When I was in Tarifa, Spain (see Tarifa the place for van life) my neighbours were a family of 3 living in a big blue bus.
Meet Danny and Cristyn and their kid Felix. They spent 5 months last summer in the UK converting this old bus into their travelling home and now they live here.
It used to be a party bus but now it’s a family home. It smells of different kinds of tea, sunday dinner and Nag Champa.
This is the best bus home I’ve ever seen. I need to show you this. Let me take you on a tour of the Blue Bus…
It’s an EX-USAF Dodge Commando G13 made in 1990
It’s double the size of my van
They put an actual house door on it
Let’s have a tea
This is inside the bus
Everything is made from solid wood
It has a full kitchen
A fridge and freezer
The biggest spice rack I’ve ever seen
They’re always cooking nice food
Here’s the wardrobe
The bedroom
Sofa
There’s loads of storage underneath
Solar power
There are 4x120W panels (wired for 24V because of the long wire to the back and voltage drop) to charge the living area batteries. The small panel (to the right) keeps the engine starter battery topped up – useful if you’re staying in the same place for a while.
440Ah of batteries
Refillable gas tank
This is a permanently installed refillable tank (filled at fuel stations with car LPG) made by Gas-it. This powers the water boiler, oven and hob.
70L water tank
It doesn’t last so long but they are about to get a much bigger tank – there’s enough room.
Truma ultra store boiler
For all water heating. It runs off gas
Shower
Toilet
It’s a proper home. What more do you need?
I don’t know if I could drive it though. They were saying if you go the wrong way on a narrow road it can be miles before you can turn round – no 3 point turns on little mountain roads. What do you reckon?
Oh and please share this post so other people get to see this amazing home on wheels
This family are an inspiration. Danny puts on parties in big inflatable igloos (IglooDisco.co.uk) – amongst many other interesting things. Their Instagram: @vagabusadventures
Comments below…
Thanks Mike for showing this stunning bus. I just bought a 2002 Renault Master 2 with a 2.5D engine, no turbo and only 80Hp, mecanicly a very easy van to maintain, no electronics and not much to go wrong, it’ a L3H2 version, so plenty of space for 1 (2) persons. If I can find some money, I wil start fitting her out very basicly, extreme low budget.
I would love a bus like this one, but if you have no source of income, the running of one of these will be much too expensive. Also because of my age, I have to renew my bus and also HGV-licence every year, I let it expire because I didn’t need it anymore, and unless I win the lottery I couldn’t afford to run a bus anyway, I will try not to be jealous..
Your own Van, and hopefully my Renault Master (once done) is enough for me space wise, and they are still fairly economical on fuel.
Thanks again for your updates,
Peter.
I have just today finished converting the exact same van! We are off around Europe for a month on Saturday… I have seen a few converted RMs from this time knocking about, and I can see why – they’re a cracking size, not too big/small, engines are tidy, drive like a dream, and like you say weirdly economical. We also converted on a budget by raiding the scrap wood in the car park of Ikea for most of our material.
Good luck on the conversion!
Hi Ben, hope you’ll be happy with your RM, and think that you had a good idea to reduce the expenses by recuperating stuff from Ikea scrap wood. Too bad there no Ikea nearby here, and their scrap material dumps are well protected and surveilled.
It will be quite a change for me, as I’ve spend most of my life on my barges and boats, but that’s something of the past now, apart from the boat I’m living on, but can’t really afford anymore. so we’ll see how it go’s, I’m in no rush, as long as it will be finished by tomorrow.
Good luck on the roads.
We fitted the solar system and removed the rear windows and plated them over on this bus for the owners at the dodge50 HQ in Yorkshire.
Awesome! Definitley We won to live in this bus! Great work! 🙂
Love how they have kept a couple of the old authentic bus seats, to make sure they’ve got a kid-seat that works and is legal. Great craftsmanship and reminds me of a canal boat I once had a holiday on!
Excellent Conversion and Nice people Good stuff Mike..:)…nice to see someone else,s Bus on you travels..:)
..
