Length of bus

[busted knuckles]

Hi everyone. I have been checking the site out for a few months. I am planning on doing a school bus conversion. I have a question, a 40' bus, is that the outside overall length? Or usable inside length? Like from the rear of the drivers seat. Thankyou.

[GoneCamping]

Though this is not entirely accurate, a good way to quickly determine the length of the bus interior by just looking at a picture of it, is to count the windows. There is roughly 25" of bus for each window or row of seats. Like I said, this is not always accurate, but you'll find it comes out really close!!

[swhite832]

mine measures 37 ft exterior and just over 31' behind the driver's seat. It has 13 windows. It is a 93 thomas all star.

[arfisher83]

Mine is (or was) a 54 passenger with ten windows down each side. It measures about 31' bumper to bumper, with 24' behind the driver's seat.

-Adam

[busted knuckles]

Thanks for all the help, I have been bidding on buses. It seems the 40' length is the cut off for driving on certain roads, in California? I was reading on the requirements. If anyone has any experience with this california law, let me know, thanks folks.

[tfdfyrman]

I think I figured my 40' RE has about 33' of floor behind the drivers seat. You can add a couple of feet if you utilize the rear engine shelf. Don't go by passenger capacity as a accurate measure because a 84 passenger is the same as a (correct me if i'm wrong), a 76 passenger. The difference is between elementary students, 3 to a seat and middle/high school students 2 to a seat.

I am also pretty sure any bus over 40' has two rear axles. One dual and one single

[hmcastle55]

Boo Boo is 40ft long and the franklin stove that sticks out of the front makes her really 41 ft. roughly. As for height wise, Mark is 6'3" almost 4" and he can't stand up inside our bus without hitting his head. That's the most annoying feature for him personally. We just went to look at another bus (maybe the future 'daughter of Boo Boo')-look for my other post about that.. And the minute we stepped inside we could tell it was wider than our '63 and much taller. Mark was standing upright inside the bus without even being close to hitting his head..so maybe as much as a foot or more taller than ours? We're thinking of doing the switch on just that alone..

[Redbear]

For legal length it is usually overall. In NYS, length and width is measured "exclusive of safety devices" (mirrors, stop arms, handles, etc.) and RV width is measured "exclusive of awning" if the awning and arms are mounted high enough off the road. (The law also excludes front bumper bicycle racks from the overall length, but only for transit buses.)

I don't know if bumpers can be considered "safety devices" or part of the vehicle, but if I were charged with enforcing vehicle length on a winding road, I would measure including the bumpers. I would not argue the point, but advise "tell it to the judge" if a "safety device" claim was made.

(When I was young, I got two speeding tickets where the officer was wrong. On my very first, about 40 years ago, the officer said the steep hill I was coasting down was thickly settled. It wasn't. I was still speeding, but the judge cut the fine in half. The second case was about 4 years later, where the officer said that a thickly settled area overrode the posted speed limit on a state highway. Thickly settled law only applied where there was no posted speed, and the judge asked the officer to withdraw the charge, which he did. It pays to be polite.)