Well... I did it.

Activity bus

The bus was used as an activity bus. :smile: You seem to be the first to notice that, I was wondering who might. And I believe they are simulators.



20409-albums1926-picture23653.jpg
 
Dang, I think I'm even more jealous now, looks like you got the taller roof. Mine is about 73". My son is 76" tall, one of the reasons I now have the bus and he is looking for a travel bus instead. I'm down to 71" and just getting shorter with time, so I'll be ok with the lower roof line. How many miles does it have? One of the nicer things about the activity buses is it's likely they were rarely used as in town stop & go buses. I think mine has about 259K on it.
 
Looks almost identical to mine! I have the exact same setup as you i.e full understorage as well as 1 extra bay on the passenger side. Mine was originally an activity bus from a tiny school district in Wyoming, then it was owned by a non profit nature center in Colorado for 6 years.

I don't have the stimulators but I did recently pick up 4 Alcoas for a good deal :thumb: They will be going on the bus after polish time and new tires.

Best of luck with the build. These Bluebirds with the 8.3 Cummins really are the cream of the crop when it comes to skoolie builds.
 
JackE said:
The bus in the pic is a 14 window bus, but your description says capacity of 46. My '99 is the same as your '00, but my capacity is 84. I think you have a number wrong there, or is yours fitted with the coach type seats rather than the bench seats?

The access panel on the outside below the drivers window should have a lug in the bottom left corner that is the power supply for the whole panel. You can clip your alligator clip on that and run the wire to the left behind the wall right into the driver area. Follow the main power wire that is attached to that lug. Are those nice chrome wheels, or simulators? Either way I'm a little jealous of those and that 3rd lower storage bay. I only have 2 on each side.

I'm interested in and planning on having the 6th gear unlocked, but even without it, I can run down the highway with the cruise set at 75 all day long. I haven't run any mountains yet to see how well it'll do climbing, and I don't have any kind of retarder on it yet.

I am also interested in info you have on the fuel system stuff you are talking about. I spent a few years wrenching in the auto industry a long time ago, but I have no experience on large diesel applications.

Nice looking bus. Look forward to seeing what you do with it in the future.
Click to expand...


Here is a link to a long Rv thread about the CAPS pumps failures in the 8.3. This is mostly from RV guys so their rigs are much more expensive to work on than buses because there’s more crammed into the engine compartment.

https://www.irv2.com/forums/f123/repeating-caps-failures-need-help-289659.html

The main idea is to install a fuel pump that feeds the CAPS fuel pump with positive fuel pressure; rather than the factory Cummins set up where the CAPS pump is sucking the fuel out of the tank with negative pressure in the fuel line. The CAPS pump is lubricated by diesel and can become starved for fuel and fail. Another pump making positive fuel line pressure to the CAPS can hopefully stop that.

I went through the service records for my bus from the school district I bought it from and the CAPS pump was rebuilt or replaced 2 or 3 times, thousands of dollars each time. Hopefully soon I can install another pump to give this positive pressure so I don’t get stuck with a big repair bill.
 
T0 P... or not to P... p-pump that is.


I will start by adding a fass or air dog to maintain positive pressure and see how long it holds up. If it fails it's likely I will p-pump it and go mechanical.


But who knows, if the positive pressure gets the results others are talking about I may never have to worry about it.


Or... Best case scenario (for the bus) would be to scrap the truck I have and swap the engine. It's a mechanical with 27K on it. That thing runs like... like ... like a brand new engine! Just have too much time invested in that project right now.



It's a crane we picked up and rebuilt the boom. The previous owner used it to set AC units on roofs, his guys let the cables come off the pulleys and really messed it up. They also kept trying to use the winch to force the boom back into retracted position. We drove it home with the boom half extended, talk about a pucker factor. Disassembled the boom replaced all the wear pads, pulleys, bearings, both cable sets, and repacked all the glands on the main cylinder. Still have a leak at the winch and a few switches to replace. We plan to use it for setting trusses and shipping containers.



Sorry, every time I start thinking about that truck with the low miles its like a fat kid at krispy kreme.
 
Add to carry supplies:
Book (and/or magazines) to read while waiting out weather or forparts delivery.

Camp lantern

Bill
 
home...

Sixteen hundred miles later, and we're home.



Bus did great. Air bags held up fine, lost a little oil but not enough to even need to add any.


The bus has a full basement, which was a mildly pleasant surprise. other than that though, everything else was about as expected, with a few dammits...


