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Heres how you can keep your rv cool in the summer months with  Sheildcoats Thermobond refective roof paint. I know what you thinking “how does painting the roof help?”, well here`s what Sheildcoat have to say about thermobond,

http://www.shieldcoat.com.au/assets/File/The%20Simple%20Stuff%20-%20Thermobond%20HRC.pdf.

Heres how I went about preparing the surface for the reflective thermobond coating, firstly you have to make sure that the surface area is clean of all dirt. I just used a bucket of water and added Liquid suger soap and applied this with a household broom. You can use high pressure cleaners but I found that the trusty bucket works wonders and it is frugal if you have water restrictions.
Once the roof was clean and alowed to dry, you then have to seal the roof by using Shieldseal witch druys in about 2 hours, I used two coats of this. I used a rollar with a foam applicator for my application (athough sheildcoat say use air spray gun gives more even application), as my sl200 roof had crazy cracking all though the fibreglass coating and this made it easier to get into those cracks. Just make sure that you do a good job with both the cleaning and the sheildseal as this makes for a better foundation for the top coat (thermbond itsself).

Sl200 Roof before thermobond

SL200 roof berfore thermobond 1

Applying the thermbond took me two days and I have noticed a massive difference in the cabin temp. The main factor for me was touching the roof hatches, both before and after the thermobond went on. Before I would burn my hand if left on the hatch, and now after three coats i am able to hold my hand on the hatch for minutes without the same fate. Sheildcoat states that 57 percent of the sun rays if applied to there specs should be reflected. I myself have gain up to 8 degrees in the cabin temperature. And the aircon unit does not struggle any further when the degrees hit about 35. Thermbond comes in a 15 litre bucket with resealable lid, so no waste and no fuss, so this summer why not try it out.

SL200 roof painted with Thermobond

How to cheaply tint the SL200 motorhome bedroom windows

This section will explain how I cheaply tinted my SL200 bedroom windows:

Well the SL200 Man has four windows in the rear section and these windows are not tinted, so in order to get a good nights sleep I had to come up with an idea to keep out the morning sun. What I eventually come up with was a cheaper way of doing things. Instead of using window tint I decided to paint the interior of the windows black in order to give me a total 100 percent tint affect.   I have had this one application now for three years and things are still tinted well, heres how I went about it.

Firstly I spoke to a lot of people who had these types of Man buses and they recommended extracting the windows (which were all aluminum housings with large rubber inserts retaining them in the galvanized frame).

This was not easy for the first window I tried so I have described how I removed the window in the next section.

Blocking the Sun but also Keeping the airflow

Now it was time to extract all the windows in that area. I chose to prime and paint the interior glass areas black in order to achieve the same goal and to maximize the air flow. You can paint on a white primer before the black paint this will give the effect of a solid white wall, but I chose to go with black, which gave me my tinted apperance. 

In order to do this you need to pry out the rubber insert that holds the window rubber in place (this is a small round section that sits inside the larger window rubber attactch to the bus frame). Then with a couple of friends two outside and one inside gently push and pull the window from its housing in the galv frame. Once the window is free from the SL200 frame you are free to clean and prepare the window. 

This was no easy task and I would recommend having at least 2-3 people to help you with this task. If your glass does have a crack in it, please leave it alone and paint it in the housing. Trust me, I broke one. And I dont want you to have the same misfortune.

Preparing the windows for painting

Out came the window cleaner  as I prepared the surfaces for priming and painting(Ijust used methylated spirits about 30mil and the rest water). After cleaning all the windows I removed the sliders from the window frames and place them in the carport on a sheet of plywood between to saw horses so that it would be easier for me to paint.  This turned out to be a lot easier than masking the windows in place.

All that was left to mask was the 25mm window frame which was also aluminum and the small 5mm rubber retainers for the glass itself. The window frames were in great condition even though they were over 25 years old now and would have had a hard life as a commercial transport vehicle. But they built them well in that era, and I found out that this type SL200 Man went for $350,000 dollars when they rolled out brand new.

Applying the paint

The trick to painting on glass is to apply lots of thin coats and let them dry thoroughly between applications and make sure than you due a nice neat job with your masking. Although this is not the best way to go and certainly there are many other materials that I could have used, this particular paint job gives me 100% black out, which makes for a very nice sleep indeed.

