The Most INSANE Shuttle Bus Build I’ve Ever Toured!

Name: The Most INSANE Shuttle Bus Build I’ve Ever Toured!
Uploaded: 2026-08-19T12:06:26+00:00
Duration: 31 min 23 s
Channel: New Jersey Outdoor Adventures

00:00I knew the woodworking. If you can't tell, like I'm an experienced carpenter, so a lot of this stuff I

00:05kind of knew, but plumbing was new to me and the solar was new to me.

00:08That stuff I spent a lot of time and a lot of research and carpentry, if you get it wrong,

00:12it's not life-threatening. Electric, if you get it wrong, you could die.

00:16Welcome back to the show. This is Patrick with New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel.

00:21Today, Joe is going to blow you away with the shuttle bus camper conversion.

00:25This is Joe with JoJo's Wild Ride on Instagram. He built out this full-time van dwelling with a raised

00:32roof and an absolutely incredible interior.

00:35He's going to give us a full tour inside now, so join us.

00:40Hey, Patrick. Welcome. I'm Joe with JoJo's Wild Ride. Thank you so much for coming. Really appreciate you.

00:45I'm here to show you today my tiny home bus conversion that I built during COVID when I got shuffled

00:53out of New York City.

00:54I was living in Brooklyn, had a job and a career in the events industry, so that shut down right

00:58away.

00:59Didn't know if that was coming back, so I thought, what could I do that'd be a little bit different?

01:02And I said, let me build myself a home that I could drive around.

01:06And this was the COVID time, so we didn't really know.

01:08And that's what I set about doing. I took advantage of the quarantine and the little bit of savings I

01:13had,

01:13and I spent it all on this, and I'm about to take you around and show you everything I did.

01:19All right, so the least interesting part first is the crawl space.

01:23This is a little hard to get to, but it's filled with my junk right now. Please excuse that.

01:27But this is where I have a lot of room for a lot of storage.

01:30I have all tools back there. You see my guitar case, ladder to get up on the roof, all kinds

01:35of tools.

01:36My laundry goes here, and of course the water tanks.

01:38I got 100 gallons of fresh water here and a good locking safe,

01:42so I can keep any valuables locked up when I need to.

01:46And then this is just a cargo floor with thick, heavy polyurethane that keeps nice and strong,

01:54if anything rubs and scratches on that.

01:55It's kind of a cargo area, so I don't care too much about that.

01:58These doors are awesome because when I'm inside at my bed,

02:02I can kick the doors open, look at the Florida beach or wherever I happen to be parked.

02:05So that's awesome, but you'll get to see that in a second.

02:08Ready to come around?

02:13Guys, you can't feel it, but it's 90 degrees right now,

02:16so we have the mini-split running, so you'll get to see what that's like inside.

02:22One of the things I did on this bus was raise the roof.

02:25You might notice it looks a little different.

02:26So the roof is a foot higher than it should be.

02:29That was the old roof line where the lights are, and that's the new roof.

02:32So I built that panel back there out of wood and fiberglass all over a metal frame that I built

02:38myself.

02:38I had never welded before.

02:40My brother-in-law taught me how to weld and helped me raise the roof,

02:44and then he lent me his equipment to help me so that I could finish raising the roof.

02:49It took about a month in a rainy August of COVID quarantine,

02:52and got it up and put on new aluminum, a new fiberglass where I need it.

02:57Built a little spoiler on the back to look cool.

03:00This is like the new aluminum here, this panel and going up.

03:05So the window height used to be basically here.

03:07When I raised the roof, I took all the windows out, cut the roof off, jacked it up a foot,

03:13and then raised the windows with it.

03:15So I welded in a 12-inch piece of steel into every one of these all the way around,

03:20and then put new aluminum on to fill in the gaps.

03:24I'll show you this real quick.

03:26This is where I have my access to a graywater tank and diesel tank for the diesel heater.

03:34So this is graywater.

03:36It's like a 40-gallon tank or something.

03:38This is a diesel tank that I fill for the S-bar hydronic diesel heater.

03:44This is just the dump valve, and there's actually an electronic solenoid valve that I can activate from inside

03:51and dump this right over the dump station.

03:54This is a vent for the bathroom.

03:56You'll see that on the inside.

