Help with potential school bus purchase

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by ACamper

Glancing at bus ads this am I see a nice collection of buses nicer then this for half the cost. You would be getting a very poor deal at $10k

A poor deal indeed.

[GabbyVerse]

Just my opinion I would not buy a bus from a personal seller if it was going to be my first time. On top of that you indicated the price is NORTH of 10k and I think that is a little excessive. Take a look at AAA Bus in Arizona, I have read nothing but good things about them and they have experience with people wanting to convert buses. That's where I plan to go when I purchase my bus for conversion.

[rjheaton@aol.com]

Looks like a sive . Don’t know how far you have to travel to pick it up and get it home, but just from the pictures you posted I’d walk away.
If you happen to be east of the Mississippi take a look at BGA school buses, or www. We sell school buses. com

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by rjheaton@aol.com

Looks like a sive . Don’t know how far you have to travel to pick it up and get it home, but just from the pictures you posted I’d walk away.
If you happen to be east of the Mississippi take a look at BGA school buses, or www. We sell school buses. com

LOL BGA are the most expensive way to buy a rusty auction bus.
They're maybe THE biggest ripoff in the used bus universe.

[Bon Voyage]

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[Bon Voyage]

Originally Posted by keithgugliotto

Thank you, folks who've given some time to answer here. Some of you know the story behind this bus and, while it's not worth $10K to us or just about anyone else, we feel it's worth somewhere north of what the seller paid for it, depending on the situation. Our conversion means we're taking a year and change off our travel schedule, but we do have to travel to see close family out west who can't get over this way. That and...who wants to boil in the southeastern summer? We could try to win the best for us bus at auction, but if we can negotiate the seller's premium to something that works for us, get the bus home, and get to converting, why not? Anyhow, if we don't get this bus, we're still in the game, looking for a 10 or 11-window conventional, late 90's to 2003 DT466, Allison 2000 or better but probably not an MT643, with air suspension and air brakes. Driver air conditioning, a little factory underbody storage, and a driveline retarder would be icing on the cake. If you see one around...

P.S. I read one or two folks who suggested calling school systems one by one to see what they're retiring. Do many systems sell direct like that?

I got my current bus straight from the school district. I looked up all the districts in the area I wanted and emailed them. I might have contacted 30-40 and heard back from 2. One was willing to sell direct and the other just told me about their own auction for it.

Originally Posted by Drew Bru

Yeah, that's a pretty big fear of ours. Any magic elixir to add to the crankcase to prevent this leaking liner seals issue? To be clear, we're not experiencing signs of it but I understand it can be an issue on these engines. I know it's overheated at least once

AT 205 reseal can help on seals but not on gaskets. Scotty Kilmer on YouTube talks about it sometimes. It worked on a small power steering leak my van had.

[Dirtdoctor]

466 engines have a rear main seal that often starts dripping at 145,000 miles. I had mine replaced at a dealership $1800.