Just for fun and to waste some time, I decided to cruise Craigslist in Texas for a while. I figure Ros has already checked into or considered these.
http://collegestation.craigslist.org/rvs/4765645044.html (http://collegestation.craigslist.org/rvs/4765645044.html) 1979 GM 40' Buffalo converted to family RV, 8V-71 auto, horrible colour.
http://houston.craigslist.org/rvs/4770971904.html (http://houston.craigslist.org/rvs/4770971904.html) 1976, not sure what it is but it looks neat.
http://houston.craigslist.org/rvs/4688112668.html (http://houston.craigslist.org/rvs/4688112668.html) Very cool old bluebird, only 33' though.
http://dallas.craigslist.org/ftw/rvs/4758085734.html (http://dallas.craigslist.org/ftw/rvs/4758085734.html) GM 4905 kind of nice inside in a 1980's way.
Brian
Hey, Brian.
The first of your list is about 10 or 15 miles from me. The bus won't climb a slight hill.
This is the first bus that I looked at and the first bus that I drove.
I had seen the unidentified bus but I can't recall what the deal was....perhaps more than I wanted to pay. I need to call the fellow and see what his bottom dollar may be. I wonder what folks think of the model of Cummins engine that it has.
The other is 33' as you noted.....too small for me.
The last one has a very sordid tale associated with it.....bottom line, the owners are out and out crooks. I drove several hundred miles to see it. The bus won't move and is missing all of the equipment that they said they had. The generator won't run. Had a lot of rust. Way too many other things.....refused to show title. Wanted my cash and would send the title later........Whoa!
Before I went, I asked for a copy of the title 7 or 8 times.....never came
Thanks Brian.
Looking at busses and driving them is a lot of fun, lvmci...
Buses will be for sale on every corner,rally and RV park in Quartzsite from now till the end of Jan
Hi, again, Brian.
I called the fellow on the unidentified. During that conversation I realized that I had called him before.
He says he bought it four years ago and he wasn't sure of what kind of bus it is. I asked if it could be an MCI and he said no, it was and MIC. Then, he finally said it was an MCI but didn't know what model. He didn't know what brand of generator it has and was confused on its capacity.
With all of that, I had to just guess that 'maintenance' was an unknown concept for him. He sounded like a foreigner, too, not that makes any difference.
Too many red flags for me to go further with it.
Ros
Do you know of any scrapped fishbowls in Texas? Thanks.
Paul
Clifford,
Is there any particular reason for that? Is there a campground bulletin board?
Ros
Quote from: luvrbus on November 30, 2014, 02:16:05 PM
Buses will be for sale on every corner,rally and RV park in Quartzsite from now till the end of Jan
Paul,
I don't even know what a 'fishbowl' is. I am guessing that it is a Scenicruiser but I don't know of any.
Sorry.
Ros
Quote from: alley251 on November 30, 2014, 02:22:21 PM
Do you know of any scrapped fishbowls in Texas? Thanks.
Paul
The unidentified bus looks like a MCI Combo. They were made to haul freight & passengers, hence the full tandem instead of a drive axle & tag. None of them came with a Cummins from the factory that I know of. Don't think I would want one for a conversion. 2 extra tires, another rear... I think it cut into some of the bay space?
Some discussion here:
http://mcibustalk.com/bbs/index.php?topic=163.0 (http://mcibustalk.com/bbs/index.php?topic=163.0)
TOM
A "fishbowl" is a GM transit bus (or a few other makes that came out of that gene pool) with the characteristic front windshield made up of several panes of glass. I think some have six panes. I have an idea that mystery bus is a Newell. An RV, not a bus per se, but built exactly like a bus to the highest standards. Not a "sticks and staples" RV. I count Newells as buses in the same way as I do Bluebirds and Prevosts that are RV's from new.
I know you would have seen all of these. I'd personally check out the mystery bus once again, it may have promise. But really I was trying to see what was out there and try to understand why you are having such a hard timing finding a running, probably reliable, somewhat decently converted, not owned by wanna-be criminals, costs under a quite reasonable limit, converted bus. I think the biggest problem is that buses that are for sale are mostly old, converted a long time ago, not driven much if at all it the past 5 years, or even 10 years, and need too much work. I think that the value of a bus drops dramatically once it's not driveable, and makes it useless to you. Buses that can drive reliably, have a decent conversion with RV stuff that actually works, have been used often in the past year, are owned by decent folk, are both quite rare and may command a cost relative to their actual value. After all, if it's not a fire sale you don't get a fire sale price. But that same bus will be a crap-shoot five years from now after sitting a field rotting because the owner can't deal with it's upkeep any longer.
