9,000 mile 1997 Schoolie

[Appa97]

I have a 1997 school bus that was only used for field trips within its life span. I purchased the bus at 6,400 miles and converted it fully to an off-grid build. I really noticed the engine “breaking back in” during driving the first 500 or so miles, after that it’s been literally perfect.

I noticed the rarity of this low mileage and I’m wondering y’all’s thoughts on this. I noticed people not even believing under 10k engines are out there?

I’ve had 3 diesel mechanics look at it at this point and they all say the same thing, they’ve never seen a 90s bus that clean and well looking. There is literally zero rust on the frame or really any parts of the bus, maybe a little surface rust on exhaust pipe lol.

I’m really just curious what the rarity of this is. Has anyone seen a 1997 international bus under 10k miles?

I’ve heard the “odometer reset” things that go around but I am certain this bus was only used maybe 3-4 times a year during its life span. Bought directly from the school. I was scared to even buy it at first cause it all seemed too good to be true, somehow I got lucky?

Would love to hear others thoughts.

 

[cadillackid]

what engine is in it? is it an 'E' series engine? T444E / DT466E? if so the ECM also stores the mileage and hour data of the engine...


while its Possible to have such a low mileage bus, the particulator gauge panel in the picture was notoriously faulty.. it was simply easier to order a new one with a 0's odometer than it was to either send the old one back and have the factory move the odometer from one to the other or have the odometer set.. dealers often just kept spares of the most common part numbers on the shelf and swapped them out to get customers back on the road..



I bought a 2000 IH 3800 Bluebird out of houston in 2016 wiuth 144K miles on it and zero underneath rust as well.. it was houston it never saw road salt and its district took great care of their busses... the bus still has near zero underneath rust even though i live in ohio.. I keep it washed underneath.

 

[Ronnie-SKO]

Yep, plug into the computer and find out for real. Would be great if true. I did find one with 25,000 miles on it.

 

[heimlich]

You have to look on the ECM for the mileage. Even the ECM could have been changed. There's nothing stopping government from changing the odometer readings. If it's just an individual the government comes down hard on you. When I bought my bus the school district hadn't even registered it in the state they were in.