Hello from Maine
Hi everyone,
I'm Brian and my wife Anna and I are proud new owners of two 2004 Thomas 66pax busses on international chassis with T444Es. One is manual, one is auto. I only wanted one but they came as a package deal from the local school district. Our intent is to keep the manual and sell the auto. We have two little kids and plan to travel the country eventually. From the research I've done, it seems as though it's fairly easy to get the RV registration in Maine. Also, once I get the RV registration I will no longer need a CDL with air brake endorsement to drive it. I came across this site while looking for lay-out ideas. I've already learned a lot, stolen a few ideas, and hope to contribute some of my own. I am extremely grateful to the kind souls who posted the complete service manuals for my buses. They have already come in handy.
A little background, I'm an engineer in the US Merchant Marine and met my wife while overseas in the Philippines. We lived there for a few years while we went through the immigration drama. Once here in the states we were on the highway one day and saw a little old-timer driving this enormous land yacht of an RV. She'd never seen anything like it and asked what it was. I told her it's a house you can drive around the country. She asked if we could get one. I said Of course, when we win the lottery. She asked if we could make one (those Filipinas are resourceful!) I'd seen a couple bus conversions over the years, mostly tailgaters made from short buses but I'd seen a few bigger ones at biker ralleys and stuff. I went to the school district maintenance garage in my town and said I was interested, how to get one, and if they had any with the T444E because I'm familiar with the 7.3l Powerstrokes. They said they had two and to put a bid into the state. 6 months later they are in the yard! Both run and drive great, minor rust, 170k and 150k miles, good tires. My job requires me to be away for lengths of time so I've only begun hauling the seats out of the manual but we are excited about the project!
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