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Old 05-24-2013, 07:21 AM   #221
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Great set up, I going to copy that only for the rear of mine.
gbstewart

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Old 05-24-2013, 07:49 AM   #222
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

The bracket that you have made looks like it attaches your bumper to the frame or the body of the bus. If you pull into a weigh scale/inspection station this may be considered a serious violation in some places (may be different from state to state, province to province) as you have tampered with a manufactures safety device.

A quick stop at a weigh scale and asking one of the inspectors if it is OK would probably be a good idea, they will also probably know if it is good across the county and maybe America wide. The fines for these violations, allthough I understand the mod seems trivial, can be enormous.
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Old 05-24-2013, 09:05 AM   #223
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Quote:
Originally Posted by TourTech
The bracket that you have made looks like it attaches your bumper to the frame or the body of the bus. If you pull into a weigh scale/inspection station this may be considered a serious violation in some places (may be different from state to state, province to province) as you have tampered with a manufactures safety device.
Could be a valid point if it were a commercial vehicle, but RV's aren't required or even wanted in scales/inspection stations.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TourTech
A quick stop at a weigh scale and asking one of the inspectors if it is OK would probably be a good idea, they will also probably know if it is good across the county and maybe America wide. The fines for these violations, allthough I understand the mod seems trivial, can be enormous.
In my experience they seldom know anything about, or won't say anything out of their jurisdiction.
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Old 05-24-2013, 09:46 AM   #224
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Love the rack.

Anyone with large vehicle experience knows it's better to carry the extras, then tow them. Big tires last almost forever, and turn slow. Anytime you start pulling something behind with small tires, your just asking for more maintenance, and potential disaster.

Combine small tires, short length of a trailer, with the long overhang, swing of the rear a bus, and a Holiday just turned into a big costly mess.

Nat
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Old 05-24-2013, 11:42 AM   #225
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Great job on the rack!!! I need to commission you to build one for me
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Old 05-24-2013, 01:02 PM   #226
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Quote:
Originally Posted by somewhereinusa
Quote:
Originally Posted by TourTech
The bracket that you have made looks like it attaches your bumper to the frame or the body of the bus. If you pull into a weigh scale/inspection station this may be considered a serious violation in some places (may be different from state to state, province to province) as you have tampered with a manufactures safety device.
Could be a valid point if it were a commercial vehicle, but RV's aren't required or even wanted in scales/inspection stations.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TourTech
A quick stop at a weigh scale and asking one of the inspectors if it is OK would probably be a good idea, they will also probably know if it is good across the county and maybe America wide. The fines for these violations, allthough I understand the mod seems trivial, can be enormous.
In my experience they seldom know anything about, or won't say anything out of their jurisdiction.
Yeah, there is no CVOR on the side so I guess it's a personal vehicle. But still, at least here in Canada, we have Ministry cops that have the power to pull any vehicle on the road over and take it out of service if it is deemed unsafe, they also hand out fines for unsafe vehicles, check for fuel tags and do dips etc. Theses are the same guys that are at the scales, and I assume that when their scale is closed they patrol the area in their vehicles.

It's allways better to ask as if you are showing up to get it cleared they would likely just tell you to fix it if it is a violation, otherwise if they stop you the best you can hope for is a warning. Commercial or not, it's a heavy vehicle and the crush force of the bumper is subtracted from the energy transfered to anything you might happen to hit. Defeating it's function can turn a small bump into a 5 ton blow which could be catastophic. Better to be on the safe side and have someone look at it IMO.
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Old 05-24-2013, 01:36 PM   #227
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

TourTech

Are you in Ontario?

Nat
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Old 05-24-2013, 07:35 PM   #228
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Quote:
Originally Posted by Part-time
It'll be easy to keep an eye on your bike!
Mine's gonna ride in a trailer... I might make a rack on a receiver for the rear for the times I don't want a trailer.
Yes it is. And it is amazing how much it moves around under its own suspension. I was a bit surprised.

I thought about building a rear rack but I could not come up with a way to do it with the rear engine. I really did not want to make it a 10 minute process just to be able to open the engine bay to check the oil.
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Old 05-24-2013, 07:36 PM   #229
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Quote:
Originally Posted by bansil
Neat little project
Thanks Bansil.
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Old 05-24-2013, 07:37 PM   #230
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Quote:
Originally Posted by gbstewart
Great set up, I going to copy that only for the rear of mine.
gbstewart
Thanks.
It would work great on a front engine bus. Good luck. Post some pictures.
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Old 05-24-2013, 08:03 PM   #231
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Quote:
Originally Posted by TourTech
The bracket that you have made looks like it attaches your bumper to the frame or the body of the bus. If you pull into a weigh scale/inspection station this may be considered a serious violation in some places (may be different from state to state, province to province) as you have tampered with a manufactures safety device.

