New member introduction and burrrrrning questions!

[Ronigbzjr]

Hey y'all. This place looks nifty. Alright.

Name is Roni. I'm not originally from the US but have been living in NYC for the last 4 years. Lately I lost my income, my apartment, blah blah blah the usual covid19 story. I had to return to my home country, which is where I am right now. Anyway after a bunch of research into vans and van life I've already decided that my next home in the US is going to be on wheels, full time, but when I saw someone on some website mentioning the word "skoolie" I had to find out what that is, and when I did... Well, you know the feeling when you see something and you go "yep, that's exactly everything I wanted"? That's the feeling I had.

So, dreams are nice, but now it's time for a plan. I've worked out that I want to be looking for a mid-size, flat front bus, with air conditioning, and hopefully around 4K, which I understand is realistic. I'll do the conversion myself, I'm quite handy with tools and I'm digging through YouTube and any other corner of the internet for tutorials and stuff. Frankly it's so fascinating, and the already existing solutions for many problems seem fantastic. Since I have no job right now, and basically nothing else to do with my life other than build the skoolie, I think I can do good work in 1-2 months time and get most of the basics done.

Timelines! That's important. I wanna fly back to the US in September, and immediately purchase the bus. That kinda rules out buying from an auction, right? I'd rather not have to rent an Airbnb or bother my friends with providing me for a place to stay while I look for my bus - I'd rather get something immediately after I land. That leaves buying from individuals or dealerships. I'm a bit weary about individuals because people can be flakey - I wouldn't want to spend days making plans with someone only to find out after I land that they sold the bus to someone else at the last minute, or that they flat out lied about the condition the bus is in and I wouldn't want to buy it. Seems like a dealership would make the most sense? Do you guys have any input on that? I'm guessing with a dealership I can also get good financing (I have fairly good credit), which is a necessity because I cannot just whip out 4K cash in hand.

Because I'm currently outside the US, I have a bit of flexibility, since it would be the same for me to fly in to anywhere. So, for example, I heard that Arizona is a great place to buy buses because of minimal rain damage (rust) and most buses are air conditioned. In that case I could fly in to AZ, buy the bus at a dealership, and drive it to NY to get my stuff and do the conversion. Would that make any sense, or would it just be a waste of time and I should just look for something around NYC?

Which leads me to my next burning concern - registration. I'm not sure how long that will take. I read here that you can do it in Vermont but it will take a few weeks. I'd really rather not stay stuck in AZ for weeks (or any other place where I buy the bus), not able to drive the unconverted bus I bought back to NYC until it's registered. Is there a way to register it quickly so I can drive to NYC as soon as possible? Or is it just a slow process no matter where I am and I just have to deal with it?

And finaaaally, electric power to do the conversion? Obviously my bus will have a whole power set up eventually, but for the beginning I'll need some source of electricity to power up my tools when I do the gutting and stuff, and also just, you know, phone laptop etc. I know that a lot of people buy a bus, park it in their backyard and use power from their home, but I don't have a home, so what can I do about that? Would it make sense to buy a propane generator just for the first few weeks, until I'm done with the gutting and building the power system into the walls?

Thanks for reading all that! I'm so stoked to begin this already. Sounds like it's going to be a very interesting adventure. Can't wait to meet people from the community as well, some gut feeling tells me you guys would be exactly my type of people

Ciao,
Roni

[Ronigbzjr]

Someone? Anyone?

[Ronnie]

Hi Roni,

As far as driving a bus after buying it you do not need a registration or license plate. Just have the bill of sale, and the title with you. Insurance you should get. I would talk to an agent that has worked with "skoolies" before. There is a lady in Florida that handles a lot of skoolie insurance. Search this forum for her. I do not know her name.

Yes an Arizona bus would be a good idea. By the way the rain is not the problem here, the road salt is the problem in the winter. NYC would be a horrible place to buy a bus because of the salt useage, rust, rust and more rust. Now you might find someone in New York that bought a bus from somewhere else and is rust free of at least minimal rust.

