Nick, and the Things

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T-1 Day. We are go for launch.

A year of hard work, abbreviated frugalness, and minimal planning have to brought us to the big day. Jobs have been quit, earthly possessions have been expunged, and friends have been hugged goodbye. All that is left now is to spend a final night in our empty apartment, get up bright and semi-early and put the pedal to the metal in search of warmer pastures. Denver gave us three good years and now we are 24 hours from the start of a year (plus or minus) of freedom and folly. Our only real plan is to follow the weather, which means [...]

T-1 Day. We are go for launch.2018-05-08T08:52:53-06:00

Searching: a (trailer for a) film by the Passengers

A while back the Passengers (sans Miles) went to Iceland to film a story about a T-Rex searching for... well, searching for something that you can't know about yet. We are proud to release the trailer for that film now. Enjoy. If you would like to receive email updates for the Vicaribus build, click here to subscribe! [jetpack_subscription_form title="Subscribe to Vicaribus for some excellent email updates!" subscribe_button="Subscribe Now!"]

Searching: a (trailer for a) film by the Passengers2018-05-08T08:53:41-06:00

Bus Conversion: Kitchens, Bathrooms and Miscellaneous

It seems we are due an update. As these things go - in this case blogging the conversion - the momentum has waned, but fear not, the conversion itself carries on as strong as ever. Since we last spoke, a lot has happened. The kitchen is pretty darn far along, as is the bathroom. These will be the focus of this post, but do note that since the last update, there have been other ancillary bits of progress as well. These include, but are not limited to, full installation of the ceiling boards, installation and plumbing of a propane tank under [...]

Bus Conversion: Kitchens, Bathrooms and Miscellaneous2018-05-08T08:48:16-06:00

Excursion 3: Total solar eclipse of my heart

I'm fairly certain this is excursion three. The first was definitely Pikes Peak, documented here. The second would have been Twin Lakes - undocumented, but mostly consisting of overheating on he side of the mountain roads, and lakes. This time around we took Vicaribus up to Nebraska for some eclipse chasing. Our base of operations was a fantastic gem of a lake called Lake McConaughy, commonly referred to as Lake Mac. What a find that was. Lake Mac is the biggest lake and Nebraska, and when the water is down like now, it is surrounded by exceptional white sand beaches. The [...]

Excursion 3: Total solar eclipse of my heart2018-05-08T08:54:14-06:00

Bus Conversion: Power Up

We spent over half of our initial budget on a top of the line power system from Victron Energy. And by we, I mean I. You know what they say about initial budgets anyway, "It's like that unicorn you thought you saw.. turns out some guy just glued a horn to his pony. Never gonna happen." One of my favorite sayings. So, why did I go all out on the power system? I'm a hardware hacker. I like technology. I like fancy technology. And, I like data. The Victron Energy systems give me all of that. They have some really nice [...]

Bus Conversion: Power Up2018-05-08T08:48:17-06:00

Bus Conversion: Getting Decked

When converting a bus, one must prioritize the order in which things get done. Without a doubt, building a rooftop deck is one of the highest priority steps on the path towards a safe, comfortable and livable bus. Right? Actually, we ended up prioritizing this step early in the build because we thought it would involve putting holes in the roof - screws, bolts, something. Turns out the design our fabricator came up with didn't require an holes in the body, but hey now we have a deck! The deck ended up being 8 foot by 10 foot, and hangs off [...]

Bus Conversion: Getting Decked2018-05-08T08:54:57-06:00

Excursion 1: 11,000ft Shakedown – Pikes Peak International Hill Climb 2017

Even though Vicaribus isn't finished with it's makeover, there's no reason it should remain confined to it's claustrophobic backyard parking pen. Sure it gets it's daily Home Depot run and the odd overnighter at the shop, but sometimes a bus just has to get out and stretch it's legs and see the world. Rather than warming up with something simple for our first real excursion, we decided that we might as well just dive in and give Vicaribus a real challenge. The challenge we came up with was driving up a big ass mountain and spending the night at 11,000 feet [...]

Excursion 1: 11,000ft Shakedown – Pikes Peak International Hill Climb 20172018-05-08T08:55:21-06:00

Bus Conversion: Getting Tanked

In this episode of the Vicaribus bus conversion blog-a-thon we will go over the Vicaribus water system and installation. You'll not want to miss it, because it includes bonus footage of slow motion awkwardly positioned welding by our good friend Chad at C-Squared Studios. When adding a water system to a bus there are lots of options as to how you can go about it. You will typically have a fresh water tank, a grey water tank, and possibly a black water tank. The fresh tank is your sparkly clean fresh water for drinking, cooking and bathing. Your grey water tank [...]

Bus Conversion: Getting Tanked2017-06-22T16:43:09-06:00

Bus Conversion: Insulation and More – Floor, Walls and Ceiling, Oh My

Before Michelangelo could craft a masterpiece, he first had to create a blank canvas. As it goes for Michelangelo, so goes it for Vicaribus. After the teardown was complete, the next step was re-insulating and boarding up the floor, walls and ceiling so that we could have a nice clean medium in which to apply our handywork. If you peruse the skoolie forums, you will find lots of discussion on whether or not to insulate and if so, what type of insulation to go with. Even though we are leaving most of our windows exposed (bus windows are quite the thermal succubus... ha, pun [...]

Bus Conversion: Insulation and More – Floor, Walls and Ceiling, Oh My2017-06-20T17:56:23-06:00

Bus Conversion: Tearing down the house (Part 2 – Getting floored)

Part 2 of the teardown did not prove to be as hard as part 1, though I'm not sure if I feel this way because it was entirely true, or if it is because I waited so long to write about it here. Time distorts the memory. Lucky for us, our bus came with the seats pre-removed by the previous owners, so that was a task we did not have to endure. These owners also laid down a nice looking faux wood floor that, for it's purposes, looked pretty good. Unfortunately, this flooring had to go so that we could get down [...]

Bus Conversion: Tearing down the house (Part 2 – Getting floored)2018-05-08T08:55:39-06:00
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