Green house bus?

Welcome to STP. I know that this sort of thing has been done before. A motorhome normally does not require a cdl license. If you can acquire a large school bus & retitle it as a motorhome you should be all set. This type of thing is done often to turn former busses into skoolies. Obviously this type of project is gonna require lots & lots of ongoing research as to legalities. Obviously a project like this is gonna require much capital investment & many hundreds of hours by a team to get it up & going. I can suggest that you buy a school bus that has been converted into a motorhome already on craigslist. Even better if the seats have been removed & much of the conversion is done. There are plenty of backyard party & camper conversions on large school busses that would be suitable & cheaper then starting from scratch. Many people dont realize how expensive & how much work is required. You can take advantage of another persons half ass project that is titled as a motorhome & already registered. This way you can renovate & improve the living space, add a rear porch, ladder & roof deck & potentially convert the rear part of the bus into your green house.





Since Most school busses are not exactly huge platforms for motorhomes by combining living quarters & a greenhouse you are sure to have to compromise & be creative.
You will want to leave the rear section in place for the lights etc. I bet you could add 2 (used) flat nosed/pusher style school bus windshields on each side of the bus by beefing up a steel frame to support them & adding some curved glass for the roof sections. The glass required to be DOT legal will be key. Since you are gonna be drawing lots of attention from the DOT & Police with such a unique vehicle you would need for it to be legit if investing that much time, money & energy into it. I love the polycarbonate roof system on the Bozone OZone bus. I think that is a cool way to build height inside a bus although no way good way to tie in structural wall partitions & or built in furniture. But its got a hell of an open vive to it.

http://www.translitebusglass.com/products/curved-glass-and-windshields/

I think a double decker tourist/coach bus would actually work as a great platform for a greenhouse bus. That way you could keep the lower level living quarters & the top deck a greenhouse. These busses are not cheap & or readily available. This one has a Florida motor home. Its got a ball pit & slide in it. It would be a shame to destroy it but you can see the possibilities of such a bus if you can find one on craigslist or elsewhere.


http://www.bargainbusnews.com/Buses/6062-1979BristolBristol/

This one is 20k

http://www.bargainbusnews.com/Buses/6991-1940GMCDoubleDecker/

Here people with lots of cash converted some double decker buses to Tiny Homes.

http://tinyhousetalk.com/top-5-double-decker-bus-to-motorhome-conversions/

So this greenhouse vehicle is just to transport plants???? Not to also live in?? What type of Plants? WHY?? Why not just use a cheap straight Box truck (think uhaul) or a fucking flatbed under GVWR & non cdl?

I know that the USDA regulates much of import/export & interstate transport of plants within the US. Each state having there own regulations. Many states have agriculture checkpoints for invasive species etc at their borders. This thread is morphing into a huge theoretical exercise.

P.S There is this thing called Google. It works great. simply put in some keywords & press enter. You can answer all of your own hypothetical questions there without using us as the middlemen.

This whole thread is starting to sound like some stoners pipe dream concocted while high as fuck? I say buy the $300 RV & fishbowl the fuck out of it.::lurking::::cigar::::::lurking::

trying to enter california with a rolling greenhouse filled with non-native plants might not be doable. as stated above, different states have different regulations. I think AZ might also be strict, but that might only going into cali from arizona.

some states regulate vehicle weight when determining if you need a CDL. I'm pretty sure that in oregon, anything over 26,000 pounds requires a CDL.

I am on the East coast but I have seen checkpoints & signs at many State borders. Maine wont allow campers to transport firewood from other states & many states have intense invasive species regulations & programs.

The idea is to to arrive into a state, start the seeds, and hang around local farms and markets within the state while the nursery grows. Before we leave the state, the baby plants are sold off as starters and the load is lighted up before we get back on the highway. So we'll have a most empty truck when crossing state borders. Of course, research is still in progress in terms of which plants would be best and how to build this 'pipe dream'. And how to work within the legal stuff in terms of transporting dirt/plants/seeds.
It's kinda already been done: http://compassgreenproject.org/

I dunno if it makes sense to me as a way to provide income on the road? I have a large urban garden & collect hundreds of trays of 2"-3" seedlings for free that eventually grow into adult plants. We get them kicked down from larger agricultural educational nonprofits. If we were to buy heirloom seedlings individually they could cost between $1-$2 each. We obtain seedlings because our growing season is short & they are free. But if that wasnt the case we start from seed ourselves. We have the potential access to a solarium but we have never done anything with it.

If it sounds good to you guys then have at it. Unsure how much welding you are gonna be doing when framing it out of wood. We would love to see pictures & hear about the project & obstacles.

Jamie charlton said:

no its not a stoners pipe dream,

Click to expand...

Thats cool. At first I wasnt sure what type of plants you were thinking of.

Have you guys ever considered building a greenhouse trailer? There are plenty of vans & short busses that would be suitable for rubber tramping that could tow a small trailer. That way you could establish a specific space for your plants & a place to live in. You could build it out of a steel landscape trailer & enclose it. Just a thought.