More new bus questions!

[KC10Chief]

Okay, after driving my bus home today, I have more questions! It's a 1993 International Carpenter with the 7.3L diesel BTW. On the drive home, I noticed that it doesn't seem to have a governor on it. It will go 70mph, but the RPM's are around 3,200! That seems pretty high for a diesel. It's pretty comfortable at 60 mph. What's the max RPM's I'd ever want to drive my bus at? I'm guessing that at 3,200 RPM's, I'm getting horrible mileage.

The bus drives nice and smooth, but the windows rattle like crazy! Things that rattle drive me absolutely insane! I'm planning to sheet metal over some of my windows. Do these things come out pretty easily? There's a few windows that don't quite go up all the way. I'll probably play "musical chairs" with my windows to get the good ones where I want them.

Also, when I start taking my seats out, can you think of any use for the metal? I have a welder, but can't think of anything that they would be useful for. Any ideas?

I'm curious what I can do to lock up my bus? The front door has a handle with a big latch on it. If it's all the way closed, there's no way to open it from the outside! So, today, I latched it to keep the weather out and then went out the back door. The back door has no lock what-so-ever. I'm thinking I could weld a tab on it and drill a hole in the tab and the handle so I could put a lock on it. Anybody have any more practical ideas? Thanks!
Matt

 

[the_experience03]

I just havea unit similar to this on my back door.

http://www.safetycentral.com/keloha.html

I figure it's enough to make it an inconvenience to steal anything, but not so much of a barrier that something is going to get broken when that criminal decides they really really want in my bus.

 

[eggman-SKO]

On my 95 IH with AmTrans body, the first window came out with 4 screws, then the next one came out with two. Or you can look at it this way, after taking the first two screws out, depending on how many more you wanted out, just keep on taking two screws at a time.


Never heard of a quiet bus window. I drove mine back from Nebraska and they really tested me on patience.

As for as locking the back door, i drilled a hole through the back door, installed an eye bolt, and drilled a matching hole in the handle. It keeps the honest people honest. If they want in your bus, they'll find a way in.

HTH

 

[Elliot Naess]

About the front door, be careful so you don't lock yourself out! Some of them
can be slammed to the locked position.

If you have room to store the seat frames, you will find uses for the steel. Money
saved is money not spent! Are you going to build a bunk? Maybe cut the backs
off three seats and lay a cheap door blank (Home Depot, Lowe's) on the seat bases.

 

[GoneCamping-SKO]

My bus had a lockable release handle on the front of the bus just below the windshield... So if you slammed the door shut and it locked, you just turn this handle 90º and it would pop open....and that handle had a key lock...and all the other emergency doors & exits could be locked from the inside ... It was labled as a Vandalock.... and also include an ignition lock-out. I've modified the system so that I can key lock the ingnition lock-out (very useful actually since the bus can be started from the rear engine compartment as well as the front of the bus). I replaced the swing-out doors with a Larsen security full-view door...