03:59Standard cab up front.

04:00Nothing special up here.

04:01Tried to keep it kind of low-key looking.

04:04Just looks like a normal shuttle bus.

04:07It's a 2014 StarCraft Ford E450 chassis with the 6.8-liter V10.

04:15Standard van engine.

04:16I wanted a diesel, but the gas ended up being a blessing

04:18because it's cheaper to work on and cheaper now to fill.

04:23Up there, you can see the secondary roof slant.

04:27That's the part that I added.

04:28So the part where the original bell dome is, that was the original bus,

04:32and then all that stuff up there is new metal framing, and then wood,

04:36and then either aluminum or fiberglass, depending on where you're looking to get up to that new roof elevation.

04:41On top, I got four 300-watt solar panels.

04:45So I got 1,200 watts of solar up there, and the whole bus is solar-powered.

04:48I have no generator and no engine tie-in for the power.

04:52So apart from the diesel heater, all the electronics, the fridge,

04:55everything inside is fully solar-powered,

04:57even the mini-split air conditioner that you saw running back there.

05:01The bus is 27 feet long, and it's 8 foot wide.

05:04So I have like 200-some square feet inside.

05:07I chose this one because I wanted—I moved out of my apartment to move into this during COVID,

05:13so I didn't want to feel like I was living tiny, you know, cramped in a little van

05:17because I was a full-time van dweller.

05:20So I also didn't want a gigantic rig that I couldn't park anywhere.

05:23So believe it or not, 27 foot fits in some normal parking spaces.

05:29Other cases, I need two spaces or a space and a half,

05:31but I can fit this thing almost anywhere except a parking garage,

05:35but I can navigate around, and that's why I chose the size I did.

05:39All right, you ready to see inside?

05:41You guys want to come in?

05:42I'll start you—don't mind the sand. We're parked on the sand here.

05:45I'll start you with my fitness center.

05:48This is my pull-up bar that I put in.

05:50I used a whole bunch of old bus parts to add extra rails and grabs as I did this.

05:54And you're going to walk past the inverter as you're coming in.

05:56This is a big, powerful inverter, 3,000, 9,000 watt, powered by four huge batteries inside.

06:03And up here, this is just a normal bus front, as you can see.

06:07I kind of left it sort of stock up here, and I won't open this yet.

06:11As you can see, when you're looking in from the outside,

06:13it doesn't really look like anything's going on.

06:15So that's kind of a security feature.

06:17Just keep this kind of low-key looking.

06:19And this is just, you know, the normal deal.

06:22One thing I did here was put this nice decorative panel

06:24because I had a whole bunch of beautiful wood back there,

06:27and I had to remove some stuff here.

06:29So that's the only touch I did up here.

06:31This is all standard stock, just normal as the bus was.

06:35So these are just the normal whatever was in here.

06:39This is just the normal StarCraft shuttle bus stuff.

06:43And nothing really different up here.

06:44This is my little garage area.

06:46I have my tools, oil, like some engine fluids and stuff down there.

06:50I call this area the breezeway.

06:52Sometimes I keep, like, cold sodas out here in the winter because they stay nice and cool.

06:55All right, you ready to come in?

06:56Come on.

07:01Okay, welcome.

07:02Oh, you can't feel it, but it's way cooler in here.

07:05It's really hot out there.

07:06And that mini split saved my life.

07:08The first year I lived here, I didn't have it, and I roasted.

07:11So I put that in as, like, a necessary afterthought,

07:14and it's saving Patrick and my life right now.

07:17All right, so welcome.

07:18Look at this.

07:19Look, I can't even touch it.

07:20I knew living full-time, not, like, a weekend thing,

07:24that I didn't want to be hitting my hands when I put my shirt on

07:27or hitting my hands when I was stretching.

07:30I knew I wouldn't have been comfortable full-time living if I didn't raise the roof.

07:33So before I bought the bus, I looked for buses with straight walls that, you know, not curvy walls.

07:38And I talked to my brother-in-law, who's a welder, and said,

07:40you think we could do this?

07:41He said, we could do it.

07:42So I picked out a bus, and then we cut the roof off together, like I mentioned,

07:46and jacked it up, and look at this.

07:48It feels like a house in here, which was the idea.

