He's Here!!!!

[mtmcvay]

After waiting two months, our baby finally arrived yesterday, and I couldn't wait to show it off to the people who understand our excitement about a school bus sitting in the driveway

Meet Oliver, a 2004 77 Pass IC with a DT530 and Allison 3000, and 134K miles on it. Fresh off his school route last week!

Not going to lie, it was both thrilling and slightly scary to drive it off the lot and into city traffic. Any driving tips for the newbs?

 

[Yukon Cornelius-SKO]

Nice looking rig, the smiles in the pics says it all.

 

[eethan]

Nice bus! Should be a great base, since the DT530 with an Allison 3000 is a monster combo. Relatively low mileage as well!

 

[PNW_Steve]

Awesome bus!

That is a fantastic drive trane and only 134k miles.

You are starting out with a great platform. We are looking forward to your build and lots of pictures.

Good luck.

 

[Tryonis]

Nice bus! Congratulations.

 

[Rovobay]

Congrats, looks nice. Did you buy through an auction or directly through the school district or...? If you don't mind, what was the final price?

 

[Johnny Mullet]

I remember that same excitement and joy when I got my bus and everytime I do more to it, the more the excitement grows. Congrats on the bus!

 

[milkmanchip]

Here's a tip square off your corners pull straight through the intersection until you hit your pivot point and then turn. You will learn where your pivot point is pretty quick. Leave your self a lot of space for stopping it's a heavy rig and it doesn't stop on a dime. My last bit of advice is take all the room you need to make your corners and get to where you're going, If this means Crossing solid white lines yellow lines it doesn't matter you need to take all the room it takes. [emoji39][emoji41]

 

[Drew Bru]

Not going to lie, it was both thrilling and slightly scary to drive it off the lot and into city traffic. Any driving tips for the newbs?

Watch out for that tail swing!

 

[mtmcvay]

Congrats, looks nice. Did you buy through an auction or directly through the school district or...? If you don't mind, what was the final price?

We paid 5K through iState motors here in Billings, MT. We were hoping to keep it under 4, but finding that size with that engine/Tran combo pushed us over.

 

[mtmcvay]

Here's a tip square off your corners pull straight through the intersection until you hit your pivot point and then turn. You will learn where your pivot point is pretty quick. Leave your self a lot of space for stopping it's a heavy rig and it doesn't stop on a dime. My last bit of advice is take all the room you need to make your corners and get to where you're going, If this means Crossing solid white lines yellow lines it doesn't matter you need to take all the room it takes. [emoji39][emoji41]

Thank you! I have indeed learned where the pivot point is [emoji55]

 

[mtmcvay]

Watch out for that tail swing!

That was super informative, and led me to about fifty other related videos! Thank you!

 

[Gustav]

Nice find! Well worth the extra $$'s. Looking forward to see what you do with such a great platform. Welcome to the madness.

 

[cowlitzcoach]

Since the bus came from MT with the big engine and transmission you may be lucky and already have the 6th gear unlocked.

The vintage also suggests to me that you have air ride suspension in the rear at least. And if you are lucky you might have front air ride as well.

As far as learning to drive, find a church parking lot during the week or a school parking lot on a weekend and practice going around corners.

Go to a liquor store and get a bunch of boxes to act as cones to mark a course out so you can learn your reference points, your tail swing, how large an arc it takes to get around a corner, etc.

Also practice backing around a corner and parking to a line. Learning where the back end of the bus is can be very important later on down the road.

Good luck and happy trails to you!