Have you been to any of the Tiny house festivals? There are usually some buses(not for sale) there on display. Yes covid had caused some to cancel but not all. Last February there was a "Home On Wheels" expo we had about 50 buses there. Really great to see the many different ways to convert a skoolie.

[Ronigbzjr]

Hey Ronnie thanks for answering! We've got the same name but from different origins ;)

Originally Posted by Ronnie

Hi Roni,
As far as driving a bus after buying it you do not need a registration or license plate. Just have the bill of sale, and the title with you. Insurance you should get. I would talk to an agent that has worked with "skoolies" before. There is a lady in Florida that handles a lot of skoolie insurance. Search this forum for her. I do not know her name.

Great! Oh man this is so much better. I was scared I was going to be stuck somewhere with no registration. So I guess I'll just figure out how to register in NY, and if it's too complicated (as things usually are in NY) maybe I'll just register in VT like this guide on your site says.

Originally Posted by Ronnie

Yes an Arizona bus would be a good idea. By the way the rain is not the problem here, the road salt is the problem in the winter. NYC would be a horrible place to buy a bus because of the salt useage, rust, rust and more rust. Now you might find someone in New York that bought a bus from somewhere else and is rust free of at least minimal rust.

Ok yeah I hear you. There's definitely a LOT of salt in the winter. That's just another reason why I don't want to be in NY in the winter. Hopefully I can buy the bus in AZ, then drive to NY to move all my stuff to the bus (right now it's all in storage), park it in some parking spot in NJ where it's relatively quiet so I can work on it for a few weeks, and then leave NY and travel to the west coast for the winter so I can have nicer weather

I heard a recommendation about AAA Buses in AZ. Heard the owner is pretty much a skoolie builder himself and loves helping skoolie beginners. Does anyone have any experience with them?

Originally Posted by Ronnie

Have you been to any of the Tiny house festivals? There are usually some buses(not for sale) there on display. Yes covid had caused some to cancel but not all. Last February there was a "Home On Wheels" expo we had about 50 buses there. Really great to see the many different ways to convert a skoolie.

No I haven't, but sounds cool! How do I go about looking for these events?

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Ronigbzjr

I'm guessing with a dealership I can also get good financing (I have fairly good credit), which is a necessity because I cannot just whip out 4K cash in hand.

I don't think bus dealers generally do financing. And to be entirely blunt here, I think trying to start a skoolie with less than $4K in hand is a recipe for disaster. Buses are expensive vehicles to maintain, and more importantly the expenses are very unpredictable. My bus was $3600 ($3900 delivered) and immediately needed new batteries ($375) then a bunch of maintenance stuff at my mechanic took the total to $6475. Then my starter blew ($1200 including the tow) so I was at $7675 before even starting to count anything related to the conversion itself - and that was with there being nothing at all wrong with the engine or transmission.

You might get lucky and find a cheap bus that requires nothing major, but I don't think you can count on that happening. If you face any kind of mechanical problems and you don't have a cash reserve to cover the repairs, you are just SOL.

[Ronigbzjr]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

I don't think bus dealers generally do financing. And to be entirely blunt here, I think trying to start a skoolie with less than $4K in hand is a recipe for disaster. Buses are expensive vehicles to maintain, and more importantly the expenses are very unpredictable. My bus was $3600 ($3900 delivered) and immediately needed new batteries ($375) then a bunch of maintenance stuff at my mechanic took the total to $6475. Then my starter blew ($1200 including the tow) so I was at $7675 before even starting to count anything related to the conversion itself - and that was with there being nothing at all wrong with the engine or transmission.

You might get lucky and find a cheap bus that requires nothing major, but I don't think you can count on that happening. If you face any kind of mechanical problems and you don't have a cash reserve to cover the repairs, you are just SOL.

Hey man. That's okay you can be blunt, I understand. Thanks for the advice I'll make sure to take that into account when I gather my cash.

[kazetsukai]

Also seems like if you're buying the bus in AZ, why not do the conversion in AZ? Why go out of one's way to return to NYC? Do you have a place to do the conversion? Doesn't seem like anything is tying you down there, and its a rather expensive place to do things in. Also not great in terms of COVID.