07:51Living in here full-time, I didn't want to go crazy, feeling like I'm stuck in a tin can.

07:56All right, so what would you like to see?

08:00I have a beautiful Italian leather sofa here.

08:02This I got for free during the build,

08:04and a lot of the stuff you see in here I got for free or really cheap during COVID and

08:10during quarantine.

08:11I reclaimed.

08:12A lot of the materials in here are reclaimed, so it was really good.

08:17You know, one of my pillars of build was economy, you know, value,

08:22because I was building on a no-job-at-that-time budget.

08:26This area, these black cabinets here, and there's other parts you'll see around,

08:30this was a dining room hutch that was from a Bennington Pine in Vermont.

08:36I bought, I got it for free from the original couple who bought it in 1970, 50 years ago.

08:42They passed away, and the son-in-law gave it to me,

08:44and I chopped it up and put it in different places around the bus.

08:48This houses all my electronics.

08:49I don't know if you guys want to see this.

08:52Patrick, do you want a light with this help?

08:55Here we got all the solar for my 1200 watts on the roof.

08:59I got, it's a 24-volt system, so I have 24 and 12-volt with the converter there,

09:05and just all the solar gizmos.

09:06I had to learn all this myself.

09:08I'd never done solar, so I learned all this on YouTube during quarantine.

09:14As COVID was ramping up, this is what I was doing, spending my time researching this.

09:18And I thought it looked cool.

09:19I spent a lot of time making the wiring look nice.

09:21That's why I put it in this cool glass cabinet,

09:23because I just thought it was, you know, it was something I was proud of,

09:28so I wanted to show it off a little bit.

09:30On the, right under here, under the couch, are the batteries.

09:32So, if we slid the couch back, you'd see, I'll show you a picture,

09:35but there's, you can see pictures on the Instagram.

09:38There's four big SOK 206 amp-hour batteries.

09:42They have like 10 kilowatts, or if I'm remembering that right, 9600 or something.

09:47So, huge power bank, and there's no generator.

09:51So, in the five years I've been living and traveling in this,

09:54I've run out of power maybe twice,

09:56and that was like during weeks of rain where we had cloud cover,

09:59or times when I was literally parked under trees or something.

10:02But I had no issue with that.

10:03And I do have a short power plug if I really need it, but I rarely do.

10:07Okay, windows.

10:08You can see one of the other cool things that people like is that

10:11the window height when you were in the shuttle bus, it was a foot lower.

10:14So, you kind of, the top of your view got cut off.

10:16So, with that raised roof, it really showcases wherever you are.

10:20And the idea of living in a bus is that you can park in beautiful places.

10:23Like right now, I'm on my gracious neighbor's beautiful property.

10:26You can see out the windows.

10:28And if you don't want to see that,

10:29you can close these beautiful curtains that my mom made for me.

10:31She's really talented with sewing and that kind of work.

10:34So, she helped me out big time with that.

10:39Okay, why don't we start you over here in the kitchen area.

10:42This is my pantry.

10:43I built this.

10:44All the wood you see, almost all of it is reclaimed wood.

10:48So, this is all reclaimed.

10:49I found this stuff on the side of the road.

10:50It was this busted up old shelf.

10:52I milled it all down.

10:53All the counters, all the drawers, all the floors.

10:56It's almost all reclaimed wood.

10:58On the end of my pantry here, I put a little mirror.

11:01So, you could, Patrick could check out his fit.

11:04And so can I when I'm getting ready.

11:07That goes there.

11:08Down here, I just have access to like some valves and stuff.

11:11You can't really see it.

11:12The toilet is there now.

11:13But I have the plumbing and et cetera back there.

11:16Something I'll show you in here.

11:17A little trash compartment.

11:19Don't mind the mess.

11:19But this right here is a feature people love.

11:22This is for the radiant heated floors, which is killer.

11:26One of the things you don't realize before you live in a bus is that

11:30the wind goes right underneath.

11:31So, in the wintertime, if it's cold, no matter how warm the air is in here,

11:35it's like you're walking on an ice rink.

11:36So, I got this tip to do heated floors with the S-bar hydronic heater.

11:41And this is the unit that controls that.

11:43It does the heated floors.

11:45It does the heat, hot water for the sink and the hot water for the shower.

