Making a Skoolie in Europe

[WeAreABridge]

Does anyone have experience with making a skoolie in Europe? Did you import a school bus or did you buy a non-school bus?


If the former, what were the costs like?


If the latter, what are some of the differences between buying old city buses and such and school buses? What kind of dimensions do the buses tend to have?

[Sehnsucht]

Showing my American ignorance - don't they have school buses in Europe? They may not be the iconic yellow American buses but I can't imagine everyone is within walking distance or they're as auto-centric as we are in America.

I would guess that importing an American diesel bus into the EU would be nearly impossible given emissions regulations. If you could get yourself an inter-urban bus which are probably quite similar to American inter-urbans and some even built by the same companies then it would simply be more like a motorcoach conversion than a skoolie conversion. If course there may be not nearly the volume of uses buses on the secondary market in EU than in USA so I understand if local shopping may seem limited. The other factor trying to import a unicorn bus is sourcing parts when things break which will be time-consuming, expensive and frustrating. Its like when Americans import an iconic London double-decker bus - unless you're making money with it as a tourist icon it'll bleed you dry as a personal vehicle-turned-RV plus may not be legal to drive everywhere in the US. I would fear you could run into these types of obstacles sooner or later.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Sehnsucht

Showing my American ignorance - don't they have school buses in Europe? They may not be the iconic yellow American buses but I can't imagine everyone is within walking distance or they're as auto-centric as we are in America.

I would guess that importing an American diesel bus into the EU would be nearly impossible given emissions regulations. If you could get yourself an inter-urban bus which are probably quite similar to American inter-urbans and some even built by the same companies then it would simply be more like a motorcoach conversion than a skoolie conversion. If course there may be not nearly the volume of uses buses on the secondary market in EU than in USA so I understand if local shopping may seem limited. The other factor trying to import a unicorn bus is sourcing parts when things break which will be time-consuming, expensive and frustrating. Its like when Americans import an iconic London double-decker bus - unless you're making money with it as a tourist icon it'll bleed you dry as a personal vehicle-turned-RV plus may not be legal to drive everywhere in the US. I would fear you could run into these types of obstacles sooner or later.

Most kids in Europe walk or take city buses. On rare occasions like field trips they'll book a coach for the day.

[Sehnsucht]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

Most kids in Europe walk or take city buses. On rare occasions like field trips they'll book a coach for the day.

Now see there! It makes me wonder why with a little better route planning we here in the US cities at least couldn't utilize the same buses and routes for urban transit AND student transit instead of overlaying two completely separate networks that probably constantly intersect. I'm sure there's some perfectly reasonable regulatory reason why that's illegal or something.

[EastCoastCB]

The oil industry's iron grip on our economy and our litigious nature mean our kids ride to school in dedicated fuel guzzlers built to crazy standards. A lot of palms are greased along the way and its just a part of our culture.

There's a cool series on how kids in less fortunate areas get to school.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGRnd8WlcIU

[WeAreABridge]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

The oil industry's iron grip on our economy and our litigious nature mean our kids ride to school in dedicated fuel guzzlers built to crazy standards. A lot of palms are greased along the way and its just a part of our culture.

I think places in North America are just much further apart. I'm from Canada and when I visited Switzerland last summer, it really struck me how *close* everything is: you can drive five minutes and go through three different towns.


I think it's just that the nature of how places in North America were settled and built has created a different environment than in Europe.

[cadillackid]

city busses can and have been used for school service, vasrious programs have existed over the years (I know we used to here).. but the main concern became ensuring students got where they were supposed to... the tendency of students to jump off the bus and go to friends' houses, ice cream shops, etc.. caused issues.. whereas school busses drop kids in their own neighborhoods.. kids can obviously jump on thye wrong school bus and go elsewhere but seems like that doesnt happen as much as it did with city busses.. not to mention the city routes dont penetrate the neighborhoods near as much here in the USA like they do overseas....


there were combo routes in altoona PA.. they had a fleet of Fishbowls that were comno city busses but also had the school lights to make school stops.. a friend of mine has one..

[musigenesis]

I grew up in a college town where by agreement the local university's bus service delivered most of the kids via add-on routes with their transit buses. So I never got to ride a school bus growing up, except for the field trips to go see Shamu and cancerous lungs and whatnot. That's probably why I swooned over the first school bus I saw for sale.

[Sehnsucht]

Originally Posted by WeAreABridge

I think places in North America are just much further apart. I'm from Canada and when I visited Switzerland last summer, it really struck me how *close* everything is: you can drive five minutes and go through three different towns.


I think it's just that the nature of how places in North America were settled and built has created a different environment than in Europe.

I think there's probably a lot of truth in that. America is relatively young compared to European countries and as such wasn't settled and built with the implied constraints of transit nor is it as geographically constrained to cause close proximity out of necessity. I think this is also one of the factors that makes high speed rail in America such a developmental challenge because it's just easier and faster to jump on a plane and be on the other coast in a few hours.

[Franco]

Originally Posted by WeAreABridge

Does anyone have experience with making a skoolie in Europe? Did you import a school bus or did you buy a non-school bus?


If the former, what were the costs like?


If the latter, what are some of the differences between buying old city buses and such and school buses? What kind of dimensions do the buses tend to have?

almost 4 years later, but maybe it will be useful for the next person to search.

There are two big companies you can ship from:
1. Seabridge tours (seabridge-tours.de
2. ivssuk.com

🤑 Prices fluctuate a depending on ports and time of the year but the cheapest route from the Eastern coast is Baltimore- Hamburg. The price is between $40 and $70 per cubic meter, so for a 37ft Skoolie you'll end up paying between 4-6k. Import then is about 500 euros.

⚠️ Your vehicle will remain open during the trip, so be sure nothing of value is left inside. I had to remove even the CB Radio.

🛳️ It takes about 10 days for the Bus to arrive to Europe, and of course you need to have insurance for Europe on arrival. For this my suggestion and personal recommendation is to get it with https://thuminsurance.com/

⚠️ Remember that you need a C1 driver's license to drive a Skoolie in Europe, even if it only has one seat. You're also going to need your international Driver's Permit (IDP) that you can get at your AAA.

After that, it depends A LOT on the country you build your Skoolie what you can and cannot do. For example in Italy it's Illegal to have a DIY vehicle, even changing the lightbulbs for led lights requires a permit and inspection.

Germany on the other hand is much more permissive. But in Any case most countries require a construction plan that has to be approved by an engineer, and once you finish the build it will be audited by specialists to ensure safety.

Also, vehicle registration for Campers require the following to be Fixed:

• A Seat and a Table where to eat (I.e: a dinette)
• A Bed to sleep (I't can't be a couch bed)
• A stove to prepare food (It has to be fixed/bolted)
• A Wardrobe

Pricing for Gas varies between countries, but the cheapest will be between $5 and $8 a Gallon. Being Eastern Europe, Spain and Italy the Cheapest and Norway and Sweden the most expensive.

In terms of length, I drive a 37ft Skoolie and although I've never had problems there are lots of cities I can't enter because of Emissions Regulations. Diesel vehicles and Engines below Euro 5 can't enter cities like Florence, Paris, Barcelona, Etc.

There is no such thing as BLM in Europe and in most countries is strictly prohibited to camp outside designated areas (Campings).

If you read to this point, hope you found this info helpful and you can shoot any other questions on IG at GlobalSkoolie.

Wish you the best!