There are many Tinting places out there that will be able to supply and fit tinting products to your RV or motorhome, just contact your local dealer and or supplier for information on price and local laws. Professional installs and there products are by far better than my option and it will last longer. But if you are on a budget, nothing beats a can of paint. Enjoy.

Create your Rv/Motorhome bedroom space

Bedrooms in motorhomes are the most important place you will ever create, bearing in mind you will spend most of your time in this area,  and the space is also limited. So to help you create your motorhome bedrooms, here is what I did.   

Well when it comes to Bedrooms and there installations regarding motorhomes  this is what I did to get around the lack of space.  Firstly I decided to go with a 4 poster style slat bed; which would leave a great deal of room underneath for storage and enough easy access. So i went about finding the right one.  The four poster double bed, meant that I could cut the legs to suit the height of the wheel arche covers.

There are places that you can get cheaper bed bases, you could try Beds-R-Us for second hand ones or your local second hand store.  I then had to go about assembling the bed with in the area we had, there were discussions as to which way the bed was going to face, and running it north and south down the bus was going to be the best fit in the space not to mention easy access.

Working with the space available in your Rv bedroom

With the Man SL200 I have, there are razed rear pieces in the floor for the Radiator to slot into, I either had to spend money on razing the floor height or cut the legs off the bed. Easy decision really, so i grabbed the foot and the head of the bed and marked out where it was going to sit and then measured the leg heights and cut them with a skill saw.

 The other reason for going with the 4 poster bed was that in the SL200 it had two motor panels that were for checking the gearbox and engine oil levels. So it might be a good idea to check if you have any panels in your vehicle. The rear seat was still in the bus and I had planed on taking it out and installing a top opening cupboard for bedding and clothes for easy access.

When the bed legs were cut to size it was time to assemble the bed in place, this was an easy job. All you have to do on this style was slot the pins into the slots and do up three screws and you were done. It went up in a flash; it was time to get the slats in place to hold the queen sized mattress. I used an 18 volt cordless drill to fix the slats to the bed frame, and 4 angle brackets to fasten the bed base to the floor with the airbag suspension it would have stayed put, but we are doing things to a safety standard.

Good luck with your Motorhome bed additions, please feel free to drop me a email if you wish to share your thoughts and designs.

Design and build your SL200 motorhome Kitchen cabinets

The Kitchen cabinets for the SL200 were the next on the list. I had a plan as to where the cabinets were going to go, and now it was into the design stage.  I have to say that I am a “design as you go” type of guy, so I started with your basic box module. But you will no doubt get the correct information and advice from the Bunnings Wharehouse, my MDF was purchased from Bunnings.

Two 900mm x 900mm x 610mm would make up the kitchen area with one other 650mm x 450mm x 610mm module for the pots and pans. I choose MDF sheeting, as the idea was to plane the edges of the doors to give more of a routed apprearance . For the doors I used 12mm MDF, and 3mm thick for the backs. This was all assembled with MDF glue and 40mm panel pins. I am also fitting a standard size zinc- chrome sink to finish things off with the chrome look handles.   

All the cuts on this job were all done by Makita skill saw only and I think that reflects in the final product. As for the hardware on the doors, I used 90 degree quick fit hinges and 250mm chrome S shaped handles. The design was a flat front type design with no kick plate for your feet as to limit the amount of time it would take to sweep in and around it. There was a wheel well at the left hand front that was raised to 450mm off floor level, so the pot cabinet had to be sitting on that. It was a basic design but very nice and neat looking, nice square lines that matched the rest of the bus to the letter.

The Cabinet Doors

Cutting the doors was simple; they were 450mm x 800mm leaving a sold kick plate under the two main doors. The next mission was to hand plane the door radius, I like to do this by hand as it gives you a more control and the end result is unique, dissimilar to a routered finished. When it came to the shelves I just did a mid shelf arrangement at 450mm high x 590mm deep to allow plenty of room into the bottom area. In order to stop things sliding out and opening the cabinet’s doors, I fitted a 50mm high end cap to all the shelves witch I then hand planed to get the same radius as the doors.

 This was a nice little touch and seemed to finish things off quite nicely. I carry on this theme though out the cabinets. The flow was nice and the height was matched to the window frames witch were also aluminum, allowing easy opening of the sliders after the cabinets were in place, I left a gap of 45mm behind the cabinets to allow for future pipe work for the pluming.

