factory insulation

[oldallegro]

Greetings all,

This is oldallegro writting from Ghana, West Africa.  We are missionaries over here and enjoyed our last time in the US very much - and we were in a 1979 sticks and staples rv.  The electrical system burned out on it just before we came back to Africa.  So, I may have questions at times that seem obvious.  But I cannot see a bus to check things out.  (I have never seen an MCI in six years in Ghana.)

My question is this.  I hear you all talking about spray foam, rigid foam, foil backed and whatever for insulation.  My dad (our project coordinator who does not surf the net well) got a call from MCI this week and the guy told my dad that the original MCI insulation should be fine for fulltiming through cold Montana winter nights with five little people and two adults.  What do you think?  I am sure with the bus runing things would be okay, but when we are parked, will a radiant heating system produce enough heat with the original insulation.  I heard the MCI are produced with an r-value of 7.  That does not sound like warm enough to me.  Thanks.  Kurt

[TomC]

Kurt- welcome from Los Angeles, California to you in W. Africa!  When I started my conversion, I had thought about just using the original insulation since this bus had been a city transit bus in Portland, Oregon and probably had enough insulation.  Just to see what was behind, I pulled one of the side panels and yes there was fiberglass insulation. But what used to be a yellowish color was really close to pure black with dirt! It disgusted me so much, I proceeded to pull the whole interior down to the bare metal.  This turned out to be one of the dirtiest jobs I've ever done. Ended up with a rental truck full of the crud I took out and deposited it in the local dump.  Then with the inside covering exposed, I could inspect the metal structure of the bus for defects.  What I found were cracks above each door caused by years of openings and closings of the doors by the air operators.  I welded these up, wire brushed the interior, primed the entire interior with Rustoleum primer, ran 1"x2" fir strips horizontally about a foot apart, cut the openings in the roof for my 3 roof airs and 2 Fantastic fans, then had spray foamed in to the level of the 1x2's that created 2.25" of foam insulation.  I don't know the value, but it made the side panels and roof panels stiffer.  You can do it your way, but personally, I couldn't live with the knowledge that there was that much built up dirt hiding in the insulation in the walls.  Good Luck, TomC

[Danny]

Kurt,

I am in the process of re-doing the inside at this time.  The insulation under the metal is ok everywhere except the back wall.  I am going to replace that and any where else it is needed.  I did not find the black dirt as Tom did.  I guess it depends on the bus.  I am going to stick with the orginal stuff and add to it where I can.  I do not want to travel in extreme environments anyway.

Danny