Is this how Dorothy felt at the start of the yellow brick road?

[gtownsen]

Hi! My name is George T. I am 23 years old and just graduated from Purdue as an electrical engineer. I moved from my hometown in Schererville, Indiana (Just outside of Chicago/Gary) to Corpus Christi, Texas this past July. I have been following several different vlogs online as well as articles on this website for quite some time. Now that I have a "big boy job," I decided to take a leap of faith and purchase a 2002 International 71pax bus with 150k miles on it from publicsurplus.com. Now the adventure begins. I'll be driving my bus home from Austin to Corpus Christi this weekend. I am very eager to learn as much as possible about bus conversions and utilize this website.



PS - Any tips or pointers on driving a bus would be greatly appreciated.

[bansil]

Originally Posted by gtownsen

<snip>


PS - Any tips or pointers on driving a bus would be greatly appreciated.

Don't hit anything

Welcome, have you gone to the huge crab festival yet?

[cadillackid]

Originally Posted by gtownsen

Hi! My name is George T. I am 23 years old and just graduated from Purdue as an electrical engineer. I moved from my hometown in Schererville, Indiana (Just outside of Chicago/Gary) to Corpus Christi, Texas this past July. I have been following several different vlogs online as well as articles on this website for quite some time. Now that I have a "big boy job," I decided to take a leap of faith and purchase a 2002 International 71pax bus with 150k miles on it from publicsurplus.com. Now the adventure begins. I'll be driving my bus home from Austin to Corpus Christi this weekend. I am very eager to learn as much as possible about bus conversions and utilize this website.



PS - Any tips or pointers on driving a bus would be greatly appreciated.

KEEP all of mirrors!!! they help!
-Christopher

[Versatile]

Originally Posted by gtownsen

Hi! My name is George T. I am 23 years old and just graduated from Purdue as an electrical engineer. I moved from my hometown in Schererville, Indiana (Just outside of Chicago/Gary) to Corpus Christi, Texas this past July. I have been following several different vlogs online as well as articles on this website for quite some time. Now that I have a "big boy job," I decided to take a leap of faith and purchase a 2002 International 71pax bus with 150k miles on it from publicsurplus.com. Now the adventure begins. I'll be driving my bus home from Austin to Corpus Christi this weekend. I am very eager to learn as much as possible about bus conversions and utilize this website.



PS - Any tips or pointers on driving a bus would be greatly appreciated.

Go very slow on Turns. and Curves. When you have things sliding back and forth or front to rear then that is too fast.

Drive 25 miles or so and find a place to sit and idle for about 15 minutes. Do a walk around inspection and VERY importantly look for oil leaks underneath etc.

Now pat yourself on the back. Think how easy that first stretch was. This is just a big long truck. Very possibly a previous driver was a middle aged blue hair!

Plan that anywhere you turn into has a forward way out. No need for you to learn backingskills today.

You must let engine idle at least 5 minutes before shutdown to prevent damage to the Turbo.

Do Not get it hot. Do not familiarize yourself with all the switches etc While driving. Keep your eyes on the road. No phone calls no texting. Smart and fun thing is to have an assistant along to help out watching out for things and behind you to help scan gauges . Don't try to make that light. Slow is good,slow is fun.slow is safe. On open highway stay at about 61 mph at the most. On this trip don't open her up to see what she will do. You need to get on it when accelerating up ramps hills etc to keep engine cool.

You will make it

[Twigg]

Originally Posted by Versatile

This is just a big long truck. Very possibly a previous driver was a middle aged blue hair!

One of our daily drivers is an 80+-year-old woman.

She has no problems with a 40 foot bus, and 70 children.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by Twigg

One of our daily drivers is an 80+-year-old woman.

She has no problems with a 40 foot bus, and 70 children.

80 year-old lady takes no crap ! She's been around the block a few times...

[tobeamiss]

I feel 80....does that count?

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

[Versatile]

Originally Posted by Twigg

One of our daily drivers is an 80+-year-old woman.

She has no problems with a 40 foot bus, and 70 children.

SHOULDN'T BE HARD FOR A 23 YEAR OLD TO UNDERSTAND THAT. THANKS
darn caps. sorry.

[MarkyDee]

Check youtube for CDL walkarounds. My first time out was even more harrowing because I didn't properly do a walkaround first.

The second time I did a walk around - best thing I did because I found something the mechanic missed. Saved me a possible accident!

Originally Posted by Versatile

You must let engine idle at least 5 minutes before shutdown to prevent damage to the Turbo.