A quick stop at a weigh scale and asking one of the inspectors if it is OK would probably be a good idea, they will also probably know if it is good across the county and maybe America wide. The fines for these violations, although I understand the mod seems trivial, can be enormous.
Thanks for the insight TourTech. I do appreciate your point of view and concern.
You are absolutely correct that it does connect with the bumper. You are also correct that if this was a commercial vehicle and I had to follow a set of rules, my modification would probably not pass the inspection. I can completely understand making modifications to safety devices would be frowned upon.
To be honest with you, it never even entered my mind. I was actually thinking that adding some more steel/motorcycle between me and the scene of the accident might actually be a good thing, albeit very small indeed. I never understood how a forward control vehicle would be safe at all in the event of a head on collision.
As far as I'm concerned the driver of any forward control bus is the first person to the scene of an accident and that is not a good position to be in.
You can read countless articles about bus accidents, both school and commercial and usually the only person to perish is the driver. It might have to do with only having a matter of inches between the driver and the crash. Not a safe place to be sitting as far as I'm concerned.

In a previous vocation I was a truck driver for a few years. I gave the state of CA via the Banning scales (I-10) more money than I care to admit. (I was a company driver and had no say in how the truck was maintained, no excuse though, it was my fault) Never again will I enter a scale house (in the lower 48 we called them chicken coops) on purpose. Nothing like petting the piranha.

Like somewhereinusa said.... the commercial vehicle scale houses want nothing to do with us RV owners. They might give us their personal opinion from a safety standpoint but I'm guessing they would pretty much think we were wasting their time and tell us to leave. The DOT cops have no jurisdiction over personal vehicles, as far as I know, short of "fix it" tickets. (Blinkers, windshield cracks, etc)

The US is very lackadaisical on safety issues with personal vehicles, as far as I'm concerned. If the state motor vehicle department will plate the vehicle you are good to go. Emissions is about the only thing they check up on and that is dependant on your location. (I'm from a part of AZ that has no emissions laws) Anything goes.

Thanks again for your opinion. It is well taken.
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Old 05-24-2013, 08:07 PM   #232
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Quote:
Originally Posted by nat_ster
Love the rack.

Anyone with large vehicle experience knows it's better to carry the extras, then tow them. Big tires last almost forever, and turn slow. Anytime you start pulling something behind with small tires, your just asking for more maintenance, and potential disaster.

Combine small tires, short length of a trailer, with the long overhang, swing of the rear a bus, and a Holiday just turned into a big costly mess.

Nat
Valid points Nat. If I could carry my suv with me I would do it in a heartbeat. Instead I'm going to flat tow it and budget for the increased maintenance costs. Such is life.
Maybe I can do a 22.5 modification to my truck.
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Old 05-24-2013, 08:09 PM   #233
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Quote:
Originally Posted by browncrown
Great job on the rack!!! I need to commission you to build one for me
Thanks BC. Although in my opinion a big old rack on the front of your beautiful Crown would not look good.
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Old 05-24-2013, 08:13 PM   #234
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Quote:
Originally Posted by syke

Valid points Nat. If I could carry my suv with me I would do it in a heartbeat. Instead I'm going to flat tow it and budget for the increased maintenance costs. Such is life.
Maybe I can do a 22.5 modification to my truck.

Specs on said truck? I do have a set of custom 8 lug 22.5 rims for sale......

Nat
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Old 05-24-2013, 08:18 PM   #235
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Quote:
Originally Posted by TourTech
Quote:
Originally Posted by somewhereinusa
Quote:
Originally Posted by TourTech
The bracket that you have made looks like it attaches your bumper to the frame or the body of the bus. If you pull into a weigh scale/inspection station this may be considered a serious violation in some places (may be different from state to state, province to province) as you have tampered with a manufactures safety device.
Could be a valid point if it were a commercial vehicle, but RV's aren't required or even wanted in scales/inspection stations.

