Hey everyone!

[brzvch]

I am in the very beginning stages of my adventure, and am beyond excited to get started! Any guidance, advice, or wisdom would be very much appreciated. I feel like I've got a pretty solid plan so far, but you tell me. A bit about myself...

I'm a student currently living in Pittsburgh, PA. My girlfriend and I have been exploring the country together for over 2 years now! We use my 2017 Jeep Patriot with a 2-person Tepui rooftop tent. This has been great, and we have had some amazing adventures, but we want to travel full-time. No rent, no utility bills, and less STUFF!

Right now I've got to do as much research as possible and learn as much as I can. My plan after that is to either sell or trade my Jeep (as well as selling a lot of furniture and belongings) for something along the lines of a 24 passenger size bus. Once we have our bus, convert it to our needs and travel/live in our new home with our 4 pet rats for however long we'd like! Our lease is up in September, and we plan to hopefully finish our build by then (or by the end of the year). So I'll probably be reading just about every post on this site as well as many others and taking notes/planning until the weather here warms up and we can begin our search for the right bus.

Again, I'm sure any advice will help and we would certainly appreciate it, so thanks in advance!

 

[Rivetboy]

Welcome
Find a place to work/ store it
Start researching what you will need to
do to re title it as an RV
Get insurance quotes
Water your money tree

 

[cowlitzcoach]

24-pax if we are talking 3 little people per seat is a pretty small bus. As in only 4-rows.

24-pax if we are talking about 2 regular size people per seat is a little bigger at 6-rows. Which makes this bus about half the length of a standard 12/13-row bus.

Most buses that short were usually lift equipped or used for special needs transportation. Most are not spe'c'ed with very heavy duty components since they rarely were ever run fully loaded.

Is there some specific reason why you want such a short bus?

The most common size bus, which translates to the least expensive in the used market, is the 12/13-row Type 'C' conventional bus. It will have a tilt hood with the engine completely in front of the windshield with the service door beside the driver and behind the front axle. Many of them came from the factory with higher HP engines with better transmissions that work much better in a conversion.

All of the newer buses (and newer is defined as built after 1990) have front axle cut angles almost double what was standard in the '60's and '70's. As a consequence newer buses can turn tighter and much quicker than any older bus. So if the ability to get in and out of tight spaces is important you would be amazed at how nimble even the full size buses are. If you can get a crew cab pickup with an 8' box in and out of a place you can almost always get a 12/13-row bus in and out of the same place with about the same amount of hassle.

 

[Johnny Mullet]

Welcome to the site!

 

[2kool4skool]

Welcome!....

 

[brzvch]

Was thinking more along the lines of a 6 row short bus or a MFSAB because it'll just be the two of us. Not trying to include an indoor shower or anything, just a bed in the back and mostly storage/kitchen for the rest. Also would like a shorter bus because we plan to be able to fit it in much tighter places if needed.