If you’re planning on converting a school bus to a skoolie, you’ll want to watch people who did the same and how they’re living it out.
Numerous YouTube channels feature families that live in (and have built) skoolies. Whether you’re living alone, with your partner, or even in a house full of kids, you’ll find someone who’s doing the same.
Here are the best five skoolie YouTube channels you can follow to see the experience before living it.
Zeppelin Travels
The Zeppelin Travels channel is all about simple, off-the-grid living. It features different families, couples, and solo travelers converting school buses to livable houses, and it shows their adventures later on.
You’ll find hack videos for everything you may need for skoolie living, including cooking, cleaning, parking, and how to handle your skoolie in winter.
Mobile Dwellings / Gilligan Phantom
You can’t be an aspiring skoolier without following this YouTube channel. The Mobile Dwellings is one of the most popular channels for people living off the grid. The family built their own skoolie out of a rare 1986 school bus, and they’ve been living in it ever since.
The conversion video is a timelapse of 24 months, and it got the family a whopping 4 million views on YouTube!
If you’re interested in how the family lives in the skoolie, you can follow their Instagram account, Gilligan Phantom. Their YouTube channel also shows various hacks and adventures they went through with the skoolie.
Transcend Existence
The Transcend Existence is one of the most interesting channels you’ll find for building skoolies.
The owner walks us through the complete process of building his bus, Transcendence. There are 12 episodes showing all the details you may need to convert a school bus into a skoolie.
Living ZEAL
Living Zeal is a YouTube channel featuring Chad and Zaynah Miner, a couple who’ve decided to go into the skoolie world a while back. Together, they converted not one but seven school buses into livable houses!
They’re also avid #vanlife people, so their Youtube channel is a mix of both worlds.
Their channel documents all their conversions, along with their adventures, hacks, and tips for living off the grid. They also include lists of Amazon products that help with their simple lifestyle.
Here’s their Instagram account if you want to further explore their life: living zeal.
A Bus Life Story
A Bus Life Story is a YouTube channel that features the conversion of an old school bus into an RV. The couple walks us through their conversion process, and provides some useful tips for plumbing and dealing with skoolie issues generally.
They also have an online store that sells t-shirts for fellow skoolie lovers.
Conclusion
You don’t need to go through the skoolie life experience alone, especially if it’s your first time living off the grid. Learning from the experience of others is always useful and helps you avert common mistakes.
These YouTube channels should be enough to tell you everything you need to know before living the experience and converting a bus school yourself.
