Possible and how much to add air suspension?

[Kaleth2]

Okay, total newbie question here. Found two buses we love , one not geared right, the other, no air suspension. Both right length, 3126, Allison 2000, 230,000 miles, tall ceiling short buses. One without air suspension much closer to home? Thoughts? Seems like every shorty we see is 545 and we have family in the Rockies. How often do you find a bus with everything, right engine. Transmission, air everything, tall ceiling, short bus. Everywhere I’m looking and reading seems the shorties in high demand.
Thank you for the education!
Karen and Todd

[cowlitzcoach]

A bus with a Cat engine would be off my list immediately.


A bus with an Allison AT-540 transmission would be off my list pretty quick as well.


A bus with hydraulic brakes would be off my list right away as well.


Unless you are getting the buses for next to free I would keep shopping until you find a bus with the power package you would prefer.

[Brad_SwiftFur]

Originally Posted by Kaleth2

Okay, total newbie question here. Found two buses we love , one not geared right, the other, no air suspension. Both right length, 3126, Allison 2000, 230,000 miles, tall ceiling short buses. One without air suspension much closer to home? Thoughts? Seems like every shorty we see is 545 and we have family in the Rockies. How often do you find a bus with everything, right engine. Transmission, air everything, tall ceiling, short bus. Everywhere I’m looking and reading seems the shorties in high demand.
Thank you for the education!
Karen and Todd

Originally Posted by cowlitzcoach

A bus with a Cat engine would be off my list immediately.

A bus with an Allison AT-540 transmission would be off my list pretty quick as well.

A bus with hydraulic brakes would be off my list right away as well.

Unless you are getting the buses for next to free I would keep shopping until you find a bus with the power package you would prefer.

There's some love for the Cat engines on this forum, I would not let that deter me from a purchase. As for hydraulic or air brakes, both are good systems, it's more a personal preference (I'm with Cowlitz, though, air brakes for me). For long distance cruising, the AT545 transmission (and its cousins) isn't really a good choice, so you've done well looking for a different transmission.


So, how is the one bus "not geared right"? Given the choice (and judging by your other thread), I have a shorty with air ride. You'll find a spring-ride shorty is (usually, especially with medium duty chassis, not the type A cutaway style buses) the rear suspension is sprung to handle whatever weight it's rated for and will have a tendency to be very bouncy/harsh when traveling lightly loaded/empty. It is for this reason road tractors running without trailers are known as "bobtailing" (A *VERY* accurate description, I might add!) at least with spring suspensions. Ever since the development and widespread use of air suspensions, the ride is much better at lower weights and the same is true for buses.


My advice would be to get the air ride bus and re-gear it if necessary. I can't imagine how it would be "geared wrong" with a 2000 Allison, though. Much more likely to simply have an electronic governor (easily changed/removed). Swapping an air ride suspension will cost more, and some insurance companies will ask if the suspension is original (apparently they feel that any change is "non-original" and poses a higher risk).

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Kaleth2

Okay, total newbie question here. Found two buses we love , one not geared right, the other, no air suspension. Both right length, 3126, Allison 2000, 230,000 miles, tall ceiling short buses. One without air suspension much closer to home? Thoughts? Seems like every shorty we see is 545 and we have family in the Rockies. How often do you find a bus with everything, right engine. Transmission, air everything, tall ceiling, short bus. Everywhere I’m looking and reading seems the shorties in high demand.
Thank you for the education!
Karen and Todd

Sound like real nice buses to me. I'd got for the air ride and gear it to whatever you want/need.
I love my 3126 but its a really clean low mile unit.
I got lucky on mine and bid just for sport. I was gonna just flip it for cash. But its the nicest shorty I've had. If you watch the auctions and exercise patience you will find a good deal eventually. But they're usually a bit of a trek to get one. I've gotten them as far away as CO.
CO usually has some NICE buses.

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by Kaleth2

Okay, total newbie question here. Found two buses we love , one not geared right, the other, no air suspension. Both right length, 3126, Allison 2000, 230,000 miles, tall ceiling short buses. One without air suspension much closer to home? Thoughts? Seems like every shorty we see is 545 and we have family in the Rockies. How often do you find a bus with everything, right engine. Transmission, air everything, tall ceiling, short bus. Everywhere I’m looking and reading seems the shorties in high demand.
Thank you for the education!
Karen and Todd

What are the prices for those 2 buses, makes a difference.

