Moriens. A short tale about a short bus.

I couldn't keep calling it the short bus, so it's been dubbed Moriens. It's not going to be around forever, but it's going to be around longer than I initially planned. Probably a year or or so. I'm having too much fun with it to cut it up now.

Its existence is cluttering up the SanFord thread, so it's getting its own build thread for now.

Meet Moriens. A 2007 Ford E450 cutaway with a bus body installed.

I'm probably going to drive it until it needs something expensive, like tires or brakes. Then it's going to be cut apart and all the worthwhile parts will be moved to SanFord. Hence the name Moriens.

What has happened so far is pretty basic. I've installed my portable A/C unit.

Two 4" holes in the wall for intake and exhaust. You can also see the outlet I installed for the A/C.

Rear bumper removed to install a trailer hitch.

Bumper reinstalled and wiring done.

The exhaust used to turn 90* and exit on the drivers side. It was in the way of the hitch so that has been removed and it now dumps out of the back.

Moriens has a set of house batteries that run the lift. I'll be using them to run a Base Camp 12v/120v refrigerator. All of that got wired in today.

Next up was some necessary power to keep the A/C running while at autocrosses or the track. In that interest I built a mount for my quiet generator.

Welded up aluminum base. The welds are pretty ugly, it was my first shot at aluminum. It took some fiddling to get the machine set correctly.

The lock brackets are steel, to hopefully slow down the crooks.

I also put the lift back in service. My wife's father is in a wheelchair. This will make taking him places easier. I also might need to move something heavy one day.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qx_xmhkYIZo

Also, it hasn't been all work and no play. This thing will hold my entire family. Kids, grandkids, even my son's inlaws.

We have made one run to a state park.

Tomorrow we are headed to the SC State Museum. A road trip with 12 people from me at 50, to my granddaughter who is 1. It should be a fun day.

Last shot for today.

Lock bracket painted, foam protectors installed, and locked in place. I think it will be pretty hard to steal quietly. It's probably going to require a grinder to get it off, or the key. The lock bracket goes all the way around the generator and is bolted to the bumper, under the generator. The only way to get to the bolts, is to remove the generator, and the only way to remove the generator, is to unlock it.

Sweet bus.

I had a feeling this would happen when I first saw this interloper arrive.

Damn! And I keep saying "I should buy one of these huh?" referring to 12-15 passenger E350's.

I'm getting a big "NO" to that. And here you are with this!

So the reason you had to move the exhaust, the reason it was directed to the other side in the first place, was to keep the exhaust outlet away from the wheelchair lift door.

In its first life, the engine would have been running as the operator loaded and unloaded wheelchair-bound clients. The original exhaust piping kept fumes away from this open door.

Obviously this isn't something you'll be doing on a regular basis, but just something to be aware of with the new exhaust configuration.

(edit for clarity) The OEM exhaust for an E-450 exited right under that door. The bus body manufacturer moved it clear to the other side for safety. Since you've exited the exhaust straight back, you're probably fine.

Oh boy. All the "RV" threads here lately have me thinking. Not about an "RV" per se, but more thinking about an "activity hauler" of sorts (this one of yours is cool!) for Camping, car hauling, boat hauling, horse hauling, etc. There is plenty of inspiration on the board these days between the southwind that got traded for a rental box truck by the guy with no letters in his screen name, the Barth (used mainly as a dry/cool/warm...whatever the conditions dictate lounge while at the races), this people hauler of yours, and of course Sanford...the gears are definitely turning in my mind. I have my eyes on a couple of different shortbusses currently (actual metal-bodied school busses on van chassis).

Today was another good day.

260 miles. One lost hubcap. And I'm sorry to report the demise of the front A/C.

All in a great day though. We headed back to the middle of the state to visit the South Carolina State Museum.

The refrigerator worked flawlessly. The generator mount worked flawlessly.

The front A/C quit while idling at a gas station. The high today was a touch over 100. It acted like the high pressure switch may have tripped, but even after shutting it down for a extended time, it wouldn't come back to life. The good news is the rear A/C has more than enough power to keep things reasonably cool, even in the very front seat. I'll have to do some troubleshooting on the front system and see if it's a cheap, easy fix.