Windshield leaks, (only when underway) top edge has silicone but still lets water in while driving.

Tire tread is great, but sidewalls show a little dry rot.
Emergency hatches are siliconed out the wazoo.
Fuel gauge is unreliable.
Speedo gauge light is intermittent.
Big canister forward of the rear end, middle of the frame, is leaking a little oil. (what is that)


Found a blue tooth speaker that still had a charge on top of the engine box behind the rear seat. Didn't sound as good as the one I took with me.


Ran 58 to 60 most of the time, averaged 9.1 mpg.


First plane had a 200 passenger capacity, 17 people on board.
Second plane, 200 passenger capacity, 6 people on board.
We wore mask and gloves that whole time except while in the bus, gloves to fill up. Hit wally world one time to grocery up and ate, slept... lived out of the bus all the way home.


Picked up the bus Friday, left at 11:30 am new mexico time, got home 11:30 pm saturday night ga time. Took 2 hour shifts driving.


In case I havent mentioned it, I am so SO fortunate to have the family I do. Took one call, even with the corona crap out there and my cuz said ... lets go. If I was stuck in Alaska, it would only take one call and as many as needed would come running. Super SUPER great people!!!!
 
The only way to really fix that windshield leak is to take the windshield right off and reseal the whole thing. You could probably find out how to do it on YouTube but in my opinion it’s not worth the risk of dropping it. My old class A motor home had a leak and it was only like $100 for a professional to reseal it.

That thing leaking... best to post a picture.

Glad you had an uneventful return trip, I hope it stays that way.
 
winshield

The rubber seal / glazing, still has some flexibility but the corners are hardening to the point it'll probably tear getting it out.


I've put in a few windshields in my life and this one looks to be the easiest I've seen. I'm trying to source the rubber glazing and locking strips now. I've found part numbers and suppliers but no prices... time to get on the phone. Sadly for me there is a small stone chip in the drivers side. It's not in the line of sight so it's not bad, but there's already cracks about an 1/8 starting from the chip. I need to take the glass to a repair place to see if they can vacuum and epoxy the chip to stop the crack from spreading. If not I'll probably have to replace both sides cause the clarity being unsymmetrical will drive me crazy.



I'll try to get a picture of the big canister I was talking about. I tried to find it in the service manual but had other thing going on so couldn't spend to much time on it.
 
cntryby said:
The rubber seal / glazing, still has some flexibility but the corners are hardening to the point it'll probably tear getting it out.


I've put in a few windshields in my life and this one looks to be the easiest I've seen. I'm trying to source the rubber glazing and locking strips now. I've found part numbers and suppliers but no prices... time to get on the phone. Sadly for me there is a small stone chip in the drivers side. It's not in the line of sight so it's not bad, but there's already cracks about an 1/8 starting from the chip. I need to take the glass to a repair place to see if they can vacuum and epoxy the chip to stop the crack from spreading. If not I'll probably have to replace both sides cause the clarity being unsymmetrical will drive me crazy.



I'll try to get a picture of the big canister I was talking about. I tried to find it in the service manual but had other thing going on so couldn't spend to much time on it.
Click to expand...
Since you lost a bit of oil and based on your description of the canister I'd say check that your air compressor isn't pushing oil.
That canister is probably the air dryer. If oil is coming out of it that means its coming from the compressor.
Could be, anyhow.
 
EastCoastCB said:
Since you lost a bit of oil and based on your description of the canister I'd say check that your air compressor isn't pushing oil.
That canister is probably the air dryer. If oil is coming out of it that means its coming from the compressor.
Could be, anyhow.
Click to expand...




Yes, looks a lot different in the daylight. It's the dryer. It's not purging very often, I only heard it once or twice in several days. but it does seem to have oil on / in it.


That video is great!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

NE
Stuck at a Quick Trip
nikitis
nikitis
turf
diesel heater service
2
Cheezewhiz
CH
jimmythomas
FOR SALE ---2007 Thomas HDX 31'
jimmythomas
jimmythomas
TR
Question before I buy - International T444E
Rucker
Rucker
SR
For Sale 2003 Medium Size Thomas Skoolie $45,000
sraine3
SR

New posts

Try RV LIFE Pro Free for 7 Days

  • New Ad-Free experience on this RV LIFE Community.
  • Plan the best RV Safe travel with RV LIFE Trip Wizard.
  • Navigate with our RV Safe GPS mobile app.
  • and much more...
Try RV LIFE Pro Today
Back
Top