Appling the finishing touches

After the doors and the shelves had been fitted to the cabinets it was time to get them all working properly (opening and closing freely) this was a massive job but well worth it for the end result. Time for a good sand down to get rid of all the pencil marks and hand prints ready for a coat of polyurethane. Three coast later and the MDF was looking a treat. There were going to be more coats to come but I wanted to test drive them and see how they held up after a couple of weeks of wear. I gave it a day between the coats and then reassembled the doors and fastened the modules to the floor with 35mm countersunk brass wood screws.

Prepairing the SL200 Bus for conversion to a motorhome

Hello again, When I got my SL200 man bus home I had to start prepairing it for the conversion to my new Motorhome.

Prepairing these types of  SL200 man buses for the conversion to a motorhome was all new to me, but I knew that we had to start somewhere. So I started at the obvious things first, the seats. I grabbed a couple of tools being a socket set and sockets and began to strip the SL200 man down to the bare necessities. I found the bolts holding the seats in were 14 millimeters and they were quite easy to extract. This does take a bit of time by hand if you have access to an air ratchet I would certainly go for that option. The galvanized body shell was proving to be a perfect choice as I have had no troubles with rust.

Once I had removed all the seats I got started on the walls, internal hand rails and supports for the seats. The next thing to do was take all the steel out from the drivers cockpit, that was interesting as I took to most of it with a 20 pound sledge hammer just to break the welds, but what a difference that made.

The rest of the SL200 Bus was looking quite good although it did need quite the clean. The conversion was going quite well, and I could not believe just how much weight there was just in the seats themselves, not to mention room that was left after there removal. The seats took about two days to remove for starters and the rest of the hand rails another half a day. Please view photos of the conversion process I have place them in sections as you read through.

I had decided to use the seat bases for under floor storage compartments in the near future, and recycle the internal bars as a ladder to the roof.  It would provide nice access to the solar panels. After all the seats were removed the mass cleaning operation began, my parents and my other half were keen to get in there and make it clean as a whistle. The cleaning took a far amount of time but I think that just alone got rid of some weight itself, There was a great deal of junk and it filled several average rubbish bags. Finally the bus was stripped and clean and it was now time to start with the designing the motorhome floor plan.

Purchasing my SL200 man bus motorhome

This is my story and wanderings regarding the purchase of my SL200 Bus that I was going to convert into a motorhome,

My parents and I set off in the skyline at about 9 the next morning; we had 2 hours or so of travel to get to Bus Stop Sales (which is no longer operating), which was just out of Brisbane city. It was Friday and on the way there was a good run, we had missed most of the morning traffic. We got there in record time, just after 11. We all piled out of the car and headed for the buses which were all lined up ready. Another couple was having a look around as well and it seemed as though they had made there choice but did not want to buy today. So we were greeted by Geoff, shook his hand and then he began to show us around the yard. He asked what we were looking for and of course I piped up and said what things I had researched and he stated that it was going to be so much easier because we had an idea of what we wanted. The first bus we had a look at was a Leyland 1986 mid mount flat floor, manual 6 speed box. This one had the highway differential as well but did not have the airbags, price for that one was $11,000 dad was happy but I wanted to have a further look around. Then we were taken to the slightly older model SL200 MAN type, there were 6 to choose from all but one was painted white, the rest were still in the ex Brisbane colors.

We hopped aboard the first yellow and white bus and when I got in there I thought this is a perfect layout. Geoff told us that this was the denning majestic body one that he had driven for the bus company for many years himself, although it was the 3 speed RENK gearbox and would only do 90k max new. I had a good look at the body and it was a bit rough no rust but just had that flogged for 25 years look to it. But we still needed to go for a test drive in them so that was going to be the deciding factor for me.

I decided to go for a trip in the first yellow bus, when it started it was a bit rough but that was to be expected as it had not been moved for some time. After the unit had warmed up and the airbags were inflated it got some what smoother, although there was a rattle I was sure was engine wear, but it was 25 years old. It drove well on the test drive and John knew how to handle it too. They had excellent pickup and good handling for a bus witch is 11.4 meters long a near to 14000 tons. I was sitting right at the back over the motor and transmission so I could here that the changes were a bit rough and that rattle was much worse from this position.

