Just got home with my 2nd bus! And this one is a unicorn. I'm really excited about starting this conversion. It's a 2003 BlueBird All American Rear Engine with the Cummins 8.3L and Allison MD3060_R with 147k miles
I bought my first bus (24 foot 7.3l international amtran w/ AT545) back in 2017 and I did a poor mans conversion in as little time as possible.
Back then I pretty much had no experience with carpentry, and very little knowledge about every aspect of whats important in a conversion.
But nowadays I'm pretty capable with woodworking, metalworking, electrical, plumbing, and I got a lot more time on my hands and some decent savings. So I'm planning on doing this build right, even if it takes me a whole year (or more) to do it.
First thing I'm doing is a roof raise. As I'm 6'6" it is mandatory. In my old bus, which also has 77" of interior height, I skipped out on insulating the floor, and I put 1" foam board inbetween the ribs in my ceiling lol. I also didn't even pull the plywood subfloor out of my old bus, I just put the flooring ontop of it.
All around not ideal and so I'm excited to do things right.
I'm linking a video tour of the new bus here, and I'll continue to post updates and more videos of the whole conversion process.
Some quick details on the bus
-32ft long / 10 window
-8.3l cummins
-MD3060_R (with retardar)
-4.38 Rear Gears
-Cruise Control
-100 Gallon Fuel Tank
-Underbody Storage
-Great tires (but i think 6 years old)
-Air-Foil / Spoiler thingy??
-Block Heater & Battery Tender Plugs
-Entry Steps De-Icer
-Full camera monitoring system inside and out
I won this bus for $5200 on auction and drove it 1200 miles home no problem. This engine/tranny/length combo is epic. Up and down mountains with ease. Maintained 70mph and 2000rpm on cruise control for nearly the entire trip home.
Linear Mode
