I'm thinking about converting a bus or medium-duty box truck into a motorhome, and I'm wondering why I hardly ever hear about anyone converting a box truck.

I know there are obvious aesthetic issues for many, and I can see that the lack of easy access to the motorhome area from the cab is a serious downside, but it looks like you'd have more power, a better wheelbase, a better transmission, and so on for far less money than a bus of the same year model.

And, it looks like it would be easier to outfit the more rectangular box shape than to try to match the irregular curves of a bus interior.

Are there legal or insurance issues that prevent this? I keep seeing box trucks advertised as "automatic transmission, no commercial driver's license required" implying that I'll need a CDL to drive any standard-transmission box truck. Is that true?

What do you think? Have I overlooked something, or is a box truck worth considering as a motorhome "blank"?

The biggest issues we see are that most box trucks are designed for local delivery. This means the gearing is probably not the best for extended highway travel.

Also, the box truck suspensions are seldom air bags which could result in a rough riding conversion.

The aesthetic issues could keep you out of many RV parks.

As for the CDL issue, if you convert the box into living space with cooking, sleeping, water, and electrical fittings, then the truck would become a motorhome and an CDL would not be needed. Perhaps, because of weight and you resident state code, you might need a non-commercial drivers license.

I have thought of the same thing. I owned an International step van and did covert part of it. I put in sliding doors between the cab and bed, put in a toilet that was enclosed and ran 12v with solar and an inverter and 120v power. I think once you have worked on a step van, you will soon see why people do not convert box vans. You can step right into a step van from the ground without steps. They are not real top heavy. A box van bed is quite high and would be a real danger in a high wind. The box van is tempting though with all that room and some have a cab over that would make a nice queen sized bed.
Carl

You can easily fabricate a boot connection between a box truck's cab and it's cargo area. That is nothing more than popping out the rear window, sectioning the lower center of the cab, and using some type of flexible membrane to make an air tight merger between the van body and the cab's new opening. I built my own boot connection on the back of my Volvo in my avatar. The factory cab is air ride, so I have ALOT of movement in the booted connection. I have not suffered one leak of air or water in over 3 years since completion at the boot connection. I would NOT bother to convert any box van unless you had cab to coach access from inside, Being forced to pull over to access the coach area will get very old quickly if you have a family member along with you.

The sale pitch wording of "no CDL required" is more in reference to the low GVW that most box trucks are spec'ed by the dealers or factories. The transmission is not the determining factor for the CDL or regular license requirement, it's whether the truck is titled for over 26,000 lbs with air brakes or not. As Mark mentioned, if you apply for a MH conversion, you become exempt from any commercial licensing requirements. You need to check with your state you consider your residency/domicile to see if they have RV class A driver's licenses for things heavier than 26,000 lbs etc.

A panel van would be my first choice as well, something like a P-30 based chassis with an aluminum body to keep the weight down. Several of the panel vans have diesel engines such as the Cummins 4B or 6B series engines. The 4B engine is a very economical engine with plenty of power if turbo'ed with an inner cooler. I had a P-30 panel van set up as a mobile workshop with a material trailer in tow through the mountains in Montana with no complaints powerwise. I had a NV-4500 tranny in it with an exhaust brake. It was a nice setup for me for a while.

I doubt any of the panel vans or larger cargo van trucks are going to be accepted by the more "refined" RV parks. Being an HDT owner, I've had more than a few camps turn me down, or restrict us to a back corner of the park so we were out of sight to most guests.

If you are concerned about conforming to the irregular wall shapes of a bus, have you considered a wall form template to work off of? Few of the buses have any change in the wall contour from front to back. This makes a single wall template a very useful tool for fabricating the interior parts and getting over the hurdles/ mind blocks of thinking "outside the box" shape of a cargo van

Some of the airport commuter bus/vans are nearly cubed in exterior profile with very normal walls. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2001-FREIGHTLINER-CHAMPI...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
They have better drivetrain spec's for interstate use than most cargo trucks or chassis cab delivery trucks.

