Just bought a bus

[Nawbdy]

I've been a member for a couple/few years because I've been considering a skoolie as a live in for my retirement. I'll admit I've also looked at RVs, step vans, box trucks and tow vehicle/travel trailers.

Right now I'm liquidating my life. I'm moving out of my house and getting rid of just about everything. The pressure to make a decision about what I'm going to do, where I'm going to live has gotten greater in the last couple months. I've taken 2 trips to Virginia to look at school buses but neither trip was fruitful. I've been contemplating a trip to Phoenix to see if AAA Bus Sales has something I might want - thinking about a trip like that tells you my level or desperation.

I live in Jersey and have held little hope that I can find a school bus, or just about any other vehicle I can afford that wouldn't be a rust bucket. Yesterday I was grazing in North Jersey on Craigslist and saw 4 or 5 vehicles that caught my attention, one being a 2004 school bus. I was surprised that the seller included pictures of the underside and even more surprised that I couldn't see ANY rust - hmmmmmm.

Today I called the seller and went for a look. I threw my tarp under the bus in half a dozen places and spent some quality time poking around - no significant rust, in fact some of the Virginia buses I had looked at had more than this bus. The reason being that the various owners had regularly applied undercoating. To say I was shocked was an understatement.

The bus a 2004 International (IC Corporation to be accurate). It has a t444e and an Allison 2000, not sure of the specific transmission yet as I haven't had time to search for it on the web. It's got juice disc brakes, not optimal but I can live with them, I'll just have to make sure my e-brake is always good to go.

Surprisingly the rear shocks, shock mounts and differential still show glossy paint - who'd a thunk it. The worst that I can say about the body is there are a couple spots of rust on the body and a spot of rust on the rear of the lowest step.

Bus is a 2006, 13K hours, 160K miles. I'd have liked lower hours but it is what it is. I'm going to need some tires before long, some are good for a few years.

Here are some pics if anyone is interested.

 

[JackE]

Why do so many of the dog nose busses have the faded hood? Seems like poor paint/prep work to me, but I'm not a body guy.

The lack of rust is surprising. Do a vin search and you may find it is not original to that area.

The engine hours do seem pretty high, but I'm no expert on what is average for a school bus. I do know when I researched hours when buying my Escalade, I found that a good average for that vehicle was around 6000 hours for the 150,000 miles it had on it. Those seemed to be a good proportion to each other. 13K would seem to indicate a lot of idling or a lot of slow-go miles, which is typical for a route bus.

 

[Nawbdy]

Why do so many of the dog nose busses have the faded hood? Seems like poor paint/prep work to me, but I'm not a body guy.

The lack of rust is surprising. Do a vin search and you may find it is not original to that area.

The engine hours do seem pretty high, but I'm no expert on what is average for a school bus. I do know when I researched hours when buying my Escalade, I found that a good average for that vehicle was around 6000 hours for the 150,000 miles it had on it. Those seemed to be a good proportion to each other. 13K would seem to indicate a lot of idling or a lot of slow-go miles, which is typical for a route bus.

Yes on the hours vs. miles. There's no way for me to know for sure what the story might be. Could be either the tach or speedo was replaced so neither might be right.

I'll find out as time goes on. Buying used school buses can be a crap shoot. In 6 months or a year I'll either be smiling about the deal or crying. At least I'm pretty sure if I'm crying it won't be because of rust. Not even the lug nuts had rust on them.

 

[JDSquared]

Yes on the hours vs. miles. There's no way for me to know for sure what the story might be. Could be either the tach or speedo was replaced so neither might be right.



I'll find out as time goes on. Buying used school buses can be a crap shoot. In 6 months or a year I'll either be smiling about the deal or crying. At least I'm pretty sure if I'm crying it won't be because of rust. Not even the lug nuts had rust on them.

Hello from another Jersey bus, mine had plenty of rust on it though. But it was well maintained.

 

[dwood443]

Why do so many of the dog nose busses have the faded hood? Seems like poor paint/prep work to me, but I'm not a body guy.

The lack of rust is surprising. Do a vin search and you may find it is not original to that area.

The engine hours do seem pretty high, but I'm no expert on what is average for a school bus. I do know when I researched hours when buying my Escalade, I found that a good average for that vehicle was around 6000 hours for the 150,000 miles it had on it. Those seemed to be a good proportion to each other. 13K would seem to indicate a lot of idling or a lot of slow-go miles, which is typical for a route bus.

Where can you do a vin search for school buses?

 

[musigenesis]

Why do so many of the dog nose busses have the faded hood? Seems like poor paint/prep work to me, but I'm not a body guy.

The hoods on International dognoses are fiberglass, so I would imagine it's a chemically different paint although it's still (originally) School Bus Yellow.

 

[BlackJohn]

Originally Posted by JackE
"Why do so many of the dog nose buses have the faded hood? Seems like poor paint/prep work to me, but I'm not a body guy."


I wondered this also and have decided that on my bus anyway the hood is almost a grey chalky colour which I believe to be an anti-glare option for the driver's comfort. I'm not going too touch it for that reason.


John

 

[JackE]

Where can you do a vin search for school buses?

