Bus Delivery Help

[JDSquared]

Would you be down for the occasional GA to FL bus drive?

You post this question after posting about riots in Daytona lol.

I'm hoping both our states are through our second wave covid-19 bull by the time skoolie swarm happens next year. Not going south before that if I don't have to.

Aside from that though I have some warrant down there. It doesn't show up on my background checks. Savannah police don't show it but county and state patrol do, but they don't really know what it is either. It's some thing they won't arrest me for here, it just shows up when they run my licence, but I have no idea what it is in Florida or if it's something I can go to jail for. I think I was maybe sued and lost (can you lose if you don't even know about it?) Or some bounced check. I lived there for ten months 16 years ago.

So in general I quit going there now, unless I'm going for poker in Jax. Which I really miss doing.

 

[Mandinee1]

I'm in Georgia. People seem to have good luck getting buses from the south. I'm not opposed to driving to Maine for you if you find one from here or Alabama maybe.

Thanks so much, great to know.

 

[CHEESE_WAGON]

By the way, it is a 8.3 cummins engine and the trans is push button md3060 allison 6 speed but 6th gear is not unlocked, goverened at 74. Is that a problem?

I'm wondering how it could reach 74 without the 6th gear unlocked, but otherwise, sounds like a solid setup, provided the rust isn't worse than it looks.

 

[EastCoastCB]

I'm wondering how it could reach 74 without the 6th gear unlocked, but otherwise, sounds like a solid setup, provided the rust isn't worse than it looks.

My bus reaches 74 without any fancy OD. Gearing, man. Gearing!

 

[Mandinee1]

Alright sounds like it's time for the weekend to end and inspection to begin.

 

[Biscuitsjam]

You post this question after posting about riots in Daytona lol.

I'm hoping both our states are through our second wave covid-19 bull by the time skoolie swarm happens next year. Not going south before that if I don't have to.

Aside from that though I have some warrant down there. It doesn't show up on my background checks. Savannah police don't show it but county and state patrol do, but they don't really know what it is either. It's some thing they won't arrest me for here, it just shows up when they run my licence, but I have no idea what it is in Florida or if it's something I can go to jail for. I think I was maybe sued and lost (can you lose if you don't even know about it?) Or some bounced check. I lived there for ten months 16 years ago.

So in general I quit going there now, unless I'm going for poker in Jax. Which I really miss doing.

You might be able to call...

It's probably something like a bench warrant for failure to appear in court. If so, you should be able to resolve this easily

In 10 years, the computer systems will probably all be upgraded. Do you want to count on this continuing to not show up? Or on the cops always giving you a pass?

 

[CHEESE_WAGON]

My bus reaches 74 without any fancy OD. Gearing, man. Gearing!

Probably do a bit better on fuel if it had OD, though. Sounds like you either have a 2-stroke Detroit or a 3.23-3.56 differential, I'd say... Do it yourself? I've not heard of a factory route bus with that kind of gearing... :biggrin:

 

[Sehnsucht-SKO]

The MD3060 4th gear is 1.00:1 then 5th is 0.75:1 and with 6th gear unlocked you get 0.65:1. So 5th and 6th are both overdrive gears and even without 6th gear with the right differential gearing 70+mph is well within the scope although 6th would sweeten the fuel economy a bit. Also, as long as we're using reductive reasoning, I've not heard of a factory route bus with an 8.3L/MD3060 which makes me believe it may have been used occasionally for routes as a spare but was probably spec'd as an event/team bus thus the powerhouse powertrain and highway gearing.

 

[EastCoastCB]

Probably do a bit better on fuel if it had OD, though. Sounds like you either have a 2-stroke Detroit or a 3.23-3.56 differential, I'd say... Do it yourself? I've not heard of a factory route bus with that kind of gearing... :biggrin:

OD would make my powerband unusable.
Bus came with 3.27 rear end. My 1:1 is more "highway" geared than most skoolies' OD.
My bus does extremely well on fuel consumption.

 

[BarnYardCamp]

You post this question after posting about riots in Daytona lol.

I'm hoping both our states are through our second wave covid-19 bull by the time skoolie swarm happens next year. Not going south before that if I don't have to.

Aside from that though I have some warrant down there. It doesn't show up on my background checks. Savannah police don't show it but county and state patrol do, but they don't really know what it is either. It's some thing they won't arrest me for here, it just shows up when they run my licence, but I have no idea what it is in Florida or if it's something I can go to jail for. I think I was maybe sued and lost (can you lose if you don't even know about it?) Or some bounced check. I lived there for ten months 16 years ago.

So in general I quit going there now, unless I'm going for poker in Jax. Which I really miss doing.

I believe that in a civil case, the court can rule against you if you don't show up...you would have had to have been served with a summons to appear in court though.

 

[CHEESE_WAGON]

OD would make my powerband unusable.
Bus came with 3.27 rear end. My 1:1 is more "highway" geared than most skoolies' OD.
My bus does extremely well on fuel consumption.

