Hey folks, long time lurker first time poster! My wife and I have been planning our skoolie build for well over a year now and our plans have moved forward quite suddenly.
We're full time RVing, and our 22-year-old falling-apart vehicle just broke down with a
huge repair bill. We're strongly considering putting that money into a down payment on a school bus for our conversion rather than sinking it in to this hunk of junk.
So for the moment, we're broken down in a car park with a 10 minute walk to the nearest toilet
but that's life, not much we can do about it! haha
We're not looking to buy from auction, and we'll have a mechanic give any vehicle we consider a full inspection before putting money down, of course
We're also looking to pay on finance, we were originally planning to save the full amount to pay in one go, but as the situation has changed we now want start with a down-payment and start paying monthly.
Here's what we're looking for, could you advise us on the best places to contact for school bus sales?
Could you perhaps suggest other things we need to put on our list of "must-have" or "would-likes" too please, as you're all more seasoned with skoolies than we are?
- Diesel
- Rear Engine
- Full Length (the big 40 footers)
- Intact Maintenance Records
- Bluebird (preferably)
- Compliant with California's Emissions Requirements (Level 3 PM Filter)
- Good Cummins engine
- Allison Transmission
- Year 2007 or newer (due to emissions compliance requirements, however if already retrofitted with all the required filters etc we could look at something a little older)
- Air Brakes
- Price range is < $10k