Buses at MIS

[thesaltydog24]

I am sharing a few photos I took of some buses from the infield at MIS during the August race. My main focus was the various platforms and how they built and attached them to the bus. Their are a lot of rough looking buses there, then again most of them only get used once or twice a year.

Enjoy!!

Ok I'm editing this post because I forgot how to embed the images directly from my flickr account.
Here is link to the set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thesaltydog24/sets/72157631162575946/

 

[roach711]

I like the one with the spiral staircase.

Do the sides of those platforms fold down or do they drive in that way? Seems that the first bridge overpass would rip them right off.

 

[chev49]

i like the white/red with the flames..

 

[thesaltydog24]

I like the one with the spiral staircase.

Do the sides of those platforms fold down or do they drive in that way? Seems that the first bridge overpass would rip them right off.

No they all come off. I haven't seen one drive in yet with the sides of the platforms attached.
There is a guy that stays two sites down from me (forgot to get a pic) in the infield who built the sides of the platform out of 1" square tube and hooked it up in a way that they just lift up a little and hinge down on top of the platform. Pretty neat idea, and I am looking to do something similar whenever I get around to doing my own.

 

[Diesel Dan]

Thanks for sharing those pics. I'm re-inspired now about adding a roof rack/deck. It looks like that red flame & blue bus has freshwater tanks up top (the long black tubes), which I am also considering as a passive solar water heating system. I also like the spiral staircase on the back of that one bus. Several of those buses have decks/rails look really rickety though... yikes! I know wood is easier for many people to work with, but I think at least the structure of my future roof rack/deck is going to be metal. I might use wood decking, but even then, I'd rather have some sort of expanded metal decking, which I would assume is lighter weight, more durable, and will not catch the wind as much.

 

[bapos]

Very nice pictures. It gives me a good mind to go out to the Texas Motorspeedway when the nascar boys come to town in November. I am sure there will be a lot of people who may have buses there that may not be in this site. I think seeing how and what others have done gives people the ideas that they can do it or how to go about it.

 

[thesaltydog24]

These photos were just a small segment of how many are really there. I probably could spend the whole weekend shooting buses only... Maybe I'll try that next year as part of a pet project to coincide with my NASCAR photography. I'll call it Buses of NASCAR!! lol.
As for the material I think a metal frame with a wood decking would be my route. I couldn't see making the deck out of expanded metal, some of that stuff can be sharp and I would hate to catch a toe in the expanded metal. However the expanded metal would be less drag and lift when driving.
Some of the decking I have seen there is nothing more than plywood some painted some just raw, the ones I stood on that were plywood I could notice the flex and soft spots. So a plywood deck it out of the question for me. I'm thinking more of a composite decking material.