Rear garage

[BusDane]

Hi Folks and greetings from Denmark

Does anybody here have any experience with building a garage at the rear of the bus? We are a group of people who have just bought a 1989 Volvo B9M-60 with a traverse diesel engine and we want a ramp at the rear and a large cargo hold. The doors at the rear must be large enough to fit a car (european size).

I did a search here that came up with nothing - is that because I used the wrong search words or is this not a thing people do in the States?

Best
BusDane

[luvrbus]

There  is a Eagle bus in the BCM back in 1999 0r 2000 that had a rear garage as you and he call it he was from Germany.
I saw it up close at a rally in Laughlin Nev pretty neat with a car in there.




good luck

[BusDane]

There  is a Eagle bus in the BCM back in 1999 0r 2000 that had a rear garage as you and he call it he was from Germany.
I saw it up close at a rally in Laughlin Nev pretty neat with a car in there.

good luck

Yeah, Denmark is close to Germany and they call it a "Heck Garage", literally meaning "Stern Garage" and so do we. But most of the designs are for bikes or ATVs because the busse/campers in this neck of the woods are smaller than yours.

Do you really only see this every ten years? I was hoping for a link to an instructive this-is-how-I-did-it picture page :-)

If rear garage is a bad expression what would you call it?

best
BusDane

[Nusa]

In the USA it's more often done with truck conversions than bus conversions. Mainly because most intercity coaches here are rear-engine, which is a huge obstacle.

[luvrbus]

A garage works for me but some here call it a rear hatch,maybe one of the guys can post a photo for you he had a Suzuki Samurai he drove up the ramps closed the door and off he went it was neat.



good lucks

[Busted Knuckle]

I don't recall what kinda bus it was but I once saw one with a corvette coming out of the rear on ramps!

I thought "Oh how cool!" and then "How cruel, to have a vette up there instead of a Mustang!"
  BK 

[robertglines1]

fwiw..saw transit front end folded open (Hindged)and had ramps..parked replica cobra in there...sort of neat.

[Busted Knuckle]

fwiw..saw transit front end folded open (Hindged)and had ramps..parked replica cobra in there...sort of neat.

Now that's what I'm talking about!

[DaveG]

Rear garage...that's what I need! After considering buses, I am leaning more towards a truck conversion to simplify things

[Iceni John]

On the Skoolie forum a fellow Scandinavian (actually from Norge) has raised the roof of his front-engine Blue Bird and then built a large ramp that folds up as the rear door.   He regularly takes his kinetic sculptures and other strange human-powered contraptions in this bus to events all over the western USA.   There's also other folk who have done similar conversions to take cars and motorbikes with them.

Is your Volvo mid-engine or rear-engine?

John

[Jeremy]

I think 99% of American buses / coaches are rear-engined, which obviously makes a rear garage difficult to do. European buses are quite often mid-engined, so you see this kind of conversion much more often - in fact there's two for sale on UK eBay right now:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Race-Transporter-volvo-Coach-Race-Lorry-/320549426316?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_Minibuses_Buses_Coaches&hash=item4aa23c148c

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Volvo-Coach-Race-Car-Transporter-Racing-Vehicle-/230489200862?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item35aa3a18de

Jeremy

[kyle4501]

BK,
It was a Scenicruiser that had a rear garage over the engine for a corvette.

[BusDane]

BK,
It was a Scenicruiser that had a rear garage over the engine for a corvette.

Wow, that is quite a balancing act. I wouldn´t want to be the one who drove the car up there.

Yeah, the rear-engine is in the way that is for sure.

best

[kyle4501]

BusDane,
You aren't likely to see a how to article as this hasn't been done here much.

If you want to do this to your bus, you will need to get a structural engineer type to help you with the modifications. You wouldn't want all your hard work to break in half.  

Good luck with this project - maybe you will be the one to post the how-to page.  

[BusDane]

Is your Volvo mid-engine or rear-engine?

John

It is mid-engine, traverse engine, center engine. Many names for the same thing ;-)

best