Brian
Okay, Tom.
Another thing about the seller, he didn't even know the correct year of the bus.
That didn't inspire confidence.
Yesterday, I found out from one of the members that the
Buffalo has the most bay space
Eagle is second.
MCI is third and the Prevost has the least.
Ros
Quote from: oldmansax on November 30, 2014, 03:19:03 PM
The unidentified bus looks like a MCI Combo. They were made to haul freight & passengers, hence the full tandem instead of a drive axle & tag. None of them came with a Cummins from the factory that I know of. Don't think I would want one for a conversion. 2 extra tires, another rear... I think it cut into some of the bay space?
Some discussion here:
http://mcibustalk.com/bbs/index.php?topic=163.0 (http://mcibustalk.com/bbs/index.php?topic=163.0)
TOM
Setra's have lots too!
;D BK ;D
Okay, Brian.
You hit on some very good points.
The things 'wrong' with the bus for me have been all over the board.
The price and everything that I find 'doable' but the money is a stretch only to find out it needs all new tires before it can be driven 20 miles. So, if I am struggling to meet the price, the tires do me in. I am just using tires as an example.
When one sits back and observes another trying to buy a bus and that person has deeper pockets, it is too easy to cast doubts and aspersions on the other person while the 'objector' has no idea what the potential buyer has seen and investigated.
Brian, here I go being too picky or some such ;D, there is another reason that I don't want the mystery bus and it is a big reason (for me), considering that any variance in drive-train and the vehicle itself, regardless of all of its warts, *FROM THE BIG 4, will be a real hardship for me when it comes to a point that I need parts. I can't even imagine how hard it would be to try to find parts for a bastardized Newell or MCI with the weird rear-end. I doubt that there are many who would know what I needed and I probably couldn't explain it properly at first.
Thanks for taking your time to investigate.
Ros
* "Big Four" to me are the GMC (4905), the Eagles, the MCIs and the Prevost.
Quote from: bevans6 on November 30, 2014, 03:33:40 PM
A "fishbowl" is a GM transit bus (or a few other makes that came out of that gene pool) with the characteristic front windshield made up of several panes of glass. I think some have six panes. I have an idea that mystery bus is a Newell. An RV, not a bus per se, but built exactly like a bus to the highest standards. Not a "sticks and staples" RV. I count Newells as buses in the same way as I do Bluebirds and Prevosts that are RV's from new.
I know you would have seen all of these. I'd personally check out the mystery bus once again, it may have promise. But really I was trying to see what was out there and try to understand why you are having such a hard timing finding a running, probably reliable, somewhat decently converted, not owned by wanna-be criminals, costs under a quite reasonable limit, converted bus. I think the biggest problem is that buses that are for sale are mostly old, converted a long time ago, not driven much if at all it the past 5 years, or even 10 years, and need too much work. I think that the value of a bus drops dramatically once it's not driveable, and makes it useless to you. Buses that can drive reliably, have a decent conversion with RV stuff that actually works, have been used often in the past year, are owned by decent folk, are both quite rare and may command a cost relative to their actual value. After all, if it's not a fire sale you don't get a fire sale price. But that same bus will be a crap-shoot five years from now after sitting a field rotting because the owner can't deal with it's upkeep any longer.
Brian
Hey Brian,
Did Newell make a bus with a full tandem?
TOM
No. The only full tandem I know of is a 40ft Crown or Gillig school bus. Even some of those were only single drive like the GMC Scenicruiser and MCI Combi. Good Luck, TomC
Ros, you should figure into your calculations tires, as I said before used tires, $125/$175 will certainly get you home safe on your first trip, you don't want to run into problems, on an unfamiliar bus, the first trip. I dont know how many times, in my 2 searchs for busses, I ran across the ne'er-do-well brother selling his recently deceased brothers bus project or even children or grandchildren, selling grandpas finished conversion, they know nothing, and don't even want to know enough to sell it at a realistic price, there's a woman in palm springs, trying to sell a partially finished 102A3 with a wheel chair lift, her discription and lack of pictures and knowledge is insurmountable in selling her bus that she is asking $59K for, she cant show you the bus, because it 75 miles away, only 2 bad exterior pictures, and she doesnt really know how far it's converted and certainly knows nothing about it mechanically and doesnt trust anyone, she thinks everyone is trying to cheat her! But you'll be able to see 10 or 15, inspect several and drive a few, each one will gain you knowledge and lead you to a better understanding of what your looking for, lvmci...