11:49As well as heat for this blower here.

11:52So, I could turn that up high or low.

11:54Whatever I want in the wintertime.

11:56And that cranks out like more heat than I could possibly ever need.

11:59The floors.

12:00This is all reclaimed wood.

12:01This wood's like over 100 years old.

12:02I took it out of a building in Soho in Manhattan during COVID.

12:06The guys were giving it away on Craigslist.

12:08The bus.

12:09I just bought the bus.

12:10I still had 22 gray seats and a wheelchair lift in here.

12:12And I pulled up to this place.

12:14It was when the Soho riots happened.

12:16There was like shattered glass everywhere.

12:18Drove the bus over the shattered glass and loaded up all the seats with this wood.

12:23It all looks like this.

12:24But had all these jagged nails coming out of it.

12:26You can see these.

12:27I looked it up.

12:28These are the old mill marks from it.

12:29It was milled in like the 1880s or 90s or something.

12:32And I painstakingly for months milled this down.

12:36Cleaned all the edges.

12:37Cleaned the faces.

12:37And then butterflied it in half to do all the wood you see here.

12:40So the countertops, the floors, this counter, all the faces of the cabinetry.

12:46That's all started as this antique New York City former factory then turned off as building wood.

12:52And you can really see I chose the best pieces for the countertops here.

12:56I've got like wormwood maple and bird's eye maple.

12:59I thought these were the most interesting pieces.

13:01So you can really admire nature's beauty here.

13:06And the rest of the cabinetry is the same.

13:09Beautiful wood grain.

13:11It's all the same wood.

13:12These middle pieces are not reclaimed.

13:13I bought these.

13:14But all this is the reclaimed stuff.

13:16And I built this all myself.

13:17I built the cabinets and did all the edges and the milling and the shaping.

13:25Everything myself.

13:29Over some very, very cold winter months I was working on this.

13:33Oh, okay.

13:35This is my stove.

13:36I do my cooking right here.

13:37So it's very easy.

13:40Just a little kitchen area.

13:41Frying pan, pots, whatever it is.

13:44This is great because when I'm cooking I can just pop open the pantry.

13:47Everything's right here.

13:48And then the spice rack.

13:50I built these myself too.

13:51These are walnut wood that I got from an old lumber mill that burnt down in New Jersey.

13:57Okay.

13:59I'm walking you through the kitchen.

14:01This is a new addition here.

14:02These under cabinet lights.

14:03I didn't have these originally.

14:04I put these in to kind of set the vibe.

14:07I think it adds a nice little touch especially when you don't want the house lights on all the time.

14:12Got my little banana hammock currently holding the cantaloupe.

14:15My fruit basket that my friend Eddie gave me.

14:18And people seem to love the backsplash.

14:20This is aluminum.

14:22Peel and stick aluminum.

14:23Bought on Amazon.

14:24Nothing too fancy.

14:25It was a little tricky to put on because if you don't line it up just right it doesn't look

14:30right.

14:31But even this.

14:31Like all this old trim.

14:32This trim is that old reclaimed wood.

14:35I custom made this stain color.

14:37It's like a navy stain that I spent a lot of time hammering down the color.

14:42Like getting it just how I wanted it.

14:44So you could still see the wood grain through.

14:45Because the wood was so beautiful.

14:47And then I put like a matte kind of finish on it.

14:52Same all here and here and here.

14:53And then these parts.

14:54Like these silver parts here.

14:55And there's some more behind you.

14:57These were the old grab rails in the bus.

14:58So I tried to repurpose everything I could.

15:00So like the rails that you would hang on to in the shuttle bus.

15:03So you'll see that here and like under the table over there.

15:07A hundred gallons of water.

15:09Lasts me a long time.

15:11You just saw kind of the cooking area.

15:13This is a little bit more of my dishes and cooking type of stuff.

15:17And then this area converts to the personal care area.

15:22And this is where I keep my toothbrush and that kind of stuff.

15:24In this little hidden drawer.

15:26Pops out right there.

15:27So I actually do have a little mirror here that pops out.

15:29It's just getting painted right now.

15:32But this is where I kind of brush my teeth and do all that stuff.

15:35Don't mind the insulation in the window.

15:41Okay.

15:42Extra shelving here.

