Quote:
Originally Posted by Cadman
Hi everyone.. I've been lurking here for awhile but finally decided to create an account since we are starting to get serious about buying and converting a bus.
There is a bus for sale near me, but I am not sure if it's a decent one or not. The basic stats are:
2001 Thomas School Bus
3176 Caterpillar Engine - I couldn't find any info on this particular engine on this message board or other skoolie sites. Anyone have knowledge or experience with this engine?
Just over 200k miles - Is this a lot of miles for this chassis/engine?
Asking price is $6,000 - This seems high to me. I was hoping for something closer to $4,000. All of the seats have been removed so that's worth something I guess.
Thanks for your help!
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Asking price is a little steep. Cat engines require Cat parts which come from Cat dealers - and they don't paint 'em gold for nothing. Good luck if you break down late Friday evening. That said, the 3176's are not bad engines (based on a 2-minute google search), they have reliability fairly close to par with others. 200K miles is also about average.
See if you can get the service records (I did when I bought mine). Very helpful in knowing what was done when, and if any outstanding warranty/recall work was done.