Hello Skoolie Wolrd!

[whirlygigg]

I'm very glad to find this forum. I do believe that I'm about to take the leap. What started out as a thought experiment has gained momentum and I think that it may be very doable for me to do a school bus RV conversion.

Right now I live in Northern Virginia. There are a couple job opportunities for me out West - Utah, Nevada and Wyoming. The thought experiment started when I sat down to do the math on moving costs. I quickly realized that I could probably buy a school bus and get my entire one-bedroom apartment packed up in it and still have space to camp out int he bus along the way. It would by marginally more expensive than renting a uhaul and entirely cheaper than hiring a moving company or renting a POD.

I have a few more variables to fill in, but the numbers I have so far are pretty good. The idea is to buy a school bus, install the bare minimum to qualify as an RV (to register it as such and to have decent accommodations along the way), pack the rest of the bus with my (greatly reduced) belongings. I'd tow my car behind and put my motorcycle on a front or rear rack.

The time schedule for this is 4 to 6 months (moving west end of winter will be rough...). I have a couple places already that I can rent from people in my network that I could do the work.

So that's my very rough plan so far. I'd welcome any experience you all are willing to share.

If anyone has experience titling/registering buses in Virginia, that would be a great help. I wonder what the difference is between registering a private bus as an RV or truck. Is that possible? I wonder what the insurance would be? My insurance company said it would be very cheap - like $300 a year for RV insurance.

Ok, so that's my intro and brain dump! I look forward to reading lots of posts!!!

Thanks!!

[milkmania]

Welcome!
I'm new here also, so I don't have much input about insurance...
But I wanted to mention, when you get ready to travel across country, get a spartphone app that will show you free parking for the night, walmart, casinos, etc.... pretty good sized network out there for such.

good luck, keep us posted, and feed the masses with plenty of pics

Originally Posted by whirlygigg

I'm very glad to find this forum. I do believe that I'm about to take the leap. What started out as a thought experiment has gained momentum and I think that it may be very doable for me to do a school bus RV conversion.

Right now I live in Northern Virginia. There are a couple job opportunities for me out West - Utah, Nevada and Wyoming. The thought experiment started when I sat down to do the math on moving costs. I quickly realized that I could probably buy a school bus and get my entire one-bedroom apartment packed up in it and still have space to camp out int he bus along the way. It would by marginally more expensive than renting a uhaul and entirely cheaper than hiring a moving company or renting a POD.

I have a few more variables to fill in, but the numbers I have so far are pretty good. The idea is to buy a school bus, install the bare minimum to qualify as an RV (to register it as such and to have decent accommodations along the way), pack the rest of the bus with my (greatly reduced) belongings. I'd tow my car behind and put my motorcycle on a front or rear rack.

The time schedule for this is 4 to 6 months (moving west end of winter will be rough...). I have a couple places already that I can rent from people in my network that I could do the work.

So that's my very rough plan so far. I'd welcome any experience you all are willing to share.

If anyone has experience titling/registering buses in Virginia, that would be a great help. I wonder what the difference is between registering a private bus as an RV or truck. Is that possible? I wonder what the insurance would be? My insurance company said it would be very cheap - like $300 a year for RV insurance.

Ok, so that's my intro and brain dump! I look forward to reading lots of posts!!!

Thanks!!

[whirlygigg]

Originally Posted by milkmania

Welcome!
I'm new here also, so I don't have much input about insurance...
But I wanted to mention, when you get ready to travel across country, get a spartphone app that will show you free parking for the night, walmart, casinos, etc.... pretty good sized network out there for such.

good luck, keep us posted, and feed the masses with plenty of pics

Thanks for the very kind post! I like this forum already. No problem on the feeding of masses with multimedia. I plan to document the entire endeavor, even releasing my (somewhat redacted) notes and spreadsheets.

What sort of schoolbus madness do you have in mind?