OK fellow skoolies, here comes your newest member with our latest attempt at a conversion. We previously converted a 1989 Ford E350 29 passenger StarCraft for use to haul our show llamas to various events around the region. Well it wasn't quite big enough for two livestock stalls and then the 4 of us to bunk in overnight at the shows, so we decided to go BIGGER! And yes, the llamas ride INSIDE the bus.
So here it begins, this afternoon we committed to purchase a 1988 Blue Bird 89 passenger school bus. It has a Cummins C 8.3 Diesel with 134K miles, only 10K on a rebuilt transmission and underneath storage.
We will be relying on the information we can gather from this site and all of you experts to get us through this conversion. Stay tuned for updates and PLEASE watch for my many posts to come for assistance.
Our first challenge will be to repaint it as we live in Iowa. I have given my kids and wife templates of the bus for design ideas. I am the doer and not the designer.
We hope to hear from many of you with comments, tips and tricks to help us along the way. Next llama show... April 24/25 2010. While it doesn't need to be 100% complete by then, we do have our work cut out for us.
Our llamas go through lots of performance training and are quite adept at walking up the front stairs of the bus. Our current bus has no back door, so we had no other options. We are debating the merits of some sort of stow-able ramp system for the back door on the new bus, but haven't gotten very far on the engineering of one yet.
As for the modifications affecting the paint, I suppose it is an issue to consider as we will be doing much more significant remodeling on the inside of the new bus vs the old. Not to mention, cold weather has already taken up residence here in eastern Iowa and weather warm enough for painting my not return until next April.
I to live in Iowa....I was stopped 3 times before I got my bus painted....The frist time they told me that there could not be any yellow on my bus or lights.....The 2nd time I had started priming and removing lights. They told me again no yellow no lights. I said can't you see that I am working on it...so they let me go....3rd time again no yellow but didn't say anything about the lights..They let me go.....So out of all of this I would make it look like you are going to paint it soon......
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What happens on the trail stays on the trail
We are debating the merits of some sort of stow-able ramp system for the back door on the new bus, but haven't gotten very far on the engineering of one yet.
If you take a look at my bus (see links in the signature below), you'll see United Rental installed a very nice pull-out ramp. Looks like it would be very simple to install one yourself. I'll try to take a couple of better photos later this week (probably on Saturday) and post them for you to examine.
Great to see yet another amazing use for an old school bus (llama transport). Do you raise Alpaca as well as Llamas?
the llamazine ...i love it
i work with a llama on the ranch i work at he is antisocial because of his stint in the petting zoo we bought him from
and yes i do work on a ranch smitty "preemptive strike "
I have initiated an email thread with the Iowa Motor Vehicle Enforcement Division to provide me with the stone cold facts on the bus requirements (paint, lights, etc.). We'll see what they come up with.
Tygercub and Smitty,
The slide in ramp was my first thought but there is a nice trailer hitch on the back of the bus I do not want to lose use of. Once I get her home I will have to investigate that idea further.
And... I am impressed you are so well versed in one of the llamas many uses... as a guard. That's how most llama owners get started is by bringing a llama in to guard their sheep, goats, fowl, etc. And please don't judge any llamas by the petting zoo variety. They often spread the bad "spitting" impression that all other llamas get labeled with.
First... I sold the old bus! Woo Hoo! One less thing to worry about. And I made a few bucks on the deal.
Second... we brought the new bus home on Saturday. Now the real work begins! And thanks to the previous item, it covered almost all the cost of the new bus. And the new bus got much better gas mileage than the old one. BIG plus!
I live in Iowa and you know what the weather has been like. All I've managed to do so far is get all the seats out. The bus barely fits into my corn crib (with front mirrors removed). As soon as it gets warm enough in there to work I'll get pictures up.
OK! Now that it has FINALLY warmed up here in east central Iowa, I have finally been able to get some work done on the LlamaZine. Instead of posting the pictures here, I have put up a page on our web site devoted to the project that you can see here: http://www.llamasrus.net/llamazine.aspx
Please take a look and let me know what you think. Still a long way to go and our first show of 2010 is in 3.5 weeks.
Well, it's 95% done, and it made it's first shakedown cruise on May 14th. We took the LlamaZine, complete with 9 llamas, to a show in Faribault, MN. The bus performed as well on the road as our llamas did in the show ring. We are happy with how it has turned out so far and just have some small tweaks left to work on.
I am almost embarrassed to post pictures as it is nowhere near the quality of many of the buses on this board, but it is simply meant to be little more than a rolling livestock trailer/hard-sided tent. So, be nice guys!
You can see the rest of the pictures atour llama web site below my signature.
Love the bus!! I read here and there of people wanting to do that for their horses but never seen it done. First llama bus I've seen Fascinating creatures.
I LIKE the paint & striping job on the outside. It gives it a real . . . I guess I'd call it an "executive" look.
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Someone said "Making good decisions comes from experience, experience comes from bad decisions." I say there are three kinds of people: those who learn from their mistakes, those who learn from the mistakes of others, and those who never learn.