Better Resale: Converted School or Shuttle?

[vintageracer]

Better Resale Value?

Neither of them!

You want to buy one DONE from some other poor SOB that SPENT all their money and time building their dream that became a nightmare and are now selling at 25 cents on the dollar because the wife, the city or neighborhood association said its no longer welcome and that bus is outta there!

[Placeholder Bus Name]

Yeah I don't see anyway you could 'flip' a Skoolie. The whole idea is building it how you want it. I've never seen a 'pre-built' one that is what I want and they are usually way over priced, IMHO.

Their right, it's the labor that will kill you. I've got hundreds of hours of labor into my bus and it's just stripped, not even started building yet.

Disclaimer: Broccolibus is the only Skoolie I've seen that has everything I'd love to do on my bus. My budget is no where near his, so we're just going to do it like we like it.

[GaryTheRock]

I know it's heresy on a skoolie forum but I didn't even consider the Bluebird school bus for conversion for some practical reasons and some personal reasons.
The Bluebird was running but has severe oil and water leaks. The Bluebird handicap lift was not working, a feature I require due to a handicapped wife.
The Freightliner chassis based shuttle bus has the advantage of at least a couple inches of insulation in the ceiling and a working handicap lift. It does have a wooden floor, unlike the Bluebird. I doubt either one has the optimal transmission for a motor home and have some delusions of swapping the transmission for a different model of Allison transmission.
Both of my buses have a 5.9 Cummins in them. I only bought the Bluebird in case I needed a donor block if it turned out I had, "The Weak 53 Block", which it turned out I did not have. (PHEW! Grateful for that!)
I bought the Bluebird running and the Freightliner shuttle bus wasn't, a huge chance I took. The Freightliner shuttle bus only had 99,000 miles on it at the time, believable in this case as the Senior Citizens Bus, and I did talk to the garage who was maintaining this bus and had the past repair records.
The Freightliner now runs. I fixed the problem that caused the county to sell it. It still needs all the plumbing including a special shower with no ledge which my wife would not be able to cross, needs wiring and the mini-splits I bought for heating and air conditioning installed. One super bonus is the luggage compartment in the rear of the bus, which has a floor lower than the main part of the bus, is perfect to install the bathroom and shower, maintaining a same level floor, very helpful for the handicap problem and easy access with a back door to everything underneath. I originally wished to do a minimal build and take a long maiden voyage, but that didn't come to pass and now isn't going to. I still enjoy poking at the conversion from time to time. I like taking it out for a spin once in a while since it's fully insured and registered as a motor home.
My biggest regret, and looking at both of these buses, is I would prefer an engine that is under a hood in front, not under the back or have a dog house in the front.

[Tammyfontaine]

Hi GaryTheRock,
I’ve been researching shuttle bus luggage compartments and saw your post here. We have a Turtle Top Odyssey XL that we are converting to a mobile office. Ran into a little issue with trying to cut through the back wall into the luggage compartment to frame a door there. Seems that there are steel support beams that make an opening possible for a contortionist and that’s about it. We are going to convert the luggage area into a bathroom and would prefer to have a door leading into it from inside. Did you have the same issue? We haven’t been able to find a lot of information about conversions with a luggage compartment, and yours is one of only a few posts I’ve seen. This is our first time doing a conversion, and we aren’t doing a full gut job, as it’s a newer luxury limo shuttle and has a lot of useful features already.

[CHEESE_WAGON]

I have been jonesing for another bus ever since I was forced to part with my previous Ford-chassis Blue Bird, however, I am leaning other directions these days, mostly due to health concerns that make the DIY aspect of this impossible and it is not likely I can afford to pay someone else for the work to be done, as said health issues also figure prominently into a greatly reduced earning capacity. I do have a possibility I plan to go look at, hopefully on a planned trip soon, but may have to catch it on the flipside.

I will say this, and not to discourage anyone, if you can afford it and don't have the devil's spawn for an HOA breathing down your neck, do what you like. But resale value is not a consideration with a converted bus, if you are looking to build one, play with / live in it for a few years, and then sell for a profit -- it ain't gonna happen. There are several conversions on here for sale that have been steadily dropping prices because, being a very specific niche, they are hard to move once you're ready to sell.

[Leines]

Originally Posted by Sehnsucht

Agreed that resale in general is never profitable in this niche market and probably not usually even break-even. If the intention is to choose the most likely platform to build and resale, the premise is flawed from the start. Skoolies are very personalized and skoolie owners are very DIY oriented. Many people have had the idea of building live-in ready skoolies but there's simply almost zero market for it. Even those who plan to custom build to order find almost no one is interested in such a service and also many don't have the cash up front or else they'd be in the market for an RV. Part of the DIY attraction is being able to pace the project as time and resources permit and that's simply not going to easily adapt to a pay-for-customized business model.

The ability to pay as a go and build the RV piece by piece was one of the main factors in deciding to convert a bus instead of buying an RV. Even a very old RV is about the cost here of a bus that's much newer, i figured id be repairing everything in the RV of that age anyway.. so its better to slowly build and then i know the workings as well..

I have no idea about the shuttle vs school bus.. I am converting a shuttle because i found what seemed like a very good deal on one and figure a cheap start to an expensive project is always good.

[GaryTheRock]

Originally Posted by Tammyfontaine

Hi GaryTheRock,
I’ve been researching shuttle bus luggage compartments and saw your post here. We have a Turtle Top Odyssey XL that we are converting to a mobile office. Ran into a little issue with trying to cut through the back wall into the luggage compartment to frame a door there. Seems that there are steel support beams that make an opening possible for a contortionist and that’s about it. We are going to convert the luggage area into a bathroom and would prefer to have a door leading into it from inside. Did you have the same issue? We haven’t been able to find a lot of information about conversions with a luggage compartment, and yours is one of only a few posts I’ve seen. This is our first time doing a conversion, and we aren’t doing a full gut job, as it’s a newer luxury limo shuttle and has a lot of useful features already.

Hello Tammy,

In my shuttle bus the whole frame and wall was wood. It took me very little time to remove both the frame and the wall. The condensate tubing ran down next to the wall on both sides, a not real terrible thing to deal with.
Sorry you ended up with a more difficult challenge.
Not knowing the construction of your Turtle Top Odyssey XL I don't know if that metal is part of a support system or simply a very sturdy wall to the compartment. If I had it, and determined it was not for support purposes I'd use my Sawszall and keep on going.
Good luck!
P.S. I'm still working on my motor home project. I just finished a four feet support for the platform on the back to hold the twin heat pump outside units. The bathroom is still a fantasy though I have plans for both the toilet and shower to have no threshold, slanted to a low corner drain because my handicapped wife can't get over a threshold that sticks up.