In that case, what could you expect from an 8.3 / MT643 with unknown gearing? (based on normally popular gearing, of course). Also, do you think such a setup is up to towing a 3000 lb car, and if so, would that seriously affect fuel economy?

 

[Biscuitsjam]

Yes. I towed a 3500 lb vehicle from Alaska to Georgia with a T444e (7.3 liter) and AT545. Of course, the temperature in February meant that overheating wasn't too much of a concern. I went from 9-10 mpg to 6-7 mpg.

You should be fine with a bigger engine and transmission.

 

[JackE]

My 3060 will easily do 75 without 6th unlocked. I have 4.78 gears.

As for the pics of that Utah bus. I would want way more pics of the underside. Those that show that nice pretty almost factory perfect frame are from inside the belly storage, that's why the look so nice. Mine is the same way and I have rust holes clear through around the back wheel wells. Overall it still doesn't look too bad on rust, but you definitely want the whole picture.

 

[CHEESE_WAGON]

My 3060 will easily do 75 without 6th unlocked. I have 4.78 gears.

As for the pics of that Utah bus. I would want way more pics of the underside. Those that show that nice pretty almost factory perfect frame are from inside the belly storage, that's why the look so nice. Mine is the same way and I have rust holes clear through around the back wheel wells. Overall it still doesn't look too bad on rust, but you definitely want the whole picture.

I quite agree. Wheel wells do look questionable, but sometimes it's better to cut out the wheel well housings and build something more suitable to your layout anyway. Obviously, I'm not the one buying it, I just may be transporting for the OP / buyer if everything checks out.

BTW -- Any recent fuel economy observations with your setup? Just curious, I'm thinking this thing may make about 8 highway and about 1/2-3/4 gal per hour idling. Am I in the ballpark?

 

[JackE]

No clue on MPG and probably won't be able to give you any for quite a while. I don't think I'll have it done and on the road until next spring. I have only driven it 10 miles to get it weighed after gutting before building. My son drove it home about 175 miles but didn't do anything to gauge mpg. I'm hoping for a solid 10 pulling my car on a trailer. I am pretty sure you are off on your idling mpg's, near as I can guess, it'll be 0 cuz you won't be moving......

 

[Biscuitsjam]

Mine burns about 2 gallon per hour idling (T444e 7.3l). I was surprised how much it burns.

No idea if that is typical, but I doubt it could be as low as 0.5 gallons per hour.

 

[Sehnsucht-SKO]

Mine burns about 2 gallon per hour idling (T444e 7.3l). I was surprised how much it burns.

No idea if that is typical, but I doubt it could be as low as 0.5 gallons per hour.

It depends on whether it's idling 'at idle' or high idle. Motorcoaches which spend a lot of time idling while waiting for charter parties to arrive and supporting the climate control systems will run up to 1,100 rpm and thus consume 2-3 gallons per hour. Alternatively, band coaches which can spend a day or so parked next to a venue that may not have shore power are equipped with generators so that they don't put all those idle hours on the powertrain and probably consume a little less fuel per hour. I would not be surprised if a T444 or comparable could consume 0.5 gallons per hour at idle like 500-600rpm but it'll be hard for it to support comfort and convenience systems at that rpm.

At the moment I'm idling in my semi which includes an anti-idle system. The house batteries support a small AC unit for the bunk and it's in the 70s outside but the truck still has to start itself and idle at 950rpm to recharge those batteries about every 8 hours for which it consumes about 1.5 gallons per hour. That's about twice as often as in winter when the bunk heater uses less electrically but also burns about a gallon per 10 hours for heating. Obviously a semi truck is a much smaller space to heat and cool than a bus but for the purposes of comparing idle fuel burn it's a comparison. The semi of course is a 13L engine so guessing roughly twice the idle burn rate of a 7-8L bus engine.

 

[CHEESE_WAGON]

Agree with Sehnsucht. In my experience, most semis I drove were 13-15L engines and burned around 1 gallon per hour idling (at normal idle as Sehnsucht mentioned). Some were indeed capable of bumping up idle using cruise control in neutral with the brakes set, this was necessary in some trucks to defeat idle shutdown. And at the higher idle, it will indeed burn more fuel.

That being said, I don't imagine the 7.3 would have a need for such a feature in a skoolie, so I'm surprised at the burn rate mentioned. Just my $0.02 on that one.

Sehnsucht -- ah, that good old BarkFart, er, ParkSmart. It's really not that bad, I guess. When it works like it's supposed to... I've seen several that didn't.

 

[EastCoastCB]

Mine burns about 2 gallon per hour idling (T444e 7.3l). I was surprised how much it burns.

No idea if that is typical, but I doubt it could be as low as 0.5 gallons per hour.

YOur ECU can tell you how many gallons its burned total in its life.

 

[CHEESE_WAGON]

YOur ECU can tell you how many gallons its burned total in its life.

Isn't that more of an approximation based on the PCM's estimate of fuel flow, though? I mean, it's certainly close, but it could be off by a bit, couldn't it?