Just noticed the bus in the classified is sold. When that last dramatic price reduction happened, it got me ready to write a check. Glad someone will get it back on the road. Anyone with details?
Gary, feel free to delete/close this thread if it is off limits.
https://www.busconversionmagazine.com/1970-eagle-a-dream-cut-short/
Marilyn sold her bus two weeks ago. Practically gave it away. She had it for sale for about 3 years but nobody would touch it because it has a standard transmission. She is a lovely lady and I loved working with her and felt so bad she had to sell it so cheap after all of the work her husband put into it to get it ready for them to travel in but which never happened as he passed away before they got a chance to travel in it.
Gary
I hated to see Marilyn sell so cheap about a 1/5th of what was invested. She is a sweetheart and did the right thing the bus had some items that needed to finished,the new batteries she installed were going bad,the tires were going bad each year the bus was losing value from sitting.Spending money was not going to add to value of the bus so she let it go a wise choice on her part and someone got a buy
This is a real world example of how much less marketable a bus is with a manual tranny. It seemed like a nice coach and surely would have sold for more much sooner if it had an automatic.
Any general labor and other parts estimates (in addition to an auto tranny) needed upgrade a manual to an auto? Many busnuts want in for less cost, maybe this is a reasonable option for some. Just not read any chatter here from taking this path.
The manual transmission didn't scare us off from our current bus. I had considered this Eagle as an option after our first one was totaled last year. The only thing that kept me away was it not being GM. It seems that the GM we ended up buying had been on the market for a while, but even a manual transmission bus will be bought, sometimes for good money, once the right buyer is found. Or at least a buyer crazy enough to learn double-clutching at 55. On the up side, after the improvements we did to the electrical bay and upholstery, our appraisal came in for nearly $10K over purchase price, even after accounting for the manual transmission.
Appraisal's mean nothing on a bus conversion, especially with an manual transmission. Very few have an interest in them anymore. How many under 40 can even drive a manual? At least a GM is pretty easy to convert over compared to other ones.
It is the market IMO it is flooded buses are for sale everywhere converted or shells.Back in the 80's when I first got into buses you couldn't buy a rusted Eagle seated bus for under 30k.I paid over 50k for my first shell with a 4 speed,no power steering with 8v71 and I got a bargain on a 16 year old bus ,then I added power steering, 740 and a 8v92 before starting the conversion no way would I do that now with todays prices
Automatic transmissions are a North American thing. Much of the rest of the world still happily shifts gears. We just had cousins visit here from France. They used a couple of our vehicles to get around and I had to show them how to use the auto transmission. They say that auto transmissions are still rare in Europe, people like manuals. It is in the culture.
JC
Quote from: lostagain on July 16, 2018, 06:28:31 AM
Automatic transmissions are a North American thing. Much of the rest of the world still happily shifts gears. We just had cousins visit here from France. They used a couple of our vehicles to get around and I had to show them how to use the auto transmission. They say that auto transmissions are still rare in Europe, people like manuals. It is in the culture.
JC
LOL JC why didn't you say it is a lazy @$# American thing ;D I would love to see a truck driver nowadays trying to drive a 2 stick 5 and 4 in a truck
I notice here how the help wanted adds for truck drivers are more and more advertising auto transmissions to attract the younger drivers.
JC
Quote from: chessie4905 on July 16, 2018, 04:50:24 AM
Appraisal's mean nothing on a bus conversion, especially with an manual transmission. Very few have an interest in them anymore. How many under 40 can even drive a manual? At least a GM is pretty easy to convert over compared to other ones.
Changing to a V730 from a manual transmission is not a plug and play I think the T drives going to a 740 are a lot easier than a GM, can you still find the heavy @$# flywheel and spacer needed to convert to a V730 ?
As you point out Clifford, there is such a glut of all sorts of used buses, it makes no sense to convert manual to auto with so many automatics to pick from, all at cheap prices too.
It just seems so odd that all this hoopla over "tiny house" for stupid prices and these wonderful older converted coaches offer so much more for so much fewer dollars. Guess it's like every other consumable product in today's consumer world - no bling - no interest. not new - blah. So much older stuff that is far better quality than the crap being made today. Oh well, good for us.
Quote from: lostagain on July 16, 2018, 06:28:31 AM
Automatic transmissions are a North American thing. Much of the rest of the world still happily shifts gears. We just had cousins visit here from France. They used a couple of our vehicles to get around and I had to show them how to use the auto transmission. They say that auto transmissions are still rare in Europe, people like manuals. It is in the culture.
