Our IH 3800 Adventure Mobile

Jordanrctm · 08-20-2018, 01:09 PM

Hi, All

I have been reading this forum for quite a while and am ready to start my build thread.
First, the bus I bought. It is a 1999 Thomas/IH 59 passenger bus from our local school district where my wife is the business manager. They had it sitting on their parking lot for a while for $2500 and had lots of offers, but just for the engine and transmission. No one wanted the chassis. I was joking with my wife about buying it if they could wait until my annual bonus came in. She floated the proposal to the Maintenance department and they told her she could do that and have it for $1500 if I came right down and took it home. They just wanted it off the lot.
History: It had set for two years without anyone looking at it. They hired a real maintenance person and he decided to put it back on the road. They did a complete maintenance, new tires, new starting batteries and started driving it. Due to letting it sit for the two years, the fuel gelled and was growing an algae in the tank. They had to replace the screen before the fuel filter every day. They found a fuel cleaner and started dosing the tank and it seems to have fixed the issue. I have cleaned the undercarriage with a pressure washer and after driving it, find no leaks. While it does not have the most desirable drivetrain, it does run well, have low hours, and drives out great. My son and I removed all the seats through the process of a 3/8" air impact on top and a 1/2" wrench on the bottom. This thing had a lot of undercoating that made it hard to get a wrench on the bolts, but we got them out in about 3 hours. No rusted nuts or bolts issues. Therefore, for now I am not pulling the floor up. We plan to use it for the current hunting season this year starting in September, so some simple upgrades for now. Building a toilet stand (we have a 5-gallon portable self contained toilet from last year) over the drivers side rear wheel well, and putting in a shower with an instant hot water heater that runs off propane (we have a spring fed creek right behind our parking spot that can provide water and a sewer tank for the grey water). Thinking of going with the horse trough ideal for base and using conduit for the shower curtain supports. We will use an air mattress and two cots for sleeping and can dine in the camp meeting place, so easy for this first year. We plan to turn this into a full RV, but have to wait on next year's bonus and income tax return to get started. Look forward to posting and continuing to learn from the many "master" bus folks on this forum.

Tango · 08-20-2018, 03:01 PM

Welcome to the craziness! Sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Maybe not a top-tier racehorse, but it is hopefully solid.

Best of luck on the conversion.

Jordanrctm · 08-20-2018, 03:17 PM

Thank You.
I have experience working on the 7.3 Powerstroke, so most of that ought to transfer to the T444E. As the Allison 545AT seems to be working good, fluid is in good shape, I will run it for now with eye to swapping in an MT643 at some point or something similar. Only thing I am having trouble with is finding the rear gear ratio. It is a Dana Spicer, but all the #s do not seem to be recognized in their database. I actually think there is a tag missing. Possibly from a prior repair. The maintenance man that was there for 15 years did not have the knowledge nor the want to to maintain the busses, so sent them out to a semi-repair center. I requested the maintenance logs, but they had discarded them.
Floor does not have any soft spots in it and I have only found three rust spots. One is at the back emergency door and may be from the rear A/C evaoorator case leaking or the door gasket needing replacement. I fixed this spot by removing all the rust I could get out, putting OSPHO on it, priming and painting it. There is one at the lower front windshield frame to body that was previously stopped with silicone, but has flaking rust, I believe that this one will require some extensive repair at some point. I plan to buff out the silicone and rust as far as I can go then treat it with OSPHO. Reseal it for now, until I have more time to pull the windows and some rivets. The last is a small spot on one of the entrance doors at the bottom. I have already treated it and it is primed and painted.

A little done, but a long way to go!! I am looking forward to it.
Again, thanks for the welcome!

EastCoastCB · 08-20-2018, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jordanrctm

Thank You.
I have experience working on the 7.3 Powerstroke, so most of that ought to transfer to the T444E. As the Allison 545AT seems to be working good, fluid is in good shape, I will run it for now with eye to swapping in an MT643 at some point or something similar. Only thing I am having trouble with is finding the rear gear ratio. It is a Dana Spicer, but all the #s do not seem to be recognized in their database. I actually think there is a tag missing. Possibly from a prior repair. The maintenance man that was there for 15 years did not have the knowledge nor the want to to maintain the busses, so sent them out to a semi-repair center. I requested the maintenance logs, but they had discarded them.
Floor does not have any soft spots in it and I have only found three rust spots. One is at the back emergency door and may be from the rear A/C evaoorator case leaking or the door gasket needing replacement. I fixed this spot by removing all the rust I could get out, putting OSPHO on it, priming and painting it. There is one at the lower front windshield frame to body that was previously stopped with silicone, but has flaking rust, I believe that this one will require some extensive repair at some point. I plan to buff out the silicone and rust as far as I can go then treat it with OSPHO. Reseal it for now, until I have more time to pull the windows and some rivets. The last is a small spot on one of the entrance doors at the bottom. I have already treated it and it is primed and painted.

A little done, but a long way to go!! I am looking forward to it.
Again, thanks for the welcome!

Welcome to the forum!

If you're going to swap transmissions one day, I'd highly recommend considering an Allison 2000. Its shorter and lighter than the 643 and lots of them came with the 444E's. You'll get overdrive, too!

Jordanrctm · 08-21-2018, 07:03 AM

As that is an electronic transmission, how do you integrate it with the IH computer? Or is this the one that only needs a throttle sensor input?

EastCoastCB · 08-21-2018, 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jordanrctm

As that is an electronic transmission, how do you integrate it with the IH computer? Or is this the one that only needs a throttle sensor input?

Christopher did a custom install of a 1000 but if you got a 2000 out of a bus and the tcm it shouldn't be quite as involved as his.
But ask him and he'll tell you all about it.
Screen name is CadillacKid.

Jordanrctm · 08-21-2018, 07:38 AM

Thank you, I will look him up.

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