We Just Bought a Bus ... Let The Fun Begin :)

Robin97396 said:
Congrats. Nice score on a low mileage rig. I was wondering what had been keeping you busy.
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24 hours of broken internet kept us busy.

I wanted that bus, and have been watching it for 3 weeks. I was a little disappointed it got so much discussion on this site before the auction closed. Nonetheless, we persisted.

With the current lack of decent buses on the auction sites, I suspected it would go too high for me. I fixed a maximum I was prepared to pay ($3750), dropped one bid with six minutes to go and no one responded. That was a nervous 6 minutes :)

The previous high bidder had clearly set a max of $3500, because my bid pushed the price from $1500 to 3600, and that was it. I thought it would go over $4000. The other bus, almost the same but older and with significant rust fetched exactly the same price ... I'm happy I got the better one.

Auctions can be fun :D
 
Twigg,

If you're looking to scrap any of those seats, let me know. I can use a left hand side and right hand side for my dinette! The holes line up with the mounting holes in my Thomas as well.

Thanks!

M :biggrin:
 
M1031A1 said:
Twigg,

If you're looking to scrap any of those seats, let me know. I can use a left hand side and right hand side for my dinette! The holes line up with the mounting holes in my Thomas as well.

Thanks!

M :biggrin:
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Jodie and I both work for our local School District.

We are going to offer the seats to them should they want them for one of their activity buses. If they don't, you can have as many as you want.
 
Twigg said:
Jodie and I both work for our local School District.

We are going to offer the seats to them should they want them for one of their activity buses. If they don't, you can have as many as you want.
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Just beggin' for one from each side, nothing more I promise!

M :biggrin:
 
TJones said:
Congrats on the nice bus! I thought about bidding on it but I decided to hold out for air suspension.
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It's just so hard, esp right now, to find one with EVERYTHING you want at a decent price.

I thought about air suspension, but I figured that with the rear engine, the springs will probably be fine. I may even have to lighten the springing as the conversion will weigh less than a bus full of people.
 
Twigg said:
It's just so hard, esp right now, to find one with EVERYTHING you want at a decent price.

I thought about air suspension, but I figured that with the rear engine, the springs will probably be fine. I may even have to lighten the springing as the conversion will weigh less than a bus full of people.
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I wouldn't alter the factory springs unless you are *VERY* knowledgeable about springs and what you are doing (IE, you work in a spring/suspension shop and have a lot of experience with it). Otherwise you run the risk of broken springs because they weren't designed for what you are doing.
 
Hey, Twigg- nice bus ! Welcome to The Club. :dance:

Now you can make some real plans and get your hands dirty. Looking forward to a great build.:popcorn:
 
Rusty said:
Hey, Twigg- nice bus ! Welcome to The Club. :dance:

Now you can make some real plans and get your hands dirty. Looking forward to a great build.:popcorn:
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It seems to have all the right bits in all the right places, so I can only blame myself if I get it wrong :)

I'm very familiar with everything "RV", and very ignorant of most things "Bus", so it's a learning curve.

I've driven a few large vehicles, but never a bus. How hard can it be ... Go slow, stop at Stop signs, make wide right turns .... Don't over heat that low-mileage 8.3L Cummins :D
 
Twigg said:
I looked at so many auctions, my head was spinning.
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Sorta hard to turn it off...You still have all those nice buses in your watch list... maybe find a *better* bus...longer....with a bigger motor...and more gears...


"Just one more, honey. I promise- I can quit"...pant...pant....pant....*click*.
 
Rusty said:
Sorta hard to turn it off...You still have all those nice buses in your watch list... maybe find a *better* bus...longer....with a bigger motor...and more gears...


"Just one more, honey. I promise- I can quit"...pant...pant....pant....*click*.
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I'm helped by my very tight budget, and I just took a $4k chunk out of it :)

I only bid on two buses during this search. The first was similar to the one I bought but with a DT530 engine. I missed it by $150, it sold for $3000.

I won this one for $3600, again with one bid. You win some, you lose some but I was careful about this.

Pretty sure I could get my money back if I really needed it.
 
you'll find driving a bus is easy.. when I was 16 and my school-bus driver let me drive her own bus.. she said "lets take it to the School parking lot".. it was marked like a little city to teach driver's ed.. so i went to her house and got in my normal bus seat behind her.. then she said "here you start it up".. well i started it, and she never moved out of her seat behind ME.. so I white knuckled it down the long driveway, out to the road. and made it to the school parking lot...

her response was along the lines of "now you can drive a bus..so lets practice backing".. but ultimately it was the hop in and go that made me start to feel comfortable with a bus.

get in and go and enjoy!!! practice backing and maneuvering with cones or boxes in a walmart parking lot, spend some real time adjusting your mirrors. it helps a lot..
-Christopher
 
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