I had a chat to mum and dad and we decided to leave that bus for now, although the price was $5200. The next bus would not start so I knew there was going to be some cost in getting the batteries for it sorted. They have four 6volt 600CCA (cold cranking amp) hooked up in series for 24volt use. It was then that mum said to me about the white bus is that for sale. I was not sure, so I said to Geoff “what about that one” he said yes that is for sale but it is a lot more, “how much more” I said. He then walked over to the bus so we followed him, nothing more was said about the price. I asked him again and it was like he didn’t hear me.

Then he yelled out to John and asked him to take us for a ride in it. I looked at my parents and they shrugged there shoulders as we entered from the front door. This one was so much cleaner inside; it had a great driver’s seat witch I had to have a sit in while I was there. I walked to the back as I did with the other bus and listened for it to start. John then yelled out from the front and asked me to press the rear door release switch. I did that and then the bus fired into life. I turned to mum and dad with a smile on my face.

This sounded like it was so much more in the engine department, nice and quite for buses, no rattles, very little exhaust smoke upon startup. And off it went and out of the yard, it seemed like it was happy to be driven again. Sounds weird but I had an emotional attachment to the thing as soon as I saw it, mum reckoned that it looked like a slightly oversized Herbie, I had to laugh. The test drive was awesome I think all of us had a smile on our faces and john asked us up the front to see what speed we were doing, 90ks not bad at all for the age. This was going to be the one; all I had to do now was to get a price out of Geoff.

The Purchase of My SL200 Man Bus as a Rv or Motorhome:

On getting back to the yard I sort out Geoff for that price, he said “do you like the white one then” we were all nodding. He then said there was no movement in that one as they have had it painted and the cost was $8800. I thought it was going to be heaps more that that, so I said we would take it. So all we had to do was find a bank and get the money sorted, we found out where the nearest bank was a got ourselves a bank cheque. It only took 30 minutes for Geoff to sort out the paper work and we were going to be on our way.

Although there was no road worthy on the bus at the time of sale I knew that we were going to be okay after taking it for the test drive. The only thing was getting it back to the sunshine coast, but that was sorted as we had access to a D plate’s that gave us the right to drive it home. The only thing was I did not have my license yet, but that’s why I brought dad along. To be honest he could not wait to drive it, although it was massive and it did happen to start raining as we pulled out of the yard.

Mum and I were in the skyline dad pulled out and we started to follow him he seemed to know the area quite well. But the rain was really coming down, we had only just got back through Brisbane city when dad pulled over, I stopped also parked the car, and run to the bus to see what the problem was. The rain was really coming down and when I got in the door of the bus I saw what dad was worried about. The driver’s side wiper had given up and it was air driven by the bus as it goes along. I checked the air side of things and it happened to be all right for that.

I traced the fault to the wiper mechanism and tried to free up the unit as best I could, I did bring tools for such an occasion and went back to the car to get them. Talk about a quick learn air operated wipers lesson. I pulled apart the wiper using the ticket light on the bus, after pulling it apart I found it was partly seized, but I had my trusty WD40 at hand. I went outside and told dad to turn the wiper on I then grabbed the blade and pulled up on it and let it hit the window again, it started thank god.

I went back inside and lubricated the unit with WD40 and it seemed too be patched for now. So we set off again, first stop was a Shell servo just over the Brisbane bridge for something to eat. Let’s hope the wiper holds out until then I thought.

Thankfully it did hold out and when we got there I put $100 dollars in the tank and we headed for the food court for some dinner. We got back to the bus with our dinner and decided we were going to make a cup of coffee before we set off. The bus went well on the journey home and I was happy when it was parked safe and sound in the driveway.

SL200 Man Bus a great choice for a Rv or Motorhome

Now that I had discovered what I wanted and required in my SL 200 BUS it was time to source it. I got onto the internet and typed in “bus sales” as my keyword. Although I did not know what type of  BUS that I was going to get I knew what I wanted so I targeted my keywords to suit the BUS type that I wanted. I started to use things like Bus with airbags, and buses under 15,000 dollars. Most of the buses that come up in the list were in NSW (New South whales), and Victoria, and although I don’t mind the odd road trip I really did not want to go that far and spend the money getting it back up to Queensland. I just did not have the money for transporting it back up.

After several more hours probing the internet I managed to find a place called Bus stop sales and services, these people had buses in the Brisbane region, which was only a couple of hours from where I was located in the Sunshine coast, so it seemed a good idea to research this avenue a little closer. As most of the places in queensland were a bit more costly than these fellows. Believe me, if you don’t do the research on the type of bus and its background you will most probably regret the purchase.