As for financing, one could get a "personal loan" but if that's your battle chest you're going to want quite a bit more than the bus actually costs for materials, etc. Any kind of lender is going to want you to have a source of income as well... Not to discourage.

[bp1791-unleashed]

What has already been said here is good advice.

My bus cost $3,000 + $500 in dealer fees, temporary tag, etc. There was another $1500 in getting the HEUI re-bolted to the engine, all the fluids checked, and a thorough inspection by a school bus inspection place. Then after the first major trip with a couple of high-temp alarms, and lots of approaching high temp pull overs to cool it down, another shop charged us $3,000 to re-core the radiator, replace most of the cooling lines, re-route the front heater hose under the bus, and install a bitchin' hitch receiver.

So I'm in for $8,000 and haven't started buying conversion materials yet.

You say you have good credit, so your bank might be willing to issue you a line of credit, or an unsecured personal loan. Even with my crappy credit my bank gave me an unsecured loan for 10K several years ago.

I also agree with the sentiment of doing the conversion in AZ, or somewhere other than NY. Depending on how much "stuff" you have in storage, you could rent a van or a truck and move it to AZ, then go anywhere you want to do your conversion. This time of year, I'd pick some place north, preferably with a few thousand feet of elevation, for nature's own air conditioning.

Good luck!

[Ronigbzjr]

Originally Posted by kazetsukai

Also seems like if you're buying the bus in AZ, why not do the conversion in AZ? Why go out of one's way to return to NYC? Do you have a place to do the conversion? Doesn't seem like anything is tying you down there, and its a rather expensive place to do things in. Also not great in terms of COVID.

Yeah I've thought about that. The thing is, I was living in New York before covid started, and for reasons much more complicated to explain I had a lot of stuff there, like I'm talking two 3-bd apartments worth of stuff... Furniture, beds, mattresses, all that. When I left I had to put it all in storage. So now I need to go back and do something with it, probably try and sell or recycle or throw away most of it, but I'll definitely want to use my bed for the bus rather than buying a new one, and I'm sure I can find use on the bus for many of the other things I already have rather than having to buy them again. What might happen though is that maybe I'll do the basics while I'm still in AZ - take care of the gutting, insulation, rebuilding the walls, the floor, the ceiling, installing a basic electricity system, and then drive to NY for moving in my stuff and the finishing touches, and hopefully get rid of most of the rest so I don't have to keep paying so much for storage.

Originally Posted by kazetsukai

As for financing, one could get a "personal loan" but if that's your battle chest you're going to want quite a bit more than the bus actually costs for materials, etc. Any kind of lender is going to want you to have a source of income as well... Not to discourage.

Yeah I should probably start looking into it. My credit is good though, my accounts are pretty young cause I'm a foreigner, but my payment history is perfect and I've really lowered down my usage dramatically lately and paid off quite a lot of my debt. I'll probably wanna get something around $10K in total for the bus + basic conversion. I can get some of that money in cash, and I think I can get a loan for the rest. I've done this stuff before and I'm a resourceful guy, I usually find the money eventually. Proof of income is always a bit tough cause I'm a musician by trade, but I'm just now freelancing a job that's gonna make me some 4K and a couple of other things to show for myself, so I think I should be able to get something or other. I definitely should learn about the different options though and do my homework before trying to get anything.

[Ronigbzjr]

Originally Posted by bp1791-unleashed

What has already been said here is good advice.

My bus cost $3,000 + $500 in dealer fees, temporary tag, etc. There was another $1500 in getting the HEUI re-bolted to the engine, all the fluids checked, and a thorough inspection by a school bus inspection place. Then after the first major trip with a couple of high-temp alarms, and lots of approaching high temp pull overs to cool it down, another shop charged us $3,000 to re-core the radiator, replace most of the cooling lines, re-route the front heater hose under the bus, and install a bitchin' hitch receiver.

So I'm in for $8,000 and haven't started buying conversion materials yet.

