veggin' out

Just to give you some perspective, we thought that we include an "under the hood" photo so that you can see the difference between 'before' and 'after'.

 

Scott has mounted a metal cooler that he picked up at a second-hand store.  In order to it fit under the hood, he had to cut part of the hood that goes around the wheel well... The best thing about this is the little sticker on the front of the cooler that reads "AS IS"...

 

Inside the cooler... three filters have been attached inside the cooler which will further filter out any remaining particles in the veggie oil.  The third filter(far right - yellowish colour) is for removing excess water from the oil before it goes into the engine.  

The black rad hose running through the cooler, houses copper piping which contains  the veggie oil.  We chose to use copper piping inside the rad hose because metal conducts heat efficiently.  So, inside the copper piping there is veggie oil, and inside the rad hose, surrounding the copper piping is coolant which becomes hot as the bus runs.  As the coolant heats up, so does the veggie oil - which enables the veggie oil to flow through the 'fuel lines' much easier.  Unfortunately this system does not work so well in colder climates, which is why we are headed south to try it out. 

Once the veggie oil has left the cooler it flows through the engine and back to the return lines which run the length of the bus  (34ft long), circulating the fuel back to our veggie fuel tank (big blue barrel located in the back of the bus).  It took two full days to "shove" 50ft of 1/2"copper pipe through 50 ft of 1" rad hose...

Here is a close up shot of the barrel; notice the fuel pump on the left which will pump the oil through the lines; From the gray line (the right hand line) the vegetable oil goes to the engine through the copper pipe which is fitted inside of the black "rad hose" that you see in the picture.  We used copper piping so that it would heat easily and efficiently.  In a diesel engine all of the fuel is never all used and has to circulate back to the diesel tank, this is why we have a 'return line' for the veggie oil (on the left) and because we are heating the lines with hot coolant from the engine we need to return the coolant to the engine.  You may also notice that the rad hose goes "into" the tank we did this so that it would heat the oil in the tank before pumping it back into the "fuel" lines.

from the inside out

Scott began the renovations early on in October (2010).  To the right is the hallway which leads to the toilet (straight back) and to the "back workshop area" which is to left of  the toilet.  The large space to the left is where we now sleep...

Scott painting the new 'skoolie' what Martha Stewart calls  "Gypsy Caravan" blue... with the threat of the cold weather setting in we began painting the bus late September... Roughly four gallons of paint - which amounted to about three coats of paint.  We were able to complete most of the painting before the cold weather caught up with us...

Painted and parked with friends (Rick and Carla) near Mono Cliffs provincial park, just north of Orangeville, ON... the bus was our home for the few months (October - December) while we did the renovations.  

raw bus material

 

Once we decided that we wanted to travel using veggie oil - we had to go diesel.  The idea of buying an old diesel school bus seemed to suit our needs.  I believe that this was one of the first 'skoolies' we came across on Kijiji; Purchased in August 2010 in Norfolk County from a lovely retired couple - the Kozacks for $900.

   

(Front to back) Lucky for us the bus was already "gutted"with a toilet installed the back right-hand corner.  Formerly a "fruit stand bus" the seats inside the bus had already been removed.  According to the couple that we bought the bus from, the former owner was also hoping to convert it from a "fruit stand" to an RV, but wasn't able to finish it and sold it for money.

(Back to front) To the left - you can see a bunk area that the last owner had built for himself - we ripped this out and used the wood to build a larger sleeping area.  We also removed the partial wall at the front of the bus and moved this to the back to create a "workshop space" where we could store our tools as well as the veggie oil system and supplies.