Intro

[John316]

You should get your husband on here. Since he will be the one working on the bus, it would be good if he read here too. Maybe you can flag threads for him of something. Sorry to say but your husband will be the keys to the bus "go or no go

Soooo.... Not to get all persnickety on my first day and all, but are you saying girls can't be mechanics and fix things?

This is a joint venture, and yes, he'll be reading too.

Nope . I have know very mechanically minded gals. The thing is, I know how communication sometimes (or is it rarely ) gets between guys and gals. It just might ease things a bit, if he knows about the "techy" side of the bus too. You all will have a great time. And besides, I don't imagine that there are a lot of women on this board that change the oil, change bearings...you get the idea (again I am not saying that there aren't ).

This is going to be great!

Invite your sister to come and be the resident bus mechanic. I hope that you won't need her auto body skills, but you never know what the bus driving "learning" curve may damage hold .

God bless,

John

[belfert]

I know today's bus market is way down, but you would be hard pressed to find a 45' bus shell for $30,000.  Even if you did find a shell in your budget even a minimal conversion would be $10k easy.

My bus is a 1995, but even it required $12,000 in repairs to be truly road worthy.  A bus garage did almost $10,000 of the repairs.  Parts alone billed at over $5,000 and the rest was labor.  A local bus nut recommended I not attempt to replace the brakes and wheel bearings myself, but I have replaced the radiator and done other mechanical repairs. 

Make sure you have a good inspection done by a bus garage before you buy.  I might have gotten a lower price if I knew just how bad things really were.  I had a truck place inspect it, but they didn't find a lot of the problems the bus garage found.

[belfert]

Opps.  Hit wrong button.

[PacNWNomad]

What year did the 45' become more common place? It's looking like a 45 might be out anyway, but I'm curious.

[Chopper Scott]

It's a good thing that you found this forum before you jumped into purchasing a bus. Probably way to much advise at times but at least some first hand experience for sure. I found this forum after buying my bus and am glad I did. It's a tremendous amount of knowledge from the ole "hard knox" school of busing. But as many have stated, unless you are John Madden or Dale Earnhardt Jr your new ride will require a lot of hands on work. Madden's bus and Jr's bus require a lot of attention also and they are new!!!  I sure don't want to scare anyone away from the thrill of owning a bus but also want to make sure that they know the costs and maintance of keeping one rolling is not cheap, be it new or old. My bus is a toy at the moment and a major repair cost would just basically put it out of action until I felt comfortable fixing it. Living in it with 6 kids as you may would basically be putting a lot of eggs in one basket especially in an older bus. Just my 2 cents but you know what? I would go the bus route in a heartbeat if in the same situation! Gluttons for punishment aren't we?  

[PacNWNomad]

It's a good thing that you found this forum before you jumped into purchasing a bus.

That was intentional. 

[belfert]

45 foot buses didn't start manufacture until the early 1990s.  Previous to that the legal limit was 40'.

[PacNWNomad]

Good to know! Thank you.

[PacNWNomad]

Oh, and a couple people have asked. Yes, we homeschool. Always have. And no, we're not crazy (okay, nobody HERE asked me that, but lots of people do lol!).

[Lee Bradley]

Not crazy looking to buy a bus. 

Does not compute.

[PacNWNomad]

Not crazy looking to buy a bus. 

Does not compute.

LOL compared to some of our other um, adventures, it's perhaps one of the less crazy things we've done. ;-)

[Barn Owl]