More to come on that.

The rest of the pictures will be in the Adventures section shortly. Here's the link.

I cranked it back up this afternoon, and the front A/C has started working again. I'm going to have to do some research on that one. I'm not sure what made it quit yesterday.

Low on refrigerant, short-cycled and froze, then worked again after a thaw?

In reply to conesare2seconds:

Could be.

I turned it off for the better part of an hour yesterday, and it never did start blowing cold again. I was thinking it the high pressure switch shut it down, but I'm honestly not sure. I need to get my gauges hooked up to it an see.

Thanks for the link, following!

Time to see how this does as a tow beast.

Toyman01 wrote: Time to see how this does as a tow beast.

AALLLRIIIGHT GIGGITY GIGGITY

It tows great. Almost can't tell the trailer is back there. Torque is a great thing.

We are going to make the run to Carolina Motorsports Park, Saturday, for the Lemons race. We will be hauling a few potential Lemons participants as well my crew so, I pulled the bus out from behind the shop to factor on the front A/C some. For starters, the blower motor wouldn't run. It was getting voltage and beating on it wouldn't fire it off, so I ran down to the auto emporium and picked up a motor. 

Next plan was to dump some refrigerant in it to see if that would help with the cooling problem. After two cans it was cooling perfectly and a test run was in order. A mile into the run I stopped at a light and a puff of smoke rolled out from under the hood.  I headed back to the house and by the time I got there, there was a fairly copious amount of smoke rolling out from under the front end. Add to that a rather destinct smell of burning brake pads. 

Not only had the compressor for the front A/C locked up and smoked the clutch, the drivers front caliper had formed a very close relationship with the rotor and didn't want to let go. This thing might be going under the knife faster than I thought. 

The good news is, a caliper for a E450 is a paltry $46.99. So, I threw one on this afternoon and we will be riding in style come Saturday. The front A/C will be staying broken. The rear unit has more than enough power to keep things cool. 

I'll shoot some pictures of it in the wild this weekend, y'all have probably seen my back yard enough. 

Superduty brake calipers seem awfully prone to sticking.  I've been through that myself and it isn't always just the sliders like everyone thinks.  I think you did the right thing just throwing a whole new caliper on.  

A little more TLC this afternoon. Since it was down to one wheel cover, it was time to do something about the ugly wheels. A dollars worth of paint was an improvement. Not exactly pretty, but better than 4 mismatched wheels. 

3

Take out two rows of seats and you've got a tow pig/track sleeper.  

In reply to grover :

The entire right side folds up against the wall. That gives me room for a couple of cots. 

That rig rocks!  What are the ultimate plans?  And does it involve the older bus in some of the pictures?

The axles on these are normal pickup width, right? How does that figure into the bus plans? I'm much more interested in the nuts and bolts of a donor vehicle than I was a month ago. 

In reply to noddaz :

Ultimate plans are for it to donate it's heart to the '56 bus. I bought it for the engine and transmission. 

Mazdeuce, the axle is a one ton pickup axle. Pretty much a F350-F550 axle and rated at 9500 pounds. The 56 bus uses a 14000 pound axle out of a medium truck. I have considered using the entire E450 chassis and mounting the 56 body on it. As much as I would like to do that, I'm afraid it's too small and would lead to tire, and bearing failures. 

What will probably happen is, I'll use the engine and transmission only out of the E450. The rest of it will be sold as parts. The 56 will keep the rear that is under it for now, possibly with a different gear ratio.

The front axle under the 56 is narrower than the rear by a couple of feet. That means I can't use a medium truck axle. I need something pickup truck width. The closest beam axle I can find, is out of a F550 truck and they are pretty cheap. That would give me modern disk brakes up front, as well as something I can find parts for. 

Thanks, that's kind of what I figured but I was curious about the thought process. I'm all MDT width which makes a full size school bus an ideal donor for me, but like you I'd like to stay hydraulic and the majority of them are air. Whole new world for me, so I'm trying to learn from everyone with more knowledge, which is just about everyone.