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Old 01-29-2017, 07:23 PM   #41
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Originally Posted by PNW_Steve View Post
Wutm8,

IMHO: That is one FINE looking bus!

RE, 8.3, MD3060 etc. From the pics it looks really clean. Personally, if it looks as good in person as it does in the pics I would spend $5k on it. Some may give me grief for it but I see people buying buses regularly for $2k-$3k that need some manner of work and don't have the features/drive train that this one has.

I paid about $3500 for my 2002 All American RE and it has some body damage. Otherwise it is very similar to this one. I think that spending a few more dollars on the "foundation" to get what you want is generally worth it.

I will also jump on the "me too" bus when it comes to the increased comfort level of a RE bus on longer trips. I have owned two RE's and one FE. Comfort, ride and noise are significantly different.

Best of luck on your purchase!!
They auctioned off a few 2002 buses here and Arizona a few days back and I believe 2 of them went over 5K and neither was as good condition has this one. They all needed new tires and had little bits of body damage. He purchased these from the school district he works at. If that bus is good to go then I'll feel good about it. I'm going to go check it out with a mechanic and if it checks out I think I'll take it! Thanks a lot Steve, I'm excited

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Old 01-29-2017, 08:18 PM   #42
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It does appear to be in nice shape. The engine looks maintained but not cleaned which is what I'd be concerned about. You can see the filters don't look terribly old and grimy yet there is enough grime to know it hasn't all be steam cleaned. Tires look decent. I agree, this does look better than the ones in AZ, however the ones in AZ were just over 100k miles. I would think inner city miles can be hard especially with all the heat there.
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Old 01-29-2017, 10:50 PM   #43
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its a 2000 bluebird tc2000 isc cummins md30604 trans. 175k miles and its very clean, roof is 8in taller than average. illl post pics. after much discussion he said he will do 5k but i dont see it getting any lower than that. pics below, i saw 2002 with similar miles and a bit more beat up go for the same, hes third party, works for the distric, buys and resales. thoughts on its new home potential?
Couple things to point out...

It's not a 2000. The last year Blue Bird made the rear engine TC2000 was 1998. It also isn't an ISC. That's a mechanical 8.3 Cummins. It also doesn't appear that it's a high roof. Look at the height of the top of the windows compared to the top of the driver's window and the top of the service door.

That said, it looks awesome, and I wouldn't hesitate to pay 5,000 bucks for it as long as it's in good mechanical condition. I'd be hesitant to accept anything the seller says as fact though, since he got the year, engine, and roof height wrong.


...and those dogs look cool as hell.
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Old 01-29-2017, 11:11 PM   #44
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Originally Posted by Rameses View Post
Couple things to point out...

It's not a 2000. The last year Blue Bird made the rear engine TC2000 was 1998. It also isn't an ISC. That's a mechanical 8.3 Cummins. It also doesn't appear that it's a high roof. Look at the height of the top of the windows compared to the top of the driver's window and the top of the service door.

That said, it looks awesome, and I wouldn't hesitate to pay 5,000 bucks for it as long as it's in good mechanical condition. I'd be hesitant to accept anything the seller says as fact though, since he got the year, engine, and roof height wrong.


...and those dogs look cool as hell.
I went back to check his messages, I don't know why I thought 2000 he said 97. But the rest of it is definitely there. He said isc and high roof.
I just read up on the 8.3 and it looks like a solid motor so I'm not worried about that and I'm not too worried about the roof height being that we are planning a roof raise... if he was deliberately lying about that stuff that's really lame but if the mileage is correct and it gets the okay from the mechanic I'm going to have come check it out with me then I think I just found my bus Thanks a lot for your thoughts and help

Also, you're correct! Those pups are cool as hell, haha. Big lovers they are
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Old 01-29-2017, 11:21 PM   #45
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Nice looking bus with a reasonable price.

I doubt you will find a nicer bus with that power package at a lower price any time soon.

I too would suggest the seller doesn't really know what he has for sale.

That bus definitely has 9" windows which means the interior headroom is 74". If it had 12" windows it would have 78" headroom and instead of two buttons holding the windows it would have three buttons.

Good luck and happy trails to you!
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Old 01-30-2017, 01:56 PM   #46
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Ever driven one with air ride suspension?
We order all ours with air bags on the rear axle. Kinda bouncy when empty but when you get 20+ adult bodies on board the ride is really smooth
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Old 01-30-2017, 09:47 PM   #47
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Originally Posted by Wutm8 View Post
I went back to check his messages, I don't know why I thought 2000 he said 97. But the rest of it is definitely there. He said isc and high roof.
I just read up on the 8.3 and it looks like a solid motor so I'm not worried about that and I'm not too worried about the roof height being that we are planning a roof raise... if he was deliberately lying about that stuff that's really lame but if the mileage is correct and it gets the okay from the mechanic I'm going to have come check it out with me then I think I just found my bus Thanks a lot for your thoughts and help

Also, you're correct! Those pups are cool as hell, haha. Big lovers they are
Don't take what I was saying the wrong way, I didn't in any way mean to say you shouldn't consider that bus. That thing looks pretty damn perfect from my perspective (especially for that price, as cowlitzcoach was saying).

I was just warning against putting too much stock in anything the seller says. I'm sure he wasn't trying to be deliberately misleading. Plenty of people don't realize that by saying "ISC" you're specifically referring to 8.3s that're electronically controlled. But I think you could go look at it in person and point out that it isn't a high roof and isn't an ISC and potentially get 500 bucks knocked off his asking price.

Also, you mentioned doing a roof raise. I'm not sure what you're planning as far as how much height you're going to add or what you're going to do for windows, but I ended up being glad I didn't get a high roof. I was planning a (minimal) roof raise whether I got a high roof or a standard, because I wanted enough room to properly insulate both the floor and ceiling while having enough headroom to not instinctively feel like I needed to duck my head. But I didn't want to raise it too much, because I'm not a huge fan of the appearance of raised roofs. I like the proportions of school buses the way they are. Once the proportions are altered past a certain point, I think they start to look a little odd. I also wanted to keep the stock bus windows because I still want it to look like a bus, and not like a motorhome. Anyway, my wife and I were working in the bus one day and discussing layouts and cabinets and whatnot. And we realized that if we raised the windows with the roof, it would give us room for cabinets under the windows without overlapping them. So by starting with a low roof (and shorter windows) we'll be raising the bottom of the windows 4" more to achieve the desired ceiling height than if we'd started with a high roof. Which means enough room for cabinets, and countertops with backsplash, completely underneath the windows.

(Sorry, that got a little more long-winded than I'd intended for it to.)
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Old 01-30-2017, 10:37 PM   #48
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For my money, the fact that it is NOT an ISC makes it worth more. I'll take an all mechanical any day.
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Old 01-30-2017, 10:41 PM   #49
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For my money, the fact that it is NOT an ISC makes it worth more. I'll take an all mechanical any day.

No need to share that sentiment with the seller though. When it comes time to negotiate, whatever it doesn't have is what you should prefer.
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