48 State Bus

[jtcu]

Me and some friends got together to buy a bus to go to all 48 states in 48 days, we recently purchased a bus in omaha, NE and saw a bus extremely similar in the gallery:

http://www.skoolie.net/gallery2/v/Skooli ... M.jpg.html

I was wondering if anyone knew anything about this bus or has any input on purchasing a 1983 bluebird with a 8.2L detroit diesel....

we are young and naive so any input will help us out immensely!

[the_experience03]

48 states in 48 days is ambitious! I'm a little jealous. I just want to see all 50 before I turn 30 giving me 7.5 more years.

The most important thing if you want to achieve your goal is going to be making sure that thing is rock solid reliable. Are you planning on doing some test runs first to make sure it's really roadworthy?

[jtcu]

We drive it home thursday for 18 hours.... bound to find out a little bit there.

When we get it home, I'm sure I'll be posting a lot more.

So far we are planning on taking a total of 8 people and are currently setting up the calendar of events leaving a couple days in most major places to also give us some leeway in case of problems. Currently scheduled for 5/10/08.

The plan as of now, is to only hit some states just to take a picture at the "Welcome To ____" sign... and that will give us more time in the places that we would like to spend most of the expedition. Probably we will stay at national parks most of the times with some rare occasions in hotels as we are poor college students.

[the_experience03]

Wal-Mart and Casino parking lots....they're secure and comfortable. It is always considered proper manners to buy something should you stop at a Wal-Mart. Go play $5 in a slot machine at the casino and drink $20 worth of free beverages. They probably would never know one way or the other, but it's just plain polite.

What's the plan for Minnesota? If you're coming through the north I would think you'd want to take atleast an hour or two to see a glacial lake or perhaps the North Shore. If you're going down south you could stop at the Mall of America I suppose. Otherwise just keep driving.

[Steve]

Maybe you could post where you are and meet up with another member and their bus in each state!

[jtcu]

We have a schedule forming up on myspace.com/48statebus
I think you have to be a friend to view it though, but if you have a myspace just invite me as friend and I'll accept.

The calendar of events is under construction now but we have a basic idea of where we are stopping. The times are horribly off and some of the exact locations will change slightly, but the basic areas are laid out.... so more or less we looked at google maps, and used mapquest to figure out where we would get with a good days drive in the right direction.

Since we are poor, we are also looking to possibly get sponsors, but I don't know how hard that would be..... but worth a try!

I'm willing to go out of my way for biodiesel if it makes the sponsors more willing to participate, so I guess we will have to see on that one.

[the_experience03]

Well it looks good. A word of caution...I'm not sure how much this will affect your overall budget, but you really probably should plan for an oil change or two and atleast SOME replacement parts. A new to you tire might run $100 installed. At the same time, your estimates of camping are high, especially if you do the truck stop, wal-mart, or casino thing a few times. Don't forget tolls either. They can be unavoidable and MEAN in something that size.

[Steve]

If you do come through my area and need a place to stay you can stop for a night at my place.

[jtcu]

Thanks for the offer, I guess we'll have to check our schedule, although I don't think we have are planning on sleeping in Iowa.

We are however having some trouble finding cheap insurance for this bus! I seriously didn't think it would be this hard to get it titled and insured! If anyone has any recommendations on either subject please pass them on, so far ownership of a skoolie has been a lot of work but our 7 week vacation next year will make it all worth it!

[Steve]

Most people on here have had great luck with State Farm, especially if they already have a car insured there. State Farm is where I have mine insured.

[jtcu]

We'll try calling them, Progressive basically shot us down saying that they don't do school bus conversions, I talked to someone at GMAC but they wanted almost 300 for 6 months...that's a lot to pay for something that's gonna sit in our backyard for a year and not be driven!

[Steve]

Through state farm mine is $11.28 / mo. for full coverage.

[jtcu]

Wow, that's incredibly low! Did you tell them that it's a school bus conversion or did you just let them assume that it was a regular bus conversion? I don't understand why there would be a difference but apparently Progressive believes that school bus conversions are more of a risk than they are willing to take

[Steve]

They know that it is converted and I told them I would be using it for camping. I do get a discount for having my house and my other cars insured with them, but I'm not sure how much that really affected the price. Oh and I am over 25, I see you are 23.