Brilliant article Mike, I was just commenting about your adventures last night and this ‘home’ bus is just great!
The only way to live. Cheapest cost of living esp. with solar panels. Buses are built very sturdy to go 1million miles as opposed to a typical flimsy stick & cardboard RV made for 100k miles if that. In the US you can get an older converted bus in good shape for $10k-$25k. Mobility gives you so many options. If you get sick of the neighborhood or your neighbors you just drive away.
Very interesting bus. We are coming to the end of renovating a large lorry based motorhome we bought last year which is also 10m long. The comments about narrow streets and tight mountain roads have been our biggest fear in setting off in the beast 🙂
Wow interesting, Liked Idea and Implementation
That’s so awesome, I mean it really is a proper full on home on wheels. Although driving it must be a quite a challenge!
Actually, Mike, can I ask you a question? I’m starting to think/look into the van lifestyle, and trying to work out how much I’d need to save before I could set off. How much do you need per month at the moment to get by? Thanks a bunch!! 🙂
unless he has had the pick up modified that gas tank is orientated wrong the ally connection box should be facing down wards edge on the floor he will either be getting less or more cappacity les is ok but more could be dangerous
you need to get out more mate…..
Is he wrong? Why wouldn’t they want to know of a potential danger for their family if he’s right? Good of him to point it out imho…..
thank you imk a registered gas fitter so spotting faults is second nature
They’re designed to be mounted under a vehicle – so with the box and the tap facing on the side, outwards for easy access. It’s all good 🙂
the box should be pointing downward mike ive fitted two on the end of the tank there should be an arrow depicting vertically up and yes to previous post i do get out plenty having built and run me vans for years , it was as a registered gas fitter i commented spinning it reduces capacity and can cause liquid pick up
Interesting. So you’re saying the box should be underneath, facing the ground? because looking inside this tank (from the gas-it website) the float is operating vertically when the box is facing to the side and the pick up is at the top of the volume so it will take off the vapour, as expected. If the box was facing the ground, the pickup would be half way and the float, well it wouldn’t work (moving horizontally). Are we looking at the same tanks?
What an absolutely beautiful home! The extensive use of wood and all the amenities of a bricks and sticks house would make it a dream home for me. It must’ve taken an awful lot of work, time and money to build. I love the shower, water heater, LPG tank, loo, solar and battery bank and the comfy furniture. What a bonus for you Mike that they were also delightful people.
I suppose the downside of having less manoeuvrability is outweighed by the wonderfully comfortable living space.
It’s great to see people who would have the talent and ability to have a good standard of living in a traditional urban home opting instead to travel and enjoy our lovely planet. Must be an absolute dream for children too, having mum and dad so close all the time and seeing so much of our world. We have been fortunate enough to live on an incredible planet, and it doesn’t make sense not to see as much of it as possible while we’re here. Long may they continue to live this happy life, and thank you so much Mike and the Blue Bus family for showing us their home. Dave.
What a bus!
Just converting a Ford Transit Luton and there are some cool ideas in that place. Wish we has that much space, but like you I’d be terrified to try and drive it…
Cool bus- i think i was admiring this very same one from our cafe at Beat Herder a few weeks ago…
Hey Mack, yes that was us. We hosted the Igloo Disco at Beatherder
have fun!
We fitted the solar system and removed the rear windows and plated them over on this bus for the owners at the dodge50 HQ in Yorkshire.
Wow interesting, Liked Idea and Implementation
That’s so awesome, I mean it really is a proper full on home on wheels. Although driving it must be a quite a challenge!
Actually, Mike, can I ask you a question? I’m starting to think/look into the van lifestyle, and trying to work out how much I’d need to save before I could set off. How much do you need per month at the moment to get by? Thanks a bunch!! 🙂
Very interesting bus. We are coming to the end of renovating a large lorry based motorhome we bought last year which is also 10m long. The comments about narrow streets and tight mountain roads have been our biggest fear in setting off in the beast 🙂
Brilliant article Mike, I was just commenting about your adventures last night and this ‘home’ bus is just great!