DIY Bus Conversion

The most frustrating and rewarding thing you may ever do.

When we got our bus, I vividly remember both friends and strangers asking, “what are you going to do with that thing?” I was always confused by that question, because from my perspective, it was visibly obvious. The possibilities of things one can do with a bus are endless, really.

Everyone who has a bus, has a unique story of why and how they came to own a bus. Owning a bus as an individual is not a normal thing, and living in one, well, that’s just crazy talk. Why? Because buses are almost exclusively built for commercial purposes; owned by transportation companies, by school districts, or by rock stars but not typically owned by regular people. That is all changing and rapidly so. The attraction a growing number of people have to bus life, the tiny home culture, the skoolie community or whatever you want to call it, is wrapped up in the novelty, the freedom of movement and soaking in the journey of it all.

As for my story, I was not initially inspired by the adventure lifestyle portrayed these days on YouTube and Instagram; I do not recall being aware of it to be honest. Only later did I learn to appreciate these things.

In or around the year 2015, I had come to the conclusion that our Suburban was not big enough for our typical mission. I realize that is an absurd statement, but it was true nevertheless. We were on the road quite a bit for kids travel sports and family trips. After packing gear, three teenagers, bikes, paddle boards and often times other people’s kids and stuff, we regularly ran out of room. So, I started shopping for a large van.

After weeks and weeks of looking, I found a truck that had a van cabin mounted on the rear two-thirds of the chassis; it was on eBay in Texas. Skeptical but determined, within a week and sight unseen, we purchased and relocated our bus from Texas to Florida on a flatbed.

She is a 2012 Ford F550 4x4 dually, approximately 26 ft long, 8 ft wide, and 10.5 ft tall, and powered by the legendary 6.7 liter Powerstroke turbo diesel engine, which gets about 12 mph on a good day. The truck has a GVWR of 17,500 lbs and can pull nearly anything. The original 15 passenger cabin was constructed by Glaval, a company which specializes in commercial passenger bus/ van conversions.

According to ownership and maintenance records, the bus was previously owned by an oil company and by the looks of her when she arrived, was used to move people on dry dirt roads, as there were deposits of reddish colored sand in every nook and cranny. After a good pressure-washing and bleach treatment, we made some initial modest improvements to the inside and out to meet our needs at the time and for several years, drove the bus all over the southeastern US.

As the kids grew up though, our needs slowly transitioned away from the primary purpose of the bus: hauling lots of people and their stuff. Something had to change to justify keeping her, so I decided to re-purpose our bus into a fully self-sustained RV we now call the Millennium Falcon, primarily on account of the ship’s grumpy pilot.

Where does one go to learn about a new project? You got it! Off to YouTube I went, and low and behold, what I discovered was amazing. There is an entire community of people who were doing or had already done what I was planning and the craftsmanship and creativity was unreal, not like anything I had ever seen before, especially by the do-it-yourselfers. I watched videos for hours and hours and hours, bookmarking, cataloging and making notes about the things I learned. I especially appreciated the videos explaining the mistakes people made; you have no idea how extremely helpful you have been to the people following behind you. 

After a month of research, floor plan revisions and demo, I started what turned out to be an eight-plus month conversion process. 

The interior was gutted, including the floor and ceiling, leaving only the driving cockpit area untouched. The floor was insulated, sub-flooring installed, and then finished with wood laminate tiles. The interior is laced with cypress, cedar, oak, and pine tongue and groove, and features large storage drawers and hatches, a double bed, a single bed, a PVC tiled shower, an LP tank-less water heater, a 90-gallon fresh water tank, a stand alone toilet room, and a small kitchenette with a sink. We installed the Nature’s Head composting toilet and a Whynter brand two-way fridge/ freezer. The bus sleeps three, four with the interior hammock, and up to seven with the roof top tent. 

The cabin electrical power comes from the very handy Inergy Kodiak, a 100 amp hr AGM externally paired battery, and up to 600 watts of solar if we need it. The bus has a secondary 110v electrical system and can be used with a 30-amp RV plug or be plugged into the small 2000w generator on board. The highlight of the conversion is the 8X12 ft roof top deck, which is made from actual 2X8 inch cypress boards milled in Cairo, GA. 

I don’t think one is ever really finished with projects like these; I am still adjusting things, troubleshooting, adding features, and tinkering. I made countless trips to the hardware store, spent more time and money than I had planned, made a ton of mistakes along the way, but loved the journey and the satisfaction of doing it myself, even with all the blemishes.

After hundreds of hours of planning and many hundreds more of construction, lessons learned are these: spend a lot of time kicking the tires of your floor plan, bus walls are not square, too much insulation is not possible and wood squeaks at 70 mph. The biggest lesson learned is what works for someone else’s purpose on their platform, with their ability and budget, may not work for you on yours. Learn as much as you can from others but in the end, build what you want to meet your own needs.

Let me know if you have any questions, or if I can help you in any way. Check out the pics and follow on Instagram @millenniumfalconthebus.