Hola! I finally got me a bus!

[ewo1]

Hello to all,

My name is Ed and I currently live in hot and humid Miami Florida!
After dreaming for many, many years of buying a bus, I finally did it!

Actually this is the second bus. The first bus I did not hold onto as while it was the right chassis, it was the wrong engine and trans for me.

First bus was a Bluebird A3RE with a Cat engine and a 545 trans with factory air conditioning!
Did not keep it because 1) Cat engine are pricey to repair and 2) 545 tranny.
Sold it quick and made double my money! Woohoo!

Second bus, which is the Keeper, 1999 Amtrans, 72 pass.
DT466E, MD3060 Trans, 207,000 miles, air ride, air brakes and oh yeah, lots of underbelly storage to boot!

Rear gears are 5.83 I believe...
Cruises 70 MPH at 2200 RPM. Can't wait to get 6th gear unlocked!


Bought the bus in Shelbyville, Kentucky and drove to Miami without any problems!
Picked it up with a full tank of fuel, the first leg of the trip from Shelbyville to West Columbia, South Carolina (521 miles) the bus averaged 8.8 MPG, up and down all those mountain ranges...
Did the same on the flat roads from SC to Miami at an average of 70MPH all the way, 8.9 MPG!
Bus has undercarriage rust but that is ok since I am a commercial sandblaster and can take care of this problem very easily!

Sadly after parking the bus in my yard, I went to start it a couple of days later and it won't start. Got the problem pinned down to no power to the Allison trans push pad selector. Common problem with these is no power to LED's on pad, bus won't start!

Also I need to give a big thumbs up to is the manager (Ed) at the Shelbyville school district bus depot and his Mechanic (Charlie). Not only was I able to get all the service records for the bus from day one when it was purchased but was also to get a factory service manual for the bus since this was the last Amtran they had they no longer needed the manual!

Be back soon..

[EastCoastCB]

Nice, is that a Kentucky bus? Looks like one.

Did you actually have to buy Cat parts? I've got a Cat 3126 and a DT466E and when parts shopping the Cat stuff seems to cost about the same as the IC stuff.
IC wanted $9300 to replace the leaky front timing cover on my DT. The parts alone were around 4 grand IIRC.

[ewo1]

Yes, it's a Kentucky "highway" bus!

And no, I haven't had to buy any Cat parts thank goodness, nor any IC parts either.
Both engines are great engines but my gut tells me the DT466 was the better path for me to take.

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by ewo1

Yes, it's a Kentucky "highway" bus!

And no, I haven't had to buy any Cat parts thank goodness, nor any IC parts either.
Both engines are great engines but my gut tells me the DT466 was the better path for me to take.

I can tell, they've got that stripe if from KY.
Both ARE good engines.

Enjoy that bus, I had a KY highway/field trip bus. It was a Ward/Amtran. I loved that bus. Bought it from Elkton in Todd County.

[cadillackid]

kentucky has a reputation amongst my bus-geek friends for doing a really nice job at maintaining their busses.. some districts are still running 1980s models and they look and run great...



EC - didnt RYO come from kentucky? - that thing runs great
-Christopher

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by cadillackid

kentucky has a reputation amongst my bus-geek friends for doing a really nice job at maintaining their busses.. some districts are still running 1980s models and they look and run great...



EC - didnt RYO come from kentucky? - that thing runs great
-Christopher

Yep. Its a great bus!

Looks like OP got a really sweet bus, too!

[BusNamedFrankie]

I think we’re bus twins!
I know I’m a little late to the party here, but I got Frankie about a month ago.
I’m looking forward to reading through your posts and to begin gathering my resources (manuals and schematics).
I haven’t run across another bus like this, so I’m super, super stoked to have found a twin! ����

-Rachel

[ewo1]

Originally Posted by BusNamedFrankie

I think we’re bus twins!
I know I’m a little late to the party here, but I got Frankie about a month ago.
I’m looking forward to reading through your posts and to begin gathering my resources (manuals and schematics).
I haven’t run across another bus like this, so I’m super, super stoked to have found a twin! ����

-Rachel

Hi rachell,

Welcome to yhe madness!

Here is my build thread, https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f11/b...6-a-26674.html

Where you located at. ?

[BusNamedFrankie]

Thanks for the link and for replying!
My bus is in NWFL - DeFuniak Springs, to be precise.
I live in Monroeville, AL, but as soon as Frankie is habitable, I’ll be moving across the state line to DFS.
I have no idea what that timeline really looks like - when I first bought the bus I honestly thought I’d be ready to move in in less than a month …but then I did some research.
Frankie was “partially converted” when I bought her and by the time the ink on the title had dried, I realized that I was going to have to go backwards before I could even think about going forward (yeah, I did exactly zero research and I think I may have gotten *extremely* lucky).
Anyway, I’m hoping to be able to comfortably “camp” in her in about a month. ����

[SilverRosie]

Congrats EWO1 and BusNamedFrankie on bus buys. So looking forward to following your builds and pictures. Me, Im still bus shopping!