got a bus in TX how do I drive it away?

[cadillackid]

Ok guys, sorry i went dark for a few hours.. I just drove 1040 miles

in houston, at starbucks, already got the laptop out and writing code on eSpresso buzz! and 2 hours sleep in a rest area..

made it through houston before rush hour kicked in, found the bus lot, drove by and saw the busses, they are all dusty and sun baked but dont look rusty I didnt get out and look around as i didnt want to trigger security coming to talk to me or anything,

one of CY-FAIR's newer IC busses (lloked like an 04, 05?) BUZZED me on the 290... I was going 60 and the bus flew by me going at least 70.. serious school bus drivers here!..

as for me eating anything green other than green eggs and ham? ha! good luck... its been tried before to get me to expand my food horizons.. and lets just say i aint budgin.. and im a stubborb bloke when I wanna be




the bus lady called back, 10am I can pick it up..

found my hotel, while im Hilton diamond I could check in earlty, but choose to do some work then get the bus and take it to the hotel, its only a couple miles away asnd I had already made sure i could park it there for a night.

-Christopher

[oricha1984]

Originally Posted by ChiliChzPoopTart

https://www.onlinepros.com/servlet/S...1&itemId=50788

That bus has a t444.
Is that the same engine as my ford cutaway 7.3L ?

A nurse not a mechanic here.
Thanks
Raul

Sent from my BLU LIFE ONE X using Tapatalk

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by ChiliChzPoopTart

Dont worry, the spiders are under the bus, didnt see any inside.

ha! if the bus goes as fast as the one that Buzzed by me on 290 this morning the spiders wont last long... that guy had to be running 70+ in an 03, 04?? IC fully loaded..

I guess they didnt buy their busses with VT-365's in that era.. LOL..

-Christopher

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by oricha1984

That bus has a t444.
Is that the same engine as my ford cutaway 7.3L ?

A nurse not a mechanic here.
Thanks
Raul

Sent from my BLU LIFE ONE X using Tapatalk

the long block is the same, though im told the T444E has forged internals where some of the ford versions didnt as ford wanted it to cost less than the IHC version... how true that is I dont know...

there are other differences.. the ECM, I think the turbo may be different, the manifolds..

im still learning... ive never had a powerstrok 7.3 or a T444E, though there are still a ton of T444E's on the road so they seem to be pretty good when taken care of.. as is the powerstroke 7.3..

the 6.0 ford / IHC VT365 are the ones that seem to have had the most issues... esp the ford variant of it..

this is all new to me.. my first bus was a Chevy 454 gasser, my current bus is a DT360 mechanical, and this new one (will keep both) is the T444E..

I'll learn it in depth like I do everything i buy

-Christopher

[GreyCoyote]

Christopher: we just got called to trial, so my dinner plans with you guys tonight just got pre-empted. Tomorrow is a possibility however, if you are still in town.

Keep us posted!

[FlyboyHPD]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

Ok guys, sorry i went dark for a few hours.. I just drove 1040 miles

in houston, at starbucks, already got the laptop out and writing code on eSpresso buzz! and 2 hours sleep in a rest area..

the bus lady called back, 10am I can pick it up..

found my hotel, while im Hilton diamond I could check in earlty, but choose to do some work then get the bus and take it to the hotel, its only a couple miles away asnd I had already made sure i could park it there for a night.

-Christopher

Glad you made it to Houston safe and sound. Hope your day goes well and as planned.

[1olfart]

Christopher, glad your trip went well and that you are at your "roost" with your ride. I'm pretty sure that there is tons of food choices in the hotel area. Would it be easier for you to pick a place/food choice, or wait for suggestion? I'm going to head that way mid afternoon. (I'm about an hour away}If you think you will need any service done, I can only suggest you contact Cy-Fair ISD bus barn, or the auction house for some leads. Maybe someone from the forum has contacted you.

[Tango]

Ya...give us a shout if you get loose for a bit. I could use a visit to a local Meat-O-Rama myself!

[cadillackid]

Wheeee!! the bus is at the hotel and so is the car I thought Iwas going to have an issue because the VIN tag over the driver window is missing, but all is good, the VIN tag under the hood is intact and the numbers match.. so all is good there.

it started right up.. uponinspection it lookslike the batteries are brande new.. i didnt pull the tray out but the labels on the sides arent even dirty!

the gaugesare a little finicky..but its an IHC... my carpenter was the same way till I took the panel out andcleaned the little contacts... they all work it just takes them a couple moinutes to get going... whew! i was afraid I had zero oil pressure at first.. until i realized all the gauges were dead and the engine was running quietly... no oil P on a 7.3 and the injector rail wouldnt work right... once the gauge came to life it popped instantly to life...

the bus has all kinds of bells and whistles im not accustomed to..

1. air ride (I do have this on my carpenter)
2. disc brakes.. (I have 4 drums on the carpenter)
3. air seat
4. a cool little variable cruise / throttle thing.. I can set my RPMs to hold at whatever I want.. or I can flip the little switch and its a cruise control like a car has...
5. power heated mirrors!
6. tilt wheel!
7. Transair A/C - and it works!! i kicked that badboy on and it got cold right away.. nice that its Transair and not carrier as i can still get parts as transair is still in business..
8. pinhole ceiling.. makes it quiet inside.. wow how the tinted windows and white roof make it cooler inside.

9. Locking air School bus door. love the fact i can lock it.. no having to climb out the back door to lock the bus..

10. many more gauges than im used to. of course it has an air gauge since theres air accessories.. it also has amps and volts.. and a transmission temp. of course it also has temp, oil pressure, tach, speed.

