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Old 09-03-2013, 07:51 PM   #1
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Why are Crown buses so valued?

Hello again folks. I asked this question farther down in another thread, but I'm not sure how many people saw it.

A couple people are suggesting that when I am ready to get a bus, that I may want to consider a Crown bus.

1) Why are they so special?
2) What years were they made?
3) Anything I really need to know about them?

Thanks.

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Old 09-04-2013, 03:56 AM   #2
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Re: Why are Crown buses so valued?

My opinion is that they are beautiful works of art,and since they where built in cali...not many are out and about(compared to other makes)
Other than that?nothing else
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Old 10-19-2013, 01:16 AM   #3
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Re: Why are Crown buses so valued?

Crowns are not only works of art, they were made to last for decades. The oldest operating school bus in California was just retired by its school district. It was a 1949 Crown. Crowns were the safest school busses ever made. When the Feds finally got around to developing national school bus construction and safety standards in the mid-1970's, they were adopted at the level that Crown was building school busses in 1949. I purchased a 1988 Crown Super Coach. At 25 years old, it is just about middle age. It could easily last another 25 to 30 years without a problem. I bought a Crown for my conversion because I wanted a motorhome that was also incredibly safe and solid. Crown went under because GE owned the firm in its last years and was clueless how to run it and make a decent profit. The attention to detail with Crowns is light years ahead of the Thomas, Blue Bird and Internationals of the world. If you are lucky you can get 15 years out of them, instead of 40 to 50 from a Crown. On a per year cost basis, a Crown was the cheapest transit style school bus on the road.

A properly maintained Crown is a sight to behold. You can't help but go "WOW" when you see it. Most people will not say that about a common Blue Bird or Thomas, etc. You can probably tell I am a loyal Crown fan. Plus, I drove Crowns while going to college in the mid 1970's. My final bus was a 91 passenger Crown tandem axle 40 footer. It was beautiful!!!

Below are two pictures of my Crown. When I took the pictures it was parked outside my house on the street. It was only there two days until I took it to the storage place to start the conversion process. It is just a thing of beauty. A Crown should be on exhibit in the National Museum of Modern Art.
Attached Thumbnails
Crown-Driver-Side-View (800x600).jpg   Crown-Front2 (800x600).jpg  
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Old 12-26-2013, 09:06 PM   #4
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Re: Why are Crown buses so valued?

In a nutshell They are without a doubt the finest vehicles ever constructed. They were all hand built in Los Angeles by
Crown Coach just like a Roll Royce automobile. It's not any kind of a stretch to say that they ARE the Rolls Royce of
buses. That includes old GMC highway buses, MCI, or older Prevost. These were all production built to extremely high
standards with a projected life of over 20 years. The Crowns were built to a much higher standard with expensive
materials and superior coachwork with a projected lifetime of 30-40 years. The best way to look at a Crown is to
remember that they started life and remained a Coach and Body Works company that did in-house engineering and
construction of the frame and body of the buses. To this they bought off the shelf industry standard engines, axles,
transmissions, suspension, etc. and attached them to their frames. Through the years and with input from their many
customers they developed a baseline offering of sizes, engines, transmissions, etc. that they offered to school districts
and charter bus companies etc. This is very similar to what Petebilt and Kenworth trucks do, and just like these two
major truck builders Crown usually added extras and custom touches for customers which almost guarantees that every
Crown was unique and slightly different from any other Crown. This is a huge bonus for anyone who wants to get one
and convert it. It means that parts for them are easy to find and update or modify to whatever is available today. From
a user/owners point of view they are essentially built just like a super heavy duty long haul truck with the ability to put
millions of miles on them. The drive line components are exactly the same as what's found in heavy duty long haul
equipment and generally speaking once the basic running gear and components are brought up to a good maintenance
level and everything is taken care of, it's probably not possible for any individual using it as an RV to ever put enough
miles on it to even put a dent in what it was built to take. It's quite possible to have a well maintained one from school
district service that you could own for 20 more years and put another 200k miles on it (if you even could) and the bus
wouldn't even notice it. The most common troubles I've seen is the stuff that dries out and rots etc. from sitting around
and not being used. These vehicles were built for and thrive on 24/7 100k+ miles at least per year revenue service. And
they still love doing it. Working on them is easy and readily accessible. Any competent heavy equipment repair shop
would have no trouble working on them or getting parts. Avoid getting caught up in the common trap of looking for
a specific year or model Crown part thing. There just isn't anything like that unless it's a special body style part that
did only show up in some particular years. That can happen but there are usually plenty of other things that can be
found to fix the problem. The first Crown Super Coach styled body came out I think around 1950 and was almost
unchanged except for refinements until production halted in 1991. Imagine 40+ years of producing essentially the same
body style with custom features. That's what a Crown really is. That's because it was just to hard to improve on
perfection. They are very inexpensive to acquire today and very easy to maintain and get good fuel mileage usually
and just so much fun to drive that once you do you will be hooked forever. I hope this helps.
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Old 12-27-2013, 11:51 AM   #5
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Re: Why are Crown buses so valued?