JC
How long does it take to teach someone to shift an AT JC? Is this an all day course? ;D
Ha ha Gary! My cousin had the car for a day with the shifter on the console between the seats. The next day he wanted to try the pick up. He's in it for a few moments, then he comes out and says where is the shifter? I had to show it to him behind the steering wheel. ATs are strange thing to them...
JC
Clifford, you don't use a spacer...those were used with vs transmissions. Mine doesn't use one.
I had a neighbor who owned a garage and he used to loan it to people when he was working on their cars. Some drove automatics and some drove standards. So he modified a car to have both and then anyone could drive it.
There are times when I would like a stick shift in my bus like in the mountains and other times when I like an automatic like in the city. Maybe I will go down to Cliff's and have him convert my bus so I can have the best of both worlds. ;D
Clifford,
I kept the flywheel when I sold my 8V71--been hauling it around in the 2nd bay ever since it is to stinkin heavy to move anywhere else!
At almost 68 I (& the wife) happily shift our gear head turtle & will continue to do so until I (we) can't anymore... that's our story & we're stickin' to it.
I was tempted to go look at that one, and would have if it hadn't been 1500 miles away.
Well, I can shift a manual just fine but would rather have an automatic just because it is easier. So I'm looking for a conversion with an auto. Am I lazy? yeah, maybe so, I dunno. Never really thought of it that way. The automatics have just gotten so much better across the board. I blame it on my lawnmower. It's a John Deere 1600T batwing and it'd be just about impossible to operate if it didn't have a hydrostatic transmission. Compare that to the little manual Yanmar where the PTO quits when the clutch goes in... it's a simple choice. How's that compare to a bus? well it doesn't. Except that it's given me a new appreciation for simplicity in operation. Push the pedal forwards it goes forwards. Push backwards it goes backwards, what could be simpler? Is there really a reason it has to be more complicated than that? Well used to be, yeah. But not now. And really, if you're tooling about downtown watching for curbs and signs and little cars you might run over, is it any advantage to also have to deal with the clutch and gears and hills and all that? I'd really just as soon just push the pedal and go. Yep, just lazy I guess.
Jim
(Still building the bankroll for the bus conversion purchase. The more the better.)
I've been working on a 4104 owned by a lady. First thing I had to do was put a clutch in it. She burned what was left of it when a car cut her off as she was climbing a hill in first gear. She ended up rolling back into a lot and an almost went into a ditch but the embankment saved her.
So I put a new clutch in it and gave her some driving lessons.
Quote from: Jim Blackwood on July 17, 2018, 12:46:59 PM
I was tempted to go look at that one, and would have if it hadn't been 1500 miles away.
Well, I can shift a manual just fine but would rather have an automatic just because it is easier. So I'm looking for a conversion with an auto. Am I lazy? yeah, maybe so, I dunno. Never really thought of it that way. The automatics have just gotten so much better across the board. I blame it on my lawnmower. It's a John Deere 1600T batwing and it'd be just about impossible to operate if it didn't have a hydrostatic transmission. Compare that to the little manual Yanmar where the PTO quits when the clutch goes in... it's a simple choice. How's that compare to a bus? well it doesn't. Except that it's given me a new appreciation for simplicity in operation. Push the pedal forwards it goes forwards. Push backwards it goes backwards, what could be simpler? Is there really a reason it has to be more complicated than that? Well used to be, yeah. But not now. And really, if you're tooling about downtown watching for curbs and signs and little cars you might run over, is it any advantage to also have to deal with the clutch and gears and hills and all that? I'd really just as soon just push the pedal and go. Yep, just lazy I guess.
Jim
(Still building the bankroll for the bus conversion purchase. The more the better.)
Yup. Same thing with heavy equipment. Once you've used a hydrostatic tranny in a dozer or backhoe, you will never go back to a stick shift. It is nice to be able to control all of that power with just a couple of fingers rather than dealing with a clutch and a long throw transmission shifter. It is so much faster to move from forward and reverse, which as you know, you do a lot of on a dozer. ;D
Then there is the whole, "starting on a hill" problem. Much easier if it just isn't a problem to start with.
Jim
Starting on a hill isn't a problem, unless you make it one.
Poor training and popularly inaccurate folklore...
happy coaching!
buswarrior