Hello! And Help!

[mustangbebo]

Hey everyone!
So life being what it is this past year I have about 5 weeks until I have to move 1,000 miles with my kids and skoolie life is the only way it's going to work.

I've been told that there are amazing buses (pre 2004) being sold for next to nothing...but I've got to have something that is RELIABLE (don't want to be stranded on the side of the road with my babies), not too many miles (under 200k?), newer tires (or can replace within my budget of $7k), and the most coveted criteria of all...seats out!

Is there anything like that out there? I might be able to come get it if it's road worthy to get me back home (North Central Florida) and then on to the big journey.

I'd appreciated any kind suggestions or for sale listings! Thank you!!!!!

[Rwnielsen]

Hello and welcome
That sounds like quite a challenge but I think it can be pulled off. In your time frame a good bus is essential. Then you can get a bunch of camping gear together and rough it for a while as you build something.
You may also want to look at motorhomes for sale, 7k can get a decent coach that's already built and welcome in all campgrounds.
Good luck on your journey, ask as many questions as you can think of, someone will have an idea or solution.

[cadillackid]

you can look on some of the skoolie facebook forums for partially started busses for sale.. ive seen a few come up recently where people started their conversions and couldnt finish for whatever reason.. so seats were out. floors were out and some portions of conversion were begun. Skoolie swarm is a nice group of people (many florida based)




by far the easiest way to buy a bus is with seats in. a bus dealer will take them out but will charge a decent fee to do it.. auction sites the busses will come as is.. handicap busses will have less seats but have a lift and extra door you may not want (lift comes out of course)..



Next-to-nothing busses seem to be a thing ofd the past right now.. in the last year nomadic / offgrid / small-footprint style living has taken off a huge amount. as also has vacationing away from crowds.. ie building or buiying an RV and vacationing as a family unit .. less crowd less likeliehood of covid..



your timeline is too short to see if this trend continues once covid ebbs a bit and vaccines take hold.. your timeline is pretty short to have much more than a tent on wheels at the time you embark.. not sure if you have land where you are going so you can set up camp and work? or ?



alot of whether you can pull it off depends on what you feel your basic needs are in 5 weeks.. and your budget.. if your budget is decently healthy you can go buy a bus and drive it home tomorrow vs taking your time looking over auctions and bidding, winning, then travelling to get your bus.



close by in florida for quick-purchase and drive, tampa bus market has been known to have decent deals here and there on busses. but still higher price than hitting the government auctions.

[musigenesis]

At the end of your conversion, you'll find that the time and effort that went into removing the seats rounded down to 0% as a proportion of the total you put into the project. Looking for a bus that already has the seats removed will strike off the overwhelming majority of buses that would otherwise be suitable for you.

And as far as "RELIABLE" goes, school buses really are not. The skoolie world is filled with stories of people breaking down and being at the mercy of local mechanics, and paying many thousands of dollars to fix the problems that come up. Buses are often very expensive beasts to fix - the main reason the old ones sell for so cheap is that not many people want to keep paying the large bills associated with them.

$7K is not much to spend on just the bus side of things (initial price + needed repairs), and that's not counting a penny towards the cost of the conversion itself. I'm at more than twice that and my bus theoretically had excellent mechanicals, with a 2000-series transmission and a DT466e engine with 36K miles on it.