Decent skoolie conversion candidate?

[Scott & Heather]

After 5 years we are still renovating our coach. It's a forever process. Fun hobby tho.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Iceni John]

Lol. I know. I've been working on this since November. As my work is a bit seasonal at the moment, I spent the whole summer in 100+F working on it. I have to do the plumbing and window blinds. After that and a shower curtain, the bus is complete!

Sent from my Nexus 7

It's taken me almost seven years to get just the "life support" systems completed, i.e. water, plumbing, waste tanks, propane, solar panels, house batteries, solar charge controllers/inverter/switches/cabling/etc, and some other bus upgrade/repair jobs such as fixing my Jakes.   I haven't even started building the interior yet!   I'm hoping that will be the easiest part of the whole process.   Most conversions are multi-year projects, if they get finished at all!   I can't imagine my bus will ever be "complete"  -  I'll always find something more to do!

John

[Oonrahnjay]

It's taken me almost seven years to get just the "life support" systems completed, i.e. water, plumbing, waste tanks, propane, solar panels, house batteries, solar charge controllers/inverter/switches/cabling/etc, and some other bus upgrade/repair jobs such as fixing my Jakes.   I haven't even started building the interior yet!   I'm hoping that will be the easiest part of the whole process.   Most conversions are multi-year projects, if they get finished at all!   I can't imagine my bus will ever be "complete"  -  I'll always find something more to do!  John 

    To the inevitable question, I reply "I'm getting close but I have 'three finished's' -- one is when I have a place to sleep, a place to cook and eat, a bathroom with shower, and it rolls down the road; two is when there are curtains and shades in the windows and carpet on the floors, and three is when I die".

[dbldragon]

  I think the time eating factor for most conversions is getting BUS components working. This is why we went for a current "cvi"bus ,more costly yes ,less head aches also yes.  Getting any project car boat bus to a usable state can take the drive of the dream and crush it. Many unfinished projects can be had cheap.
We set a 1 yr goal to use ours and we left home after having the bus 10 months ,done no but usable with most systems complete. Need cupboard doors and finish trim mainly.  4500 miles in 35 days with no issues. A family member has a absolutely beautiful eagle on the inside that he got non running and it still is not road worthy.
To me it is easier to get to the light at the end of the tunnel in you can drive there.

  Chuck

[Zephod]

I have the interior almost completed. Water tanks and plumbing still to do. Batteries non existent. I'm probably going to have one and a generator.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[bigred]

Actually ,I think the Blue Bird pushers would make a better candidate. Most of these that are on the retirement list have Cat engines .South Carolina and a lot of other states have bunches of these things as do a lot of other states .Not so many in North Carolina though .

[Zephod]

Actually ,I think the Blue Bird pushers would make a better candidate. Most of these that are on the retirement list have Cat engines .South Carolina and a lot of other states have bunches of these things as do a lot of other states .Not so many in North Carolina though .

South Carolina keeps their busses for 30 years. I've seen a lot broken down. In fact, the school I was working in today had to have two runs with the farm bus because one had broken down.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[easystreet]

Used to be a one horse transportation supervisor / mechanic in the 90's. Had one of the last old round body style crowns, but it was rear engine not mid engine. Had full compartments underneath. 3208 / 250 hp cat with Allison. Got up and down the road OK by school bus standards. Drove great.  If you could find one it would make a nice conversion.
I know of a traditional mid engine crown her locally (Spokane WA) that could be purchased. Strong engine (6-71T w/ Allison), straight body, but has some glass damage due to vandalism.
I always thought that if I ever did a schoolie I would look for an old Gillig school bus. Very well built transit style, body panels easy to replace (mostly flat sheet screwed in place), off the shelf truck drive train so easily updateable, full under compartments.
The last new bus I bought in the 90's was a Thomas rear engine transit, 250hp cat / Allison. It sat more students than the Crown so was the trip bus, but its regular in district route was one that had extreme road grades. Consequently I spec'd the bus with a two speed rear end that was only shiftable when the bus was parked. Low side for in district, high side for trips. Worked great. Might be a thought for folks with lower hp that travel in mountainous areas but then want to be able to easily cruise in the flatlands. 

[HB of CJ]

Ditto with the Crown Supercoach.  Since this is my third (3rd) post on this subject one can guess I love ... and loved Crowns.  Being a gear head, mine had the infamous (famous?) RTO910 Fuller 10 speed Roadranger.  Would do at least 80 mph.

