Wow am I glad this forum exists! I knew lots of people have old busses, but I did not expect to find such a great resource as this sight! I was looking for info on how to get better highway performance from ours, and found a ton of info here already.
So an introduction, I'm Mat, my significant other is Meredith, we live in N.E. Ohio, and we both ride dual sport motorcycles. We have a small start up parts business as well, Geauga Power Sports. We ride, and love to travel, I have been to Baja twice, Meredith came along the second time. We have been toting the bikes with an old E350 with a 7.3 idi, but on my first Baja trip I met some nutty Canadians (actually the whole time in Mexico we kept meeting Canadians) who had an old bus with bunk beds, space in the back for bikes, and it seemed like the way to travel with a group. A few years later meredith and I started talking about doing more trips, and started shopping for a bus. Last Saturday we brought home from Detroit a 1992 Ward/International behemoth with a DT360 engine, 4 speed auto, in pretty good shape.
The drive home definitely showed me we have a lot of work to do, and a lot to learn. The owner had warned us it was LOUD going down the highway, especially once the fan engages. We later noticed the gasket around the engine dog house is gone, you can put your fingers right through the gap. 5 hours on the highway with my ipod in my ears just to block the noise. That seems like an easy fix. The second problem is the drivers seat is falling apart, it might as well be on a gimbals mount, what a PITA to drive home. Our 3rd major issue is speed. I do realize we have a pretty big bus with a not very big engine, but man what was a 3.5 hour drive to Detroit became 5.5 to get home. She can only do about 60 MPH with your foot on the floor, at 2700 rpm. I already found the instructional from member lapeer20m on how to turn up the injector pump, that will be taken care of right away, possibly a gear change down the road.
Well, looks like we found yet another home on the web to eat up our time. Anybody need some bus seats?