Man those are a lotta extra costs. Were all of them absolutely necessary? I mean it in a good way, safety and **** is incredibly important of course, but if it's only about discomfort then I can probably rough it out for the first few months. Like, can't I reasonably find a bus that won't have pressing issues right out of the gate for less than 5K?

Originally Posted by bp1791-unleashed

You say you have good credit, so your bank might be willing to issue you a line of credit, or an unsecured personal loan. Even with my crappy credit my bank gave me an unsecured loan for 10K several years ago.

Yeah as I said in one of the other responses, I'm a foreigner so I don't have a long history, but I think I've managed pretty okay so far, I have credit karma and my score has been improving lately, and I think I could probably find a reasonable loan for a reasonable amount.

Originally Posted by bp1791-unleashed

I also agree with the sentiment of doing the conversion in AZ, or somewhere other than NY. Depending on how much "stuff" you have in storage, you could rent a van or a truck and move it to AZ, then go anywhere you want to do your conversion. This time of year, I'd pick some place north, preferably with a few thousand feet of elevation, for nature's own air conditioning.

LOTTTTTAAA stuff. I mean it. Two 3-bd apartments worth of stuff, mattresses, closets, kitchen appliances, the whole shabang. I'll probably wanna handle it myself anyways though, I still don't know what I'm going to do with a lot of it and of course I won't put all of it in the bus so I'll have to get there and take care of it sooner or later. But yeah, maybe I'll do the basics in AZ, and then drive to NY to figure out what to do with the stuff, and then drive to a place with better weather for the winter and to continue the conversion. I was thinking of San Diego

[Ronnie]

Yes it is possible to buy a bus and it not have much that needs to be done. A recent bus purchase (by a friend)from an auction has worked out well. They had even changed the oil and serviced it before we picked it up. It will need tires before too long though.

I would say how well you do with a bus will depend on you. Are you good at believing things work out? are you good at finding solutions to things instead of woe is me and crying about it? Mindset is so important, and offhand it seems you have the "I can do it" attitude.

[Ronigbzjr]

Originally Posted by Ronnie

I would say how well you do with a bus will depend on you. Are you good at believing things work out? are you good at finding solutions to things instead of woe is me and crying about it? Mindset is so important, and offhand it seems you have the "I can do it" attitude.

Lol I'd say I'm pretty confident that I can solve most problems with the right attitude. I've never built something like this before and I'm sure I'll run into a lot of unexpected problems, but I've been resourceful in many situations before so hopefully I'll find ways to make it work out. It's also the perfect timing, thanks to covid I no longer have any obligations, and I honestly can't wait to just invest my time into this tangible project and solve real world problems.

[bp1791-unleashed]

Originally Posted by Ronigbzjr

Man those are a lotta extra costs. Were all of them absolutely necessary? I mean it in a good way, safety and **** is incredibly important of course, but if it's only about discomfort then I can probably rough it out for the first few months. Like, can't I reasonably find a bus that won't have pressing issues right out of the gate for less than 5K?

The HEUI pump is responsible for making the pressure for the fuel injectors. High pressure oil powers the injectors, and an electrical signal activates (turns on) the injectors. The HEUI therefore is an integral part of the oil pathways in the engine. Ours was close to falling off. We got lucky.

The radiator re-core was critical as well. The bus had a tendency to overheat otherwise when under a load (90 minutes into a drive on flat land, or climbing any kind of grade) before that.

Re-routing the heater hoses could have been done by us a lot cheaper, but it was just as easy to have them do it while all the coolant was already out of the system. Honestly, this wasn't the best job done either, and I have to repair some of it.

The trailer hitch work wasn't required, except that we wanted to be able to tow a trailer, and mounting a hitch to a rear engine bumper is foolhardy at best, and stupid at worst. We were lucky there too, because we made it 10 miles out and 10 miles back again with it that way. after 10 miles, the bumper was at a 45 degree angle relative to the back of the bus. the time miles back, the weight distributing hitch solved that problem, but while it was at a 45 degree angle, we realized the only thing holding the bumper to the frame was 2 huge bolts through rubber bushings, and that's how it could flex so much. Now the hitch is on a steel plate behind the bumper, directly attached to the frame, without interfering with the engine.

