Picking Up Our Bus Tomorrow

[kylespomer]

We bought our first bus last week at an auction from Flagler District Schools in Florida. We go to pick it up tomorrow!

It's a 2004 Blue Bird All American Rear Engine, 84 passengers, 40' length, 74" interior height, 8.3L Cummins, Allison 3060 with 216,000 miles. The auction ended at $4,800 (higher than we originally planned, but still half what these specs have been listing for around here).

Like a lot of people, a particularly trying year left us itching to go all in and do something crazy (in a purposeful kind of way). We've got about 9 months left where we're living, which has plenty of room to do the build out. The plan at that point is to go full time in the bus.

I'm an engineer at a set of fairly well known theme parks, and my work lends itself to being remote most of the time. Semi-frequent trips back to The City Beautiful isn't too bad of a concession to make. We're still not sure what my girlfriend will do for work, but that isn't as much of a concern financially. It'll just be the two of us and our two dogs.

My work, education and passions, along with my huge support system of talented and experienced people, all lend themselves to us being fairly well equipped to tackle building an entire (tiny) house.

The goal is to get out of our comfort zones and live with a little more purpose. We want to see new places and old places, visit friends and family, and to just figure out what's out there.

We'd love to hear whatever advice you might have to give to two people that may very well be in over their heads. (and any advice on driving 40' of lean mean yellow driving machine 100 miles tomorrow )

[rossvtaylor]

Right on...and welcome. I like the style of your intro!


There was just a discussion about driving a new bus home, last week I think?, with some good pointers. First off, watch some videos on how to check and drive with air brakes. Then remember the ass end of the bus swings wide when you turn...and the rear wheels follow a turning path inside that of the front wheels, so watch those curbs and cars and light poles and pedestrians. And...try not to smile so much, because people will think you're a crazy person! Have fun!

[musigenesis]

Welcome to the forum. I posted that Flagler auction on the non-affiliated buses for sale thread back in December, nice to see that somebody got one of those. $4800 is pretty good - a couple of the slightly older ones went for eight or nine grand. The reason those went for more is probably that the 2004+ buses have the emissions stuff (usually EGR but I think the Cummins went a different route to meet the emissions standards) but you're probably not going to face $5000 worth of bills for that, so you got a good deal.

My big recommendation for a first-time drive would be to have a Bluefire gadget and tablet with you, but it's too late to have that for tomorrow. A Bluefire plugs into your bus' data port and lets you read lots of engine parameters and gives you a digital dashboard (I found out that my transmission temperature gauge had never worked the first time I plugged mine in).

[kylespomer]

Thanks, guys! I appreciate the welcome and words of wisdom.

Everything went great with picking it up. The fleet manager gave me a run down of all the important switches and knobs, as well as some directions on getting back to the interstate without trouble.

It seems like there might have been some confusion or error in entering it in the auction site, because the odometer read 131,000 instead of 216,000, which we aren’t too mad about (unless there’s some magic about bus odometers that I’m missing).

We had a dash indicator come on for about 10 minutes while driving, and couldn’t figure out what it was until we got back. Looks like it was a hydraulic oil temperature warning. I found a thread on here about replacing the fan (https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f49/h...ems-33137.html). I’ll have to look into that tomorrow. We’ve got a friend of a friend diesel mechanic coming to give it a once over soon.

Otherwise it was in great shape! They claimed it was governed to 65, but it easily got to 68 (and that’s the most I asked of it) and rode really smooth. We made it in one piece, with only a few profanities thrown out there at tourists stopping in the middle of the road who forced me to learn just how tight the air brakes are.

It was a great experience and I’m a lot less worried about driving it now. There’s a lot of work ahead of us, but now we can just take it one day at a time for a while.

[kylespomer]

Well, we made it! Thanks, guys, for the welcome and words of advice.

Picking up the bus was very seamless. The fleet manager took lots of time to show me all the bells, whistles, knobs, switches and a good route back to the interstate.

Interestingly, the odometer read 131,000 instead of the 216,000 listed on the auction site. Not sure what happened there, but at least the error worked in our favor! (Unless there’s some magic about bus odometers I’m unaware of)

Everything during the ride went really well. A couple of tricky turns but we made them no problem. It had a lot more “gitty up” than I was expecting, but I suppose being empty was a plus. Very smooth ride going as fast as 68. (that’s the most I asked of it, probably could have gone quite a bit more)

The only issue was an unknown indicator light that came on about 60 miles into the drive. It turned off about 10 minutes later. After getting back and looking it up in the service manual it was a hydraulic oil temperature warning. I found a thread (https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f49/h...ems-33137.html) on here about replacing the fan. I’ll look into that ASAP. My dads friend is a diesel mechanic and he’s coming by to give it a once over soon.

I learned just how tight the air brakes are when some tourists decided that slamming on the brakes was the right response to an unexpected toll booth - a good learning experience in the end.

We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but the buying/retrieving task felt by far the most daunting to me. From here on out we’ll just take it one day at a time and see how it goes!