spray with WD-40 and leave for 10 mins to help clean the area a little before trying again. 
  • When the bolts are loose, it is time to disconnect the two hoses. These are removed by undoing to clamps on the hoses and pulling them off. 

Be careful when removing these hoses as the coolant inside will come spurting out. Shane got a nice little splash to the face and this is something you do not want to get in your eyes, mouth etc. Have a bucket ready to go to catch any excess coolant. 

Now that the hoses are disconnected and the bolts are undone, the heater just lifts out. The removal of our heater in our Toyota Coaster bus was complete!

The next step for the heaters is to plug them. Have a read of our next post here where we guide you through how we plugged ours. 

Shane pointing out the heater hoses underneath the bus before removing in our Toyota Coaster bus conversion.

The Walls –

The walls in the Toyota Coaster are held on with metal screws on the padded edges, and trim fasteners on the walls. 

I started the hard way with the trim fasteners – trying to remove one by one. This was not a fun endeavor. After getting fairly frustrated I decided to use the drill with a phillips head driver on it to remove the screws holding the padded edges of the wall panels in place. The screws were mostly located tucked up underneath the padded edges, but were easily accessible.

Claire pointing out the screws underneath the wall panelling prior to removing in our Toyota Coaster bus conversion.

Once the screws were removed, I was then able to just pop the walls off. The easiest way is to get behind them and pull. It takes a little effort but is much simpler than trying to remove each trim fastener individually. Now that I had the knack, it only took around twenty minutes to remove all the internal walls.

The Roof Lining –

Removing the internal roof lining of our Toyota Coaster motorhome was next. 

This is not something you have to remove. If you have decided to keep the current roof, it does have a layer of insulation underneath as well as structural metal beams. These beams can be drilled into for support.

Our roof was in fairly good condition and we did consider leaving it as is. However, part of our dream included a wooden roof. So we decided to remove the roof lining to make way for our new roof paneling and to install new insulation.

After doing some research online about the insulation currently in the Toyota Coaster, we realised it is fairly combustible. We saw a video showing the difference between the current insulation and new insulation when catching on fire. It was not pretty! Being that this was going to be our home, that was a good enough reason for us to want to replace it, in the off chance anything were to ever happen.

The removal of the roof lining was fairly simple. Using a phillips head piece on the drill we removed all of the lights and speakers in the roof. Once these were removed, the roof just peeled out.

We didn’t get a chance to remove the insulation and will be leaving this for another day. If you want to read about how we removed the insulation, check out that post here. 

The Air Conditioner Ducts –

The air conditioner ducts are only something you will have in your Toyota Coaster if you have the deluxe model which features ducted air conditioning. To us, this was something that was wasted space. It is an empty duct that is used to navigate the air from the front to the back of the bus. They are very large, and empty underneath. 

The plan in our Toyota Coaster motorhome is to have overhead cupboards all the way around the edge and this is the perfect place to put them. 

We also decided on a roof mounted split system air conditioner, so we did not require ducting from the front.

Shane and Claire removing the air conditioning ducts in our Toyota Coaster bus conversion.

These were frustrating to remove. As with almost every other thing we had done so far, they required a phillips head drill piece to remove. 

Underneath the ducts, there are two rows of screws along the entire side of the bus. The screws were not drilled into any backing, so when trying to remove, they just spin in place. 

We did this together as a team.

As one of us would remove a screw, the other would pull on the plastic panel making sure the screw dug into something and would pull out.

It doesn’t sound too complicated, but when you have one every 10cm and you are constantly reaching up high it becomes quite difficult and time consuming!

The Floor –

Ahh… The removal of our vinyl floor, the last step.

After removing all of the edge trims, door mechanism and hand rails, it was a simple task of peeling the vinyl off. It works best if you get down low and peel together. The glue Toyota have used in construction is amazing and extremely adhesive. If we had thought about it earlier we might have had something ready to go to start cleaning it while we removed. But alas, we did not.

I recommend not removing this until you are ready to clean or to lay something over the top. Ours now has not a only a layer of glue to remove, but also looks like a lawn from the grass we had dragged in.

We found the best/easiest way to remove the glue is to use a planer and plane the top edge of the wood off. We tried multiple different cleaning chemicals however did not have any success and spent hours on the floor. If you do decide to use a planer, make sure you regularly clean it as the glue can clog it and if not careful, it could damage your planer. We did this for one of the sub-floor panels and decided that it still wasn’t worth the time it took. Eventually, we ended up just painting over the adhesive with a primer. 

At the end of DEMO DAY, we were exhausted and proud.

We allowed ourselves two days to remove the heaters, vinyl floor, internal walls and roof. We did an amazing job and got it done in one! I guess ‘winging’ it paid off. Next time we will work our how to plug our heaters, as well as looking into replacing our damaged sub-floor in our Toyota Coaster motorhome.

Everytime we set our minds to it, we exceed all of our expectations and we couldn’t be happier. We are  waiting for the day for something to go wrong, or not as planned because we know it will. I guess that’s one way to look at it, you can only plan so much. But until you actually get in and get things started,  you’ll never get anywhere. 

Check out our DEMO DAY video here – 

Toyota Coaster Motorhome Floor Plan – Designing Your Home

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One of the first steps to converting a Toyota Coaster to a motorhome is coming up with a floor plan.

Designing the floor plan for your motorhome can be tough but getting it right will save you time and effort during the building stages.

First, you need to decide what you want out of your conversion.

What will make it feel like home? What do you need to survive?

