FL to OR to Buy a Bus

[Kentucky Dreaming]

Great news, Danny!

I really wish I could get away long enough to come for Oktoberfest and help, but it ain't in the cards. Too much reverse engineering and inspection to do all of a sudden.

I bet Christopher will be able to find out a lot more than the rest of us combined could.

I genuinely hope y'all have a wonderful time, and wish I could be there.

Cheers,
Marty

:marshmallow::marshmallow:

 

[cadillackid]

im seriously glad to see you got him home! albeit not the way you hoped but really now you can take the time to work on it at leisure rather than under pressure on the road.


I might be able to make a short trip down.. im trying to take advantage of the warm weather before its gone.. my chinese diesel heater in the DEV bus gave up the ghost (AGAIN!) I get about a season if that of service out of those china POS heaters before i have to take it out of the bus..drain the coolant.. and make a repair and hope it works... so im installing a real Webasto that I got from a bus we scrapped.. restored it and will try it.. thats my first priority as the DEV bus is my mobile office and gets its most use in the winter...



my superior still needs headlight before I can drive it on a long ride.. amazon of course delayed my LED bulbs.. (im not doing incandescent..those 7" round were horrid)..



that leaves the redbyrd.. i did just get its oil changed but still eed to lube the chassis before i can do a long run..

 

[Ronnie-SKO]

Glad to hear it is home now. Congratulations on the little one.

 

[nikitis]

I'm coming NOAH!

 

[DeMac]

I'm coming NOAH!

We're looking forward to seeing you we're here.

The Browns' Festival is much larger this year. There's more food, activities and rides than ever before.

 

[nikitis]

Gps says I'm about 3.2 hours away which at 55mph means 5 hours so likely will get there a little late like 10-11'ish

Nearing FL border soon.

 

[cadillackid]

How long you staying ? I been workin in my dev bus and haven’t paid attention to who is going when. I’m trying to beat the cold in Ohio to get things done .. next week is my last warm week then long range shows cold n rain after Thursday

 

[nikitis]

How long you staying ? I been workin in my dev bus and haven’t paid attention to who is going when. I’m trying to beat the cold in Ohio to get things done .. next week is my last warm week then long range shows cold n rain after Thursday

Probably 2-3 days maybe more.

 

[nikitis]

Made it to Demac's for Octoberfest.

My morning view from bed.

 

[DeMac]

Eye Spy

Made it to Demac's for Octoberfest.

My morning view from bed.

-----------

Ha.
I saw something similar f4om my window this morning.

 

[cadillackid]

Lookin good!! I just can’t seem to get free while you guys are all there , best I can do is end up after everyone is prob gone

 

[Kentucky Dreaming]

Lookin good!! I just can’t seem to get free while you guys are all there , best I can do is end up after everyone is prob gone

Christopher, I can't get away any time soon either. But if you do manage to make a trip, I have a heavy duty engine stand I will donate to the Noah resurrection project.

I built it about 35 years ago or more. It easily holds a big block Chevy.
The pivot is a precision ground die guide pin and bushing. once you get the engine or tranny balanced, you can turn it with one hand.

I can heft it into the bed of my truck and meet you at Exit 90 on I-75 if you do head south.

I will never need it again, the way my life is going.

 

[Ronnie-SKO]

I can not make it. Will come down after the swarm

 

[cadillackid]

maybe we just need a november-fest .


I did get my aux heating system working in the DEV bus late last night, so other than the defective Jegs coolant temp gauge its driveable now..(the IH one works) and man does that real webasto Heat.. tried it out on a completely cold bus this AM.. is 32 and it had the interior of the bus up to 74 in no time..


the hose protection split sleeves should be in today..



it just needs an oil change and chassis lube before winter.. maybe a couple spots of paint touchup

 

[nikitis]

So far I’ve been here a couple of days now. Demac’s happy place has been truly a happy place.

Yesterday, we did a little hurricane cleanup. There’s a couple of large trees mostly left. Went out to eat dinner and had some good quality Mexican locally.

Today the plan is to head to the festival in town. Will likely pick up some good home grown produce to take home with me.

So far they’ve been great hosts. Got plenty of space for more skoolies.

I got to tour Noah’s insides, and discovered some things about thomases. Apparently the skins inside his match mine in the mid 90s. You could literally take his off and would likely fit for some parts on mine.

I learned Noah is a foot less wider from left to right but wouldn’t have noticed it if it wasn’t pointed out to me. But all of the styling from bumper rails to outside wheel well rims match my bus. Which is like a 20 year difference. Noah has a high point NC, Thomas built bus emblem on the rear showing it was made in the same place as mine.

Even the end roof caps match mine. And he still has the warning lights where mine were deleted by Thomas so I like to imagine my lights would have looked like his do.

Additionally our heater core console are made from the same molds as well but he has a cooler looking rocker panel switches than I have and are more in tact than my hodgepodge of switches.

We have the same windshield wipers too and he learned that he can obtain the parts he needs for his wipers from any Thomas bus up to 1995 to complete his windshield wipers which was something he needs to reattach his.

All in all having a good time. First time sleeping in my bus and the newly installed couch is extremely comfy.

 

[cadillackid]

Super!!! I wish I’d made it down but living in a place with winter and my body that can’t do chill I needed to get my bus in order . I use it a lot during winter and need great (not just good) heat.

The narrow body is a mity mite thing, only that body was built as 84” instead of typical 96” general width. (Van busses not included). Even the short 4 window body I’ve seen from the 70s(rare compared to 5 and up) were the regular width.

Later on the mity mite took on a bread van chassis like the bluebird mini bird and carpenter cadet, those were different busses and didn’t nearly resemble the full body like Noah does.

 

[Elliot Naess]

Yesterday, at my regular grocery store here in rural Northern California, I found myself looking at an IH Loadstar 1600 skoolie with Oregon license plates. Not surprisingly, it was quite a bit longer than Noah, but still reminded me of Noah. (Sorry I had no camera with me.)

The owner said it was a 1955. He did not know anything about the engine, except it was gasoline. It had a 4-speed stick-shift. And -- alarmingly (to me) -- it had Dayton style wheels.

Though it was decently painted, it had some iffy metal-building siding covering most of the windows. We, as a nationwide "community" still have "room for improvement" in order to shed the stigma of shoddy conversions.

I'm glad to see that all is going well there in Florida!

 

[Ronnie-SKO]

Nothing wrong or dangerous about Dayton wheels. You can run 22.5 tubeless tires, or the old 20" so called split rims. Which are not bad either if handled properly, and the only time this any danger is mounting them. Once on the vehicle no problem. I switched to the 22.5 so I would have a modern readily available tire.

 

[cadillackid]

My DEV bus was converted at some point before I got it .. the stickers on the inside say it had 9x20 on it when it was built. When I got it the bus already had 10R22.5 and I switched to 11R22.5 tires.. since they are single piece, no mechanic shop has any issues working in them … as long as they take the time to tighten the wedges evenly and properly seat the rim for no wobble