The moral of this story is that you should have your engine inspected by a diesel mechanic, preferably before buying the bus. Repairs can get costly. If the engine had been in better condition, we would only be in for the bus purchase, and a hitch installation, so probably 4000-4500.

Don't be discouraged, but do be cautious. The worst thing you can do is convince yourself "this is THE bus for me" before you've been through it. Been there, done that.

On the plus side, my fuel tank, fuel lines, air tanks and lines, and the controls all work properly. Could have been much much worse.

Hang in there, you'll find the right bus for you. Looking int he desert states is a great move. And I do understand about all that "stuff", it can really weigh you down.

Good luck,
jim

[EastCoastCB]

3126 is a good engine. An average owner can do most of the maintenance and some repairs themselves.
Check the condition and adjustment of your water pump v-belt. They're easy to overlook. Maybe keep a spare one, as that's a crucial belt. To change it you have to pull off the harmonic balancer but its not a bad job.

[Mountain Gnome]

Originally Posted by Ronigbzjr

Yeah I've thought about that. The thing is, I was living in New York before covid started, and for reasons much more complicated to explain I had a lot of stuff there, like I'm talking two 3-bd apartments worth of stuff... Furniture, beds, mattresses, all that. When I left I had to put it all in storage. So now I need to go back and do something with it, probably try and sell or recycle or throw away most of it, but I'll definitely want to use my bed for the bus rather than buying a new one, and I'm sure I can find use on the bus for many of the other things I already have rather than having to buy them again. What might happen though is that maybe I'll do the basics while I'm still in AZ - take care of the gutting, insulation, rebuilding the walls, the floor, the ceiling, installing a basic electricity system, and then drive to NY for moving in my stuff and the finishing touches, and hopefully get rid of most of the rest so I don't have to keep paying so much for storage.

Two 3-bedroom apartments in a bus? And still walk around?


It cost me about $1000 in fuel from the west to east coast. The same back. I would take a cheap flight back, sell all my stuff, and take the cash and buy new stuff out west, especially if you are just going to sell most of your stuff anyway. $2000 for a bed and some other stuff? Of course some stuff you won't find easily again, and some stuff you just want to keep even if you don't want to actually use it. Sometimes you just gotta walk away from your stuff and get new stuff.


I had about $1000 or $1500 worth of stuff to get, so I drove across country to get it, at the roundtrip cost of $2000, maybe a bit more, since I hit a few hotels. But I had space to work on my bus, take the hatch out of the roof and replace it, replace the A/C refrigerant lines that go through the roof, windows out, paint it, etc, all stuff that I needed a home base for. Of course then it started raining...and raining...and raining...we never had the standard late-summer/autumn dry seasons in the last 2 years. I could have gone to AZ, done the work there and been finished a full year faster, bought all new stuff, and it would have been about the same cost overall. Hindsight, though. And there was some stuff that is just not replaceable that I wanted, but I could have flown out, fixed the tranny on my truck, and driven that back to the bus, and had my 4×4 ready for adventure also. Hindsight, though.

[GWRider]

My two cents:

Try and find a Bus with a common diesel engine that is known to have a good reputation and preferably with a recent rebuild. Avoid 2004 or later diesel engines unless you don't mind spending more on repairs. However, the older units are getting harder to find as more people are looking for them so patience is key.

Don't trust odometers, hub meters etc. for mileage unless they are backed up by good maintenance records. These are items that do fail and schools replace from a parts bin or another Bus.

If shopping online and you find a Bus that you are seriously considering, have the seller send detailed pictures all around the Power train (engine and trans) including the undercarriage. If they hesitate, move on to the next one.

