Building a DIY camper bus, like any large-scale project, is a journey in itself. After months of researching design tips and fawning over “vanlife” instagram accounts, we found ourselves in Missouri, USA purchasing a vehicle that would, if everything went according to plan, act as our home while back in The States. We knew it wouldn’t be easy to build an entire DIY camper into a home, but felt confident that Stephanie’s eye for design paired with my penchant for the practical would balance out in something we could be proud of and enjoy for as long as we wanted. Months later and after many lessons have been learned several times, we thought we’d share our insider tips and tricks for turning a bus or van into aDIY camper.

Why We Decided To Travel America In A DIY Camper Bus

First and foremost, this journey began with an intense desire to rediscover our home country and explore places we’ve never been. After five years in South Korea and having toured so many wonderful places, we wanted to give the good ole USA the same treatment. Anyone who has traveled in America will likely echo my assertion that you almost certainly need your own car to do it justice. Vast landscapes and terrible public transportation systems make the majority of the United States inaccessible or terribly time consuming for anyone lacking wheels. We knew we needed a vehicle and decided that something that we could live inside would be our best option while we traveled around. Additionally, we planned to see family and friends along the way and knew that camping in tents would often be difficult in cities. In our minds, a DIY camper fit the bill perfectly and would suit this adventure like a glove.

Read More: Our New Home on Wheels – Going to Get Onward

The day we purchased Onward

The Choice: Bus, Van, or Truck

Our first challenge on this adventure was in selecting the perfect base vehicle that we could best transform into a DIY camper. Buses are the most comfortable, vans the most inconspicuous, and trucks the most off-road capable. After careful consideration and comparison of other peoples’ designs, we decided that our key to happiness would be comfort. In looking for buses, we debated buying a short school bus (shoutout to our Skoolie brethren!) but stumbled upon the idea of converting a shuttle bus instead. We were fortunate to find one very much in our price range and bought it just a few days after landing in the States.

  • How big of a deal breaker is gas mileage for you? Sacrificing gas mileage (we get around 13 – 14 mpg) for the luxury of walking space was worth it for us, but not everyone. In a van I would never have been able to stand fully upright (even in tall Sprinters) and we would have had to crawl all over ourselves. Basically, choices come down to the individual and are never wrong…
  • Are you overnighting more often in cities or rural locations? Stealth is a consideration. Obviously, we aren’t the most stealthy of vehicles, but then again, we aren’t staying in big cities as often.
  • What is your price point? Sprinters can cost you upwards of 30-50k in the states BEFORE remodel costs. Our bus cost us under 5k and has just as much, if not more room!
  • What kind of space and storage needs do you have? While our storage needs weren’t really high, space was a consideration due to Ryan’s height. If you are a smaller person, smaller vehicles would definitely be an option for you!
  • Is the overall look an important influencer for you? Ryan and I are pretty split on form vs function. While function is also important to me, I was not about to let him purchase a bright white cargo van with zero character.
  • Rank these in order of importance. It is much easier to go from there. We needed space first, price point second, the overall look was pretty important for a close third, and stealth was at the bottom of our list.
  • If you are set on buying a bus, keep in mind the size. Some states will require you to have a CDL license for larger buses. Check with your local tag agency for your state’s restrictions.
Read More: The Ultimate Guide to Overnight Parking

Where to Find Buses to Buy

There are a lot of places online to search for decommissioned school busses and shuttles. We found ours on craigslist after a couple of weeks of searching around. Accidentally buying the largest project vehicle of our options, we immediately got to work demolishing the former party bus and getting started on constructions. We had a big blue project parked outside of my mom’s house for nearly a month and a half while we worked sun-up to sun-down and it was a ton of work.

The before picture of Onward
Quite a stark contrast between how both of us were feeling in these photos, don’t you think?!
  • Craigslist: We bought our bus off of craigslist. We were open to driving a bit to go and get it so we looked in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Colorado, Texas, and Kansas. In bigger cities there are infinitely more options to choose from, so widen your search parameters if you can.
  • Public Surplus: This site is host to many government agencies, schools, and etc that have equipment, vehicles, and tools they no longer need and are selling them via auction. The good news is, you can find a lot of really well maintained vehicles for cheap. You may, however, need a bigger frame of time than we did as we were not willing to wait around to find and bid on the perfect deal.
  • Government Deals:  The best part of buying a used/decommissioned government owned vehicle is the guarantee that they have been well maintained. Finding a reliable bus that is going to last you for years to come is key because let’s face it, no one wants to break down in the middle of an awesome road trip.
  • National Bus: This site has them all, church buses, school buses, big and small. You can sort buses for sale by state which makes this website super easy for finding your perfect bus somewhere near you.
Read More: On the Road: First Glance of Onward

Tips Before You Build Your DIY Camper

Building a DIY camper is a project and the best thing about projects is their educational value. We knew very little about building homes or vehicles, so the whole bus was bound to be a lesson. We found ourselves continually impressed by people; asking family members for help and advice is always wise, the people at Lowe’s Home Improvement are godsends, being friendly with your local package delivery man can get your Amazon Prime deliveries delivered safely, and, above all else, being patient and friendly with the people around you is always the right choice.

