HI Rock N Ruth here.
We are a two part harmony. And the Lord said, " therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh."
We live in a 2003 International 74 passenger bus, with no wheels, engine, transmission, or title. It doesn't go very far. OK, it doesn't go anywhere. We aim to remedy that. Did I mention we love living in our bus? We have lived in many a house of various sizes, a warehouse, a few RVs with and without slides, a box truck, and now a school bus. We think school bus may be the permanent landing pad. We have been trying out all kinds of things for the past 34 years, 7 months, 9 days, 11 hours and 22 minutes, some of them stick as things that are part of our way of life. We love the minimal lifestyle we have grown into. We just don't have room to become compulsive hoarders anymore. I still recognize that I never know when I will need that, whatever it is, but neither do I need to hang on to find out, nor do I have the space for it.
We just landed an awesome deal. The Gilbert school district in Gilbert, Az. Just ran an auction on
http://www.publicauctions.com, containing 20 buses. Most of them were 1998 International 84 passenger buses that, "ran when we parked it." We managed to win the bus with the lowest mileage for just $1980.00 because there were 20 buses and 5 bidders.
We drove out today and picked it up. I put one new battery in it. Stared it on the first try. Shut it down, checked the fluids, tire pressure, added 20 gallons of fuel to top off the tank and drove it 310 miles home with not significant event.
Plenty of power. No problem cruising at 65 MPH. Did I mention cruise control that works? WOW. Oil pressure steady at about 45lbs. Coolent temp hovered around 210 F and 212 F. From what I can gather about the 7.3L International this is a normal operating range. I did have an Oil/Water alarm a few times climbing a 7% grade, but the oil pressure and engine temp stayed in the safe range. so no worries.
We currently have a ground mounted solar system with ten 327 watt panels, that we plan to put on the roof of our 40'x8' bus. WE will cover most of the windows with sanded luan coated with white pigmented poly resin. Insulate under the floor with 2" polystyrene board. Same for the interior walls and ceiling. The rest will come right out of our current home bus.
We are itching to start.