If the seller claims a recent rebuild on the engine or trans, look at the pictures they sent for engine gunk. There should be little to no buildup on the fasteners that are normally removed during a rebuild. However, some sellers power wash and paint them which can make it more difficult to determine if anything was done or not. A keen eye can still find things that a seller might be trying to hide. In addition, request a close up video of the engine compartment while the engine is running and have the seller remove the oil fill cap on the valve cover etc. to check for blow by.

There are a lot of shady sellers out there so you have to separate the Wheat from the tares. Good luck.

[Ronnie]

To add to GWRIDERS comments I would want a photo of the engine and trasmission data tag that are right on the engine and trans.

[Ronigbzjr]

Originally Posted by bp1791-unleashed

Don't be discouraged, but do be cautious. The worst thing you can do is convince yourself "this is THE bus for me" before you've been through it. Been there, done that.

I'll keep that in mind Jim, thanks. One thing I'm definitely lacking in is knowledge of car mechanics. I'm sure I'll get it eventually, but for the beginning I'll make sure to consult with people a lot. I've been looking around the web and saw some very favorable mentions for AAA Buses in AZ, as being very reliable and good quality buses. Do you guys have any experience with them? Maybe I should just go to them first?

Originally Posted by Mountain Gnome

It cost me about $1000 in fuel from the west to east coast. The same back. I would take a cheap flight back, sell all my stuff, and take the cash and buy new stuff out west, especially if you are just going to sell most of your stuff anyway. $2000 for a bed and some other stuff? Of course some stuff you won't find easily again, and some stuff you just want to keep even if you don't want to actually use it. Sometimes you just gotta walk away from your stuff and get new stuff.

That's fair enough. To each his own situation I guess. For me, I'm afraid that not driving to NY for my stuff is not an option. I have very personal stuff there, I have stuff related to my music and my business. Not just hard-to-find monetary value, but priceless sentimental value. With everything that's been happening since the covid thing started my previous life just collapsed to the ground and had to be put all in storage. So, I'm afraid it's just something I gotta do, but that's okay, I'll just think of it as my first bus journey

One thing I didn't know though is that gas cost would be so much! Haven't thought about that at all. Now I've done some research and I'll make sure to add that to the budget. Hopefully selling most of my stuff will cover at least the fuel cost there and back to the west coast.

Originally Posted by GWRider

Try and find a Bus with a common diesel engine that is known to have a good reputation and preferably with a recent rebuild. Avoid 2004 or later diesel engines unless you don't mind spending more on repairs. However, the older units are getting harder to find as more people are looking for them so patience is key.

I have patience in abundance, but not a whole lotta time realistically. I can probably get an Airbnb for the first two weeks to make sure I'm not stressed into making a decision, but that's about as much time as I wanna spend looking for a bus. That's why I said earlier maybe I should just go to a place that's already considered well recommended by the community (I head some favorable mentions of AAA Buses, I'm hoping they're worth it).

[bp1791-unleashed]

Originally Posted by Ronigbzjr

One thing I didn't know though is that gas cost would be so much! Haven't thought about that at all. Now I've done some research and I'll make sure to add that to the budget. Hopefully selling most of my stuff will cover at least the fuel cost there and back to the west coast.

I would advise you to anticipate fuel economy in the 7-9 MPG range. Yes, some of these busses hit double-digit fuel economy. Others are worse than 7mpg. Mine is currently averaging about 7.6MPG over the last 10 fuel-ups.

If you budget for 7mpg, and you luck out and get a 12mpg bus then you'll be that much ahead. If you plan for 10mpg, and get a 7mpg bus, you might find yourself short of funds.

It sounds like you are going to be alright. You're asking the collective wisdom of this forum, considering the advice you get, and adjusting your plan accordingly. I think you'll do well with whichever bus you end up with, and I look forward to the day I'm reading about your build progress.

jim

[T-Bolt]

For your power question I would get a 3500 Predator generator from Harbor Freight. I bought one a couple of years ago to build a barn on some land without power. I have been very happy with the purchase and will be mounting it on my bus. It has electric start and starts immediately every time. It is also quiet enough to carry on a conversation right next to it. When I bought it there were countless reviews online from people in the Caribbean that had been running them for a year+ after the hurricanes.