Asking which bus to purchase is a rather open ended question.
There are four different and distinct types of school buses, transit buses, commercial buses, and motorcoaches. Each can be converted and will work if it meets the needs of the owner.
The questions you need to ask yourself:
- where are you going to use your bus
- how many people are going to be going with you to use your bus
- what time of the year are you going to use your bus
- how tall are you
- how many miles are you going to drive your bus every year
- are you going to be doing most of your traveling on the interstate system or secondary roads
All of those questions will help to determine what kind of bus you want.
A bus for driving to the ends of the roads out in the wildlands is probably not going to be the best bus for driving on the interstate.
If you have a family with six kids you are going to need a larger bus than if it is just going to be you and your dog.
If you don't plan on going up into the mountains in the winter or the desert in the summer the amount of insulation you need is not going to be as much as if you do plan to do those sorts of activities.
If you are 6'6" tall you are going to need to think in terms of a low floor transit bus or plan on raising the roof. If you are 6'0" tall you might be able to get away with a bus with the high roof option. If you are 5'8" tall a bus with the standard height roof will work fine for you.
If you plan on traveling less than 1000 miles per year the power package isn't going to be nearly as important as it would be if you were traveling more than 1000 miles per month.
If you are going to be traveling lots of miles every month and doing most of those miles on the interstate at highway speeds the power package is going to need to be big HP and highway gearing. If you are going to be poking around on back roads at 45 MPH a bus that tops out at 60 MPH will be more than adequate.
Regardless of what kind of bus you decide will work the best for you the one caveat you need to be very aware of is don't purchase a rust bucket. Unless you are purchasing it for the power package, axles, tires, or wheels a rust bucket isn't worth the effort. Any $$$ saved on the purchase will be eaten up on rust repair.
Get back to us with specific questions and we will try to help you find a good bus.
Good luck!