I don't know about Thomas, but Blue Bird has a site you can get original spec sheet from. I would guess Thomas does the same. This is what mine looks like.

 

[dwood443]

I don't know about Thomas, but Blue Bird has a site you can get original spec sheet from. I would guess Thomas does the same. This is what mine looks like.

thanks, I have the spec info link. I was just wondering about a vin search that would show locations, mileage, etc...

 

[JackE]

thanks, I have the spec info link. I was just wondering about a vin search that would show locations, mileage, etc...

You're looking for a Carfax type of report. Do they even do that for busses?

My sheet does show original customer as Granite School District in Utah so I know it's not all that far from it's original home. You may at least be able to find out where it originated to by the VIN search.

 

[Nawbdy]

You're looking for a Carfax type of report. Do they even do that for busses?

My sheet does show original customer as Granite School District in Utah so I know it's not all that far from it's original home. You may at least be able to find out where it originated to by the VIN search.

I've used FaxVin twice recently including for the bus I just bought. It does provide information for buses but I wouldn't say it's exhaustive. It did show previous owners, accident/theft records, etc. which, for me, were the important points.

 

[Nawbdy]

Don't know if anyone is still looking at this thread but I wanted to add what I just ran into. The state of NJ is still shut down. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to legally get my new/old bus from the yard to the location where I'll work on it. The NJ DMV is shut down and I'm not sure it would help to go there anyway as I don't think I can get temp tags from anywhere but a dealer. Maybe I'll drop in on a used car dealership, if any are open and see if I can get a temp tag but that seems like it would be too easy.

I thought maybe I could just register it in South Dakota using America's Mailbox but after a short conversation with them now understand it's no easier to register a skoolie in SD than it is in NJ so what to do.

I then decided revisit registration in Vermont which I had originally researched but forgot about when I learned that SD is the place to be. I'm thinking I'll try to do it that way though for all I know Vermont is also shut down. I may have to bite the bullet and just backroad the bus to the build location and hope for the best. Just gotta love government.

 

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

bill of sale
notorised title
and a home made in transit plate.
and hit the road.
worst would be a warning ticket

 

[JackE]

Don't know if anyone is still looking at this thread but I wanted to add what I just ran into. The state of NJ is still shut down. I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to legally get my new/old bus from the yard to the location where I'll work on it. The NJ DMV is shut down and I'm not sure it would help to go there anyway as I don't think I can get temp tags from anywhere but a dealer. Maybe I'll drop in on a used car dealership, if any are open and see if I can get a temp tag but that seems like it would be too easy.

I thought maybe I could just register it in South Dakota using America's Mailbox but after a short conversation with them now understand it's no easier to register a skoolie in SD than it is in NJ so what to do.

I then decided revisit registration in Vermont which I had originally researched but forgot about when I learned that SD is the place to be. I'm thinking I'll try to do it that way though for all I know Vermont is also shut down. I may have to bite the bullet and just backroad the bus to the build location and hope for the best. Just gotta love government.

I don't know about other states, but in Nevada while our DMV is shut down, the cops aren't really bothering anything without a plate on it. If they do decide to pull one over, the question isn't about plates, it's about insurance. As long as you are insured, they don't care about no-plate running right now. I know this because my son is a cop and that is the direction they were given from the State. I would imaging other states are running the same way right now.

 

[Nawbdy]

bill of sale
notorised title
and a home made in transit plate.
and hit the road.
worst would be a warning ticket

Thanks, it may come to that but I think in NJ I'd be expected to produce an insurance card as well.

I just finished completing the Vermont forms. Only when I was filling them out did I realize I hadn't copied down the odometer mileage. I guess not a big deal because I have to go back to get the seller's signature anyway.

 

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

your insurance company should cover you for any new purchase for 10 days.

 

[Nawbdy]

I don't know about other states, but in Nevada while our DMV is shut down, the cops aren't really bothering anything without a plate on it. If they do decide to pull one over, the question isn't about plates, it's about insurance. As long as you are insured, they don't care about no-plate running right now. I know this because my son is a cop and that is the direction they were given from the State. I would imaging other states are running the same way right now.

I'm concerned about the insurance. I'm going to have to see if my insurance provider can do anything for me based on just a signed title. That could be the rub.

 

[musigenesis]

I'm concerned about the insurance. I'm going to have to see if my insurance provider can do anything for me based on just a signed title. That could be the rub.

I was not able to get insurance until I had the vehicle registered in Vermont as a motor home. This took two months and the bus just sat in my lot (it had been delivered to me by the seller) in the mean time, except for one fear-ridden two block trip to a local mechanic.

I wouldn't drive any considerable distance without insurance - that's far more critical than being titled/registered. I still feel bad about that two-block trip uninsured. It's so easy to hit someone and cause considerable damages and injuries and even death; without liability insurance in that situation, you'd be looking at a catastrophic financial situation.

 

[Rovobay]

I wouldn't worry about the registration, title, insurance in the first few days. just get it home where you can begin to work on it. Congrats and let the fun begin!

 

[bus-bro]

Yes on the hours vs. miles. There's no way for me to know for sure what the story might be. Could be either the tach or speedo was replaced so neither might be right.

School bus + stop and go = Hi hours to miles.