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Old 11-28-2020, 07:16 AM   #1
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Nov 2020
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Question My wife and I would like to see inside a schoolie...Stuart FL

My wife and I and really close to buying a schoolie, but she is getting cold feet. She really wants to see inside of a dog nose mid sized schoolie.
Would there be anyone within 100 miles of Stuart FL that would be willing to let us check out your bus. It does not have to be finished.

We would like to to see the space and hear the noise generated by the engine. This seems to be a point of contention.

thanks
Kevin

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Old 11-28-2020, 10:10 AM   #2
Bus Nut
 
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I can’t help you Kevin on seeing my shorty first hand ( too far away ), but I understand the dilemma. My wife was somewhat excited but she had reservations about how she could contribute. I explained that I DID NOT want the bus to look anything like the house. I wanted hippie/gypsy. She played no part of the things you could not see. All the rough in of electrical and plumbing and the things that matter. I gave her full reign of color and coordination and she took off. ( I count on her color scheme. Mine would be flat black & gray.) it is definitely not for everyone. Hell, probably not for most. I did spend a lot of time on insulating and sound deadening up front on the firewall to help on the sound. We are just finishing up and getting ready to take her out for a few days. My guess is that most women want to be part of the build. If not, good chance it is a waste of time. If you want to see what both of us have accomplished, go to the search window and type in Bluto and take a look at my build page. Good luck on your endeavors !!
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Old 11-28-2020, 10:48 AM   #3
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Here are pics of two I found for sale (do not have one of my own currently).

1998 dog-nose conventional Navistar with manual transmission.

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1999 dog-nose conventional Navistar with auto transmission.
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First, about noise. Your wife needs to understand that these buses are at their basics, commercial-duty truck chassis, and were not designed to be whisper quiet. Most with auto trans will have plenty of space around the engine area, and the engine is usually a good distance from the firewall. However, all is not lost here -- if noise is a concern, you can use DynaMat or some other sound deadening material (it quells heat as well, which is a plus).

Alternately, you can look at a gasser (quieter than a diesel) or a rear-engine pusher, they drive quite nice and are much quieter, although there are some trade-offs...

Front-engine: More noise, flat-nose are a bit hotter (again, DynaMat), compromised traction in mud and bad weather. Conventionals are easier to service, however.

Rear-engine: Quieter, cooler, better drive traction in mud / bad weather, steer tires more likely to skid / get off-track in mud / bad weather.
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Old 11-28-2020, 12:25 PM   #4
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There are a lot of videos that tour skoolies. To find exactly the one type of bus will not be easy, but there is a video that walks though a lot of them fairly quickly at a gathering, could probably find that one and see an example.
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Old 11-28-2020, 12:50 PM   #5
Mini-Skoolie
 
Join Date: Nov 2020
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I hear ya.. We are coming from a sailboat to a skoolie. So, living conditions and nomadic is taken care of. Our diesel in our boat was not quiet at all, but we hear the skoolies are loud...we are not sure if that is louder than our boat engine we stood on for 6 years.
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