15:44I looked anywhere I could to just do some unique touches.

15:47Like I wanted to be able to see up here.

15:49There is a lip here.

15:50But I thought it looks cool.

15:52I needed something to hold that stuff in.

15:53So I keep lighter weight stuff up here of course.

15:56And then same up here.

15:57This cabinet is another piece of that antique vintage hutch as well that I cut up.

16:03And it didn't look like this.

16:05But I chopped it up and made it look like this.

16:07So all these drawers.

16:08You might notice everything is on a magnet or a catch.

16:12So when I'm driving nothing flies open.

16:15Even up here everything is on a catch.

16:17Check this out.

16:17I don't know if you can see this beautiful old like antique glass.

16:20It's got like some bubbles in it.

16:22It's got kind of a cool look to it.

16:24And of course all the health food that anyone could possibly need.

16:29Would you like to look up this lamp up here?

16:33I built this lamp.

16:34This is paper.

16:35This is a hand.

16:37Dipped hydro dip paper.

16:38You ever seen that?

16:39Where they put the inks on and you can like dip objects.

16:42It's called hydro dip or something.

16:43Anyway I bought that at an art store in Brooklyn.

16:46I built this lamp for my apartment in Brooklyn when I was living there.

16:50Pre all of this.

16:51And then when I left the apartment I took the kitchen faucet.

16:55Because I had installed that.

16:56This is it.

16:57And the lamp.

16:58So I took them from my apartment.

16:59And then these two pieces which are illuminated in purple.

17:02These are actually acoustic panels that I built.

17:05Because I do play a little bit of music.

17:07So I wanted the acoustics in here to not feel tin canny like it can inside a bus.

17:13So I spent a lot of time making these look nice.

17:16My mom helped me with some of the fabric on that.

17:18And all the lights you see up here.

17:19They change colors to any colors you want.

17:21And they do all kinds of patterns.

17:22And they could be plain or they could be crazy.

17:24This is just what we picked out for now.

17:27Looking over the ceiling.

17:30This here is soffit.

17:32I was looking for something lightweight and cheap.

17:36Inexpensive.

17:36So this is what I chose.

17:38And it's worked out great.

17:39It warps a little.

17:40Like in the heat and stuff.

17:41It doesn't look perfect.

17:42But this is better than like heavy beadboard that I could have put up there.

17:47Or better than the old like nasty gray headliner that was in the bus.

17:51This one was not to my liking.

17:53So you'll notice there's nothing like gray and bussy back here.

17:57The only bus accents are these stainless steel pieces.

18:00And like you saw over on the toaster oven.

18:02This was also one of the grab rails.

18:04I did want to integrate some of the like bus into this area to make it.

18:08You know like an homage to well this is a bus.

18:10But I also want it to feel like a house.

18:12So I didn't want any plywood in here.

18:14There's one plywood wall over there.

18:16Which I actually chose because this is a special piece of plywood.

18:19This is beetle kill pine.

18:23It has this natural blue stain in it.

18:25Bugs do that.

18:26And fungus does that.

18:27And I just saw it like that at Home Depot or something.

18:29And I thought it looked cool.

18:30And it almost matches the blue that I have everywhere else in the bus.

18:33So I left this a piece of plywood for that very reason.

18:36But everywhere else is kind of like a more home-like finished type of touch.

18:42All right continuing on with the kitchen area.

18:45This is my little either standing workstation or stand-up eating bar or sit-down bar.

18:51And it's on top of my fridge.

18:52So I have a fully stocked fridge under here.

18:56I do like ice cream.

18:57So I needed a freezer as well.

18:59So this has a full-size separate freezer.

19:01Not like a dorm fridge.

19:03Guys this brand.

19:04I don't know if I'm supposed to say that.

19:05But I got that on Amazon.

19:06It's been amazing.

19:08It was inexpensive.

19:10And it's been just kicking butt.

19:12And then when I want to sit over here.

19:13This is where I just flip my chair around and sit over here.

19:17I set up the little dining scene for you guys so you can see what it's like when I'm by

19:22myself when I have a guest.

19:23I'll just show you that.

19:24These little beautiful placemats here.

19:26My niece made me these.

19:27So thank you Portia.

19:29And like I said my mom made that.

19:31And my other niece made me.