Wow, learn something new every day.... Versatile, can you go into more explanation on this point, please?

[Versatile]

Originally Posted by MarkyDee

Check youtube for CDL walkarounds. My first time out was even more harrowing because I didn't properly do a walkaround first.

The second time I did a walk around - best thing I did because I found something the mechanic missed. Saved me a possible accident!



Wow, learn something new every day.... Versatile, can you go into more explanation on this point, please?

The Turbochargers temps are very high. Shut it down before the temps come down about a 1000 degrees and risk frying the lubricant in the bearings..

[Versatile]

What condition are the tires? Equal tire pressures are a good thing. Mismatched tires. Not so good. Rumble, ride rougher, steer worse.

[MarkyDee]

Originally Posted by Versatile

The Turbochargers temps are very high. Shut it down before the temps come down about a 1000 degrees and risk frying the lubricant in the bearings..

Is there any way to monitor the turbo's temps?

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by MarkyDee

Is there any way to monitor the turbo's temps?

pyro gauge

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by MarkyDee

Check youtube for CDL walkarounds. My first time out was even more harrowing because I didn't properly do a walkaround first.

The second time I did a walk around - best thing I did because I found something the mechanic missed. Saved me a possible accident!



Wow, learn something new every day.... Versatile, can you go into more explanation on this point, please?

The turbo is lubricated/cooled by that little oil line that passes thru it. Let her idle after a tough run so the oil can bring the temps down or the high temps will roast that bit of oil like butter in a hot skillet.

Found this elsewhere:

The purpose of turbo cooldown on a diesel engine is to let the turbo cool off enough that the oil won't bake into goo or sandpaper (coke) in the turbo bearings/bushings. That cooldown requires anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on how hot was the turbo when you stopped the truck and began the slow idle RPM to allow the turbo to cool down.

Talking about how long it takes is risky, because it varies so much. I prefer to talk about exhaust gas temp (EGT). But you have to have an aftermarket pyrometer (gauge for EGT) if you want to shut down based on EGT. If you have a pre-turbo pyrometer, then wait until you see 300° F. pre-turbo EGT before you turn off the key. There is one exception: if the engine and turbo were red hot because you drug a heavy trailer up a mountain pass at 1,200° to 1,250° pre-turbo EGT, then you stop at the top of the pass to enjoy the view. For that condition you need to wait until the EGT cools off to about 280° F. before you kill the engine.

300° F. is not the magic number inside the turbo bearings. But the experts have determined that if your EGT is 300° or less, then your turbo will have cooled off enough to not coke the oil in the turbo bushings.

But if you're like me, you hate to wait and twiddle your thumbs while the EGT slowly cools down. So the fix is an ISSPRO Turbo Temp Monitor. That's a black box that will take over your ignition and not allow the engine to die until the EGT falls to 300°. You puill the keys, lock the doors, and go on about your business while the engine idles. Nobody can steal your truck because the keys are in your pocket, the doors are locked, the tranny is locked in park, and the steering whel is locked. When the EGT cools off to 300°, the engine will die, even if you are several blocks away by then.

The following link is a source for your very own TTM. But if you already have a pre-turbo pyrometer, then ignore the advice to install a post-turbo thermocouple for the TTM. You won't need it if you have a pre-turbo pyrometer and then follow that exception noted above for the mountain pass. I've had my TTM on the pre-turbo pyrometer for about eleven years, and no problems. And I already have a post-turbo thermocouple installed that I could wire the TTM into. But I've never seen the need to go to the trouble.
ISSPRO Turbo Temp Monitor R4130 at DieselManor

But caveat: If you use the TTM to shut down the engine, then for that exception of stopping at the top of the pass, DO NOT turn off the key to let the TTM kill the red-hot engine. Keep the engine idling until the pre-turbo pyrometer shows about 280°, then turn off the key. I had both a pre-turbo and a post-turbo pyrometer for a year or so. And I learned that when a red-hot engine cools off to 300° post-turbo, it will be about 280° pre-turbo.

For all other conditions, the pre-turbo and post-turbo EGT will both cool off to 300° at about the same time.

[PNW_Steve]

Wow Rusty,

You have me concerned about my turbo timer. It came factory set for an EGT of 350F for shutdown.

Thank you for posting that.

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by Twigg

One of our daily drivers is an 80+-year-old woman.

She has no problems with a 40 foot bus, and 70 children.

Much respect!!

I have no trouble with the 40' bus but the 70 window lickers would be the death of me...,.