Choosing size of bus

[Luke]

I have wanted a bus for a while but don't know what size of bus I should be after. I Imagine most of its use would be as a party wagon, for carrying me and some friends around to the bars ( if I could find a trusty driver, driving while friends party doesn't sound much fun ) and chilling at the lake. So it would likely have some comfortable seating for a maximum of 6-8 , ample refrigeration for cold beer, a nice sound system and maybe a television. How many rows would you say are needed for a comfortable version of this? I really like the looks of full size buses with 6 rows and imagine they would be pretty easy to park and get around tighter spots.

Do you guys think this would be large enough for my intended purpose?

[NewSkewlHauler]

Luke,

Welcome! Glad to have ya! I'm sure others will chime in with some other thoughts. This group is great like that...we all seem to have an opinion.

I think you're looking in the right direction. A full size truck chassis...something in the 47-54 passenger range. It seems that Missouri has a lot of buses in that size. I see you're in Kansas somewhere, that's why I add the Missouri bit. Our school district has a few of the 6-8 row variety as well. You certainly don't need a 65-66 or larger bus for your intended purpose! I would tend to try to find the biggest bus you can...you can always go smaller, but hard to make it bigger.

Something on a bread-van chassis, GM P-30 might work out well. It doesn't have the ground clearance that a full size truck chassis does.

There are lots of resources to check. A good one right here in Kansas is ks-bus.com. They are in Lawrence and really nice to deal with. I went to Ohio to buy my bus though from a private person!

Again, welcome.
Ben.

[turtle]

My first impression is that a 40 something seat bus makes sence. The negative to a larger bus is finding parking space for it. If you're in the city, this can be an issue, but if you're out in nature, it's probably not that big of a deal to have something larger. It depends on where you keep this thing when you normally have it parked, too. Are you willing to deal with parking a large bus? My friend lives in the city of Seattle with a 40-something-seat bus, and he has the worst time parking it! Would you have to deal with anything like that? Otherwise, I would think a nice big space will be nicer to work with for a floor plan and room to sleep, and hang out comfortably. Are you thinking about having trips that take several weeks? A couple days? What if you end up with more friends that come allong after seeing your awsome party bus? Would there be enough room for other peoples stuff, or room to collect cool things an the way back from your adventures?

turtle