Green house bus?

[Jamie charlton]

Me and a friend of mine are thinking of either taking an old RV that the engine runs and tearing down the back and making it into a travelling green house or taking a bus and turning it into a green house. Problem is we don't know if the bus (almost all seats removed and converted to a green house) requires a class c CDL license. All i can find is as long as it does not have seats for more than 14 you dont need one. I dont want to waste the money on the bus to be told i need a CLD to drive the dam thing. If it does require a CDL we are just gonna use a old RV. Any suggestions or knowledge on it would help. Thanks in advance!

 

[Deleted member 20]

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/

 

[Matt Derrick]

it varies state by state, but i believe in the majority of states if the vehicle is under 40ft long and doesn't use air brakes, you can drive it without a CDL. i registered my school bus in washington state and didn't have any problems. overall a school bus is going to be MUCH easier to convert than completely rehauling an RV.

also, it's going to be really difficult to get a custom RV renovation insured, much more so than a school bus conversion. i've already made a ton of posts about school bus converting and insurance things here in the vandwelling forum, just do a search in this forum section for anything posted under my username and you should find a wealth of info.

 

[Deleted member 20]

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/

 

[Jamie charlton]

Well the rv i can redo as a flat bed, then get it insured, also from there it would be rather simple in my opinion to build a legal structure on the back. Would be something as simple as steel or aluminium framing tied right into the frame of the truck, then 1/4 inch plexey glass over the frame. Also the fact of i can purchase the rv for $300 and then from there its a lot cheaper. I do agree it will take a small dedicated team (two of us right now) and also my concern is the plant part... it can be challenging to transport plants across state borders. if anyone know of any that can i dont have a clue.

 

[Deleted member 20]

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::

 

[pigpen]

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.

 

[Jamie charlton]

we were thinking it might be better to do as a nursery due to that, depending on the state we are in we grow certain plants and sell them, and no its not a stoners pipe dream, it would be a greenhouse/house. we live in it, travel in it and grow plants in it. we are literally only in the stage of planning it. We honestly dont have much put together yet but would would love to travel while still growing plants.

 

[Deleted member 20]

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.

 

[Jamie charlton]

the fire wood is due to diseased trees and they dont want the disease to be transferred to areas that it can wipe out most of the trees. depending on where we are and where we are going we are thinking a nursery. we can grow the plants to baby (most in under a month) and then sell them either online or at farmers markets as we are travelling. Our main thing is we want to be able to grow plants and travel instead of having to choose to either travel or grow. We are thinking buy the rv, build it as a flatbed, register and insure it as that, build a wood based frame with 1/4 or 1/2 inch plexy glass for windows for the plants, put a 4 foot tall door between the cab and the back and have the bed 4 and 1/2 feet off the floor as kinda a coffin. we can have a small portable stove setup for cooking and then have curtins on this inside and a few of the windows slide for air flow with barn doors on the back.

**fyi i am a mechanic so i can do a majority of the work and welding myself.

 

[wildwerden]

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/

 

[Deleted member 20]

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]

definitely we will keep you posted, and im 100% sure there will be obstacles and 100% sure there will be more questions. Like i said, right now we are only in the planning stage, but this is a dream i am very happy to work my ass off the achieve.

 

[Deleted member 20]

no its not a stoners pipe dream,

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.

 

[Matt Derrick]

We are thinking buy the rv, build it as a flatbed, register and insure it as that

you cannot legally do that. once you start building a structure on it you have to register it as something else. especially if you plan to live in it. if you are in even a minor accident/fender bender you CAN be cited/ticketed at least, and at worst have your vehicle confiscated in certain states.

i'm not saying you shouldn't do this project, but just build the vehicle up, make sure it's up to code, and insure it correctly. don't fuck around and just do it right the first time.

but hey, feel free to ignore all my advice and experience with this stuff, everyone else does.

 

[Matt Derrick]

It's kinda already been done: http://compassgreenproject.org/

by the way, that's a box truck conversion. MUCH easier than what you're talking about doing with the RV (and would cost you less in the long run).

 

[Jamie charlton]

a box truck is what i would like to do, but i have the rv i can get for uber cheap... :/ i would much prefer to do a box truck and just have to take a hack saw to a few squares in the wall and ceiling. I however am looking around for a box truck. also yes you are correct on that one... I just know as soon as we build anything on it the ability to insure it is really hard.