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Old 03-05-2018, 07:16 PM   #1
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Bought a bus

Well I pulled the trigger and bought a bus tonight and it's nothing like I envisioned when I started my research. It's a 98 international with a 466e and a 545 Allison.. It is a shorter bus though, 30 ft bumper to bumper, 20 ft from rear of drivers seat to the back. Ease of finding a camping spot in state and national parks ended up winning over in the end.. I wanted a longer bus but we love state parks and have had alot of bad experiences with private campgrounds in the past... I quess we all have to compromise...

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Old 03-05-2018, 08:17 PM   #2
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Don't sound so excited
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Old 03-05-2018, 08:30 PM   #3
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This is the same reason I chose a mid-sized bus. It's not easy finding a good parking place for a 40 footer.
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Old 03-05-2018, 09:31 PM   #4
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Congrats! Pictures?
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Old 03-06-2018, 08:53 AM   #5
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I'll get pics tonight when I go pay for it, we looked at it a few day's ago and the guy accepted the offer last night. I got it for $2500 and the guy's going to deliver if for me as long as I take him home... I was excited to do a big bus, see just what I could do in all that space... Smaller floor patterns are limited to where things can go. I'm going to have to combine two rooms together now so I'm thinking of putting the living room in the rear with a U shape couch that converts to a queen bed. "And so it begins"
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Old 03-06-2018, 09:01 AM   #6
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Congrats! And I agree that if you want to spend much time in state & national campgrounds...staying well under 40' is a big advantage.
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Old 03-06-2018, 11:43 AM   #7
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We love state parks, there small, quiet and quaint. The sites are wide open and not jammed right up against each other, and cheap.. Most of the time big outfits stay out of them because of septic hookups and the people that are there spend more time outside camping...That's us we love it outside we really just need a bathroom and a comfortable place to sleep... Are current camper is only 30 square feet inside so even a short bus is a step up to big living....LOL


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Old 03-06-2018, 06:42 PM   #8
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Here's the bus we bought, seems like it has a lot of rear cantilever over the rear axle. Seems like that's better for getting tanks under it though....

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Old 03-06-2018, 07:55 PM   #9
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One other thing, might be a good thing but who know's. All the interior and some of the exterior have Phillip screws and not rivets. Bad thing is the ceiling is perforated panels, there goes my free sheet metal for patching floor and small pieces for roof raise...
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Old 03-06-2018, 08:08 PM   #10
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One other thing, might be a good thing but who know's. All the interior and some of the exterior have Phillip screws and not rivets. Bad thing is the ceiling is perforated panels, there goes my free sheet metal for patching floor and small pieces for roof raise...
Ironic as the perforated ceilings were an expensive option.
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Old 03-06-2018, 08:53 PM   #11
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I've got the same ceilings in mine. Tested 1 row of screws, none of them gave me any problems with drill and #2 Phillips
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Old 03-06-2018, 09:33 PM   #12
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Same here. Let's count our blessings
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Old 03-07-2018, 09:43 AM   #13
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We used a special bit as our screws were “hybrid” type. Meaning they have an inner square and also have Phillips.

So our bit had the inner small square as well as the Phillips sections on it.

With a standard #2 we ended up rounding off a bunch of them. No problems after we switched bits.

We only ended up having to cut off maybe 2-3% of the screw heads between the roof, walls and floors.

We used my ryobi impact driver


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Old 03-07-2018, 09:45 AM   #14
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And big bummer on the perforated panels

We’re using our left over roof skins to cover our windows we’re removing as well as skin over our emergency hatches


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Old 03-07-2018, 10:44 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mgulley82 View Post
We used a special bit as our screws were “hybrid” type. Meaning they have an inner square and also have Phillips.

So our bit had the inner small square as well as the Phillips sections on it.

With a standard #2 we ended up rounding off a bunch of them. No problems after we switched bits.

We only ended up having to cut off maybe 2-3% of the screw heads between the roof, walls and floors.

We used my ryobi impact driver


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Were did you get the bit from? Mine are like that also
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Old 03-09-2018, 03:04 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jonb8 View Post
Here's the bus we bought, seems like it has a lot of rear cantilever over the rear axle. Seems like that's better for getting tanks under it though....

While I would prefer an FC bus, that is exactly the size I am hunting for. And for a lot of the same reasons too! Congrats on the score!
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Old 03-09-2018, 03:06 PM   #17
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Were did you get the bit from? Mine are like that also
my #2 phillips worked fine on those screws. the only ones i had trouble with were ones previously stripped from someone trying to remove them
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Old 03-09-2018, 03:16 PM   #18
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my #2 phillips worked fine on those screws. the only ones i had trouble with were ones previously stripped from someone trying to remove them
He was asking about the bit that was square and phillips combined.
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Old 03-09-2018, 03:31 PM   #19
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He was asking about the bit that was square and phillips combined.
i know. i was just telling him that i used my standard number 2 phillips on those screws with the square in it and it worked fine. I had no need to buy another bit
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Old 03-09-2018, 03:38 PM   #20
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I think I found it, a #3 phillips bit is square in the middle... I went ahead and bought a couple.
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