11. looks like good tires.. they are tiny at 225/70R19.5 (as chilichz noted when he looked at it).. I noticed a couple other busses have those little wheels and tires...

things it doesnt have

1. alot of heaters.. its a texas bus, not sure how warm it will stay in ohio.. but i may make it a summer runner...

2. overdrive.. it drives like it has an AT545 although its quieter than the 545 on the carpenter.. it shifts nicely through all its gears.. AT545 doesnt biother me.. ive had it in every bus and its a non issue... esp in a lighter weight bus.. I ran the speedometer up to 65 though I dont know if thats accurate because of the small tires.. they dont necessarily look like the bus came with those? I cant tell since the interior tag is missing. they dont ride too bad.

3. Rust! it doesnt look like there is much if any rust... theres paint oxidation but it looks pretty clean underneath and on the sides..

4. a Doghouse! the floor is nice n flat with just an access plate of some sort.


overall at first glance it seems pretty good.. 1050 miles to st pete will certainly make anything show up thats marginal.

theres a little oil seepage around the valve cover gaskets but doesnt look like anything bad,

theres a little seepage of steering fluid around the steering gear... new seal kits exist to fixthat easily..

theres a little fuel "wetness" on what looks like the fuel filter on top of the engine... again it didnt look too bad..

when I was driving it.. at one point all the air pressure on the dash went down to 20.. I could hear it hissing underneath.. then went back up...

I dont have air brakes so I wasnt too concerned.. I then was reading online where there are automatic air-tank drain valves for units that dont have Bendix Air dryers?

ever heard of that? it went right back up so i wasnt too concerned about it...

my phone went dead when i was taking a few pics so I'll have to post them after I get some charge.

-Christiopher

[ChiliChzPoopTart]

You could try 7k bus sales or texas bus barn both are badically 290/huffmeister. Dunno if they offer services.

Yeah i saw someone rolling in one headed outbound, im kicking myself for not buying 14.

[cadillackid]

OK! nowfor the importabt stuff... meeting up!.

1. im gonna go crash out for a couple hours.. im starting to feel the all-nighter!

2. I know nothing of the area or restaraunts. so someone else hopefully can choose.. im happy if a place hasa burger or a steak or pizza or pasta or just plain bar food on the menu even if its abother type of restaraunt..

3. since I'll likely be out after dark in an unfamiliar city ill probably drive the car instead of the bus.. im happy to have anyone see the bus if where we meet is directly off a freeway and in a big lot, i just dont want to try and navigate a city or have an issue with it late at night..

4. if we do something close to here or in a reasonable uber ride i can join in the adult-beverage fun!!

I'll check back on here in a couple hours after i crash down for a few..

im at the homewood suites at 13110 wortham center drive just to give you guys an idea of where i am..

-Christopher

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by ChiliChzPoopTart

You could try 7k bus sales or texas bus barn both are badically 290/huffmeister. Dunno if they offer services.

Yeah i saw someone rolling in one headed outbound, im kicking myself for not buying 14.

it was interesting watching how high some of those old waynes got bid..

there were several peoiple picking up busses today and all of the engines sounded great and strong...

it looks like this district does an auction every year? so im guessing you can get in on it then..

i asked the guy handing out keys about service records and he said the minute a bus is taken out of active service they put their records in off-site record-storage so no luck on getting those .. the only thing he said was kept on site still was the driver's log of their daily checklists they have to do.. whiuch includes the normal walk around, light tests and the fluids are supposed to be checked daily..

-Christopher

[ChiliChzPoopTart]

They did an auction earlier this year

[cadillackid]

amazing what a couple hours sleep and a Shower will do!!!!

anyone got suggestions?

Idont know much about houston.. ive put a few phone systems in hotels here.. downtown and galleria area.. those are really till today the only areas ive been.



exactly Next door to my hotel is a 'Goode company BBQ, looks real interesting', all kinds of meat and burgers too..

right around my location i found a applebees, johnny carinos (italian?), a chillis and a texas roadhouse.. i can almost walk to those if i figured out how to cross the streets.. going south(east?) on 290 from here it looks like mainly all car dealers and a couple bus lots..

it looked like there is a "coaches: sports bar a couple miles away..

-Christopher

[ChiliChzPoopTart]

Nearby food: tacoland is awesome, catfish station is excellent, dont eat carls bbq, wolfies at 290 barker cypress for girls and bsr food

[Tango]

Well Dang! I just got back to the fort and found your note. Do you plan on being around any on Tuesday?

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by Tango

Well Dang! I just got back to the fort and found your note. Do you plan on being around any on Tuesday?

hey there, I plan to be around in the AM..

I need to get the rental car to the airport, then take an UBER from the airport to the hotel... and then I can take off.. I can keep my hotel room another day if I choose,

im not in a huge hurry to leave tomorrow though if I do I think my checkout time is noon or something like that, I dont plan on driving a ton of hours being an unfamiliar bus and all.

-Christopher

[Tango]

I PM'd you my cell number. If you get bored or need a hand, a break, tools, whatever, just give a buzz.

Sounds like you snagged a pretty sweet unit. Congrats!

[WanderWoman]

This is a great thread! I pick up my skoolie next week in VA to bring back to FL. I just went to the FL site to get a trip permit (got it through a dealer) and it took less than 3 minutes and $55 and I'm all set. 10 day permit.
Sandi
aka WanderWoman

[oricha1984]

Hello all,
Just got me bus from NJ . driving it down to FL now.
Question: rear/lower heater is hot.
I found the fan control for it (off position). But is that normal?
It seems as the radiador looking thing inside of it hot hot hot.

Thanks
Raul

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