Hello, got a bus and excited to get started

[melissagirl]

I wanted to introduce myself. I've been visiting the board for a little while and now that we're about to get working on our bus, I figured I would start participating some more. My name is Melissa and my partner's name is Jae. We're doing this bus conversion in Oregon. Hopefully she'll register on here soon too. We had originally been looking at building a tiny house, but when we came across an auction with a great bus, we knew that was the direction we were supposed to take. Doing searches online, I kept coming across skoolie.net as the main resource.

We got a 38 foot 1999 Blue Bird TC2000 bus in a surplus auction for $2135.00. We got it insured through AIS insurance commercial underwritten through progressive and got a trip permit. We just got it down to a friend's house today where we can start working on it either later this week or next. I plan on making videos for youtube and unlike some other videos I've seen, I'd like to start before we get excited and start ripping out seats.

We loaded up the bus with a bunch of stuff from our storage unit to move south from Portland to Eugene. It turns out our friend has a whole bunch of useful power tools, so that's a huge plus that I hadn't been expecting. I haven't completely unloaded the bus yet, so I'm going to wait until then to do our first video.

I took some measurements of the bus and so I'll start drawing up some floor plans. At this point, I just have a rough idea of how I'd like the final layout to look. A couple things that I'm excited about with this bus is all the windows are already tinted, so that will save a bunch of work and there's some huge storage compartments under the bus on both sides. I imagine we could keep stuff like batteries for solar and a propane tank. Maybe put water tanks in there. If there's a better place for tanks, we'll probably just use them for storage. So that's where we are so far.

[deftone]

Originally Posted by melissagirl

I wanted to introduce myself. I've been visiting the board for a little while and now that we're about to get working on our bus, I figured I would start participating some more. My name is Melissa and my partner's name is Jae. We're doing this bus conversion in Oregon. Hopefully she'll register on here soon too. We had originally been looking at building a tiny house, but when we came across an auction with a great bus, we knew that was the direction we were supposed to take. Doing searches online, I kept coming across skoolie.net as the main resource.

We got a 38 foot 1999 Blue Bird TC2000 bus in a surplus auction for $2135.00. We got it insured through AIS insurance commercial underwritten through progressive and got a trip permit. We just got it down to a friend's house today where we can start working on it either later this week or next. I plan on making videos for youtube and unlike some other videos I've seen, I'd like to start before we get excited and start ripping out seats.

We loaded up the bus with a bunch of stuff from our storage unit to move south from Portland to Eugene. It turns out our friend has a whole bunch of useful power tools, so that's a huge plus that I hadn't been expecting. I haven't completely unloaded the bus yet, so I'm going to wait until then to do our first video.

I took some measurements of the bus and so I'll start drawing up some floor plans. At this point, I just have a rough idea of how I'd like the final layout to look. A couple things that I'm excited about with this bus is all the windows are already tinted, so that will save a bunch of work and there's some huge storage compartments under the bus on both sides. I imagine we could keep stuff like batteries for solar and a propane tank. Maybe put water tanks in there. If there's a better place for tanks, we'll probably just use them for storage. So that's where we are so far.

Congrats on the purchase!! Lets see some pics!!

[melissagirl]

Thanks. I can't seem to upload images. The files size and image sizes are within the limits, but it just keeps failing. Maybe I have to be here longer or something?

[Petrifried]

Congrats on the bus! Any idea what your gonna do for a heat source?

[melissagirl]

Originally Posted by Petrifried

Congrats on the bus! Any idea what your gonna do for a heat source?

Hmmm, I hadn't decided. Maybe propane or electric depending on the systems we install first.

[melissagirl]

Let's see if this works for the pics that I do have. These were taken up at the storage unit before we loaded it.

[melissagirl]

Let's see if this works for the pics that I do have. This is up at the storage unit before we loaded a bunch of stuff in it.

[cowlitzcoach]

It looks as if you got yourself a really nice bus. Lucky you, you even got the 12" windows!

Since it has luggage compartments I would tend to think you more than likely have a 5.9L that is set at 210-235 HP and more than likely the MT643 transmission. Not a lot of HP but the better transmission and rear gearing to get close to highway speed.

Good luck on your conversion and don't be shy about asking questions.

[melissagirl]

Originally Posted by cowlitzcoach

It looks as if you got yourself a really nice bus. Lucky you, you even got the 12" windows!

Since it has luggage compartments I would tend to think you more than likely have a 5.9L that is set at 210-235 HP and more than likely the MT643 transmission. Not a lot of HP but the better transmission and rear gearing to get close to highway speed.

Good luck on your conversion and don't be shy about asking questions.

I hadn't realized the windows were a larger size. Thanks for letting me know.

Yeah, it has a Cummins 5.9TA engine with an Allison AT545 transmission. It easily got up to 70MPH and could do more. That was with the load on it. Jae was the one driving it, so I'm going by what she said.

Thank you. I'm sure I'll be doing lots of asking.

[EastCoastCB]

Very nice bus!

[deftone]

70mph and a bunch of belly storage, I am very jealous right now!

[melissagirl]

Originally Posted by deftone

70mph and a bunch of belly storage, I am very jealous right now!

Thanks. I forgot to mention, she actually said she thought she was doing 75MPH, but according to the car I was following her in, it was actually going about 5mph slower than the bus said, so it was 70.

And oops about the double post. After posting, it had disappeared and so I tried again.

[tobeamiss]

very nice! Welcome! I'm new too Mine is a 2002 International 3000....I just got mine in Oct and so far I've managed to get all the seats out which is huge because at the moment I'm doing it alone...
I can't wait to see your progress Are you going to be a full-timer?

[melissagirl]

Originally Posted by tobeamiss

I can't wait to see your progress Are you going to be a full-timer?

Thanks. Yes, the plan is to be in it full time. We had it sink into the ground and we got it out a couple days ago (there's another thread about that). After we repair the yard today, we'll run some extension cords out to the bus and work on it. We're also considering either a generator or getting a basic solar system to work on it untethered.

[tobeamiss]

Originally Posted by melissagirl

Thanks. Yes, the plan is to be in it full time.

that's awsome....me too!

[WIbluebird]

Yep, looks like you got one of the TCs with the bigger windows - Bluebird offered 2 different window heights on the TC & All American up until the late 2000s.

Surprised it doesn't have interior luggage racks as well....usually buses with understorage also have the racks but not always.

[melissagirl]

Originally Posted by WIbluebird

Surprised it doesn't have interior luggage racks as well....usually buses with understorage also have the racks but not always.

Hmm, I've never heard of a school bus with interior luggage racks before.

[Dapplecreek]

Originally Posted by melissagirl

Hmm, I've never heard of a school bus with interior luggage racks before.

Activity buses. Often they have highway gearing, too.

[Scooternj]

GSA buses too. Although, they're usually considered "activity" buses. Best one I ever drove was a Thomas RE up to Ft Drum from Atlantic City. Had air ride for the driver...so comfortable.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by Scooternj

GSA buses too. Although, they're usually considered "activity" buses. Best one I ever drove was a Thomas RE up to Ft Drum from Atlantic City. Had air ride for the driver...so comfortable.

I wonder how many "Fort Drums" there are. We have one in south FL.