19:32I mean it gave me these beautiful linens for the bed.

19:35I have a full queen-size bed in here.

19:37Also from Brooklyn.

19:38This is my mattress I had in my apartment.

19:40So no loss of space there.

19:42It's been plenty comfortable.

19:44And obviously all the curtains close up.

19:46And I have like a nice little private spot.

19:48Or like you saw before.

19:49I could kick those doors open.

19:50And have a beautiful view.

19:52If I'm parked somewhere beautiful.

19:53Right at the foot of my bed.

19:54And it's really spectacular.

19:56All right looking up here.

19:58We got all my clothes.

19:59I just took the bus out of winter storage.

20:02I de-winterized it.

20:03So things are a little out of place right now.

20:05But don't mind that.

20:07And you can kind of get the idea.

20:09Again all this stuff custom made.

20:11This is that same old reclaimed wood.

20:13These panels are one of the only bits that I had to buy.

20:18And then up here.

20:19Rest of my clothing storage.

20:21Two big areas.

20:23I have actually have these things for all the compartments.

20:26But like I said I just I'm just de-winterizing right now.

20:29So you don't see everything.

20:30But they all fit just in here.

20:32So I can just pop in and out with my socks or whatever it is.

20:36I got lots of storage everywhere.

20:37I built this little thing.

20:38Originally this was over there.

20:40And I moved it.

20:40I got hooks over here.

20:42Keep my backpacks over there.

20:44And oh man I can't tell you how good this feels right now.

20:47The AC.

20:48It's really hot.

20:49We do have a max fan up there.

20:51This is the clear smoke lid without the remote.

20:5610 speed in and out whatever.

20:58It's been actually it's been a lot of problems.

21:00This is the third one in five years.

21:02Because they keep squeaking.

21:03But to their credit they keep sending me new motors for free on warranty.

21:07But third one.

21:09But I didn't have to pay for it.

21:11And then just so you know back here.

21:13If I'm sitting with my laptop or my phone or whatever.

21:15I have outlets over here with regular outlet and USB.

21:17And I have outlets over here with tons of USB.

21:20There's actually an outlet under here as well.

21:23Right on this side of things.

21:24And there's another outlet like down there.

21:26So plenty of power.

21:28Plenty of room.

21:29I've never been like at a loss for power or comfort back here.

21:32Usually I have more pillows in here.

21:34I'll wedge myself up in the corner.

21:35Just do computer stuff or watch a movie or something.

21:38And hang out.

21:38And it's really, really comfortable.

21:40Especially when you're parked somewhere amazing.

21:43Like on the streets of New York City.

21:44Like parked in front of one of the great parks.

21:46Washington Square or Tompkins Square or McCarran Park.

21:50I spent probably a year cumulatively in this bus in New York City.

21:55In all kinds of spots all around the city.

21:57And it's been amazing.

21:58Because a lot of times when I'm parked I have better real estate than the mansion behind me.

22:03You know the $30 million or whatever.

22:05You get to see all the people walking by with their dogs.

22:07And when you get tired you just move to a new neighborhood the next week.

22:10And you check out the new coffee shop.

22:12Or the new fried chicken joint.

22:13And whatever.

22:15Okay.

22:17Patrick wants me to show you under the bed.

22:19So let me get this out of the way.

22:23The bed frame is just like a slatted bed.

22:26I built this.

22:26Not reclaimed wood.

22:27This is also some of the lumber I bought.

22:29But I built that to be just the right height.

22:32So that could fit my guitar case in here.

22:34Or I had a couple guitar cases in here.

22:37So I wanted to make sure there was room for all that.

22:39And don't mind the mess.

22:40I'm sorry.

22:41But tons of room in there.

22:43And when it's clean and orderly I actually crawl back in there and dig around.

22:47And I keep a stand-up inflatable paddleboard back there.

22:50And my rollerblades.

22:51And whatever other fun fishing gear, snorkel gear.

22:56Whatever kind of stuff I might want to do.

23:00What else can I tell you?

23:02Oh, my workstation.

23:04So this desk, just like the counters here and here.

23:08These doors.

23:09Look at the shape of this counter.

23:11And then look at the shape of these two.

23:12Imagine if you connected them.

23:13Think of the two panels.

23:15These were closet doors from a house.

