Gilligan Phantom

But before we talk about how to insulate your bus we need to talk about why you would insulate your bus and help you decide if you even need to insulate it at all. For a cold weather bus you also need significant insulation in the walls, and ceiling to keep that heat in, and you will be most comfortable with your school bus windows replaced with more efficient windows. If you don’t plan to remove windows and heavily insulate then the hot or cold air that will be constantly flowing into your bus from the drafty old school bus windows will offset the advantages of the insulation significantly no matter how well you do it. Consider what could happen if you decide not to remove your metal bus ceiling, do not create a thermal break between the metal bus exterior and your interior, and don’t insulate and then warm up the inside of your bus with propane (which is a heat source that creates additional moisture).

(pick this one for gravity fill only or this one for gravity fill and city water hookup) , a large fresh water tank (my current favorite for a large supply), supply piping (preferably PEX), a 12v water pump, your fixtures and their valves and attachments, your waste piping (perhaps PVC), and a gray or black water tank with a waste valve. However if you will be parked at length next to a municipal water supply or at an RV park you could actually hook up your bus to city water which will come into the bus pressurized, bypassing your tank and pump, and this will save you the hassle of filling your tank when it’s empty and using a noisy pump to push your water to your fixtures. run some PEX off of the vinyl line attached to your water pump you should install an accumulator tank which is a little pressurized vessel which will assist the pump with water flow and prevent it from cycling so frequently. From there you will install a tee to supply your water heater, and along with the hot water supply line from your water heater you can run PEX lines to your future sinks and shower, and anything else you need hot or cold water for.

That means your lighting will most certainly be DC, your exhaust fans will be DC powered, many of your outlets for phone chargers and camera chargers could be DC, and your refrigerator could use DC power as well. However because power consumption of DC appliances can vary so much it is not quite as simple as choosing wiring for 15 amp and 20 amp circuits as with AC power. If you are doing the majority of your wiring before insulating like I did then you’re going to want to start your wiring runs where they will enter your AC electrical panel and your DC fuse blocks. While wiring for DC lights and outlets and AC outlets that will be in exposed boxes can be simply left dangling in their appropriate locations, now is the time to install boxes for any outlets that you plan to have inset in your walls and for AC light fixtures at their destination.

In order to insulate your walls and ceiling and create a thermal break between the metal frame of the bus and the wooden interior you will need to add furring strips. This will actually create some level of a thermal break but it will not decrease the amount of interior space in your bus or decrease your ceiling height and you still may have issues with your interior walls touching your metal frame. I recommend the Teks 1 7/16” wood to metal screw if you are using ¾” inch lumber, and the 2 ¾” wood to metal screw if you are using 1 ½” lumber. If you are doing multiple layers of ¾” then it is best to attach the first board with the wood to metal screw and the second board to the first with a wood to wood screw.