OFF GRID HOUSE BUS CONVERSION NZ

  • Season 1 Episode 2
  • Where: New Zealand
  • What: 1984 Isuzu JCR500
  • When: June 2020

The transformation from passenger coach into an empty shell, or a blank canvas, is complete—time for fabrication!

We spent the past week with the bus ripping out a lot of unnecessary weight! By getting rid of the old heavy seats and all the old surface materials we have given ourselves a lot more allowances for the build. A good thing too since we have chosen to epicycle a lot fo old solid wood furniture for our conversion.

The biggest change this week was the floor.

Since we had a center aisle design, we lowered the floor on the sides to get a flat surface to build on. We gain an extra 15cm of headroom while sacrificing a bit of space in the storage lockers underneath. A good tradeoff!

When we ripped up the old floor we learned that she has originally had a 2+1 seat configuration per row. When she transitioned from a school bus into a mountain bike shuttle more than a decade ago, more seats were put in, along with a ton of extra steel to support them! While the structure for these two aisles was a lot of work to cut out we are really glad we did.

Next, we needed to frame up the support for our new, lowered, floor. Luckily we could call in some help from a good friend and master fabricator/welder to give us a hand.  It is turning out so good!!! The new floor is simple but strong and really light by comparison—she is turning into a tank! We have gained so much more space inside too.

Happy days!