23:17These are hollow Luan closet doors that I found on the side of the road during COVID.

23:21I cut this one in half.

23:22I kept that one there.

23:24I cut the sinkhole.

23:24So this is actually, the maple on here is only a quarter inch thick.

23:28I laminated it all on.

23:29It was painstaking.

23:30Pin nailed it.

23:31Glued it like crazy.

23:33Sanded it.

23:34And it's very, very light because it's hollow in here.

23:37So it's very, very weight efficient.

23:40And this is my workstation.

23:41So the chair, as you saw, flips back and forth between kind of dining area or working area.

23:46And these things are actually here for music monitors.

23:49So usually I would have like a little recording setup in here with my interface and my monitors up here.

23:54But that stuff's just not in here at this particular moment.

23:57But that's what all this built-in stuff is about.

23:59It was like a music type of setup.

24:03This little bump out here is the wheel well.

24:05So underneath here, this is bumped out because that's where literally the wheel of the bus is.

24:09So I had to do something there.

24:13And then right from over here, right from my desk area,

24:18a little bit more storage.

24:19These are more pieces of that vintage hutch that I took apart.

24:23So the beautiful drawers.

24:26Look at that.

24:27Bennington pine.

24:28That's the original manufacturer.

24:30I refinished all that and put all that stuff in.

24:32So the hutch was beautiful.

24:34Truthfully, I didn't want to take it apart.

24:36I wanted, I tried to sell it.

24:37It was so beautiful.

24:38And these people gave it to me.

24:39It's pine.

24:40So it was really lightweight.

24:41For like three or four months, I was like, I really don't want to chop this thing up.

24:45It's too perfect.

24:46This couple drove on their honeymoon to Bennington pine from New Jersey 50 years ago.

24:51And it was in their dining room for 50 years.

24:53Nobody wanted it.

24:54So I gave it like three months and then nobody came for it.

24:57So it got repurposed.

24:58But I've, you know, honored their memory with it and all that.

25:01I think they'd be happy.

25:03Okay.

25:04Walking you back this way.

25:06All important.

25:08Place to get clean.

25:11Don't mind the mess right now.

25:12But this is my shower.

25:13A lot of room in here.

25:15Full stand-up shower.

25:19And, you know, it's not like, I can't like swing fully around like, like a, you know, like

25:25I'm spinning, but there's plenty of room and it's very comfortable.

25:28And then when I don't need to shower, this is the toilet.

25:32So really awesome use of space.

25:34It's just a composting toilet.

25:36So standard.

25:37Kind of, I built this thing for me.

25:40It's like a one person kind of thing.

25:42It accommodates one or two people really comfortably, but I didn't want a blackwater tank.

25:46The places where I've been traveling, a lot of cities, there are no pump-mount stations.

25:50There's nowhere to do that.

25:51So that was the composting toilet.

25:53This is all PVC beadboard or vinyl, whatever it is.

25:56All lightweight.

25:57I built this whole thing.

25:58I built the shower pan myself, fiberglassed it.

26:01This grate is here because I have a recirculating shower in here, which I never even use because

26:05I have enough water capacity.

26:08But that's the idea with this grate here.

26:11I got a beautiful little, I should show you this.

26:14My beautiful little built-in, I don't know what you call that, alcove for my shower items.

26:48Well, this is awesome.

26:50And all the design choices.

26:51I especially love the color choice of your stain.

26:55I, that was the first thing that I came in here like, wow, that looks really, really cool.

27:00Like, I can imagine like a whole kitchen in a house with that style stain on the cabinet.

27:06You made that custom, right?

27:07Yeah, I think it was like a Minwax, like navy stain or something.

27:11But I spent a lot of time doing samples to try and get, you know, how long do I need

27:15to keep it on, rub it off, how much.

27:16And then also the, the type of clear coat, it's a clear poly on top to get it just right.

27:21If you use the, it's the water-based poly, if you use the oil-based poly, it yellows.

27:26But this wood, you know, this is very like nice and bright white almost.

27:30It's not like yellowed polyurethane, that's throughout.

27:33So that's key if you're trying to get your stain color right.

27:35You don't want to use the, the oil-based poly because it'll yellow and it'll change your color over time.

27:40So yeah, I'm really proud of that color and I really like it.

