Crozz
Advanced Member
Let me first say this is an amazing community. I have been lurking here since the School Bus RV idea was lodged in my head and I owe a lot of thanks to a lot of you.
How Second Star came to be
Every great bus has a story so I want to take a few minutes to tell ours. My daughter, wife, and I live in beautiful Central Oregon. We both want to get our daughter out of the house and enjoy and fall in love with nature and camping and Oregon has some of the most amazing environments in one state you could find from sandy and rocky shores to wooded mountains and even rocky deserts. What better place to own an RV?
We had an awesome Appache Mesa popup but wanted something more. We decided to buy a travel trailer and proceeded to study and learn about them. After a couple of months we found one that we could agree upon and was in the price we wanted to pay. Unfortunately (well maybe fortunately) we struggled with the amount of money we would be paying for something we knew wasnt going to last 10+ years. We hated how they all seemed to get water damage regardless of how new it was and how cheap some felt.
Friday after work we had our 3rd look at the trailer we both agreed upon and Monday morning we were to sign the papers to our loan for it. I called my best friend to tell him we decided and I mentioned how the no rust no rot trailers were what we really wanted but who can afford those. Thats when, my best friend reveals to me that him and his wife had just bought 2 school buses and were building them into tiny houses to live in. I laughed... thinking he was kidding but he wasnt and then had me watch a youtube video (one with a hot chick of course) and while watching I realized I could build everything they did and loved the way theirs was compared to the hundreds of trailers we had just seen over the past few months. An hour later my wife gets home and I tell her "Honey were buying a bus" ... her response was "Oh **** NO", then she watched the video... says ok play it again.. 3 hours later she is rattling off all the things we can do with it... during which we both had the same theme come into our heads and the name came to be, Second Star and straight on till morning. We have never regreted our decision.
Youtube Video link https://youtu.be/ncXXLjf235g
Picture of a styling we want our bus to look and feel like.
Where we got our Bus (where to look)
We went with the public auction site where school districts sell their buses direct. I knew I wanted one with a large handicap door and really wanted it in the back of the bus. I also wanted one that was about 30 feet long or so. To maximize space a flat nose bus would be the best option. I had the winning bid of $1650 5 minutes before the auction finished. After a bidding war I got the bus for $3200 including all the fees. One thing that may be of interest to people looking to buy a bus and the dificulties of financing is to do what we did. We opened a home equity line of credit. WIth essentially a very low interest rate, lower than I could acquire if it was a "commercial vehicle loan" and was flexible since I was bidding there was no set price. Using a HELoC i have a interest rate of like 6% or less and have the entire bus conversion financed from purchase to completion via credit card. Anyhow I digress. Buying from the school direct we were able to review the maintenance records. Our bus had become a spare when it turned 15 and sold at 20 years old. Drove up with my bus buddy, paid for the bus via check and drove home and parked it in the driveway.
Public Surplus link to buy buses direct from schools http://www.publicsurplus.com/
Insurance... not that difficult
I heard a lot of folks discuss having difficulties with insurance. My advice is to get on a first name basis with a local agent. We have an amazing insurance agent who we have used for almost 20 years. We added full covereage RV insruance for our bus with Progressive for cheap! All it took was a call and a vin. Going through an agent is always 100 times better than a web portal or toll free customer service center.
(Part 2 - Construction to be continued, pictures and links coming)
How Second Star came to be
Every great bus has a story so I want to take a few minutes to tell ours. My daughter, wife, and I live in beautiful Central Oregon. We both want to get our daughter out of the house and enjoy and fall in love with nature and camping and Oregon has some of the most amazing environments in one state you could find from sandy and rocky shores to wooded mountains and even rocky deserts. What better place to own an RV?
We had an awesome Appache Mesa popup but wanted something more. We decided to buy a travel trailer and proceeded to study and learn about them. After a couple of months we found one that we could agree upon and was in the price we wanted to pay. Unfortunately (well maybe fortunately) we struggled with the amount of money we would be paying for something we knew wasnt going to last 10+ years. We hated how they all seemed to get water damage regardless of how new it was and how cheap some felt.
Friday after work we had our 3rd look at the trailer we both agreed upon and Monday morning we were to sign the papers to our loan for it. I called my best friend to tell him we decided and I mentioned how the no rust no rot trailers were what we really wanted but who can afford those. Thats when, my best friend reveals to me that him and his wife had just bought 2 school buses and were building them into tiny houses to live in. I laughed... thinking he was kidding but he wasnt and then had me watch a youtube video (one with a hot chick of course) and while watching I realized I could build everything they did and loved the way theirs was compared to the hundreds of trailers we had just seen over the past few months. An hour later my wife gets home and I tell her "Honey were buying a bus" ... her response was "Oh **** NO", then she watched the video... says ok play it again.. 3 hours later she is rattling off all the things we can do with it... during which we both had the same theme come into our heads and the name came to be, Second Star and straight on till morning. We have never regreted our decision.
Youtube Video link https://youtu.be/ncXXLjf235g
Picture of a styling we want our bus to look and feel like.

Where we got our Bus (where to look)
We went with the public auction site where school districts sell their buses direct. I knew I wanted one with a large handicap door and really wanted it in the back of the bus. I also wanted one that was about 30 feet long or so. To maximize space a flat nose bus would be the best option. I had the winning bid of $1650 5 minutes before the auction finished. After a bidding war I got the bus for $3200 including all the fees. One thing that may be of interest to people looking to buy a bus and the dificulties of financing is to do what we did. We opened a home equity line of credit. WIth essentially a very low interest rate, lower than I could acquire if it was a "commercial vehicle loan" and was flexible since I was bidding there was no set price. Using a HELoC i have a interest rate of like 6% or less and have the entire bus conversion financed from purchase to completion via credit card. Anyhow I digress. Buying from the school direct we were able to review the maintenance records. Our bus had become a spare when it turned 15 and sold at 20 years old. Drove up with my bus buddy, paid for the bus via check and drove home and parked it in the driveway.
Public Surplus link to buy buses direct from schools http://www.publicsurplus.com/
Insurance... not that difficult
I heard a lot of folks discuss having difficulties with insurance. My advice is to get on a first name basis with a local agent. We have an amazing insurance agent who we have used for almost 20 years. We added full covereage RV insruance for our bus with Progressive for cheap! All it took was a call and a vin. Going through an agent is always 100 times better than a web portal or toll free customer service center.
(Part 2 - Construction to be continued, pictures and links coming)
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