It was wonderful to have our friends Yvan and Sylvie of Lacroix Cruiser visit for a few days. They have been an inspiration and great resource as we have watched them build out their 1995 MCI DL3, their 3rd bus conversion. With our bus being a 1996 MCI D3, our buses are very very similar. Our D3 is 40ft while the DL3 is 45ft. They have a roof raise we do not. Touring their bus and comparing the differences and pros/cons of each was very interesting.
We were able to pick their brains about a few projects we still needed to work on, one of them being plumbing. We had started setting up our plumbing components in our back luggage bay, but after seeing what they did, we asked for their help to do something similar.
They helped us build what we are calling our “water board”. Our water tanks will be in our back luggage bay held by a metal frame. In front of the tanks, the first thing you see when you open the bay, will be this plywood board with all our components on it - pump, pressure tank, water filter and manifolds for a hose, house cold water access and pressure gauge. It’s a clean set up that makes all of these things easy to access, replace broken pumps or take the board out if we need to pull the tanks out.
Having lived in and converted a few buses, they have a few neat tricks up their sleeves which they shared with us, one of them being how to lock your fridge door for travel. Do check out their how to video on Fridge Lock for RV’s
Up Next
We build window frames so we can install cellular blackout shades.