RaisingWheels1
Member
Howdy!
I'm a newbie and lurker, but I'm here for a completely different reason than most of you, as we purchased a used school bus to be our family vehicle, not to transform into an RV. My apologies for the lengthy thread, I just know sometimes it's easier to start with our background on WHY we need, and are using the bus.
Let me explain. My wife and I have 2 amazing sons that have an extremely rare mitochondrial condition that causes a global overall delay and requires them to use manual wheelchairs for their mobility. If anyone has ever watched the HGTV show "Fixer Upper", our family was blessed beyond measure when Chip and Jo and Tim Tebow helped our family with a fully accessible home for our boys that originally aired in January 2018!
Our family is very active and after the blessing from "Fixer Upper", we felt it was our duty to pay it forward and started the Raising Wheels Foundation to help other families in our position. With this added responsibility, our family is even more active than before and travel all over the state of Texas for specialist appointments, summer camps and Foundation events. Well, we were, before the Coronavirus came along anyway.....
We were quickly outgrowing our minivans and I was originally researching shuttle buses. Long story short, a friend heard about our story to obtain a larger vehicle for the boys and created a GoFundMe to help us raise funds. During that time a friend suggested a used school bus and our local school district was auctioning 6 identical buses previously used as SPED buses with 2 A/Cs, and of course, wheelchair lifts. While not the engine I was hoping for after MUCH research on this site, our family made the decision to bid on the bus I liked best and were able to win it!
The bus is a 2007 IC 200 CE 30' short bus with a VT365 engine and Allison transmission. It has a 5.29 rear end and will cruise pretty easily at 65 with the cruise control set, running around 2400 RPM. Due to research on this site, I immediately purchased a ScanGauge D to monitor the EOT, which ranges from 200 to 220 degrees on the short trips (within 30 miles) I've made to get a feel for how it drives. Fuel mileage is pretty terrible according to the ScanGauge, only 1.4 MPG average. That doesn't seem to jive with instant MPG on the dash. Also randomly has puffs of black smoke and while doing research before purchasing, found out from Navistar that the injectors were replaced early on under warranty but unsure of anything done by the school district before retiring it. We knew repairs would need to be made when we purchased it and are planning to get them done when things get back to "normal."
I understand many of you have a severe distaste for this engine and I respect that, but please understand we do not have the luxury of waiting for the perfect bus to come along with our situation. So in our case, we feel the perfect bus DID come along, we're staying positive. I fully intend to get the engine bulletproofed, but I'm digressing from my question.
I purchased a backup camera system that allows me to connect 2 cameras. I installed one on the back of the bus as a primary backup camera. The second, I installed in the center of where the wheelchair lift will come down, so as I pull up to sidewalks, etc., I can see exactly where I need to park to lower the lift and load and unload the boys safely.
When I initially had this idea, I was thinking there was a light I could tap into under the wheelchair lift door. Unfortunately I was wrong, the lights are actually built into the lift itself, so that's out. After getting under the tail of the bus, I found 6 wires in a loom that I assume are the rear lights. Tonight I attempted to use the wire taps provided with the camera, but ran into 2 issues.
1.) There are 2 red wires, 2 white wires and 2 gray wires.
2.) After tapping into 1 red wire and 1 gray wire, I had no power to the camera. (The black tape is what I put over the failed attempts.)
For those of you more experienced with bus wiring, did I try to tap into the wrong wires? What is the gray wire? I assumed it was essentially the negative, but I couldn't find anything confirmative on any sites to tell me what it was. I'm also not sure I was able to get a good tap with what the manufacturer provided, but I wanted to ask on this forum first before trying again and potentially shorting something out.
ANY help at this point is greatly appreciated!!!!!
I'm a newbie and lurker, but I'm here for a completely different reason than most of you, as we purchased a used school bus to be our family vehicle, not to transform into an RV. My apologies for the lengthy thread, I just know sometimes it's easier to start with our background on WHY we need, and are using the bus.
Let me explain. My wife and I have 2 amazing sons that have an extremely rare mitochondrial condition that causes a global overall delay and requires them to use manual wheelchairs for their mobility. If anyone has ever watched the HGTV show "Fixer Upper", our family was blessed beyond measure when Chip and Jo and Tim Tebow helped our family with a fully accessible home for our boys that originally aired in January 2018!
Our family is very active and after the blessing from "Fixer Upper", we felt it was our duty to pay it forward and started the Raising Wheels Foundation to help other families in our position. With this added responsibility, our family is even more active than before and travel all over the state of Texas for specialist appointments, summer camps and Foundation events. Well, we were, before the Coronavirus came along anyway.....
We were quickly outgrowing our minivans and I was originally researching shuttle buses. Long story short, a friend heard about our story to obtain a larger vehicle for the boys and created a GoFundMe to help us raise funds. During that time a friend suggested a used school bus and our local school district was auctioning 6 identical buses previously used as SPED buses with 2 A/Cs, and of course, wheelchair lifts. While not the engine I was hoping for after MUCH research on this site, our family made the decision to bid on the bus I liked best and were able to win it!
The bus is a 2007 IC 200 CE 30' short bus with a VT365 engine and Allison transmission. It has a 5.29 rear end and will cruise pretty easily at 65 with the cruise control set, running around 2400 RPM. Due to research on this site, I immediately purchased a ScanGauge D to monitor the EOT, which ranges from 200 to 220 degrees on the short trips (within 30 miles) I've made to get a feel for how it drives. Fuel mileage is pretty terrible according to the ScanGauge, only 1.4 MPG average. That doesn't seem to jive with instant MPG on the dash. Also randomly has puffs of black smoke and while doing research before purchasing, found out from Navistar that the injectors were replaced early on under warranty but unsure of anything done by the school district before retiring it. We knew repairs would need to be made when we purchased it and are planning to get them done when things get back to "normal."
I understand many of you have a severe distaste for this engine and I respect that, but please understand we do not have the luxury of waiting for the perfect bus to come along with our situation. So in our case, we feel the perfect bus DID come along, we're staying positive. I fully intend to get the engine bulletproofed, but I'm digressing from my question.
I purchased a backup camera system that allows me to connect 2 cameras. I installed one on the back of the bus as a primary backup camera. The second, I installed in the center of where the wheelchair lift will come down, so as I pull up to sidewalks, etc., I can see exactly where I need to park to lower the lift and load and unload the boys safely.
When I initially had this idea, I was thinking there was a light I could tap into under the wheelchair lift door. Unfortunately I was wrong, the lights are actually built into the lift itself, so that's out. After getting under the tail of the bus, I found 6 wires in a loom that I assume are the rear lights. Tonight I attempted to use the wire taps provided with the camera, but ran into 2 issues.
1.) There are 2 red wires, 2 white wires and 2 gray wires.
2.) After tapping into 1 red wire and 1 gray wire, I had no power to the camera. (The black tape is what I put over the failed attempts.)
For those of you more experienced with bus wiring, did I try to tap into the wrong wires? What is the gray wire? I assumed it was essentially the negative, but I couldn't find anything confirmative on any sites to tell me what it was. I'm also not sure I was able to get a good tap with what the manufacturer provided, but I wanted to ask on this forum first before trying again and potentially shorting something out.
ANY help at this point is greatly appreciated!!!!!
