(i bet) this question has never been asked ???

[scottie]

hello everyone
i thought about this the other day,when someone asked me where im going to park my bus ,once i buy one. i thought that was kind of a dumb question ...i said in my laneway...where else ??
then i got to  thinking...will that bus be able to turn into my laneway...its 40 feet long..mmmmmm
i live out in the country,on a dirt road,there are ditches on both sides of the road.
there are trees on both sides of my laneway
my laneway runs off the road at 90 degrees...like a "T"

so my question is....short of running out there with a tape measure. how"well" do theses buses turn?
how much room do i need??
two cars can pass each other on the road so....
if i pulled up on the far side of the road and cranked the steering wheel to the right....
turning radius
dont tell me ill have to get the chain saw out before i but a bus ....
thanks
scottie

[FloridaCliff]

Scottie,

I have about a 95% success rate with just looking and being able to tell if the bus can make it.

Unfortunately on my first trip home from the PO's house I had to cut down two Oak trees that were about 25' tall

in a 45 degree turn in my driveway.      I left it there overnight, so my neighbors could enjoy the sight in the am

For fun you could get a forty foot rope and pull it taught and see if you can make that turn.

Its near the rear wheels that the crunching will occur on those turns, as you do the slideeeeeeeee to the right or left! 

Cliff

[bobofthenorth]

Its surprising how short a turn you can make and equally surprising just how much room it takes to turn around.  If you have a two lane road and you are turning onto a private lane I can't imagine how you would not be able to make the turn.  Also keep in mind that you can back into a tighter spot than you can drive into. 

A couple of years ago we were coming home from San Diego along the west coast.  I wanted to stop at Wylies (water ski heaven in Seattle) so I located the store on Streets & Trips and let the GPS guide us there.  Its in a warehouse district because, if you want to go there you will go there anyway and most of their business is done online.  So we're headed down this fairly narrow street in the warehouse district and the GPS says to turn right.  So I do and I'm facing a hill that goes more or less straight up, so steep I can't see what's at the top.  Too late to back out now & I've got the micro-truck behind even if I wanted to back up.  So we start up the hill, past Wylies which is right at the start of the hill.  As I get closer to the top of the hill I can see chain link fence & it turns out that is it a Boeing parking lot, mostly empty cuz the airline industry was in tough times right then.  It looked to me like I could make the circle, get turned around and come out to park just outside the gate and sure enough I could but it was CLOSE.  Sometimes I don't guess that perfectly.  Like the spot we're in right now - the last time I left here I had the micro-truck hooked up and then couldn't make the turn at the end of the lane without backing up.  This time when we leave we'll hook up after we leave.

[Jeremy]

It's a question I asked myself many, many times before buying a bus - I've got plenty of room to park a 40-footer, but bought a short-wheelbase bus simply because of the tight turn into my property. My neighbours must have thought I was nuts in the months before I bought my bus because was I frequently to be seen walking backwards and forwards on my driveway with my arms outstretched, trying to judge what the turning circle of a bus would be. The first time I actually drove it in (having only ever driven it for about 10 minutes at that point) I was VERY stressed - but it went in fine, and I later learnt that if I reversed in it was easier still. The only problem with reversing is remembering that the front corner swings a long way sideways as you turn - it's very easy to clip trees and walls and stuff if you forget to look forwards as well as backwards when you are reversing.

Jeremy

PS. Funny story - By the time I had driven my bus in and parked it on my drive for the first time my neighbour had come out of his house to see what on earth was going on. Having maneouvred the bus into it's final position I turned the engine off and climbed out, then breathed a huge sigh of relief and said to my neighbour "God, I'm glad that's there'. He looked up at this huge vehicle that had just appeared next to his house, looked back at me and said "Well, you're the only one".

[H3Jim]

Your question is a very good one and one that should be asked by everyone before they buy a bus.  Not to mention if local codes will allow it once you physically have it there.

Before I bought my bus, I had a friend bet me that I would not be able to get it up my lane and onto my property.  The lane is narrow, about 9 ft wide, with a turn in the middle as it goes up a fairly steep hill.  No place to turn around, but at the top I can back it into its space.  Not possible with a towed.  At the bottom it flanked by a fence on one side and a rock wall on the other.  While the road that I turn from is also a country road, if I start on the extreme left side on the dirt, the corner can be negotiated.  I do have to back down - about 1/4 mile, but I can back down almost as fast as I can drive in.  yes I did have to take out one tree, but I did that while I still had "only" a fifth wheel.

[Kristinsgrandpa]

It depends on what coach you buy.

I believe a GMC 4905 turns in about 50'.  My Neoplan turns in less than 40', 39 curb to curb and 43' wall to wall.

There used to be a website on coach specs that gave the turning radius and exterior height of all the coaches, but I dont know if it still exists, I quit looking at it after I bought my coach.

Ed

PS I found the site I was referring to. Look around in it.

http://www.coachinfo.com/index.html

Ed

[jjrbus]

Put an in the classifieds for an old Greyhound driver, he or she  will park it in a shoebox if you want.
But will the codes allow you to park it in  a shoebox?

[Paladin]

I'm planning on bringing mine home this weekend so I can try to get some work done on it. Hopefully the neighbors won't complain too much, I don't think most of them care and a few think it's pretty cool.
If I can get it down the street and manage to turn in the narrow driveway I figure I can just fit it width wise in the drive and along the house with about a couple of feet or so to spare and get it back beyond the front corner of the house. The problem is that my fence and gate is only 6' tall and hiding the bus in there will be like hiding a gorilla in the living room.