Thanks for all the great responses!

Mark and Dale: I guess I should check the final drive ratio of whatever I buy, and expect to have to play with the springs a bit to get a reasonable ride.

I'm definitely worried about being kept out of RV parks, though. This is to be for full-time, work-related travel. We're going to need to be acceptable to almost all RV parks to get into places near where we need to be for work.

So, are there rules in place at some RV parks that say "no rigs of type x", or do they just say "that's too ugly"? I ask because I wonder if a jazzy paint job would make them happy, or if I need to pay close attention to making it "RV-like".

I'm thinking about something like a reasonably new International, so the shape of the cab looks good, but it's definitely a box on the back, and I figure if I put on a nice paint job and enough windows it should seem acceptable, unless they have a strict rule against a particular vehicle type.

Carl: Thanks for the thoughts about the step van. I'm thinking about a 30-foot box van for full-timing, though. So, I'd need a bigger step van than any I've ever seen. My favorite candidates so far are moving trucks. See a good example here.


$20k gets you a nice 30-foot rig with air ride, six speed, and a big place to build your living quarters, built in 2000. If I look at MCI buses, I find on Craigslist a bus built in 1983, advertised at nearly $30k. So, I'm thinking it might be worth it to try to save $10k, lose ten feet of length, and accept something that's a bit less comfortable to drive.

On the other hand, a good forty-foot bus could potentially serve us well into retirement.

Dave: Wow, what a rig! We thought about getting a semi and semi-trailer as you've done. It's still a possibility, but the cost of paint or plastic wrap to make a rig that size look "professional", or at least acceptable in most RV parks is one reason we probably won't think about a rig like that for a while. (But when we retire...)

Thanks for the wall template idea. That should help.

Everyone: Thanks for the tips and help. Today, the MCI-9s are looking better again.

Dave, I almost forgot to ask: What did you use for the flexible material for the boot behind the cab? The best I've been able to think of so far is something like an old inner tube.

I know that the nauga is a tough beast in the wild, but I think nauga hide might not be the best thing to have here.

And I've tried various types of foam rubber for things like this, with abysmal luck, so I know that's not the way to go.

The boot connection was sealed using a flexible pond liner material. I was sceptical of it's life at first, but I have not been able to find a single sign of degrading, rips or cracks since 2003/2004 ish. One thing I think has helped to keep the material from drying out is the custom fairings I fabricated to merger the factory cab to the cab extension we built. There is less than 2" between the cab and coach box.

You can find a slightly thinner MIL thickness pond liner than what I used at Home Depot. I ordered mine through my contracting supplier back in Montana. I found out Home Depot carried the consumer grade liner about 4 months after I finished the boot connection. I spent WAY too much on what I used, but in the long term, I have no regrets at all.

If you go with a moving van, you can reconfigure the front section of the box overhand to a more "RV' friendly appearance with over the counter nose piece sections from any commercial trailer shop. The entire van body box on the truck is built from trailer parts. Some of the high end race hauler RV's are built with the same corner sections and side sheeting.
www.showhauler.com www.kibbi.com and a few of the older www.cowboycadillac.com coaches used the same types of corner sections you see on moving vans. The main difference is, they slope the top of the bunk area and build basement storage into the truck to hide the frame rails and suspension. If you enclose the lower parts of the truck's van body, you will be amazed at how quickly it will resemble a cookie cutter Winnebago or other toothpick framed RV. If you can find a smooth sided FRP paneled van body, it will be much more appealing than the 4 ft sectioned side paneled bodies. First thing to dress up a moving van is to strip off the commercial door hardware and build flush mounted doors that are human sized, not pallet sized

quote:

Originally posted by thompsonh:
$20k gets you a nice 30-foot rig with air ride, six speed, and a big place to build your living quarters, built in 2000. If I look at MCI buses, I find on Craigslist a bus built in 1983, advertised at nearly $30k. So, I'm thinking it might be worth it to try to save $10k, lose ten feet of length, and accept something that's a bit less comfortable to drive.

