DIY motorhome: air-conditioning

Our bus didn't come with air conditioning. It had roof hatches, which we left as they were, and small sliding windows above the big fixed windows, all of which we removed. 

And being that this RV would be for travels in Australia we really needed to get some air-conditioning in. 

H had dedicated, early in the project, the whole roof area to solar panels so we couldn't install a system on the roof, nor did we want to. Aside from that being a space compromise, it would be exposed, add wind resistance, would possibly shade the solar panels and possibly get knocked under a tree. What we wanted was a system to work from within the engine compartment. And at first this proved very difficult. 

The local air-conditioning business simply told us it was too difficult, they couldn't do it, it'd be too expensive, and honestly they didn't seem to want to think about it. We walked away from there still determined to do it but wondering where we'd get help from. 

We looked at truck sleeper cabs systems and had some good advice there that the 'ice-pack' system wasn't right for us but they nudged us in the right direction. 

Slowly we were starting to piece together a solution. Then I went out for coffee with an old friend. She casually said 'hey, you know my husband is doing air-conditioning now?'  He's primarily a farmer so I hadn't known. It was soon arranged that he'd come for a look at our project. We were in luck because he's a man that happily takes on odd projects. He (N) doesn't  promote his work because he still farms and gets enough work to keep going with. 

The biggest challenge was to find space on the engine to install the compressor, but H & N did. And then we had to get pulleys made to take the drive power from the engine to the compressor of the air conditioner. After that it was a simple installation of the evaporator, hoses and wiring. 

Our installed air-conditioner is an after-market under dash mount style (although we installed it at the inner ceiling). The biggest we could have is for a vehicle no larger than a van so it's very useful that we have a dividing door in the bus to separate the bedroom off. Thereby, we only aircondition the front part of our home. 

Our air-conditioner only works when we are driving (have the engine running). Additional to this we have a 12 volt ceiling mounted RV/yacht fan in the bedroom, and, because we've got so much power from the solar and those 12v fans are so expensive we also have a cheap 240v box fan that we use in the main living area. We mostly put it onto of the fridge, held but movable with good magnets. 

 

DIY motorhome: interior space #2

Last week I wrote a rather short piece about designing the interior cabinets of Blu. But I realise now I should have written as to how we decided what would go where. 

We started knowing where and how we'd put the bed: with the Mercedes Denning bus build being 2.1metres (almost 7') across it was an easy and immediate choice to put the bed going across the bus and on top of the boot space. H extended the boot (trunk) space to be the depth of the bed width (that's about 1.8m or almost 6').

It's handy to have a big external storage space on a motorhome and you see them increasingly on new builds. Think storage for outdoor furniture, bicycles, tools and H dreams of putting a paramotor in there. 

Back inside, the wheel arches were an unmovable problem that we had to work around. The framework on the bus meant that the toilet, needing an external hatch for the cassette access, needed to go just behind a wheel arch. So the toilet is right beside the bed, with privacy from a partition wall between the bed and the loo, and a sliding door between the private area and the living area.  

Above the toilet we installed our mini front loading laundry machine. It's great! We got it on eBay, from Korea, because we couldn't buy one here. 

Beside the toilet, sharing the same dual wheel arches but on the forward side is the shower. They are separate, not a shower over loo like in many RV's. 

I had wanted an outside kitchen. In Blac we had taken our portable stove outside a lot and Australian RV's often have an external kitchen since our 'great outdoors' is so nice (I mean Australia has plenty of outdoor spaces and very good climate). But we couldn't build an external slide out kitchen for Blu as it wouldn't work with the framework (or at least we couldn't see a good way to do it). So I decided on what seemed like the next best thing, and I think (now that we're using it) it's a better thing: we built the kitchen on the passenger side beside the door with a big hopper window. So, I can cook inside, without having to carry any tools or food out, with the big window open and H can be sitting just outside (or him in cooking, me out), and there's still communication and views and the food/drinks can be passed out the window. It works wonderfully. 

The passenger side space between the kitchen bench and the bed would obviously become cupboard space: pantry, wardrobe and bedside table (night stand). Importantly (and you can see this in the sketch I put in last weeks blog) we set the wardrobe wall from the bedside table to the front of the wardrobe at an angle. This angle, although slight, hasn't much affected our internal wardrobe space but it's given the private area a much more roomy and less box-like feel. 

In front of the shower (drivers side) we built our own fridge-freezer. It's a top loading eutectic fridge, super efficient. More about that another time, but size wise it's a big box, and visually it helps with our spacious look. 

Back to the front of the bus, drivers side, and we needed to put in a dining table and a seat behind it. We rescued the framework of one of the bus's former school bus bench seats for this, but the seat and upholstery wasn't available to us anymore so we had to remake that.  It makes a small seat for 2 bums, which might be handy if we have a visitor or two, and it means H & I can sit across from each other at the table for dining. 

Honestly, I think the dining area is the least finished part of the bus, and it's not just because I need to get some more decorative upholstery on the bench. It's unfortunate that the drivers seat, turned around, is high and the bench seat is low and so the table is too high for the bench but too low for the drivers seat! Maybe one day we'll get a better solution, but for now it works. 

When people come into Blu they compliment us on how spacious it feels. It's great! Although we cooked and ate outside as much as we could in Blac we don't do that anymore. Blu has great views and air from the big windows and we're quite comfortable inside.... as well as having insect screens to help keep Australias famous pests outside. 

DIY motorhome: interior space

Throughout most of the motorhome build, so far, it was H doing a lot of it while I sourced supplies or held or helped lift things. But when it came to the interior design of the cupboards I finally got to 'have a go'. 

First I drew up my ideas and then once we'd agreed on them we taped out the design on the floor to see how it felt for space, and tweaked the design a bit more. Then we had my brother draw up the passenger (left)  side design on a CAD programme and sent them and some more PVC foam panels to a joining firm to cut them. 

 

 

While they were being drawn and cut we were able to work on a few other jobs: H built the shower and we managed a trip to Melbourne.