Sealing up cracks, cleaning off the roof, and measuring for the new vent
  • For those of you on a tight schedule for your build like we were, Amazon Prime is a must. For less than $10 a month, you can get all of your purchases, which there will be many, MANY of them, delivered to your door within two days. So many of your projects will rely on you getting your stuff delivered and installed before you can move on, so this is a huge time saver.
  • You are going to be making around one million trips to hardware stores so consider applying for a Lowe’s credit card. You can get 5% off purchases with 0% interest for 6 months on purchases over $299. Lumber alone, you’ll reach that cost, no problem.
  • Don’t buy everything brand new. Be open to salvage yards, Goodwill, and yard sales for your DIY camper build. Tires, parts, RV ladders, and on and on can be found at the salvage yards and there are a ton of good finds at thrift shops and second hand stores for designing your space. Not only are you going to save a ton of money, but you’ll be reusing items that would otherwise be ending up in our landfills.
  • For Skoolie conversions, discussion forums, how tos, feedback, and Q & As, look no further than The School Bus Conversion Network. There are so many resources and little tid bits you can find here before starting your DIY camper conversion that are invaluable.
  • IT TAKES A TON OF TIME. Unless you live right next door to Lowe’s, have excellent carpentry skills, and a team of people to help you out, you should expect your conversion to take a while. We worked on ours from sun up until sun down and sometimes throughout the night. We had help from family, all the tools we needed, and Lowe’s was about a fifteen minute drive away. Even so, it took us a solid five weeks of work, work, work. It was oh so worth it, but we roll our eyes pretty hard at all the bloggers claiming to finish their builds in two weeks flat. HOW?!
  • Choose a box-store and stick to it. We developed a relationship with the people of Lowe’s and made returns much easier since all of our materials were from the same store. Bonus points for our Lowe’s family taking my mom’s dog for walks whenever she’d grown tired of waiting for materials choices to be made. We’re still carrying gift cards for returns we made but lost the receipt. In hindsight, a Lowe’s membership would have been smart for looking up return receipts without keeping the stack of slips.
  • Do everything you can to stay excited when you find a vehicle that gets you excited. We dug through eBay, AutoTrader, and Craigslist before finding ours, and there were a million setbacks after we found her. All of that hard work, though, was motivated by all the amazing YouTubers, Instagrammers, and other van dwellers out there sharing their experiences and being huge inspirations to us. Interact and connect with the community!

Our Bus’s Story

Originally our bus had been used as a shuttle bus for the St. Louis Airport. After a life of short trips from airport to parking lots, a startup company in Jefferson City, Missouri bought our future shuttle bus to be used as a party bus. For several years our blue beauty was filled with birthday parties, high school reunion afterparties, bachelor parties, bar crawls, and more. Thankfully she survived the party years and found a home with us. We chose a shuttle bus over a school bus as there is about eight extra inches of headroom in them. She needed some repairs, but we were enthusiastic and willing to put in the hard work she’d need for her new adventure on the long drives around America as well as becoming a home on six wheels.

Ryan rebuilt our battery box which included grinding off the years of rust.

This day was super nerve wracking as we cut through the roof of our bus to install the vent cover
Read More: Our Bus Conversion: Common Questions

Final Thoughts

The bus is never finished. There are always things to improve, repair, and modify. Thankfully, we’ve developed the skills and know-how to make sure this DIY camper of ours makes it down the road for as many more miles as we decide to travel. All in all, the build and the lessons we’ve learned (and continue to learn) were a huge part of this adventure that we’re glad to have completed. Stephanie and I are now on the road and enjoying the second half of our bus adventure now that the build is complete. It seems like every week that passes comes with new and valuable lessons about life and adapting to whichever situation we choose to put ourselves in.

Have you ever road tripped in America? What vehicle did you do it in? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

Read More The Bus Onward Posts:

Our New Home on Wheels
On the Road: A First Glance of Onward
Our Bus Conversion: Common Questions
The Ultimate Guide to Overnight Parking
Want more? Be sure to follow us on Instagram for more of the bus Onward!