If the a$$hole two doors down who elected himself mayor and dictator of the block leaves me alone maybe I'll be able to leave it here and work on it through the winter. Hell, all he'll see is the back end sitting back in the driveway. Local code says that all vehicles that come beyond the rear corner of the house must be licensed, I found that out when he called on me once.

Anyway, I was told that you can get a tighter turn by unloading the tag axle. Is this true and if so how much tighter?



-Dave

[Busted Knuckle]

Dave,
Yes you can get a slightly better turn with the tags unloaded. But the truth is that it's not that big of difference and the main reason to unload the tags is too do less scuffing of them to make them last longer! You can make tighter turns backing in, and with tags unloaded while backing it will make a bigger difference than forward! Easy solution for the nosy A$$ 2 doors down is to make a plywood extension of your fence and raise it as high as the bus is! Or tell him that one of your "new bus nut friends" is president of the TN (or wherever) chapter of the "Hells Angels" and wants to bring a couple dozen of the boys out for a couple months to stay in the backyard / garage to help ya slam the bus together in time for a big (national) spring rally to be held in the street in front of your house, with the Motor Coach being the center of it all! LOL! FWIW   BK 

Oh yeah be sure to tell him yer buddy says if he keeps his nose 2 doors down where it belongs, it wont end up 6 feet down looking up!

[Paladin]

Hehe, not to jack the thread but I do have a plan.
One of my other  much too expensive hobbies is that I have a full 35m movie theater projector setup in my back yard with surround sound and a giant screen. I have a few friends who are cops and fire fighters and I thought I'd throw a free movie night or two for the various police and fire departments and families. I want to do this anyway just to  thank them for their work, it's a mostly thankless job.  I suspect that the jerk won't make a whole lot of noise when the street is lined with cop cars for our movie nights.
Some of the guys think the bus idea is really cool and they also like my muscle cars so they of course want to come check them out now and then. It made him tone down his behavior in the past. Maybe again???


We now return you to the original thread..........

[Busted Knuckle]

Ahh yeah I don't wanna hijack the thread any longer either. But I'll make one more short observation. All my cop buddies have been getting rid of their hot rods and obnoxouis 4X4's and buyig Harleys! Tellhim if he keeps bothering you'll start a new chapter of "Biker Cops with out Glaze!" LOL!
  BK 

[JackConrad]

    Lets see if I can explain this?  I need 3 lanes to turn a corner with our MC-8. If I am making a right turn and I am in the lane next to the curb, I will need 2 lanes of the road I am turning onto. If I can be in the left lane on the road I am turning from, I only need 1 lane on the road, I am turning onto. Clear??  When turning into our driveway (a right turn), I swing into the left lane of the two lane road in front of our house, then make to turn into our driveway  (2 lanes of the road + 1 lane of our driveway=3 lanes).
   Anytime you are turning, remember that the drive axle is the pivot point. This is why it is ofter easier to back the bus (as long as there is enough room for the front of the bus to swing).  Hope this helps, Jack

[Hartley]

Uhh...

You say the street is wide enough for 2 cars to pass. Now the question is are the lanes the 8 foot width or are they the new 12.5 foot lanes?

If they are the 8 foot and than would make the road 16 foot of pavement.
Making a 90 degree turn into and 8 foot or even 12 foot wide side street
off a 16 foot main road is gonna be tricky and almost impossible if you don't have
run-out room for the front end to swing. Even a 12 foot wide main road is going to
give you problems if you don't have a wide unobstructed path to let the front end overhang
off the pavement up to 8 feet. Count the usable shoulder of the roads as part of the usable space. Look out for poles, culverts, fences and anything else that might interfere of cause damage.

Most buses have a 39 to 45 foot turning radius, Some even larger.
Measured usually from the pivot point of the rear axle. (Depends on the length! and wheelbase)

Basically if you can't measure a 50 foot diameter clear path from the centerline of the side road where it intersects the centerline of the main road, You will have trouble making the turn. Even an RTS with it's amazingly tight turning ability might be stretched a little.

I may be off a bit on the "technical" correctness here. But I have good mirrors and dual rear cameras so that I can see what is beside and behind me when I have to go solo making a turn.

A Pair of FRS radios and someone to spot for you is recommended. Make sure that the spotter can give you the right directions as if they were sitting in the drivers seat. Not from their orientation on the ground. Saves a lot of yelling and crunching of surrounding objects. And always remember that when you are backing up you have to go left to go right and vice versa.

If in doubt, Stop, get out and do a walk around to get your bearings.

[H3Jim]

DrDave, in your post you used two terms somewhat interchangably, turning radius and turning diameter. 

I have a thought that while cars and light trucks use the term turning circle, or diameter as their measure, for buses, its only the radius, making the actual circle we could turn around in twice as large.  I have a 39 foot turning radius, but it takes me a section 78 feet wide to actually turn the bus around in. (plus room for the bumpers and overhang).

I do agree with your post and I am not trying to flame you, just trying to clarify.  My experience also supports Jacks about needing two lanes in at least one of the directions - either the road you are turning from, or the road you are turning into.  Otherwise, the rears run over things you would rather not run over.

[Hi yo silver]

One other thought; If the road or drive you're turning into is not level and it's necessary to turn in at an angle to prevent dragging, you have to consider that.  Sometimes that requires extra space.  Just thinking about my own driveway.  Luckily, Barn Owl was good enough to bring his bus down and test it out for me so I at least know when I buy one I know I can bring it home. LOL Dennis