[jtcu]

well, actually 20...the bus is 23 years old that's why the myspace page says that...lol

I will defnitely be giving them a call tomorrow

Do you have any experience dealing with Detroit Diesels? and Alison Transmissions? I know ALison's are some of the best transmissions made but the engine worries me a little I've never heard of a Detroit Diesel before...but then again I didnt' know you could buy a used school bus and turn it into an RV until last week

[nyrockingchairs]

I could not get State Farm to touch it until the conversion is done and it is a "Motorhome." Though my agent could not describe what a "motorhome" is by their definition.

That seems high for GMAC, I got mine through there for $300 for the year. But being young hurts you there I guess.

I have that engine in my bus and it gets about 10 MPG and my bus has a 35-gallon tank, so plan on stopping every 300 miles for diesel and a bill around $100 per stop.

It holds 3.5 gallons of oil, I just replaced mine. Takes 2 oil filters and 1 fuel filter, all readily available, I used Napa Gold filters ($6 per oil and $11 for the fuel filter). At least on my bus, a freaking mechanical engineering genius designed it because the drain pan is located directly over the front suspension bar and my 5-gallon bucket would not fit under there to collect the oil.

Also filling it was a pain, I suggest getting a nice funnel with a rubber hose for filling it and it being a 2-person job. I bought my Rotella T 15W-40 diesel oil in a 5-gallon ($50 for the 5 gallons) container and then used a 1-gallon milk jug to measure out and pour the 3.5 gallons into the engine. Again Napa sells the oil, but I got mine at Tractor Supply Company since they were a little cheaper.

After looking over the engine I found a sticker on it saying not to take it above 2900 RPM, which in my bus means not much over 60 MPH. Getting it past 60 requires a nice down-hill with a tail-wind though.

[jtcu]

10 mpg would be fantastic! The previous owner said he got over 8.5 mpg while pulling a PT Cruiser on a dolly

For those of you who didn't look at the pictures on our page it has somewhat been converted, it has a bathroom(porter potty), bedroom, fridge, electricity

it lacks water, stove, and unfortunately it's still titled as a bus...so the trip home is gonna be somewhat of a risk...(praying we dont' get pulled over) seeing as that neither of the drivers will have a CDL

[nyrockingchairs]

Oh I forgot, if you come through the Buffalo, NY area you can swing by here for the night, and we can even do a quick oil change...I live about 30 miles south of the I-90 exit about 15 miles east of the Buffalo Airport.

Also Darien Lake Amusement Park (formerly owned by Six Flags) is off that same exit, and they have camp grounds there.

I suggest investing the $300 or $400 for a nice GPS unit with all the maps and stuff. Especially if you plan to try and meet up with people in the different states.

[the_experience03]

Surprisingly age doesn't affect insurance rates on RVs according to my State Farm agent. The actuarials just don't show us as having more accidents than the older generation. Maybe it's because not many of us drive RVs and maybe it's because Grandpa in his 20 ton death machine is just as dangerous as any 16 year old.

An alternative to the GPS that works really well if one of you owns a laptop is Microsuck's Streets and Trips software and GPS package. You will need a bluetooth enabled PC as far as I know, but that's not a big deal. Dongles are cheap if it isn't integrated. The catch? While the receiver worked great in my truck, it had to be in a very specific location in the bus to work properly...something about vertical windows and lots of steel I would imagine.

[jtcu]

we'll have GPS enabled phones with us, and hopefully a broadband wireless internet laptop by the time we hit the road. But we plan on definitely mapquesting every little detail before we start, we've done it twice now, refining the stops each time.

As someone mentioned earlier our estimates are a little high for campgrounds for the night, but when you factor in that there will be 8 people in this bus (which normally causes the rates to go up), and we won't be doing anystopping at Wal-Mart, some of the girls refuse to go a day without a shower...lol...I think it is a pretty fair estimate. Plus, it's always better to guess to high, than to guess to low and run out of money!