Tamri,

Welcome to the board. Six children in a bus is a challenge no matter how big the bus is. You will find that regardless of what you get you will most likely be remodeling it to fit the family's needs. I am not posting much here because I am in the process of getting ready for a 7800 mile 35 day trip and I am behind schedule by about a year. My wife and I also have six homeschooled children ages from 18 down to 6. We have a 35' 4106 and I wouldn't want to travel any other way. Before the bus a normal trip was a hassle even though we have a 15 passenger van. We could only travel as far as someone could hold it, and with eight, we seemed to just stop way too often. Then there was the problem of everyone out and back in. The process always seemed to take 20 min or more and we never could make decent traveling time. Then we had to eat. Sandwiches only seem to satisfy for a while then we would wind up with $70 lunch tabs and who knows how much dinner would run. Having to get a hotel was horrible. Always had to get two rooms and they could never guarantee they would be side-by-side. Then unpacking and repacking in the morning took forever. Some of the places that we thought were more affordable where complete dives, yuck x 10. Sometimes we would get a suite but they limited occupancy to 6 so we always felt bad about sneaking the extra two in. Vacationing on the cheep was averaging us $500 a day (Not exaggerating. For those who don't have six children just add it up.).  Long story short we bought a bus, and even though we probably don't save as much money with it as I would have like to, we have a more enjoyable lifestyle when we travel. We have our own bathroom, our own food, our own beds, never having to unpack, sleep at Wal-mart if we are just passing through, camping in the most beautiful places ever, etc. I don't need to add to any of the good advice you are getting here so I will wish you and your family well and good luck.

Laryn

[JohnEd]

Tamri,

Not to be contradicting anybody here, but....  That idea of getting an entertainer coach "may" have some flaws.  Those guys are not designed for live aboard.  They are for extended transit.  Their tank capacity may be inferior, their heating may be primarily engine heat/coolant.  Their AC may be primarily coach air that is engine driven, insulation may leave somthing to be desired, mileage may be L O N G,  storage may be short and lots of other considerations.  Then again it may be perfect.  Most I have seen are inferior and changing this stuff will be a worse nitemare than building one from scratch.  Find out what a real coach should have in the way of features and compare....should be doing that in any case.

Somthing to consider about central air is that it takes up a lot of bay space.  You will need all the storage you can find so that isn't a plus.  I wondered for a long time why some of the really high line stuff used roof airs and I finally learned that they are cheap, easily replaced and devour absolutely no bay space.  Ducted they aren't noisey but they are also less efficient in really hot circumstances.  You can uncork the ducts for that circumstance and recover the efficiency.  There is a Vogue built Prevo down in Fla that has been for sale for over a year.  The problem is that it has "bunks" amidships and that usually isn't a plus. Except for the few like you. 

Start making a list of what you want and need in a bus to meet your needs.  Publish it and many will chime in with alternatives and additional info.  After about 20 posts you should be on your way to defining "your dream bus" and be able to estimate what it would take to bring anything you are considering "up to spec".

There was some serious good advice on here that might have gone un-noticed.  A knut had a truck mech go over his prospective purchase before he bought.  After the fact he took his new treasure into a "bus garage" for work and they found $12K worth of needed stuff.  Moral?  Truck mechs do trucks and bus mechs do buses.  The cost of that inspection is $300 plus transportation to and from.  Stacking that up against 12 grand is a no brainer.

Be well Galactican and prosper,

John

[scanzel]

Some costs to me when I bought. 1989 Prevost $30,000, fly out to Reno NV and drive it back to Connecticut $2000, replaced clutch, blown power steering pump and do a complete service etc when I got home $4800, replace all 8 air bags after one blew out when on the road and fix power steering box leak $4200,
6 new drive and tag tires $1800. Bought the bus in 2005 and used it for two years as is just fixing it up to be useable at RV parks, gutted it out winter of 2008. I now have about $10,000 in all the stuff to put into for the conversion. I expect to spend another $25,000 before I am finished. If we had known back in 2005 that the market was going to crash, I would have waited, but no one new. Some real good deals out there for $40,000 to $100,000. Like everyone says figure out what you need and go from there. Definitely a MCI or Prevost.
Good Luck on you venture.

[Paso One]

I have not seen the roof structure on any GM model other than our GM4106, but it does not have a frame member running lengthwise in the center of the roof. It has two frame members running lengthwise at about the spacing of the engine cradle supports, so having our A/Cs and vents in the center of the roof didn't compromise its strength.
Thanks, Sam 4106

I agree Sam I think that is a common " Urban legend "