Mercedes coach conversion

By Malcolm Street

In some circles, mainly those for large motorhome owners, there’s a view that a coach is merely a motorhome awaiting conversion! Dennis Felton is one such person… well, almost.

Currently he and his wife Sandra spend six months a year running coach tours to various parts of Australia, and the other half converting a coach into something designed for two people to travel in comfort around Australia. Dennis at least recognises that a coach should have a passenger service life, but after that it’s certainly a conversion prospect.

Conversion convert

Having completed five such projects to date, Dennis and Sandra have a certain amount of experience. Their first conversion job was a bus that was reconfigured to take their young family on holiday. Later, a commercially-built motorhome was used for a few years but Dennis decided it wasn’t quite what he wanted, and started to think about designing and building his own. Having been in the coach travel business for some years, Dennis favours coaches as a basis for conversion, especially those with air bag suspension, and more importantly a Mercedes-Benz chassis and motor.

His most recently completed project is based on a 40ft Benz chassis and the original coach body has been completely gutted and the roof raised by 300mm. All the original windows were removed and replaced in the relevant spots by the Hehr hoppers – easily recognised by Winnebago owners! The floor was rebuilt to one level but the original under-floor storage bins have been retained. A 660 litre fresh water tank was installed underneath what used to be the centre aisle of the coach.

When the frame and external panelwork was complete, work started on the interior. Dennis and Sandra used much of their previous motorhome experience for their latest interior layout design. It features a front lounge area that extends back to a large kitchen area. Behind a couple of partitions is a small ‘office’ area with a desk on either side. Between the rear bedroom and the ‘office’ is the bathroom area, complete with a fully separate toilet, shower cubicle and vanity sink.All 12V and 24V electrical wiring was installed followed by the insulation before the interior ply, covered with a vinyl textured finished finish.

While Dennis had completed much of the conversion, all the interior cabinetry was done by a contract cabinet maker in what looks to be a superb job. Plywood is used throughout and in the front half all cupboards have a brushed aluminium finish, with laminated benchtops and rolled edges. In the bedroom and bathroom areas, the cabinetwork is finished in a two pack paint and looks very smart.

Decked out in upholstered leather, the front lounge area has a comfortable two/three person lounge (if you are not using the fold-down drinks table) and two swivelling chairs with integrated seat belts. (I mention the leather upholstery because it’s been done by Dennis and Sandra’s son-in-law Justin, who is actually a painter by trade!)

At the front end of the lounge is a small lead-lined window cabinet that has some neat little internal Perspex fittings for keeping wine glasses firmly in position when travelling.The layout offers a kitchen bench on both sides of the motorhome with plenty of cupboard space that includes a full-height slide-out pantry and a decent amount of benchtop area. The nearside bench has a twin stainless steel sink and the offside accommodates a Spinflo three-burner stove and Cara oven. A microwave is fitted into the overhead lockers, at a reasonable height for most people.

Behind the kitchen is an area that makes this a true home away from home. On the nearside is a small workstation complete with personal computer and printer, and on the offside is a sewing desk for Sandra. The bathroom area has been designed for washing – not only people but clothes as well. There’s a separate shower and toilet on the offside, while opposite is a vanity sink with a washing machine fitted underneath. Also in the bathroom area is a large double cupboard.

A queen-sized island bed occupies most of the bedroom area, with drawers fitted in the base of the bed. Also included in the bedroom design are bedside cabinets and overhead lockers above the bed.

All wired up

This is certainly a very well equipped rig with a 24V electrical system, instead of the usual 12V. A three-stage charger and solar panels keep the 12 x 6V 180 amp hour batteries topped up and a 3000W inverter supplies the 240V in conjunction with a 3.0 kVa generator when mains power is not available. Hot water is heated by a gas and 240V heater. Two roof-mounted Electrolux air-conditioners keep things cool throughout and one of those snazzy remote controlled Heki hatches that close if it rains is fitted above the front lounge area.

The surround sound entertainment system has everything – AM/FM radio, CD/DVD player and two TVs that have both a Winegard antenna and a Campersat satellite system.

Summing up

Some very practical experience has gone into this motorhome conversion. Like all Dennis’ previous projects, this one is up for sale but Sandra mentioned that she would prefer to be travelling in the latest of the fruit of their labours. We could only agree!