I then entered the site name into my address bar in explorer and began the search. I was confronted by a picture of a 1981-1983 MAN SL200 which is an older Brisbane style bus, but it ticked all but two of the boxes that I wanted, the two missing things were a manual transmission and highway differential. But it had everything else you could imagine and it looked good in the photos.

I have recently tried the website address and it is under construction From Monday 22 June. I will let you know when the site comes back online. If you try the yellow pages with the phone number is listed there.

My parents had just returned from there trip up north in there mobile home a HINO FD166 that dad and I had converted for them a couple of years before. It was nice to have them there to bounce questions and ideas off. Dad of course has reservations regarding the auto transmission, but did like the look of the bus in its entirety. So that was a good start to say the least, mum was also happy to back me up and always be supportive of my ventures.

So it was time to make a phone call and let my gut decide whether I would like the sound of the guy for starters. As I tend to do a lot of purchases in this manner, going with the person I feel most comfortable with. So I called and felt quite good asking questions regarding the bus, Geoff was very knowledgeable. He was also part way though a bus refit of his own and was keen to show off some of the things that he had done, as a starting point for me. It sounded good and the price was too good to be true.

So Mum, Dad and I got packed and set off for Brisbane.

SL200 Man Bus Purchase your very own, Find out how:

Hello all, this section is devoted to my new pride and joy the bus and how I chose it in order to go ahead with the refit. What I had to do to choose the bus and what creature comforts I have installed so far.

Research your Rv options:

So let’s get started, the first thing I started doing was some research into what type of mechanics I wanted the bus to have. The things included were whether to have a manual gear box or auto. This is one of the biggest things for most people to consider and it was just as big for me, I love to drive and I also think that you are in more control over the vehicle with a manual. The same was said by my father whom has driven big rigs for most of his life, both auto and manual. His words were of course purchase the manual hands down, just for the control factor, i.e. engine braking performance. As I have had very little experience with driving large vehicles, this was valuable information.

I started to talk to other people that had been around buses for years and sought there advice also. After talking to the experts these are the other major factors I considered before making my purchase and why.

Finding the right Power plant (engine):

The important things I looked for in the engine department were reliability, capacity, serviceability and fuel economy. The placement of the engine i.e. Front, Mid mount or rear. I finally decided on a MAN D2566 MUH under floor rear mount Diesel 11.4 litre producing 177kw @2200 RPM and as for torque 824NM @1500 RPM. Not exactly a rocket ship, but virtually bullet proof. They are a German design, and the experts say they will run all day everyday for over 200 thousand kilometers.

Manual or Automatic Transmission:

I wanted a six speed manual but that was not meant to be. I ended up with a 3 speed auto transmission type RENK 873a with a retarder. This was designed to allow many different drivers and there habits good or bad to get in and not be able to destroy the motor in the process. This was controlled by a computer board fitted in the dash, the brains of the outfit if you will.

Chassis Configuration:

I chose a flat floor chassis build known as a MAN SL200 type 284 galvanized rails witch it great as I don’t need to worry about rust. This had a denning majestic body Overall length is 11.05 meters, height 3.30 meters. This had two jackknife style opening doors at the left hand side, nice large double doors, massive amount of floor space in the living area and a 2.4 meter area at the rear for the bedroom. The area at the rear had a slight incline as this was over the engine bay, it also narrowed towards the back, but that was no problem as it still left enough room to walk down the side with a queen sized bed fitted.

Airbag or Leaf Suspension:

I had to have the Full airbag suspension with two shocks per quarter over the leaf spring type as the air bags cushion the ride so much more than the leaf spring option. Let’s just say that if you chose to buy a bus with leaf springs in the rear you are going to need a dentist sooner than you think.

Limited or Highway Differential:

There are many types of differential and as many types of final drive, I did want a 100k differential, which simply meant the tops speed of the bus was going to do the highway speed limit of 100 kilometers per hour. But this was not going to happen this time. The bus that I purchased after considering all of the above had a governed electronic controlled gearbox witch limited the bus to 90 kilometers per hour.

The Layout (chassis design)

The other thing I did was to imagine how I wanted the bus to look after all the facilities were in place.  In short I had a rough floor layout to begin with so I knew where I wanted kitchen, lounge, bathroom-toilet and of course bedroom. This had to be one of the best things I could have done as this meant Chassis (seating layout) was going to be important to the end result.