Our Skoolie Adventure Begins

[Native]

Originally Posted by cmstrick654

CDL required to drive these?

How to remove a governor?

Those are my burning questions. I’m in possession of the bus and we are heading back home now

Unless you are carrying passengers for hire, a CDL is not required. However, depending on your state you may need a different class of operator's license. Check your state's rules. They also depnd on weight of the vehicle.


Removing a governor is usually a simple task ... a keystroke or two for an electronic engine like yours. Any CAT dealer can do it and would probably charge an hour of shop time. If you take to a CAT shop, ask them to pull the engine statistics for you. This shows all the details about the engine such as hours run at various engine speeds, total fuel used, total miles per the computer, cruise control lower setting (which they can change from 127MPH to 15MPH, thus enabling cruise control) as well as a lot of other good to have information.


Do you suspect it to be governed?


Also ... a HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS!

[banman]

So that's what my bus would look like clean...

TBB 149399 11-Row 1110 Body Seat Plan.pdf

Very cool to have all the maintenance records from day one!
It's possible your bus has already had the HEUI pump upgrade -- I'm sure it would be recorded in your records.
I know my earlier 3126 has not...

Looks like you've got the tilt steering column too.
Are your brakes hydraulic or pneumatic?

Where did the bus come from and if you don't mind -- what did it take to beat out the flippers at auction?

And where in the country are you headed to?

Safe travels!

[CHEESE_WAGON]

Originally Posted by cmstrick654

2004 Freightliner/Thomas FS65 72 passenger bus with 198,663 miles
CAT C7 engine
Allison World 2000 transmission.
All maintanance records from day it was purchased and put on the road, maintained every 20 days.
No rust
Good floor
AC works and is cold

Could have done a lot worse than a C7 / 2000 combo. Records proving 20-day maintenance intervals from new and no rust... Depends on what you paid for it, but unless you paid an outrageously exorbitant price, it's nothing to be ashamed of. The C7 isn't perfect, but it's far from being the worst out there. And it's not an AT545 trans -- a positive point for any bus.

BTW, a CDL is not required for use as a motorhome, BUT may be required for transport until the title is changed to such status. Many auctions and govt agencies will not allow one to be driven off the lot without a CDL. I have a Class A and might be willing to help out...

[cmstrick654]

10 hours round trip, and the removal of a few mirrors later, the bus is in my parents back yard!
She drove amazingly and looks really good for the age. All maintenance records have been kept on her. I’m impressed.

[EastCoastCB]

Looks like a good bus. Clean and well cared for. The engine even looks fairly clean. Good job and good luck on the project!

[cmstrick654]

Originally Posted by Native

Removing a governor is usually a simple task ... a keystroke or two for an electronic engine like yours. Any CAT dealer can do it and would probably charge an hour of shop time. If you take to a CAT shop, ask them to pull the engine statistics for you. This shows all the details about the engine such as hours run at various engine speeds, total fuel used, total miles per the computer, cruise control lower setting (which they can change from 127MPH to 15MPH, thus enabling cruise control) as well as a lot of other good to have information.


Do you suspect it to be governed?

I'll check out my states rules. The guy over the district we bought it from said we needed a CDL to drive it so dont get caught before we got over the state line. We googled it and pretty much found what you said to be true.

It is governed at 55mph. The district guy told is it was and driving it, we found that to be true. So removing the governer is not something we can personally do? and it will have to be done by a CAT mechanic? If that is the case, how do we find a good CAT mechanic in our area because there may be other things we need them to do along the way.

Also, my brother said he only felt it shift five times, but he said at 55 if felt like it wanted to shift again but didn't.

[cmstrick654]

Originally Posted by banman

So that's what my bus would look like clean...

Attachment 43739

Very cool to have all the maintenance records from day one!
It's possible your bus has already had the HEUI pump upgrade -- I'm sure it would be recorded in your records.
I know my earlier 3126 has not...

Looks like you've got the tilt steering column too.
Are your brakes hydraulic or pneumatic?

Where did the bus come from and if you don't mind -- what did it take to beat out the flippers at auction?

And where in the country are you headed to?

Safe travels!

We havent gone through all the service records yet but its a nice stack in a manilla folder. Ill check for the HEUI upgrade in those.

Dont laugh, but how do I know whether the brakes are hydraulic or pneumatic? My brother drove it back for me so i dont know if this is something he would have felt in driving, or something he can tell from the mechanical side of things.

It came out of the Rome Georgia School district and we brought it back to SC. It cost us $5000. They have another listed right now, that if I had another $5000, I would have picked up it. Its on Gov Deals.

[cmstrick654]

Originally Posted by CHEESE_WAGON

Could have done a lot worse than a C7 / 2000 combo. Records proving 20-day maintenance intervals from new and no rust... Depends on what you paid for it, but unless you paid an outrageously exorbitant price, it's nothing to be ashamed of. The C7 isn't perfect, but it's far from being the worst out there. And it's not an AT545 trans -- a positive point for any bus.