I still don't understand what makes a crown so much better than any other bus. In my opinion from a common sense stand point, crowns are less useful for a conversion than a strait walled bus. Its like the passenger vehicle industry. The more curves, or less flat surfaces makes everything more wasteful, costly, and time consuming. A simple body repair on a corner would be hell due to material being flexed more than just one way.

The uni body construction is one more reason I would never buy one. Hard and costly to mount a simple trailer hitch or belly tanks, and God help you if the rust starts taking over and you need to do any structural repairs. Again this is not the best way to build a vehicle if you are going to keep it for a long time or modify it.

The roof is another nail in the coffin. I have never seen one in person, but the way the other members describe the roof structure, makes me cringe if any repair is ever needed. Also that method of structure makes insulating that much harder.

Try changing a midship engine in a crown in your back yard without 2 or 3 over head cranes.

To me they are cute in the way of a old Volkswagen Van. Cute, rare, but not practical.

If I lived in the USA, (no crowns here in Canada due to not practical) I would buy all of them. Then I would mark them up and sell them back to people like all of you in a few years after Cali in done destroying them all.

My practical $0.2
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Old 12-27-2013, 10:27 PM   #6
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Re: Why are Crown buses so valued?

Funny you don't hear much about Gilligs like you do Crowns.
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Old 12-27-2013, 11:20 PM   #7
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Re: Why are Crown buses so valued?

Quote:
Originally Posted by crazycal
Funny you don't hear much about Gilligs like you do Crowns.
They look like the same thing to me.

Nat
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Old 12-27-2013, 11:35 PM   #8
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Re: Why are Crown buses so valued?

Quote:
Originally Posted by nat_ster
Quote:
Originally Posted by crazycal
Funny you don't hear much about Gilligs like you do Crowns.
They look like the same thing to me.

Nat
Yeah, a big suppository. But I still love them.
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Old 12-29-2013, 07:25 AM   #9
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Re: Why are Crown buses so valued?

Quote:
Originally Posted by crazycal
Quote:
Originally Posted by nat_ster
Quote:
Originally Posted by crazycal
Funny you don't hear much about Gilligs like you do Crowns.
They look like the same thing to me.

Nat
Yeah, a big suppository. But I still love them.
X2
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Old 12-19-2018, 09:28 PM   #10
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Is anyone looking for curved Crown Coach Bus windshields? I have some 'Lefts' that should be the passenger side. $400/each. Daniel
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Old 12-22-2018, 01:15 PM   #11
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Please contact me directly at my email mikemcc2k@yahoo.com
the PM on this can be flaky, so it's better directly.

If it's a "left" side that should be the drivers side....unless you're in
the UK..... Yes I'm interested and would like to know where you are
located and how to do this. They are rather large to ship safely.
I'd be hoping for a local pick up and I'll bring my Crown. I'm near L.A.

Plus there are two sizes, the short ones, and the taller ones. I
have the tall ones, built after about 1961 or so. See my avatar.
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Old 12-22-2018, 02:08 PM   #12
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I sent you an email.
My name Daniel Hanson
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