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The sweet struggle
Good day, skoolies!
Back in February, 2015, I took the plunge and bought a 2002 Thomas Saf-T-Liner rear engine bus near Chicago, IL. It's 38 feet long, CAT 3126B @250 HP and an Allison 3060.
When I went for a test drive before purchase, and after having the bus batteries replaced due to a jumpstart not having the power, the dash was behaving erratically, sometimes displaying speed, tach, water and oil, and sometimes not. Probably a loose connection somewhere, right? No problem, sign the paperwork, insurance in place, and away I went with a buddy that bought one at the same time, and with a chase car.
5pm, headed west to South Dakota. I'm pretty excited. To make a long story short, I finally broke down in Iowa at the Iowa 80 truck stop, an awesome place and a recommended visit to any travelers. The electrical system kept draining itself to the point that the ABS warning came on, transmission shifting was extremely poor, turn signals not working, etc. It died a miserable death, even after buying 2 new batteries and spending a solid day looking for an alternator. We managed to get it jumped and took it to the Freightliner place nearby and I essentially abandoned it there, broken hearted, with a "do what it takes" request to the shop and a "no big hurry" for scheduling.
April brought both a workable solution and the funds, so I picked it up and it made the trip without issue, except for the dash not displaying anything but air and warning lights. The main issue was a poor ground from the battery.
I was going to call it the "Rhom-bus" or perhaps "Rom-bus" but I will see what stikes my fancy later.
The overall style is going to be a somewhat industrial looking RV, with shower, composting toilet, full size fridge, gas oven and so on.
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