Non turbo-ed Small Cam 250hp 855 inch Cummings.  At 55 mph, we had a choice of 8th, 9th or 10th.  A gear for every situation.  Plus lots of gears you never needed, but it was so much fun to play truck driver and row through every one.  Six times to 35 mph!

Five times just crossing a narrow side street.  Very easy to keep the mighty small Cummins at 1500, the apparent sweet spot.  First gear was good for about 2 feet.  Then you progressively up shifted.  More like shifting a dirt bike than a big truck tranny.

About 2 inches of shifter movement.  Less than 3 pounds of shifter effort.  Snick, snick, snick.  Had lots of grease zerts on the shift rod.  Again, in my humble view, (?) try to find about a 1985 model year with the Cummings and 10 speed.  Also gotta have that Jake.

Crowns forever.  Yep ... might do another one!  Very fun indeed.

[Iceni John]

Used to be a one horse transportation supervisor / mechanic in the 90's. Had one of the last old round body style crowns, but it was rear engine not mid engine. Had full compartments underneath. 3208 / 250 hp cat with Allison. Got up and down the road OK by school bus standards. Drove great.  If you could find one it would make a nice conversion.
I know of a traditional mid engine crown her locally (Spokane WA) that could be purchased. Strong engine (6-71T w/ Allison), straight body, but has some glass damage due to vandalism.
I always thought that if I ever did a schoolie I would look for an old Gillig school bus. Very well built transit style, body panels easy to replace (mostly flat sheet screwed in place), off the shelf truck drive train so easily updateable, full under compartments.
The last new bus I bought in the 90's was a Thomas rear engine transit, 250hp cat / Allison. It sat more students than the Crown so was the trip bus, but its regular in district route was one that had extreme road grades. Consequently I spec'd the bus with a two speed rear end that was only shiftable when the bus was parked. Low side for in district, high side for trips. Worked great. Might be a thought for folks with lower hp that travel in mountainous areas but then want to be able to easily cruise in the flatlands.  

Or get a Crown like mine  -  rear engine, so lots of space underneath for everything, plus a big pass-through storage bay for Other Stuff (we all have lots of that), built like a Crown but looks like something newer.   It still looks modern even now  -  apparently MIT had some say in the design of the front and rear, but everything in the middle is pure Crown.   With a 6V92 and HT740 it drives more like a MC9 than a school bus, lots of power to get up the hills and a Jake to make fun noises coming down.   It's a blast to drive, and I think it will be a great conversion when it's finally done.   Here's a short vid of us Crown Coach Junkies on our annual Memorial Day Anti-CARB get-together as we left our host's house to go hooning around Phelan CA  -  mine's the third:  https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=392632724194941

John

PS  -  another reason to buy a Crown:  you can drive it with the door open, very pleasant in warm weather (at least, until you drive through a swarm of bees . . .)      

[Scott & Heather]

Everytime I watch that video of those buses I smile. Good stuff right there


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TomC]

Some of the big tandem axle Crown's had 10spds in them. The skilled driver's would skip shift. Start in 3rd, shift to 5th, pull up the button shift to 7th then go through the rest of the gears. When I drove my 13spd and was empty (my empty weight was 46,000lbs) I would start in 2nd, shift to 4th pull up the button, shift to 6th then go through the gears. A Roadranger transmission doesn't care how you shift it as long as you synchronize the rpms-it isn't like a motorcycle transmission that you have to go through the gears. Good Luck, TomC

[HB of CJ]

Sorry for the confusion but then again I confuse easily.  My kissing cousin long ago and far way also drove a Crown 10 wheeler with the Roadranger, only hers had the 671T engine.  Also she had the RT version and not the RTO.  Had a slightly different shift pattern.  Forth and fifth and ninth and tenth were reversed.  No big deal.

She got to drive "The Banana Boat 2" when I visited her family outside of Redding CA.  She hadn't shifted a Roadranger in many years.  Guess what?  Muscle memory won easily.  Did a 99% job the very first row through.  She looked at me and smiled.  Like a kid in a candy shop.  Her ride was in Bishop CA where she also was a teacher.

When I was tired or bored, I shifted like already stated.  Two, four, button up, six, seven, eight, then ninth which was good for about 66 mph.  Rarely used 10th, the .22% overdrive.  Usually ran right at 55 mph.  Fuel mileage with the 10 wheeler was right at 10.5 mpg.  Not bad at all.  But ... kinda slow going up 6% grades at 45 mph @ 90% foot.

[opus]

When I stared driving truck for years I drove a B Model Mack quadraplex.  When I got bored I do 1st to 5th to 15th to 20th.  But it had to be pointed down a steep hill....LOL!