BTW, a CDL is not required for use as a motorhome, BUT may be required for transport until the title is changed to such status. Many auctions and govt agencies will not allow one to be driven off the lot without a CDL. I have a Class A and might be willing to help out...

They let us drive it off the lot, even with insisting we needed the CDL. Weve got it to the house. I appreciate your offer to help.

We won the Auction at $5000. I was not wanting to pay that much, but Im not mad about paying it. The bus is really nice compared to a lot I looked at going for the same price from private dealers (who basically picked them up on gov deals and was trying to charge me a markup)

[cmstrick654]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

Looks like a good bus. Clean and well cared for. The engine even looks fairly clean. Good job and good luck on the project!

Thank you. Now the fun begins. Im sure my brother is already over there ripping out seats as Im sitting at my house typing out replies and drawing our floor plans lol

[JDSquared]

I'm in Ga. I looked around at a couple of school districts for buses, and they seemed well maintained. And had AC. All except the district I live in, go figure. Looks like a nice bus in great shape! Look forward to seeing your build.

[cmstrick654]

Thank you!

[Oscar1]

Originally Posted by cmstrick654

We havent gone through all the service records yet but its a nice stack in a manilla folder. Ill check for the HEUI upgrade in those.

Dont laugh, but how do I know whether the brakes are hydraulic or pneumatic? My brother drove it back for me so i dont know if this is something he would have felt in driving, or something he can tell from the mechanical side of things.

It came out of the Rome Georgia School district and we brought it back to SC. It cost us $5000. They have another listed right now, that if I had another $5000, I would have picked up it. Its on Gov Deals.

Great looking bus you got there. You have air brakes, visual indicators on the dash are the yellow diamond shaped brake emergency button and there may be a brake pressure application gauge in the cluster.
Under the hood on the firewall near the steering column you will see a valve body with green and red hoses, these are the air lines. Under the bus at the wheels you will see a large round pod about the size of a medium melon.
Question, has anyone mentioned that you may have an exhaust brake? In one of your pics I see what might be. On your dash upper left side there is a single rocker type switch to the left of the 3 small gauges. Thomas often uses this position and that style of switch for an optional exhaust brake and that would be a very nice bonus.
Congrats on the great bus and good luck.
Stay safe and healthy

Curtis

[Oscar1]

Just an FYI for you, I see you also have an air operated door. When you park the bus you will open the emergency door valve on the front bulkhead just above the door to the left. This allows you to manually open and close the doors. When you do this make sure that the door rocker switch on the control panel is in the off position, if left in the open position this can cause a drain on your batteries and if left long enough you will have a no start issue.
Good luck
Stay safe

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Oscar1

Just an FYI for you, I see you also have an air operated door. When you park the bus you will open the emergency door valve on the front bulkhead just above the door to the left. This allows you to manually open and close the doors. When you do this make sure that the door rocker switch on the control panel is in the off position, if left in the open position this can cause a drain on your batteries and if left long enough you will have a no start issue.
Good luck
Stay safe

On my 99 I don't get battery drain from leaving the door switch to open or close.

[Oscar1]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

On my 99 I don't get battery drain from leaving the door switch to open or close.

I don't either because I don't leave it open. Just a warning bulletin I read somewhere in a Thomas operators manual that said "can cause" not will cause.
A night switch at the battery would fix things either way.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Oscar1

I don't either because I don't leave it open. Just a warning bulletin I read somewhere in a Thomas operators manual that said "can cause" not will cause.
A night switch at the battery would fix things either way.

heck I'm glad that never happened to me. I leave the switch to open, then I shut off the bus and open that valve. I've left it for months. I wonder what year range that manual was for. Do you remember?

99 and 07 probably have some differences.

[Oscar1]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

heck I'm glad that never happened to me. I leave the switch to open, then I shut off the bus and open that valve. I've left it for months. I wonder what year range that manual was for. Do you remember?

99 and 07 probably have some differences.

That's what I was thinking, could be courtesy light circuit or something like that.
Not sure, it was an on line operators manual I was referencing when trying to do my Canadian import but I'm thinking it was a 2005 series book. Will try and see if I can find it again

[Native]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

On my 99 I don't get battery drain from leaving the door switch to open or close.

On our 2002 it *has* drained the battery and it is easy to forget that it is in the open position when you use the "emergency" lever.

[Oscar1]

Originally Posted by Native

On our 2002 it *has* drained the battery and it is easy to forget that it is in the open position when you use the "emergency" lever.

very easy to forget it open.
I guess a night switch at the battery would have cost Thomas an extra $5
Cheers

[banman]

Very clean looking bus!
Any time you have self doubts about what you paid for it go to my bus thread and see what the "rode hard, put away wet, and left for dead" version of your bus can look like!

What Oscar1 said about your air system is spot on.

Seems like I'm the only fs65 owner here with hydraulic brakes...