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Topic: bug -a-paluza camping?  (Read 3549 times)

volkswagenut

bug -a-paluza camping?

« on: March 21, 2006, 06:31:25 PM »
hey this may sound dumb but i was gonna come down sun morning but im thinking on comeing down sat afternoon. was thinking on camping but dont have a tent or anything was wondering if i can just sleep in my truck like a hobo! :lol:  just thought it would be easyier for me than getting a tent and all that . i might be coming by myself so it would simplify everything. would anybody have a problem with it .dont want to make anybody mad .  :shock: and also is there a place to clean up and all that stuff.thanks guys.

Offline Zen

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bug -a-paluza camping?

« Reply #1 on: March 21, 2006, 10:55:45 PM »
We give away a trophy each year in honor of a guy who drove a rail buggy from Mobile, AL to the show, slept on the ground two nights and then drove back home to Mobile.  If you don't have a problem with you "camping" in your truck, no one else will!

As far as a place to "clean up"   :lol:   :wink:  :thumbs-up:  We got that covered.  Bug-A-Paluza is the only place we know of where you can take a shower in a bay window Westfalia pop-top camper!  Our B.U.S. (Bug-A-Paluza Unisex Shower) is complete hot water and dry "changing room."  Bring your own soap and towel and hop in! And if you don't have your own soap, just wait a while . . . somebody will eventually leave theirs . . . but you probably want to bring your own towel for sure!

volkswagenut

bug -a-paluza camping?

« Reply #2 on: March 22, 2006, 08:36:18 PM »
thats  zen, that makes it alot easier for me see you guys sat. afternoon. dude that unisex thing is awsome  :wink: the B.U.S. who built that thing ? great idea . where else can you take a shower in a bus . that makes me want to camp more! :D

65dunebuggy

bug -a-paluza camping?

« Reply #3 on: March 22, 2006, 09:52:29 PM »
I saw that bus last time I was there.Zen,don't they drop the side on it when you get in there good. :lol:

Offline Zen

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bug -a-paluza camping?

« Reply #4 on: March 23, 2006, 08:32:16 PM »
There is a long and colorful story behind the B.U.S.

A few years ago I took my wife and grandson camping at the "Dead of Winter" campout in, as the name says, the dead of winter.  We tried to make a bed in Homer (in his pre-SuperBus days) but found the floor had enough square footage to hold us, but, it was just that "square" footage.  After somehow surviving the 20 degree night on the floor of the bus, I decided I needed to install a camper package.  It just so happened that a former Volks Folks member dropped by the campout and told me he had an engineless Westy he would let go pretty cheap.  So, as soon as I scraped up a little cash, I bought it.  Once I got it home, I pulled the bed and cabinets out of it and installed them in Homer.  I gave the tranny to a friend who was building a rail buggy (it wouldn't stay in 4th gear . . . he said he wouldn't need a 4th gear anyway).  So now I had an old Westy shell sitting in my yard.  Bug-A-Paluza 4 was coming up, so to get it out of the yard, I donated it to be used in place of our "paint-a-bug."  After BP-4, I somehow talked another club member, Kyle, into dragging it to his house till I could figure out what to do with it.

With Bug-A-Paluza 5 coming up, the subject of a lack of shower facilities at Camp Jordan came up at one of our planning meetings.  As a joke, I said something to the effect of "maybe we could install a shower in that Westy shell I've got over at your place Kyle."  DO NOT say something like that as a joke around Kyle.  He will take it as a challenge and do it.  Well, that's pretty much what happened.  The B.U.S. made it's debute at BP-5 but the made in Brazil, heat-as-you-go shower head we bought off the internet had some problems.  In the end, I think I was the only person who actually used it . . . and I took a COLD shower.

Well, one of volunteer judges that year was a plumber by trade and saw some potential in what Kyle had created.  He took the bus and installed some real plumbing including a real 40 or 50 gallon quick recovery hot water heater strapped in where the passenger seat used to sit.  We picked it up from his house and did a little more work on the interior and has been a hugh hit at every show since then.

Once you're in, you can lock the doors, so it won't get opened up on you.  When it's set up, the top is up and opened to the outside . . . but unless you're REALLY tall, the shower curtain has you fully hid from view.  

A few months ago, the story took another twist when Smelly Cat (of the now infamous "Help with a slow starter" thread in our tech questions forum) recognized a picture of the Paint-A-Bus from Bug-A-Paluza 4 as the Westy he used to own.  He would have never recognized it as the B.U.S.

By the way, this is another example of why you got to watch what you say around Kyle.  One day someone said "I bet if you cut two Vanagons in half, duct tape would be strong enough to hold them together." . . .

65dunebuggy

bug -a-paluza camping?

« Reply #5 on: March 23, 2006, 08:38:38 PM »
Zen I was just cutting up with Mike since he asked.lol Couldn't resist. :lol: But that heat as you go shower head is a new one on me.

65dunebuggy

bug -a-paluza camping?

« Reply #6 on: March 23, 2006, 08:41:57 PM »
I saw this vanagon at the show at BP 6.I was thinking to myself surely not.It's got to be welded somewhere.Was I right? :lol:

Offline Zen

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bug -a-paluza camping?

« Reply #7 on: March 23, 2006, 11:21:57 PM »
Quote from: "65dunebuggy"
I was thinking to myself surely not.It's got to be welded somewhere.Was I right? :lol:


Yeah, there really are some welds there, but if you saw in "in progress" as I did, you would know that the duct tape probably would have held it together!  It's got two four-foot sticks of box iron pressed into the "frame" channels underneath the floor (about 2 feet into each half).  Before anything was welded, bolted, glued or taped, I jumped up and down on the seam trying to get it to drop down about 1/8 of an inch in the center.  It wouldn't go anywhere.  You wouldn't believe the force it took to separate the two pieces so he could do some trimming . . . and it took even more force to winch the two halves back together.  Even without any welds (or duct tape for that matter) I don't think this thing would ever break in half on it's own!

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