[Kaleth2]

So the bus in NC is across country for us, 270,000 miles on it, has air everything, 7.17 gearing, 27500GVWR. would really need to be changed out there to make the ride home tolerable, 3600$ Plus flights out, hotels and gas back to OR. Guy said it had been sitting two years:/ He said he changed the oil and filters on it, said oil wasn’t in great shape thought the pictures of the engine are super clean and it appears to have been maintained well. He bought it at auction 8 gravel country miles from his home.
Bus in Cali, freshly retired, as in last mo! School shut down, found article in newspaper. 250,000 miles, air ride, hydraulic brakes, inch taller interior, 25500GVWR, so lighter, geared 5.29 gearing, California Highway Patrol certified, 3400$..both 3126s, Allison 2000.
Haven’t read much on diff between GVWR weights...advantages, disadvantages? I imagine that fuel use and cost might be better on a lighter rig?

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by Kaleth2

Okay, total newbie question here. Found two buses we love , one not geared right, the other, no air suspension. Both right length, 3126, Allison 2000, 230,000 miles, tall ceiling short buses. One without air suspension much closer to home? Thoughts? Seems like every shorty we see is 545 and we have family in the Rockies. How often do you find a bus with everything, right engine. Transmission, air everything, tall ceiling, short bus. Everywhere I’m looking and reading seems the shorties in high demand.
Thank you for the education!
Karen and Todd

Originally Posted by Kaleth2

So the bus in NC is across country for us, 270,000 miles on it, has air everything, 7.17 gearing, 27500GVWR. would really need to be changed out there to make the ride home tolerable, 3600$ Plus flights out, hotels and gas back to OR. Guy said it had been sitting two years:/ He said he changed the oil and filters on it, said oil wasn’t in great shape thought the pictures of the engine are super clean and it appears to have been maintained well. He bought it at auction 8 gravel country miles from his home.
Bus in Cali, freshly retired, as in last mo! School shut down, found article in newspaper. 250,000 miles, air ride, hydraulic brakes, inch taller interior, 25500GVWR, so lighter, geared 5.29 gearing, California Highway Patrol certified, 3400$..both 3126s, Allison 2000.
Haven’t read much on diff between GVWR weights...advantages, disadvantages? I imagine that fuel use and cost might be better on a lighter rig?

What did you not like about the one I have available? Lower mileage, lower price, air brakes, air suspension.

[Booyah45828]

If you can easily inspect the one in cali in person, I'd do that before making any decision. Neither is a great deal at 34 and 3600, but I wouldn't avoid the one in cali because of the hydraulic brakes or lower gvwr.

If you're in a hurry to buy, and the one in cali seems like it's what you want, I'd pull the trigger on it. Otherwise sit and wait for the right bus to pop up.

The reason a lot of us travel across the country to get a bus is because we're in a rusty area, and most of the rust free buses are out west, in your backyard. So I don't think I'd be looking across country if I were you. I'd wait for exactly what you want to show up nearer to you.

[gs1949]

When I was looking for a bus my life was pretty complicated there for a while by a large-breed puppy, quite a high maintenance dog. We lived with my very elderly father who was in his own high-maintenance phase. There was no way I could travel somewhere that took more than a few hours to get there and back.

Obviously, this made finding a bus complicated. Then I heard about Wolf Creek Motors. They're located just off Interstate 5 a little ways north of Grants Pass. They don't have much of an internet presence. They do get mentioned on other websites, and so I got a phone number. After a couple of conversations with Kurt, the owner, my dog Buster and I took a ride over there to look at buses.

To make what could be a much longer story as short as possible, I found a bus I considered perfectly suitable. And yes, I paid about $2000 more than I would have paid at an auction somewhere, but I saved a lot of hassle, and had to drive less than 150 miles to get the bus home.

So I am very pleased with the bus I got from Wolf Creek Motors, and don't hesitate to recommend them to people who might feel like some help finding a suitable bus. Kurt is very knowledgeable about buses and helped me get one that was just what I wanted without a lot of hassle.

As I said above, they do not have their own website, but contact info is out there:

https://www.loc8nearme.com/oregon/wo...otors/4638774/

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Kaleth2

So the bus in NC is across country for us, 270,000 miles on it, has air everything, 7.17 gearing, 27500GVWR. would really need to be changed out there to make the ride home tolerable, 3600$ Plus flights out, hotels and gas back to OR. Guy said it had been sitting two years:/ He said he changed the oil and filters on it, said oil wasn’t in great shape thought the pictures of the engine are super clean and it appears to have been maintained well. He bought it at auction 8 gravel country miles from his home.
Bus in Cali, freshly retired, as in last mo! School shut down, found article in newspaper. 250,000 miles, air ride, hydraulic brakes, inch taller interior, 25500GVWR, so lighter, geared 5.29 gearing, California Highway Patrol certified, 3400$..both 3126s, Allison 2000.
Haven’t read much on diff between GVWR weights...advantages, disadvantages? I imagine that fuel use and cost might be better on a lighter rig?

