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H3 Vantare Height
Folks,
The Morton Building I’m buying has a distance from floor to bottom of trusses of 13′ 4″. Is this sufficient clearance for a 2003 (chassis year) H3 Vantare? Can anyone tell me the height of this bus at the top of the KVH Tracvision dome? How ’bout the height at the top of the Gerard awnings? How much clearance can I gain by dumping the suspension? TIA!
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13 Replies
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Here’s an FMCA article that puts a 2008 at 13′ 5″. I imagine by dumping the suspension I’ll pick up at a minimum 3″ of clearance. Does this sound about right? I imagine I can gain quite a bit more clearance by removing the KVH Tracvision and replacing it with something lower in profile – rf mogul or newer version of KVH TracVision???
http://www.fmcmagazine.com/back-issues/2008/february/252-featherlite-vantare-h3-45-conversion
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My H is 12’10” without antennas. With the Tracvision mounted up front and the CB antennas the height is 13’4″ . Nothing less than a 14’0″ door for me.
Dropping the coach all the way lowers it 4″ from ride height. -
Mine is 13’4″ overall to the top of the dome. And, I just verified that my ride height is correct.
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David I have Morton building with 14 foot walls and scissor truss , it makes it quite high in center I have 12 wide door by 14 high 70 wide by 180 long they are the best buildings. Took them 9 days from start to finish and no mess after to clean up, not that this helps you expect the scissor truss part.
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David I have Morton building with 14 foot walls and scissor truss , it makes it quite high in center I have 12 wide door by 14 high 70 wide by 180 long they are the best buildings. Took them 9 days from start to finish and no mess after to clean up, not that this helps you expect the scissor truss part.
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Thanks everyone, I very much appreciate your info. Looks like I should be okay. One thing that I may do is excavate the ground an inch or two to gain more headroom. The building is 60′ x 90′ but because of other improvements I need to park the bus along the outside edge, the long 90′ edge. Currently there are horse stalls along the edge which will be removed. The good news is that the stalls have a dirt floor. There’s a possiblilty of digging down slightly to gain a few inches before I pour concrete. The building does use scissors trusses and the clearance at the center of the trusses is ample – 14′ 10″, but there’s obstructions that prevent me from using this portion of the building. I’m just thankful to have a building!
Since I may excavate a few inches to lower the plane of the concrete floor, I wonder if a shallow pit would be useful. I don’t think I can install a full sized pit due to ground water level, but I could lay a 1′ deep or so concrete trench to scoot around in via a creeper. This would let me have easy access to grease fittings and the air drier. It could be done safely and cheaply. Thoughts?
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4 foot wide by 1 foot deep by 12 long is better than a kick in the ass with a lead boot .. I’d do it if that’s all you can do!!!!!!!
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David,,
My doors are 14′ high X 12′ wide, if you can make yours 14′ high, then you’re good on down the road if you need that 13’6″.
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David,
The more height the better. While you can lower the bus from the driving height you are far better off to have an opening and ceiling height high enough so you do not have to lower the bus to get into the garage.
As to the pit, no matter what hoops you need to jump through to get one 2 feet wide, 4 feet deep and as long as the coach you will never regret it. You are starting with a clean sheet of paper and will never again have the opportunity to create a pit as easily or as inexpensively.
But if you can’t build one, any recess in the floor, full length of the coach, is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. All work takes place from the bulkhead in front of the drive axle to the rear, and from the front bumper back to the bulkhead behind the steer axle so anything you can do to make it easy to get under the coach at those points where you can sit up is going to be a help. Keep in mind that while rolling under on a creeper and sitting up to do work is a poor substitute for being able to stand with your feet on the ground. You can lube the coach and do almost all work with a shallow pit, but if you need to do any wrenching that requires you to put some effort into it, your ass will be sliding on the floor. When you are standing you can brace yourself with your feet.
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Thanks everyone,
I’m going to do my best to raise the rafter height and install a pit even if shallow. I have a Morton Building rep coming over. There may be some possibilities with some intermediate polls which may allow scissors truss modifications. I’ll have to see what their engineers say. Hopefully it’ll be cheaper than building a separate building. 🙂
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David
My door is 14′ W by 14′ H and the inside height is 16′. Works will to have the side you need without having to lower the bus to drive it inside your garage. You may not be able to turn the steer axle when you lower the coach, I am not sure about the H3 if you can turn the steer without damaging the wheel skirt. I would check with people that have an 04 H3 if you can turn you steering wheel if the coach is lowered I know I cannot do the in my XL2.
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Something that has not been discussed is how you would do anything on the roof of the coach with such low clearance….I have 16′ clearance and that is marginal for getting on the roof and doing anything meaningful. I can get by, but would like to have more room…
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Our bus barn doors are 14 ‘ by 12’ 6″ wide. These are custom made width but have worked out perfect on our bus storage business in KC.
That extended 6 inch gives a allowance for side mirror extended.
Our bus barn storage is where Truk4u
runs his bus washing business during the summer.
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