Hi everyone

[Littledragon]

Hello everyone,

My name is Tracie and my family and I are just beginning our conversion journey. We have a 1979 Mercedes Benz schoolbus that was in service up to the beginning of last year. We've gutted her and are just beginning the fit out now for our family of two adults, one full time child and one part time, and our two enormous dogs. We plan to live in our bus full time eventually, using it as a tiny home. We're super excited about it.

I look forward to getting to know you guys and to picking your brains for your knowledge about the best ways to proceed. Thanks for having such an awesome site.

Cheers,
Tracie

[Dragonpop]

Welcome aboard the bus roller coaster, some days are up and some are down.
Good to have someone from down under on board to round out the conversations
here. I'm still trying to get my head around the idea that if you need a battery
installed you go to an electrician and not a mechanic. Here in the U.S.A. the
mechanic does everything from electrical to mechanical so you can get it all
done in one place.

[Littledragon]

Another dragon! Thanks for the welcome

I have had a quick browse through the many posts on this forum and perhaps you can point me in the right direction. We are just converting a 1979 Mercedes-Benz O305 (mark 2 I think) and I was hoping to find some information on whether it's possible to disable the airspring suspension on the door side from dropping down every time the engine is switched off. As we're trying to fit it out, it means we can't use a level etc. Obviously this was a useful thing for access when it was a school bus but not so useful now. Any ideas where I might look?

[somewhereinusa]

Welcome aboard,

This probably isn't the best place to inquire about mechanicals on a Mercedes school bus. To the best of my knowledge there has never been one of those beasts in the US. Cowlitzcoach would know. And since you haven't posted any pictures I don't think there is such a thing. I'm not sure there are even any Kiwi's on this forum, not recently anyway. There are some on some of the other bus forums. Bus Grease Monkey has at least one.

We are however, quite prolific with free advice on a staggering range of other topics . Remember, things we can get away with doing here are not allowed by the gov'ment down there. For the most part, if it's an RV we can do pretty much anything we want. Do your research.

[Dragonpop]

There is never any single way to accomplish something. You could waste time
trying to disable the kneeling mechanism on the bus or you could block up the
frame to level it. If this bus has air bag suspension front and rear you do not
want to crawl under it without jack stands or blocks in place. A failure in the air
system can have fatal consequences. They come down to fast for you to get out
from under them. My bus will hold up for about three days on the rear and 3
weeks on the front so I block the frame up when I am not using it for a while.

[The-Breeze]

Hubby still has his 3 ft level in the bus and periodically I catch him checking the level on something. I just shake my head and chuckle to myself. It sometimes takes awhile for him to realize that it's pretty useless as the bus is sitting on unlevel ground.

I guess that's just the house building/remodeling part of him coming out.

[Littledragon]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I've also asked on an Australian board so hopefully someone here will be able to give me specific advice on the Merc O305 but I will definitely be using all of the great info on this site for the other more generic things to do with converting an old school bus to a home for my family.

Here's the link to the blog I'm writing about the conversion if anyone is interested https://beauregardthebus.wordpress.com/

Cheers!