Hi

[Ed Hackenbruch]

Brassman, that is exactly how i did it. Bought the bus, a 5A, on an ebay auction sight unseen, drove it 1100 miles home, found the bus boards later. No interesting story to post about it though,....no breakdowns.    8 years later still fulltiming in it and very happy with it.

[technomadia]

Welcome to the search!  We started our search for a 35' bus back in April, and after a lot of searching and reading and research, we founds our GM 4106 in June. It was well worth waiting for the right one, and we've been having a blast making her ours and absorbing all the great knowledge here.

For us, we widened our search nationwide, and then bought a 1-month Amtrak rail pass and traveled the country by train to look at the buses that made it to the top of our list. It was quite a fun and educational adventure. It's kinda like dating in many ways - we got our hearts broken on many an occasion. After a 48 hr train trip, we'd arrived to find a bus we thought we'd love was not anything like it was described to be. Or we'd start to become highly intrigued by a bus and after several talks with the owner, have them back out of planning a meeting.

There's a lot of buses out there on the market... and many of the ones that made the top of our list are still on the market.

Here's a link to our blog posts specific to our bus hunt, where we also shared some of our search methodologies :

http://www.technomadia.com/category/life-on-the-road/bus-projects/vintage-bus-hunt/

This post in particular contains links to the buses that made the top of our list:

http://www.technomadia.com/2011/06/our-search-for-a-vintage-bus/

(To my knowledge, all but Bus'OSaurus are still on the market)


Wishing you all of the best in your search, and looking forward to hearing what you end up with!

- Cherie (and Chris)

[Brassman]

Oh, I sure know how to buy a bus without any knowledge--but mine was yellow (though at least the engine was in the right place.)

Sure wish I had come here first, but then I'd have a pd4104.  

[HAMMER DOWN!]

Welcome to the search!  We started our search for a 35' bus back in April, and after a lot of searching and reading and research, we founds our GM 4106 in June. It was well worth waiting for the right one, and we've been having a blast making her ours and absorbing all the great knowledge here.

For us, we widened our search nationwide, and then bought a 1-month Amtrak rail pass and traveled the country by train to look at the buses that made it to the top of our list. It was quite a fun and educational adventure. It's kinda like dating in many ways - we got our hearts broken on many an occasion. After a 48 hr train trip, we'd arrived to find a bus we thought we'd love was not anything like it was described to be. Or we'd start to become highly intrigued by a bus and after several talks with the owner, have them back out of planning a meeting.

There's a lot of buses out there on the market... and many of the ones that made the top of our list are still on the market.

Here's a link to our blog posts specific to our bus hunt, where we also shared some of our search methodologies :

http://www.technomadia.com/category/life-on-the-road/bus-projects/vintage-bus-hunt/

This post in particular contains links to the buses that made the top of our list:

http://www.technomadia.com/2011/06/our-search-for-a-vintage-bus/

(To my knowledge, all but Bus'OSaurus are still on the market)


Wishing you all of the best in your search, and looking forward to hearing what you end up with!

- Cherie (and Chris)

Hey! I saw a video of your bus on youtube! You guys got a nice one!  

Thats a great blog btw, lots of great info on there. I have pretty much made the exact same conclusions about the bus sales websites. some of them are so far out of date it's humorous!  

I have actually emailed about some of the buses you listed. "The gambler" came up on on of my craiglist searches, It looks like a fantasic coach with a lot of curb appeal. Nice looking conversion and I love the classic lines of the early mc-7 WITHOUT fiberglass roof caps! I just dont know how I would like handling a 40' coach. It sounded like i would be looking at replacing some tires on it, i think he mentioned some of them were weather checked.

Anyways,
Thanks for your links, i can definitely relate to your blog posts right now! It's encouraging!

[technomadia]

It sounded like i would be looking at replacing some tires on it, i think he mentioned some of them were weather checked.

If you find  bus that doesn't need new tires in the short term, let us know!  We seemed to have struck out on finding such a unicorn.

- Cherie

[trucktramp]

I bought my 5A off Ebay sight unseen.  I had no idea what I was going to get.  So far I haven't had to deal with many issues.  I have been LUCKY.  I have seen many stories on this board that have not been so good.  Would I do that again?  Probably not.  The reason that I took the chance I did is because I bought it for about scrap price and my son works for the local metal recycler so I knew that I could at least get most of my money back out of it.  Good luck in you quest.  You will see many different levels of quality for sale.