wrenchtech
Senior Member
It is official. I have taken the plunge. I am now a bona fide member of the Schooley community. I have purchased a 2008 Thomas safety liner HDX . I am quite pleased with my purchase. I looked at buses for nearly half a year and came near to making some bad choices due to inexperience, but I waited and now I think I found a good buy.
The specifics:
2008 Thomas Saf-t-Liner HDX 48 passenger Activity Bus
CAT C7 300 hp w/engine brake
Allison 3000 6 speed auto (six gear is functional)
custom paint. (Not Shool Bus Yellow) professionally applied
passenger compartment A/C with two single evaporator units and ONE double unit, and two engine mounted a/c compressors
Tire are excellent condition highway tires (the driver tires are not traction type)
AIR RIDE! Suspension all around
217000 miles on the odometer
free of corrosion
The seller is a truck dealer in a small town, who purchased the buses from the local school district when they were forced out of service by the state bus inspector for having inadequate seat cushion padding for the passengers.While I was in town, purely by happenstance, I met the man who was in charge of the maintenance for the buses for the school district. It’s a small town. I also asked the dealer to see if he could get me the maintenance records for the bus, which he happily produced. I had heard a lot of stories about problems with the C7 engine, but apparently their operation in this application was uneventful for the duration aside from the need to replace one injector, which occurred recently. They let me drive the bus on a local route near their facility, and when the maintenance foreman, who rode along, was satisfied that I was competent, they got me a dealer plate and turned me loose. It is as big and wide open as any place in America near the dealership, so I went for a roughly 30 minute ride on a combination of County Roads and State Highways where I was able to work the bus through all six forward gears up to 80 miles an hour without much effort. I have to tell you, the air ride is sweet! The bus goes down the road straight and true with excellent composure and the air brakes scrub off that speed with little effort. The only negative that I can come up with is that the air conditioning does not work. One of the two air-conditioning compressors kicks on and off and the other does not come on at all. I am crossing my fingers and hoping that it is just a question of refrigerant leak.
I am hard-pressed right now, as far as getting a decent Internet connection goes, so I am unable to upload pictures at this time. I hope to remedy that situation later today or early in the evening.
The specifics:
2008 Thomas Saf-t-Liner HDX 48 passenger Activity Bus
CAT C7 300 hp w/engine brake
Allison 3000 6 speed auto (six gear is functional)
custom paint. (Not Shool Bus Yellow) professionally applied
passenger compartment A/C with two single evaporator units and ONE double unit, and two engine mounted a/c compressors
Tire are excellent condition highway tires (the driver tires are not traction type)
AIR RIDE! Suspension all around
217000 miles on the odometer
free of corrosion
The seller is a truck dealer in a small town, who purchased the buses from the local school district when they were forced out of service by the state bus inspector for having inadequate seat cushion padding for the passengers.While I was in town, purely by happenstance, I met the man who was in charge of the maintenance for the buses for the school district. It’s a small town. I also asked the dealer to see if he could get me the maintenance records for the bus, which he happily produced. I had heard a lot of stories about problems with the C7 engine, but apparently their operation in this application was uneventful for the duration aside from the need to replace one injector, which occurred recently. They let me drive the bus on a local route near their facility, and when the maintenance foreman, who rode along, was satisfied that I was competent, they got me a dealer plate and turned me loose. It is as big and wide open as any place in America near the dealership, so I went for a roughly 30 minute ride on a combination of County Roads and State Highways where I was able to work the bus through all six forward gears up to 80 miles an hour without much effort. I have to tell you, the air ride is sweet! The bus goes down the road straight and true with excellent composure and the air brakes scrub off that speed with little effort. The only negative that I can come up with is that the air conditioning does not work. One of the two air-conditioning compressors kicks on and off and the other does not come on at all. I am crossing my fingers and hoping that it is just a question of refrigerant leak.
I am hard-pressed right now, as far as getting a decent Internet connection goes, so I am unable to upload pictures at this time. I hope to remedy that situation later today or early in the evening.
