Well I am a diesel truck, auto mechanic, and RV mechanic by trade. I have a CDL, Pennsylvania State Inspection licence, and Pennsylvania Emissions certified. I been a mechanic all my life and through my experience I have found motorhomes to be unreliable, expensive garbage. We been wanting to retire the RV life in 10 years or so (or maybe less) but I refused to succumb to the crappy RV.
A couple of weeks ago I seen my very first "Skoolie" come into the shop. This was an E-450 V-10 with a large fiberglass bus shell and the inside was really nice although not complete. I started researching bus conversions because cab and chassis vehicles are more reliable than truck chassis vehicles, but C class motorhomes are poorly built.
After some online searches and videos I decided that a large 3/4 or full size school bus would best suit us. I am very familiar with the International trucks with the DT466 or T444 engines and prefer pre-emissions models. The 5.9L Cummins in a Freightliner chassis would be my second choice with a Cat powered bus third. Gotta be a tilt hood bus for me in my opinion.
If the build goes quickly I might have the option to retire early because with my career path, I assume I could easily make money fixing RV's campers, cars, trucks, and generators on the road or at camps or parks. I could equip the bus to also function as a service vehicle. I never did the whole travel life and not sure if there is a demand for mechanics out in the wild unlike working full time at a shop like I do now.
I have a few hobbies. I own a few Geo Metro cars and also been running the Geo Metro Forum on the web since 2008. I also enjoy bicycling, and computers.
I also been rocking this sweet mullet since 1984
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