Quote:
Originally Posted by TourTech
A quick stop at a weigh scale and asking one of the inspectors if it is OK would probably be a good idea, they will also probably know if it is good across the county and maybe America wide. The fines for these violations, allthough I understand the mod seems trivial, can be enormous.
In my experience they seldom know anything about, or won't say anything out of their jurisdiction.
Yeah, there is no CVOR on the side so I guess it's a personal vehicle. But still, at least here in Canada, we have Ministry cops that have the power to pull any vehicle on the road over and take it out of service if it is deemed unsafe, they also hand out fines for unsafe vehicles, check for fuel tags and do dips etc. Theses are the same guys that are at the scales, and I assume that when their scale is closed they patrol the area in their vehicles.

It's allways better to ask as if you are showing up to get it cleared they would likely just tell you to fix it if it is a violation, otherwise if they stop you the best you can hope for is a warning. Commercial or not, it's a heavy vehicle and the crush force of the bumper is subtracted from the energy transfered to anything you might happen to hit. Defeating it's function can turn a small bump into a 5 ton blow which could be catastophic. Better to be on the safe side and have someone look at it IMO.
As far as I know there is no such thing in the lower 48. At least not out west where I've grown up.
Now from a safety standpoint, I can see your point but I'm not sure our forward control buses have any sort of "Crush" system engineered into the bus. My bus basically has a piece of steel bolted horizontally to the front of the frame rails. There will be very little engineered give in the event of a front end collision, imo. Definitely nothing like a modern automobile or commercial semi truck. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I think these buses are designed to be the strongest solid piece at the accident and to pretty much transfer all the energy into the other object. For better or worse.

But I'm far from an engineer... and I live in a school bus.
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Old 05-24-2013, 08:50 PM   #236
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

I agree...make sure if it happens....to impact something a lot lighter than you/us....otherwise we will be FUBAR
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Old 05-24-2013, 09:02 PM   #237
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Quote:
Originally Posted by Part-time
Quote:
Originally Posted by TourTech
...the crush force of the bumper is subtracted from the energy transfered to anything you might happen to hit. Defeating it's function can turn a small bump into a 5 ton blow which could be catastophic. Better to be on the safe side and have someone look at it IMO.
Other than the steel used to build the bumper is as thick as the frame and offers 0 crush unlike that of a plastic car bumper...
The square tubing looks to be pretty much in line with the frame so I seriously doubt it would change much in a colision.
If anything... the rack and the bike just add a crush zone.
There ya go. I was thinking the same thing. I'm sure my rack/motorcycle would fold like a lawn chair in the event of a collision.
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Old 05-24-2013, 09:04 PM   #238
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Quote:
Originally Posted by nat_ster
Quote:
Originally Posted by syke

Valid points Nat. If I could carry my suv with me I would do it in a heartbeat. Instead I'm going to flat tow it and budget for the increased maintenance costs. Such is life.
Maybe I can do a 22.5 modification to my truck.

Specs on said truck? I do have a set of custom 8 lug 22.5 rims for sale......

Nat
I wish... actually I'm driving an old Land Rover suv. I'll stick with my 17s. Thanks though.
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Old 05-24-2013, 09:07 PM   #239
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Re: Great White Buffalo - 92 BB All American RE

Quote:
Originally Posted by bansil
I agree...make sure if it happens....to impact something a lot lighter than you/us....otherwise we will be FUBAR
Will do!
I'm thinking a school bus is about the last automobile anyone would want to tangle with. Everything else is designed to fold up and help absorb the impact.... a school bus, not so much. Just a big metal tube designed to hold children and not fold up... at all.
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Old 08-08-2016, 06:19 PM   #240
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Wow it has been forever since I've posted.... guess I will pull this thread out of the depths.

So how about an update... just for the hell of it.

Bus has rooftop A/C and a different color combination now..... Past that she is still the exact same as before.
We've put about 8k miles on it over the years. Spent 9 months in and around Las Vegas, NV. Spent about 10 months in and around Portland, OR. Another 8 months in Prescott, AZ and now Colorado Springs, CO.
Full-time everywhere expect about 4 months of summer in Vegas. Even with the A/C units, Vegas is just to much for us. We're more fair weather/winter style folks so Vegas summers are just to much.

It has been a blast that is for sure but Probably going to hang it up here shortly though.... 3.5 years full-time and it is time to stretch our legs in a sticks and bricks. We need to make a few modifications to the interior and most likely relegate her to camping and as a moving truck. So far it has worked out great every time my work has moved us around the west coast. Our next stop is Boston after a year in Colorado Springs so we'll use the bus to make the move out east.

It has been fun to see the skoolie world evolve and all the new builds. It is awesome to see the ambition of folks on this site.
For those that are on the fence.... just do it. It will make for some incredible life stories.

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