I'd much rather have a Cali bus. NC is kinda low on the list for me. Low spec stuff that they usually only let go when its well used.

[Kaleth2]

We liked Yours! I hadn’t been able to find out ceiling height I think? The ones we’re looking at have 76 and 78 on the one in Cali. Sooooo many buses looking at right now. Also yours is in Florida isn’t it?

[Kaleth2]

Marc, I think you were saying you didn’t know much about it until you got it on the 2nd? Or am I mixing yours up with someone else’s on skoolie.net?

[dzl_]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

I'd much rather have a Cali bus. NC is kinda low on the list for me. Low spec stuff that they usually only let go when its well used.

One thing I've noticed though (in my very limited experience--so it may not be representative) is that mountainous and rural counties in the southeast (especially in NC, GA, TN) are much more likely to have conventional short buses than I have been able to find on the West Coast. Tons of cutaway shorties out here, but I haven't come across a single conventional short bus in CA in my ~5 months of searching. This probably isn't relevant to the OP, but I just thought I'd throw in my few cents as to why I look further a field than the west coast.

[Kaleth2]

We’ve been looking about 4 months now. I mentioned in another thread that we were referred to someone at Northwest bus who said that since VW settled from their fraud, that money was offered to schools for buses only if the schools scrapped the old ones which are in the age area a we’re looking for...pre 2004. She said we wouldn’t be finding many here in the PNW. I’m not sure if that was a sales line or if, indeed, that is the case. Made us start looking farther from home for ours.

[Kaleth2]

Well shoot! Cali bus just evaporated. They decided not to sell. More fun looking

[banman]

Originally Posted by Kaleth2

So the bus in NC is across country for us, 270,000 miles on it, has air everything, 7.17 gearing, 27500GVWR. would really need to be changed out there to make the ride home tolerable, 3600$ Plus flights out, hotels and gas back to OR. Guy said it had been sitting two years:/ He said he changed the oil and filters on it, said oil wasn’t in great shape thought the pictures of the engine are super clean and it appears to have been maintained well. He bought it at auction 8 gravel country miles from his home.
Bus in Cali, freshly retired, as in last mo! School shut down, found article in newspaper. 250,000 miles, air ride, hydraulic brakes, inch taller interior, 25500GVWR, so lighter, geared 5.29 gearing, California Highway Patrol certified, 3400$..both 3126s, Allison 2000.
Haven’t read much on diff between GVWR weights...advantages, disadvantages? I imagine that fuel use and cost might be better on a lighter rig?

Based on YOUR parameters (as I understand them...)
To MY way of thinking there is no comparison here hardly at all...

A bus that has been receiving proper maintenance recently compared to sitting for years...
The 5.xx gear ratio being nearly ideal.
The Cali bus is easily worth a lot more to you than an east coast bus...

Catching up neglected maintenance is a big expense -- I'm about to spend $200 DIY just for an eng oil change -- so saving a few hundred bucks to buy a mechanically neglected bus is a very poor savings to may of thinking.

If you're getting full maintenance records with the cali bus that's an added value to me...

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by dzl_

One thing I've noticed though (in my very limited experience--so it may not be representative) is that mountainous and rural counties in the southeast (especially in NC, GA, TN) are much more likely to have conventional short buses than I have been able to find on the West Coast. Tons of cutaway shorties out here, but I haven't come across a single conventional short bus in CA in my ~5 months of searching. This probably isn't relevant to the OP, but I just thought I'd throw in my few cents as to why I look further a field than the west coast.

I live in far North Georgia, at the base of the Appalachian Trail. City has 2700 residents in a county of 24K. No short buses. The proverbial "Short Bus" here is actually a mid size. I live on a cul-de-sac. They guy who I posted the pic of driving my bus has a "handicap" son who rides that bus.

[kidharris]

Originally Posted by cowlitzcoach

A bus with a Cat engine would be off my list immediately.


A bus with an Allison AT-540 transmission would be off my list pretty quick as well.


A bus with hydraulic brakes would be off my list right away as well.


Unless you are getting the buses for next to free I would keep shopping until you find a bus with the power package you would prefer.

He already said that he found what he prefers. Do you mean that he should find one that you prefer?

[Doktari]

I noticed lots of buses on Craigslist yesterday but high prices in the Seattle region. People bailing out midway in their conversion projects. I’m hesitant to buy from private parties due to maintenance neglect.

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by Kaleth2

Marc, I think you were saying you didn’t know much about it until you got it on the 2nd? Or am I mixing yours up with someone else’s on skoolie.net?

You are correct, I'm flying up tomorrow to bring it here.