We have an MCI 8 that we have converted as we lived in it fulltime. You may get some idea of what is involved on our website, where we have the complete story of the conversion process. This link will take you to it http://gypsyjournal.net/bus_conversion_page_1.htm

For what it's worth, I think $28,500 for the bus on Craigs List is high. There are better deals to be had out there.

Before you invest in a Box Truck I would advise that you check on insurance.
We had a friend that did a similar vehicle and he was never able to get it insured for a reasonable annual rate. Probably because there was, and is, not a sufficient quantity vehicles of that type in service which insurance companies can use as a basis for evaluation.

....insure it for liability only and forget about the rest....the Insco will not bark at that....geofkaye

Liability-only is what I have on my bus. I'm a little worried driving it around, since if I hit something, I'm out of pocket for repairs!

Also, I read that you really should get the equivalent of homeowners, in case some injures themselves in your RV.

I had no problem with Progressive quoting me full coverage for a chassis cab truck. I did want coverage on the van body on it's back, it is at best a $3,000.00 box to replace if used, especially from a previous commercial application with warehouse trolls slamming pallets and forklifts into its walls/ceiling.

If you get a MH conversion approved by your state, the truck is then an RV, notify the insurance that you want the policy to be a MH policy and you'll be covered without issue. Insurance companies don't like paying for somebody's back yard weekend projects if the owner can't prove it's value. Getting an appraisal of it when finished is the first step. To me, it's only fair to have it appraised, both for you and the insurance, at least then you know where you stand in value to decide on coverages.


I have had several policies in the past written out for agreed value, it covers you for XXX amount of $ if you have a total loss. I've done it for Jeeps/pickups that were too old to rely on depreciation value or NADA. It's a cheaper method than restoration appraisals when all is said and done. You may want to consider this as well.

Liability only is a bad way to go if you have over $10,000.00 in a vehicle. The amount of thieves and low lifes who steal cargo vans and moving vans for one time heists is rising. You'd be amazed at how hard it is to get something like this back in one piece, they usually torch them just to prevent trace evidence. This is worse than a wreck to me, at least a wreck will give you a 50% chance you are not at fault and can expect the other person to repair your vehicle.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dave K.,

FWIW our 1990 MCI 102A3 cost $22,000 2 years ago. Of course, that was before the conversion.......

Having lived in our converted school bus for over a year...I've decided that if/when we convert another vehicle, we'll look seriously at box trucks. Naturally, everything will have trade-offs but we do like some aspects of the box truck as a platform for conversion.

About being accepted at *all* RV parks? I think you'd need a modern, high-end Class-A motorhome to be accepted everywhere in the nation (even then you may have length restrictions!). In our experience, any location where there is an RV park with strict age/appearance rules, there is usually one (or more) nice RV parks just down the road where such restrictions don't apply.

We've never been turned away because of our bus conversion; granted we & our bus have a fairly conservative appearance. If anything, most folks are happy to see something different for a change.

Sean

Dave: Thanks for the info about the boot connection. I hadn't thought about pond liner material. That sounds perfect! It should UV resistant, and as tough and pliable as anyone would need. I'll try to remember to look for nose pieces at our local trailer shop. (Rummaging through Tractor Supply Company and Trailer Wheel and Frame occasionally is something we do for fun.)

Nick: I remember reading your bus conversion articles and web site some time ago. I've been inspired by that. We like the idea of having a big, conventional refrigerator, and now we know that it is possible to get one through the door of an MCI-8!

All: We're still vacillating on this. On one hand, homemade conversions like Nick's, Dave's, Jake Von Slatt's, and others make the bus seem like a great idea. On the other hand, there's the lure of the big, empty, rectangular box on the back of a modern, medium-duty truck. Of course, we should keep in mind that things can go badly, and it's not the right choice for everyone.

(Some of you might have noticed that a conventional RV was not one of the "other hands". Just a personality flaw of mine, I guess.)