Will you need the essentials to survive off grid, or will you be somewhere with amenities most nights that you don’t need to worry? We have had many discussions about this… or should I say arguments? Our Toyota Coaster motorhome plan is something we have been thinking about non-stop since purchasing our new bus.

Shane and I both want the finer things in life, normally reserved for a large house, squeezed into our beautiful bus to be taken on the road. This was a tough one for us. We had to think about what was really important; what was a necessity, rather than a want. We needed to work on minimalising our current life to fit everything we own in a 10 metre squared living area.

Our wants

Shane’s wants was his home theatre room. For me, it was a dressing table. How do you go about fitting a home theatre room and a dressing table in a Toyota Coaster motorhome?

Short answer, you can’t. There has to be compromises.

We have had to design the bus so we still had a large enough lounge to rug up on and watch a good movie or two, with a reasonable size TV and soundbar. Despite Shane’s best efforts, a 43inch TV would not fit.

For the dressing table, a large mirror on the closet, and some internal storage space was the best compromise to make sure we were getting what we wanted.

I guess this is all what it comes down to; deciding on what you need to make you happy and comfortable and what is something you can compromise on.

Our needs

And then of course there are the necessities. The things we need to live, to survive.

We have all the standard plans for a nice fridge, oven, stove, washing machine and toilet. We know we will require a lot of storage in our Toyota Coaster motorhome and have worked out how we will achieve this with what space we have; under bed and lounge storage, above head cupboards and built ins where possible.

There will be gas bottles and solar, a hot water system, water tanks and batteries, all the requirements to live off the grid and spend most of our time free camping.

It may sound a bit cliché, but the best place to start is to write a list. Ours looks a little like this –

NeedsWants
Off grid system
Enough solar, and water storage capacity to survive for minimum 4 days or so if necessary		Large, comfortable lounge
Shower and toilet“Home theatre” area
Kitchen – sink, fridge, oven, microwave etcBlender, slow cooker
Proper mattressFull length mirror + Dressing space
Gas bottles X 2Washing Machine
Storage To look like a “home”

Next step is to work out a layout. This is where you need to know your dimensions, so you can accurately draw up your space.

For our Toyota Coaster the dimensions are –

Length – 5.3 metres –  (This is the living area length from behind the cabin seats)

Floor Width – 1.87 metres

Height in the centre – 1.83 metres

Width at the middle (Widest point) – 1.98 metres

Then you need to decide if you are going to build it completely custom yourself, or use companies such as Noq Noq RV fit outs, or DIY RV Solutions to help you with your build. There are a lot of flat pack options, even from hardware shops such as Bunnings or Ikea that can be integrated into a build.

Putting it all together – Creating a Toyota Coaster floor plan

This is how the floor plan looked for our Toyota Coaster.

Photo of drawn up plan for our Toyota Coaster bus conversion.

Once these decisions are made, it is time to take everything from your list, and make it work in your floor plan.

We opted to go completely custom, and build everything ourselves. The only thing we decided against doing ourselves, was a bathroom cubicle which was purchased from Custom Coaster Conversions. As this is a wet area, we didn’t want to struggle with water leaks so went with an all in one design.

Research here is key.

Websites like Pinterest have been invaluable when it comes to planning and designing our bus. There is loads of inspiration and it gave us so many ideas we may never have thought of. A gas lift bed with storage underneath, a couch that slides out to a sofa bed, and a slide out extension to our kitchen bench. We created a board, https://www.pinterest.com.au/roamingonrubber/ideas-for-our-bus-conversion/, to save and keep these ideas for inspiration. Other sources of inspiration were blogs like this one, Instagram and Facebook groups of like-minded people.

Downloading and reading the installation manuals for appliances will also help make sure you plan correctly. For example, after reading our oven manual we had to move it away from the fridge as it could not be next to any other appliances.

What we have learnt

We didn’t specify on our layout where we would install things like our gas bottles, electrical system, hot water heater etc. This was a rather large mistake as we constantly had to make changes on the fly when we would learn new information.

It also meant we didn’t cut holes in the bus prior to walls being installed, making the job harder.

A good idea is to plan for these things first, that way you can cut holes early. It also allows you to run wiring and pipes in the wall cavities. Something we also were not planned for.

Weight distribution is something that must be considered. We thought about weight between the passenger and drivers sides. But didn’t think enough about weight behind the rear wheels. This has caused the back of our bus to be lower to the ground then usual.

We thought going completely custom was going to be the best option for us. However, there were a few issues.

We couldn’t get the nice finishes on our cupboards that we wanted, so ended up going to a cabinet maker to make them for us. This ended up being fairly expensive.

Our kitchen area was designed to look sleek with cupboards. As these cupboards were all custom built, they were not built to standard sizes. This meant any slide out drawer or tray did not fit, or at least did not fit correctly; especially cutlery inserts.

If we were to do it again, we would probably plan for and buy a flat pack kitchen and reinforce it.

Time. Time is huge. Whilst we thought doing things custom would look better and save us money, we didn’t quite realise how much additional time it would take us; all the extra research and finding things that would work, and then physically having to make everything. This can be a major impact if you are on a time limit.

So whilst planning your layout is definitely a must for your bus conversion, it is also good to know how different things can impact you and your build.

Knowing what you need to have and how much space you have is a must. Then deciding on how you want to achieve your results, and what timeframe you need to do it in are important steps.

So many things took so much longer than we expected, but having a good solid floor plan is the best way to ensure you reach your goals, and get what you want.