27:43That's why I whipped out the flashlight a couple of times to really, really give you a good shot.

27:46It showed well on there and I love that you can slide out the pantry and then flip the mirror

27:51around so you can check your fit.

27:53This was a later edition, but by necessity I needed that.

27:57Well, that's cool because these things evolve over time.

27:59It's not like you build it and you're done.

28:01No, life changes, you think about things when you go in.

28:03Like this is cool, this is the same soffit material, but for the bathroom instead of like one of those

28:09old school glass block walls that you have that lets light through.

28:12That lets some light through that if you're in the shower and it's bright on the one side of the

28:17coach, you get a lot of the light through.

28:19And this was extra material from the ceiling, so I was just trying to economize and I was like, how

28:23can I make this look cool and that's what I do with that.

28:26And I know how, I think I found you on Facebook Marketplace, you were selling this at one point, is

28:32this still for sale?

28:33The bus is for sale, I'm kind of debating right now, I'm five years in, so I've kind of got

28:38a number up there, I'm thinking, well, if it sells that will make me happy and if it doesn't, maybe

28:42I'll continue the adventure.

28:42And the bus is great, it's got 140,000 miles on it, it needs a little bit of motor work

28:47right now, right, so that's why you have a really good value online.

28:52I'll put a link in the description so our viewers can click over and check out your ad and pricing

28:58and all the details.

28:59I'm sure if someone's looking for this and wants to do a little bit of work on the chassis, I'm

29:04sure they'll grab this thing quick for that price point.

29:08Do you have any, like, anything that was like an aha moment when you were building this that you were

29:13like, I'm going to shut my phone off for you, sorry about that.

29:17That's alright, when you were building this, like, you were like, oh man, like, I didn't realize that.

29:22God, there were so many, I mean, I knew the woodworking, if you can't tell, like, I'm an experienced carpenter,

29:27so a lot of this stuff I kind of knew, but plumbing was new to me and the solar was

29:31new to me.

29:31So, uh, that stuff I spent a lot of time and a lot of research and, you know, carpentry, if

29:37you get it wrong, it's not life-threatening.

29:40Electric, if you get it wrong, you could die.

29:42And you've had it now six years, right? It's been in the wild for six years and still up and

29:47running.

29:47It's been great and, you know, the, I still know, I wasn't sure if the solar was going to work

29:53with no generator, but, like I said, I've plugged it in only a handful of times.

29:57And all that time, it's basically 100%, 98% solar-powered for all this stuff back here, including the fridge,

30:04including cooking, including the microwave, the toaster, and the air conditioner.

30:08As long as you're parked in the sun, I have tons and tons of power.

30:10It's ice cold in here.

30:10It's really comfortable.

30:12And that thing's barely even on.

30:12There's, like, a lake underneath this from all the condensation.

30:15But, like, you could see the attention to detail, just the way these cabinet doors are all inset and how

30:21perfectly they line up.

30:23And it's not like you just went to Brooklyn and went to New Jersey.

30:26You traveled up and down the coast in there, so it wasn't, like, it just sat.

30:29No, I've been from Vermont to Florida and multiple trips.

30:33It's been five years to, like, few long trips, basically that whole length.

30:37And I did a couple full winters in Florida and a couple partial winters in Florida.

30:42Spent time in Vermont.

30:44Like I said, a lot of time in New York City, which has been amazing.

30:46Right now, we're at the Jersey Shore.

30:47My neighbors, with this gorgeous piece of property, graciously let me park here when they need to.

30:52So that's been really helpful.

30:54But, yeah, a lot of traveling.

30:55I've not gone west yet, so if I don't end up sailing it, maybe I'll send this thing to the

31:00west coast.

31:00We'll see.

31:02Well, I'm glad we were able to get together.

31:04I know my viewers are going to absolutely love this bus.

31:07They know how excited I am about it because I know how excited they'll be about it.

31:11Well, this is Patrick from New Jersey's Outdoor Adventures YouTube channel.

31:15Check the description for those links to the ad and his Instagram so you guys can follow along.

31:20I'll see you in the next tour.

31:21Thank you guys so much.

31:22I'll see you in the next tour.

The Most INSANE Shuttle Bus Build I’ve Ever Toured!

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