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Old 05-26-2007, 03:15 PM   #1
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How do I find a bus that will suit me?

I know it sounds ignorant on my part but, I find it harder to pin point what kind of school bus I want. I have been looking in my local area for buses and sorting them by what may be do-able. I have now decided to envision what I want to put in a bus that would serve my needs. Really nothing exstravigant, just a queen bed, and two singles. I thoght a dry sink would be usable as well as lounging couches. I also want space to carry bicycles, PAs, and guitars.

I think that a 66 passenger or smaller would be good. I don't want the supersize bus because some of the parks I should camp in may not have suitable sites to handle a big, big bus. Besides, maneveriblity would be desirable. So maybe an eight or nine window flat nose?

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Old 05-26-2007, 05:50 PM   #2
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Eight or nine window flat nose.... So you're planning on putting the two single beds on top of the queen????
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Old 05-26-2007, 06:16 PM   #3
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Old 05-26-2007, 08:21 PM   #4
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My 65 pax Wayne-Ford conventional is 36 feet tip to tail and has yet to have a problem at a campground. Inside I have a back bedroom with a twin side bed. In front of that is the bunk room with 4 extra long twins. In front of that yet is the porta potty on one side and and extra room opposite of that. The forward area is a combination "efficiency" kitchen with little more than a 3 burner stove/oven and a sink on one side. The other side has the TV mounted kitty corner on a shielf type unit with a dorm fridge underneath. A couch finishes out the living room.

You can do a lot with a little space, but at the same time I DO with I had more room.
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Old 05-27-2007, 02:10 AM   #5
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Re: How do I find a bus that will suit me?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Train-train
Really nothing exstravigant, just a queen bed, and two singles. I thoght a dry sink would be usable as well as lounging couches. I also want space to carry bicycles, PAs, and guitars.
Hmmm... Let's see.... Let's say the queen will be 6' long, and the two singles either in bunk bed or side by side is another 6'. Dry sink... Let's be extravagant and say 2'. Lounging couches.... Let's just keep it neat and say another 6', and oh yeah, the place for bicycles, PAs, and guitars... Hmmm... Let's just go wild and say we can squeeze them across from the sink. So that puts them at about 20' from tip to tail.

Eight or nine window flat nose.... Each window being about 26" will give you about 19'6". For the sake of argument let's just say that you've got one of those eight or nine window flat noses with 20' of inner space from front to rear, and here on paper it all fits neatly inside... In the REAL world, it's just going to be tight... Too tight for my old bones... I think a 66 PAX will be as small as I think you'll want to go... But like all the bad girls say... Bigger IS better...

Decide what your space requirements are and focus your search on that. It's VERY hard to stuff 10 pounds of crap in a five pound bag. So I suggest you go for the 10 pound bag...

Another suggestion is go to some parking lot and chalk out the outline of what you eye ball to be a "comfortable" arrangement. Oh, and don't forget to take into consideration the thickness of any walls you may want to erect, those 2"-3" walls add up fast and take it from there...

Best of luck, and welcome aboard!
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Old 05-27-2007, 09:30 PM   #6
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If you have no idea how to figure out the size that will be required, you could try to lay out something in the driveway by taking away the kids Sidewalk chalk... create a rectangle that is approx 90" wide, and start drawing in sofa's, space for sink, and stack your pa and amps in there too... you'll quickly figure out how much bus you'll need!! Like the others have said, if you get too short of a bus you will regret it... bigger is better!!
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Old 05-28-2007, 11:25 AM   #7
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As a full-time stand-by school bus driver I've had the (mis)fortune to drive every style of bus out there from the short wheelchair buses to the 90 passenger buses. Manuverilbility is not really an issue. Yes, the shorty flatnose wheelchair buses turn on a dime and the rear-engined buses have a fairly wide turning radius. But all the others in between are real similar. Flat nose buses seem easiest to manuver since you're in front of the wheels, and a 72 passenger flat nose will turn sharper than a 66 passenger conventional. Even a 90 passenger bus turns sharply- you just have to be careful of the rear end if you're making tight turns.

What am I saying? Go long! I have a RE 40' bus (and 5 children!) and it'll travel on just about any backroad out there. You won't regret having the extra space.
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Old 05-28-2007, 06:03 PM   #8
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I would have gone with a 40 foot bus but I wanted to keep it under 33 feet so I can park it at the uncles house and not have to pay storage fees every month. So I settled for a 25 foot bus and it would have been nice to have an extra 4 or 5 feet but I will make do. A nice benifit is I can park it closer to the front doors in a parking lot cause I can put it in one space if needed. You should check with local city code to see what size rv you can have parked at your house or be ready to pay storage if you go too long.

I would agree with boojiewoojie otherwise. I drive the 40 foot buses on weekends and during the week I use the short lift buses such as stated a short bluebird stub nose transhuttle (tc1000) which makes u-turns where a 15 passenger for club wagon can't.
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Old 05-28-2007, 08:17 PM   #9
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Mine is 36ft nose to rear FE. I would've gone for a 40 ft RE, but my lot dictated the max length. I am looking at a rear cargo platform, which I will need to make easily removeable, so dont forget to add that in if you think you'll need one.
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