Hi Capt! My husband and I live in Billings and are looking at buying through Midwest Transit. I saw your name in a thread looking for best places to find a bus and your location and place of purchase caught my attention. Got some time to answer a question or two for a fellow Billings girl?
I am picking the bus up in Maryland - driving it to California. I really hope its a near relative to your model. The perks of yours are really great. Air suspension to boot! I hope I get the same mileage. The first trek home is 3835 miles. Cruising at 65 MPH and still get 7.5 MPG sounds like an easier trip than I had expected. A friend of mine is a CAT mechanic and he said check all the fluids and the air filter before anything else - if its dirty the turbo will suck out the oil and give you an unexpected stop. I'll let you know how it all goes. Thanks for the reply.
Yeah, you've got all that basement storage and I was jealous of your factory foam under your floor. I'd love to get a rig like that but it wouldn't make it through my driveway.
I too have discovered the value of a piece of rigid insulation stuck snugly into the front window. I foam insulated last summer and this winter was a definite major improvement. I was wondering if you've ever considered using several layers of 1/2" rigid insulation on your ceiling to more easily conform to the curves?
I just bought a 2003 Thomas that looks like yours. This is my first bus. I have a few questions and I thought maybe you could help me. I want to perform any preventative maintenance because we will be going from California to Montana on our maiden voyage.
About the Bus:
2003 Thomas 66 PASS
Engine: Caterpillar - ER3126E
Transmission: Allison - AD2000
1. I have been told to get a serpentine belt, not sure if the current belt is missing or worn out or simply service required. Do they break a lot?
2. I saw you said you got 7.5 mpg, what HWY speeds were you cruising at?
3. Is MPG standard across these models?
4. Did it come with Cruise Control?
5. Did you look into changing your differential for HWY cruising?
I will post picture as I make progress and maybe we can compare notes.