Bus Height

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

I havent given the height of a bus too much thought until now. I had planned to build a garage and in that case would use a 14 or 16 ft. high door. Luck would have it I found a building that would be ideal except the doors are 12 ft. high. I think this is probably too low. I would be interested for some feedback on different bus heights.

Also with bus storage in the frigid north ( we just had our second day of 10" snow fall expecting 14" tomorrow) what must be done when parking a bus in an unheated garage? If the garage was heated and there should be a failure what damage would be done?
If one travels to some destination and parks the bus in some location where there is say 20 deg. temp and wants to leave the bus unatended for a week or two. What does one do? Must you have electric or run some other heaters to keep the plumbing safe? THANKS IN ADVANCE, JIM [I think we better move]

[Ray Davis]

I think 12 foot is too low. If I remember correctly the my bus comes in around 12'2", but I don't remember if that's too the roofline, or to the top of the satellite dome.

When looking at road clearances, I stay clear of anything under 13'.


Cant offer much of an opinion on winterization. I live in CA. We rarely get to freezing down in the south here.

Ray

[garyde]

12'7" is my clearance with satelite dome in travel mode. It will drop down in low manual mode but you have no air bags so you have to be real careful about moving te Coach.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Jim,

A lot of us deal with doors that are too low and the solution is to lower the coach. The question you have to answer is what is the height of the coach, and how much must it be lowered to get it in the door.

I kept my coach in an unheated barn when we lived in western NY. We never had a winter where there weren't spells when it was 10 below, and we had at least one morning each winter when it was 20 below.

The barn had electric so the most efficient way for me to keep the bus from freeze damage was to place a small electric cube heater set on the 500 watt setting in the water bay. I aimed it at the fresh water tank which I kept full since it acted like a heat sink and when it got bitter cold 100 gallons of relatively warm water moderated the temperature in the bay. It never got lower than 50 degrees and usually was around 60 in the bay during the winter.

For the house I used a 500/1000/1500 watt heater that I placed on the kitchen counter. I ordinarily set it on the 500 watt setting, with all cabinet doors and closets open. When it was going to get cold, as in below +20 I stepped it up to the 1000 watt setting and if it got into single digits I went to the 1500 watt setting. The coach never got lower than 45 inside.

Having the coach under cover pays huge dividends because it is out of the wind, which literally sucks the heat off the windows. I could still do work on the coach, even though it meant using a snowmobile suit. The folks in California are laughing at this, but they don't know living in the frozen northeast makes us strong.

[lewpopp]

I stored my coach in a warehouse a couple of cold winters and I believe it never got down to lower than 10 above. Mine was not winterized, the warehouse was not heated, and ver few windows. Nothing ever froze. As long as you are out of the wind is the most important thing.

If you build a barn and it is airtight, chances are ,you'll need very little heat unless you want to work on the coach in your skivvies as long as the temp is above 10 above.

Lew

[truk4u]

Jim,
This morning here in sunny Georgia it was 23 and in my unheated garage the temp was 41. I had the bay heaters on and they didn't get cold enough to activate. Up north where you are, I'm an upstate NY transplant too, if you lost power even in your unheated garage it would be worrisome. The only thing I can think of is maybe a kerosene heater in the garage and that would probably keep the bus from freezing.

I think my Marathon is 12'6"...

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

OK sounds good so far but how low can you go? I mean what is the travel of the level low system? How many inches does the bus go up & down? The specs @ the Thompson site that Jon just brought up indicate their height to be about 13 ft. so with Gary @12' 7",Ray @ 12' 2", and Tom @ 12' 6" do you think a 12' door is tall enough?

What is higher above the roof, the satelite dome or an airconditioner?

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Forget the 12Ft. door option concidering what stage you are at, 14 is the ticket. Ours is 13.3

Our bus is outside with no power source across the street, we took a piece of hose hooked it up to the water inlet, attatched an air regulater and hose fitting to it, run an air hose from the accessory tank and blow everything out with air. We use R/V antifreeze for the drain traps only.

Dont forget to trick the ice maker through a couple of cycles to dewater them also.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Coach heights vary all over the place. On my old coach when it had one of those 5 foot Motostat dishes on it the height was 12' 5". With the in-motion dishes the normal road height would be more than that.

The in-motion satellite housings are higher than roof air units.

Newer coaches and H3 shells are taller than rivet coaches, and if you have a rear spoiler or the new style awning housings they are taller yet.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Let me reword the question. Jon how much does your bus go up and down when regulated with the manual air suspension control and can you drive it when it is at its lowest setting. If the concrete is level and smoothe on both sides of the door do you think you would be able to enter the building through a 12' door?