New Bus Owner of a used bus!!

[Barn Owl]

Greg,

I hate to be the one to rain on your parade, but you should have bought a GM.

Oh Well, I have overlooked that fault with a lot of others here, so why not one more.

Welcome!

Laryn

[Kwajdiver]

Greg,

Don't pay Barn Owl any mind.  He's just jealous he's not cruising down the road in a MCI-9.  That's okay Barn Owl, I'd be proud to have you ride with me anytime.   

Greg,  what transmission to you have?          Tell us your dream for the bus.......      And weclome to the nut house.



Bill
83  MCI-9

Big Blue

[Green-Hornet]

and usually a Buffet concert if we can fit it in. 

Welcome aboard!
I like you already......"Fins to the Left!"

[bowmaga]

Fins to the right....Glad to here everyone wants to give there opinion!  Super Betty is at an Allison Dealership right now getting a new tranny pan put on her and also getting a systems check up.  She was previously owned by a limo company and I'm a little leery on how well the maintenance was on her....but we'll see.  We hope to get her back home this week to start the renovation process.  I had a real long explanation of my bus life already written, then had some pictures added, click post and seems the picture were to big and I lost all my writings to you...so now you are getting the short version.....Myself and 3 friends all between the ages of 28-32 own this bus.  We had a 1987 bluebird skoolie we converted and recently just sold on ebay to buy Super Betty.  We all have wives and more friends who tag along on trips so we are planning the bus to sleep 12.  2 Queen beds in the back, w/ 2 full beds in front of that on the drivers side, closets on the passengers side, with then the bathroom in front of that, kitchen forward of that and then the lounge at the very front. We are going to insulate the floor and most likely ceramic tile the bus front to back.  We had laminate floor in our skoolie and multiple wet feet coupled with a lot of beer don't mix well w/ laminate.  We need something more durable.  With the cargo bays under the MCI, I won;t have to struggle so much with the water tank and holding tank mounts.  I had 240 and 240 under the skoolie and i hope to have 300 and 300 in the 1 cargo bay in front of the rear wheels....i think i can...i think i can...I won;t know for sure until she's in my drive way, but it should be real close to fitting that with the tanks i can get.   We didn't have heat or air in our skoolie, but we believe we will in this conversion....still researching that aspect.  Attached is a floor plan and view of the possible super Betty.....floor plan for sure....maybe not the paint scheme.....but we'll see.

[jlaney]

greg
i'm building my rig with just one wife, can't imagine it with three wives.
how can you keep them out. the (i don't like it there) comes up pretty
ofton.  just kiddin. jt.

[bowmaga]

We broke them in with Black Betty our skoolie....trust me, they didn't like it at first...mine hated her the worst, but after the first year of the boys going on trips with her, the girls decided they wanted to go along on an adventure.  So we took them to the June race at MIS, and ever since then, they have been bussers to.  We've even thrown around getting htme there own short bus...the pink taco.  I always have to smile when I hear my wife say after we get home from work....."you know, I was thinking about Betty today...."  Black Betty was our skoolie and we do miss her already.  She's with her new owner in Iowa, hopefully he's treating her good.  Attached are some pics of her.

[jlaney]

greg
i started on a 54 scenicruiser. which was an band bus for 25 years. converted
in79 . it was the darkest place you could imagine.if a window was left they painted black. i had to use a flashlight to get around. needless to say . as soon
as we got it home ,and stoped. my wife and kid were in there tearing out the
interior.    lots of luck. j.t

[Barn Owl]

Wow! Sleeping 12, you could use some of these:

[belfert]

Man, I couldn't imagine sleeping twelve in a bus that still has full kitchen, bath room, and living room.  Maybe the couples thing makes it easier.

I have 8 bunks in a 43 footer with full facilities and that is tight enough.  My bathroom ended up too big, but another foot or two wouldn't help much to gain more sleeping space.

[Green-Hornet]

OHHHHHHHH Black Betty Bam ba lam.... that's a neat set up!
300 gallon tanks sounds like a huge amount of weight in those bays

[bowmaga]

Sleeping 12 will only be a once a year thing, when we attend country concert.  Other than that it will be mostly just us 4-8.  The skoolie could hold 240, so i hope a coach can hold 300 .  I'm going to try to have three 95 gallon holing tanks, 2 grey and 1 black and three 95 gallon fresh water tanks. This will be a little more concertrated by I will fabricate some cages that will hang off the bus floor frame and the cargo bay floors to disperse the weight.  Something will work out.  I had 240 gallons behind the rear wheels on the skoolie for holding tanks and six 40 gallon tanks between the front and rear wheels all hung off the bus frame and floor in saddles.  Even i was impressed with myself when i got them done. ha.  We need that much water so that 8-12 of us can take showers and have the toilet for 4 days without having to pay to refill with water or pay to have the holding tanks emptied more than once...right before we leave.  Free water from home and its usually $1 a gallon at MIS or country concert, and $75 a tank to empty the holding tanks.  It has worked so far and we've never run out of water.  Black Betty was our song for the old girl, but now we have big white super Betty....until we can get her painted.  She was a rolling party.  Attached is a side picture of her where you can see Lil' Betty.  She lit up, moved, and flashed....literally.