Drew Bru
Senior Member
Hi Everyone,
We are Drew and Kristen, on July 26, 2017 we won an online public surplus auction for a 65 passenger 1996 Amtran with a mechanical DT466 250HP engine paired with an MT643. It's got air brakes and a retarder, air ride in the back, automatic chains, storage bins, a Bostrom air ride driver seat, and as we found out over the last 3 days of driving a great attitude, too!
The bus was owned by the same school for it's entire life and came with 21 years of service records, plus the manuals for everything from the engine, to the retarder, to the seat, and even the radio!
Since the bus was located around Vale, CO and we're outside of Chicago we hired Josh at Tiny Visions, Inc to check it and the 3 other buses on the auction before we started bidding. He told us which was the pick of the litter and we managed to win it (sorry EastCoastCB ;-)! That started our relationship with Josh (a wonderful young man!). We then hired him to pick up the bus for us and do all of the grunt work that we knew we didn't have the time, space, or energy to get done.
On Oct 11th we left Chicago with a salvaged RV seat in the back of our Nissan truck, as well as a tow bar and various tools. Met Josh on the morning of the 13th and got to work installing that stuff and learning to drive the bus. By the 18th we were ready to hit the road for our first adventure in Dazzling Blue (thus named for the Paul Simon tune, as well as the vibrant paint job).
After 3 very full days and around 1200 miles of driving we just gotta say OMG WHAT A BUS!!! She likes best to run between 56-58 mph, but will go faster without complaint. We don't know how much faster because our towed has a 60mph limit, but the times we needed to pass on the highway we easily got to 65. She pulled long steep hills like a champ, even with the 5000lb truck tied to her.
We will spend the winter building it into our home, hopefully to have it mostly completed by the spring. Drew gets to retire in July 2018 after 30 years of drafting for the city of Chicago. We'll spend the summer accenting the charm of our 90 year old bungalow while trying to downplay it's not so charming aspects, and hopefully get the house sold and hit the road full time by fall of 2018.
We're so grateful for all the resources and amazing people this site has to offer, and we're happy to be a part of the skoolie community!
Kristen
We are Drew and Kristen, on July 26, 2017 we won an online public surplus auction for a 65 passenger 1996 Amtran with a mechanical DT466 250HP engine paired with an MT643. It's got air brakes and a retarder, air ride in the back, automatic chains, storage bins, a Bostrom air ride driver seat, and as we found out over the last 3 days of driving a great attitude, too!
The bus was owned by the same school for it's entire life and came with 21 years of service records, plus the manuals for everything from the engine, to the retarder, to the seat, and even the radio!
Since the bus was located around Vale, CO and we're outside of Chicago we hired Josh at Tiny Visions, Inc to check it and the 3 other buses on the auction before we started bidding. He told us which was the pick of the litter and we managed to win it (sorry EastCoastCB ;-)! That started our relationship with Josh (a wonderful young man!). We then hired him to pick up the bus for us and do all of the grunt work that we knew we didn't have the time, space, or energy to get done.
On Oct 11th we left Chicago with a salvaged RV seat in the back of our Nissan truck, as well as a tow bar and various tools. Met Josh on the morning of the 13th and got to work installing that stuff and learning to drive the bus. By the 18th we were ready to hit the road for our first adventure in Dazzling Blue (thus named for the Paul Simon tune, as well as the vibrant paint job).
After 3 very full days and around 1200 miles of driving we just gotta say OMG WHAT A BUS!!! She likes best to run between 56-58 mph, but will go faster without complaint. We don't know how much faster because our towed has a 60mph limit, but the times we needed to pass on the highway we easily got to 65. She pulled long steep hills like a champ, even with the 5000lb truck tied to her.
We will spend the winter building it into our home, hopefully to have it mostly completed by the spring. Drew gets to retire in July 2018 after 30 years of drafting for the city of Chicago. We'll spend the summer accenting the charm of our 90 year old bungalow while trying to downplay it's not so charming aspects, and hopefully get the house sold and hit the road full time by fall of 2018.
We're so grateful for all the resources and amazing people this site has to offer, and we're happy to be a part of the skoolie community!
Kristen
how exciting, a brand new adventure. That bus has the creme of the crop, wow.
We promise to bring it 'round your way when we're full timing, we'd love to meet you!
