Your thoughts on this Freightliner?

[wrenchtech]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

Uh, why are you looking at this bus then?

I want to live in it on a piece of land that I own while I'm building a house. I was also hoping I could tow and 18 foot, 10,000 pound capacity car trailer with it and do some Road tripping and camping with it.

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by wrenchtech

I want to live in it on a piece of land that I own while I'm building a house. I was also hoping I could tow and 18 foot, 10,000 pound capacity car trailer with it and do some Road tripping and camping with it.

What I meant was: you said that not having AC in the back was a deal-breaker (I'm assuming that's what you said, anyway) and this bus does not have AC in the back.

Other than that, this might be a good bus if the price is right.

[wrenchtech]

The last time I drove across country in summer without air-conditioning was in 1998. I was driving a black 1992 International cab-over road tractor eastbound in Nebraska and Iowa in 98° heat. I cringe to this day when I think about it. I have driven from phoenix Arizona to Los Angeles during the summer in a pick up truck with no air-conditioning. That wasn't as bad because it was a dry heat... And I was a young man in a particularly good time of his life, not easily deterred or dismayed.

[wrenchtech]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

What I meant was: you said that not having AC in the back was a deal-breaker (I'm assuming that's what you said, anyway) and this bus does not have AC in the back.

Other than that, this might be a good bus if the price is right.

I don't think I said it was a dealbreaker although I may have seemed somewhat concerned. The current owner of the bus has a brand new rooftop RV type AC unit
That he never got around to installing that could be part of the deal. I don't know too much about that business, but I think that they're made for running off of shore power when you're parked somewhere.

[wrenchtech]

[QUOTE=musigenesis;326051
...Other than that, this might be a good bus if the price is right.[/QUOTE]

That was my original question. What is the right price for a bus like this?

[EastCoastCB]

Originally Posted by wrenchtech

It's from the upper Midwest it's a shorter what model with five passenger windows on each side. It's powered by a 5.9 Cummins it has an automatic transmission, I'm assuming it is an Allison 2000. There is no separate air-conditioning for the passenger compartment. And it has 250,000 miles on it, which is the most miles I've seen on any bus I've looked at so far. I haven't seen it in person yet. The owner says there's a little bit of rust. What might a bus like this be worth?

Mine is a 1999 and has a Cat with 545 transmission. Paid $1625 and its in incredible condition without any rust.
I'd say $2500 max. Cool bus if its not rusty.

[wrenchtech]

Originally Posted by EastCoastCB

Mine is a 1999 and has a Cat with 545 transmission. Paid $1625 and its in incredible condition without any rust.
I'd say $2500 max. Cool bus if its not rusty.

Thank you. The seller is currently asking for roughly double that amount.

[o1marc]

Originally Posted by wrenchtech

I want to live in it on a piece of land that I own while I'm building a house. I was also hoping I could tow and 18 foot, 10,000 pound capacity car trailer with it and do some Road tripping and camping with it.

How would you cool it while you're living in it?

[wrenchtech]

I have noticed though that among various dealers who sell a lot of these buses and advertise on the Internet, they have prices that are quite a bit higher, and maybe more in line with what the seller is asking.

[PNW_Steve]

Originally Posted by o1marc

How would you cool it while you're living in it?

I would guess that he will cool it with the roof air that he mentioned......

[wrenchtech]

Originally Posted by o1marc

How would you cool it while you're living in it?

That's something that I hope to learn from this forum. I was thinking of creating some kind of canopy to keep the bus from getting the direct sun and then maybe running one of the several window air conditioners that I already own. And as I mentioned in an earlier post, the seller has an RV type rooftop air conditioner that is brand new never been installed yet, that could be part of the deal.

[Native]

Originally Posted by wrenchtech

It's from Illinois.

Hmmm, that is *usually* a sign of rust. I suppose it does depend on what part of Illinois it hails from.

[Native]

On close examination of the photo ... there is rust on the swing arm (kid crossing arm) mechanism and the entry door at the bottom. I would bet there is a lot more rust on the underside Speaking from experience ,,, our Thomas is from Illinois.

[musigenesis]

To give an illustration of how difficult it is to evaluate rust from one photo, here is one of the pics from the listing for my bus: https://i.redd.it/rmbflcn7l2821.jpg

And here is my bus' actual rust situation: https://imgur.com/a/yisoA9i

[HazMatt]

Yikes!!!

Originally Posted by musigenesis

To give an illustration of how difficult it is to evaluate rust from one photo, here is one of the pics from the listing for my bus: https://i.redd.it/rmbflcn7l2821.jpg

And here is my bus' actual rust situation: https://imgur.com/a/yisoA9i

Crunchy on the outside, crusty on the inside.

[Sleddgracer]

Originally Posted by haz.matt.1960

Yikes!!!Crunchy on the outside, crusty on the inside.

BRUTAL - what did you wind up doing with the bus Native?

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Sleddgracer

BRUTAL - what did you wind up doing with the bus Native?

He was referring to my bus. I'm just going to rebuild the hopeless parts.

[HazMatt]

You best pack a lunch...

Originally Posted by musigenesis

He was referring to my bus. I'm just going to rebuild the hopeless parts.

Might just take most of a day... [emoji849]

[Sleddgracer]

Originally Posted by musigenesis

He was referring to my bus. I'm just going to rebuild the hopeless parts.

a job I bet you weren't counting on when you bought the bus

[musigenesis]

Originally Posted by Sleddgracer

a job I bet you weren't counting on when you bought the bus

Yeah, I thought at most I was going to have to patch a couple of holes in the side. I bought the bus on eBay without ever seeing it in person or having it inspected (inadvisable, of course). A couple weeks after delivery I finally got around to inspecting it from the outside, and was pretty horrified by the mudflap situation since I didn't see how they were still attached at all. I didn't know anything about bus structure so I assumed the bus was in danger of collapsing at any time.

Now that I know more about bus structure I can see that while this is very bad by skoolie standards, it's not unfixable, and since I got into this project so I could learn how to fabricate with metal, it's actually a great opportunity. I'm also planning to rebuild the section around the wheel wells in such a way as to have a fully-insulated subfloor that only comes up to the height of the original metal floor, getting me out of having to do a roof raise.

As my grandpappy never used to say: "when Life gives you lemons, jam them up Life's tailpipe."