Quote from: TomC on November 30, 2014, 07:42:29 PM
No. The only full tandem I know of is a 40ft Crown or Gillig school bus. Even some of those were only single drive like the GMC Scenicruiser and MCI Combi. Good Luck, TomC
Didn't know that. I thought the MCI Combos were full tandems.
Also, there are way too many Toms around here. I am older than all you guys so you all should change! LOL! ;D ;D ;D
TOM
Full tandem to me means also dual drive axles. The PD4501 and MCI Combos were built on the same chassis that had just one drive axle. Having dual drives takes a bit more fuel to push, but the traction possibility makes for not getting stuck many times. Good Luck, TomC
2 locking diffs is even better. Then you only need to put on one chain to get out of a slippery spot.
JC
Quote from: TomC on December 01, 2014, 08:23:56 AM
Full tandem to me means also dual drive axles. The PD4501 and MCI Combos were built on the same chassis that had just one drive axle. Having dual drives takes a bit more fuel to push, but the traction possibility makes for not getting stuck many times. Good Luck, TomC
Same here. I've never seen a Combo in person so I didn't know how they were setup other than duals on both rear axles.
TOM
That mystery bus, which the ad is now pulled on, wasn't an MCI for sure, and I have no idea how anyone could know if it had tandem tag wheels. Anyway, for my own curiosity I will continue to look at buses for sale around the country. I think buses worthy of buying are a lot scarcer than we think, hence our own investments are more solid than we think...
Brian
There is a old gent here in the Valley that has a White/Sterling bus with a tandem drive that is driven by a chain lol and it runs
Quote from: luvrbus on December 01, 2014, 04:48:08 PM
There is a old gent here in the Valley that has a White/Sterling bus with a tandem drive that is driven by a chain lol and it runs
That brings back a few memories.......... Back in the Dark Ages when I was a kid there was an old truck out in the junk pile behind the barn that had chain drive. I think it was a Mack. Long gone now..... Probably be worth something today if it was still around.
TOM
Hey Tom,
There is one of those chain drive Macks owned by Culver farms in Delmar, on the Maryland side . Best wishes for the upcoming season..............John
When I was a kid, a construction company from Pittsburgh installed our sewer system in newer sections of the town. Most of the dump trucks were chain drive.
LOL now we are telling our ages ;D
Quote from: luvrbus on December 02, 2014, 10:37:15 AM
LOL now we are telling our ages ;D
And I had NO idea what you all were talking about, and had to google for information ;D
Does anyone remember single drive tandem with belt drive to the tag?
Yep I was just going to mention that
My first driving gig had that set up 1953 Autocar that was in 1973. In 64 also drove a chain drive Mack water truck, took two foot ball fields to turn it around.
Quote from: TomC on December 02, 2014, 01:20:47 PM
Does anyone remember single drive tandem with belt drive to the tag?
A friend of mine recently bought a 1955 Crown with that arrangement. It's one of the first, if not the actual first, tandem Crown mid-engine school bus ever made, so it's got historical significance. His other bus is a 1957 Crown, but that's too modern for him! Interestingly, the 1955's driven rear axle is behind its non-drive axle, and the non-drive axle has a slightly dropped center (like a front axle) to give clearance for the driveshaft. The driven axle looks like something from a military truck, not like axles on any other Crown I've seen. Next time I'm under it, I'll try to get a better look at the belt-drive arrangement. He wants to convert it to a "real" dual-drive like later Crowns, but that's after he fixes its seized engine and the huge dent where a fir tree fell on it . . . Ah, such are the projects of a true busnut!
John
Quote from: longjohn on December 02, 2014, 07:22:16 AM
Hey Tom,
There is one of those chain drive Macks owned by Culver farms in Delmar, on the Maryland side . Best wishes for the upcoming season..............John
I hope they are just using it for parades are something.... Best wishes to you as well..
Quote from: TomC on December 02, 2014, 01:20:47 PM
Does anyone remember single drive tandem with belt drive to the tag?
Yep, friend of mine had one on a White he converted from a single axle to a tandem. I took my first trip to Florida with him to have him introduce me to the truck brokers he used.
Quote from: Bob Gilbert on December 02, 2014, 03:07:08 PM
My first driving gig had that set up 1953 Autocar that was in 1973.
My uncle had a '54 Autocar I used to make extra trips for him in. Single axle, 220 with a factory sleeper. I wish I had bought it from him. It would make a nice truck conversion. I could do that in all my spare time....... ;D ;D
TOM