Why do you Skoolie?

[kazetsukai]

Why a skoolie over a van: I want luxuries like being able to stand up, have _separate_ places to cook/pee

Why a skoolie over a tiny house trailer: I want something done right but I'm not made out of money

Why a skoolie over an RV: I prefer steel to balsa wood

Why a skoolie over my house: I don't want to be in debt my whole life


No offense to anybody that prefers the above alternatives.

 

[Ronnie-SKO]

Because we like traveling in our home away from home. Always the same comfy bed, not every night in a different bed if one were to do hotels. Just do not sleep well that way. Plus the other comforts of home with us.

Specifically a skoolie for durability, and so we can build it just the way we want it. It is fun to create, to build our dreams.

 

[Dog Rescuer]

What do you love about Skoolies? I like the old fashion look of a school bus - and how they stand out in a sea of RVs - but blend in when traveling. I like the solid feel of the bus and the ruggedness.
Why have you chosen to go this route? I originally wanted a bus to travel with my dogs - but as circumstances changed, I decided to go full time and travel for two years.
Why not an RV? Why not a van? Why not a hotel, or an airline ticket, or a life at home? I looked at RVs and was turned off by the price and the space. most felt like you were in a cardboard box - I really like the open windows of a bus. I don't like hotels - and wanted to be able to park off-grid for weeks at a time and enjoy public lands.

Is it to save money, or a great place to spend every dollar you make? While the fuel was expensive - the overall cost was a lot less than other travel options. I have the ability to stop any where any time.
Is it to get away from it all, or to connect with others who share your vibe?Originally it was just to get away from every day stress of owning a house and working two jobs to afford a house - but the connections on the road have been a great motivator.
Is it to rekindle the flames of a bygone era, or to embrace the new tiny house trend?It was to get out of Florida. That was the real goal. I like the minimalistic concept. I would love to build a tiny house and settle into it one day.

 

[Gorzie]

My wife and I are just starting our skoolie experience. We plan on using it mainly for weekend trips with a few long trips. Safety was one of the reasons whe chose a bus. Just Google RV accidents.

Is it less expensive? That is yet to be determined. We got our bus for a good price. As others have said the cost of gas in the bus equals or is cheaper than hotels and I know how clean the bed is. There are not to many places I would like to spend a night night or two (we like out of the way places). As for the cost of the conversion we are looking on craigslist for free and cheap items.

On the plus side I have a lot of tools and skills to build/manufacturer.

 

[fifty1]

I love all the windows!!
When I travel I want to see the world.
Our cab-over made me feel so claustrophobic, especially sleeping with the roof 2' above your head after a few nightcaps.
The durability is a plus, and so is belonging to the cool kids club!

 

[Mark_In_MA]

I'd like to be able to travel, and being self-contained seems like the best way to do it (right now). There's a lot of places I want to go in a 500-mile radius or so - close enough to drive, so I want something comfortable to drive.

May as well sleep in my vehicle too, right? Not that hotels are bad, but they can be expensive, and they're based on an overnight stay - I might be better stopping during the evening (5 to 8 to avoid traffic, then driving until later at night.

A skoolie can get me a better chassis and a safer body in the long run. I can also build my skoolie exactly the way I want it. Will it be better then something from a factory? Who knows. I'm still gonna try!

 

[musigenesis]

I don't remember why I skoolie or how this happened exactly (I talked to nobody about it and I didn't write any of my thought processes down). I randomly bicycled past a bus auction last fall and stopped and walked through a few of them. That somehow became a night in a tiny house (which I hated) while checking out a disaster of a bus selling for $8400 (which I thought was an amazing deal because the seats were already out). Then I got an unexpected extra severance check from my old company and bid it all on a bus on eBay and won it ("won" it). Now I'm converting it to a skoolie because the only other use for a used school bus is as a giant pickup truck for watermelons and I hate watermelon.

I'm a programmer by trade and I'm finding this experience to be very similar to software development, but in the physical world. I have no idea how to do anything at the start of a new project and I have to learn how to do a bunch of new stuff before I can get rolling - and at the end of the day none of it would be possible without the internet.

 

[Wornout Wrench]

Why do I want to Skoolie?

Good question.

Considering that I figure that I have close to 100K miles riding in buses from when I was a kid and swore that I would never get on another one LOL.

I have alway liked the looks of converted buses, they look tough.

After owning several different types of RV styles over the years and finally cluing in to the fact that they are crap, the light has come on and a Skoolie should do what I want.
Because I will build it to do what I want.

My wife and I like boon dock style of camping, I think we have only been in a real RV park 3 or 4 times. I was set up in one for several months on a job one time,but not counting that.

So we like camping. I don't like hotels, never sleep the first few nights in a new bed. Just the way I am wired.

My wife is on the disabled list, diagnosed with Parkinson's about 15 years ago. She does okay but traveling is getting harder to do. If I can take her house,bed and chair with her, it will make it easier to get out and do stuff.

I want to get out and see more of North America. I'm not a world traveler. I figure that there is enough to see just here in Canada and the US. I could probably spend the rest of my life just doing that. Head south for the cold wet winters that we get on Vancouver Island, come back for the summer.

We both have some dietary issues so cooking our own is the easiest we find. I'm allergic to garlic. Head out for dinner and ask what doesn't have garlic in it. The menu gets pretty short pretty fast.

My travel trailer has suffered from some water intrusions. Even though I was diligent and watched it like a hawk, had it parked with heat in it over the winter and such, it still leaked and as a result it suddenly decided that it wants to find the RV graveyard and go die. Do I want to go out and spend a bucket load of money to buy another headache that is sticks and staples. I don't think so.

So my answer is to build my own.

I have trashed the idea around for years. Build my own trailer, convert a hiway bus, convert a school bus.

There is just something about a school bus that I like. I don't know what it is, but I like them.