New Bus!

[Uglydog56]

I made the deal to purchase my new bus today! I still wanted a Crown, I guess I'm just weird. I picked up an 87 40 foot tandem. This one is a schoolie, which makes it much less cool than my old Yellowstone tour bus. But, it has a big cam cummins with relatively low miles, and my wife is excited about 5 more feet of places to put things. And yellow paint comes of with enough chemicals and elbow grease. I guess I need to go back and read all the roof raise, window removal and reskinning posts. Pics when I pick it up, although you guys all know what a long yellow twinkie looks like.

[luvrbus]

If you want a Crown and that deal doesn't work out the Needles Ca school district are selling off theirs I know where 2 tandems are a guy at Ft Mohave Az has 2 at a salvage yard 

I waiting for the single axle units to go out for bid myself and have no idea what I will do with one or two except keep them from becoming steel from China

[RJ]

I waiting for the single axle units to go out for bid myself and have no idea what I will do with one or two except keep them from becoming steel from China.

Clifford -

You can use them for storage sheds to keep all your Detroit Diesel two-stroke parts!

[Scott & Heather]

Never in my life seen a tandem axle school bus. Whatever fer? Kids getting obese these days or something? Does it look like this:

[Lee Bradley]

Always good to have a new project.

I guess I didn't know (or forgot) that you were looking but I have been seeing one in Startup, WA all winter on the way skiing.

[luvrbus]

Out here in the west for years some roads were ruff it's a common sight to see a tandem Crown in school districts but that is going away, now you see the Bluebirds and Thomas no way will one those be around in 20 or 30 years like the old Crowns the school districts get bucks to replace the older buses every 10 years I think

[TomC]

Main reason-the 35ft Crown was rated at 79 passengers (three to a seat and 7 on the rear bench). The 40ft tandem was rated at 99 passengers. Now with the seatbelt laws, the seating is much lower. The typical school bus seating is now 2 seater with 3 seater on the other side. Weight wise you no longer need a tandem 40ft'r. And do you think the present day Thomas, Blue Bird, International buses are built anywhere as heavy duty as the old Crowns or Gilligs? Good Luck, TomC

[Ed Hackenbruch]

Thread drift!  We lived in Startup for 2 years before we moved to Az. 

[Iceni John]

Never in my life seen a tandem axle school bus. Whatever fer? Kids getting obese these days or something? Does it look like this:

Sort of.   The tandem Thomases are rare.   The tandem Crowns and Gilligs were not uncommon, but they were mid-engined, not pushers like that Thomas.   They had a locking inter-axle differential, so in snow or sand they could power through with all eight rear wheels driving, but once on the road the third diff had to be turned off, otherwise bad (expensive) things would happen.   My friend in the high desert has one of each  -  it's interesting to see the differences:  Gillig used a simple rocking arm for the two rear axles, but Crown used an upside-down spring and several locating arms instead.   They both ride about the same, quite well really.   Fun!

John

[rusty]

If I was to do another bus it would be a tandem Crown. That is a neat bus. It will never happen. It would be the most expensive bus west of the Mississippi as the boss has told me what would happen if I buy the third bus.

Wayne

[RJ]

Scott -

Tough finding a good tandem Crown pic, guess I'm going to have to go over to the local school district bus yard with my camera, they've still got two or three of them in daily service. . .

But just to give you an idea, here's a "twinkie" 40-ft tandem Crown Super Coach

FWIW & HTH. . .

[B_K]

RJ there's no link!
  BK 

[Scott & Heather]

RJ, that's pretty neato. Wow, I see the Twinkie resemblance.


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[TomC]

The neat thing about the tandems-Gillig used a standard Hendrickson extended leaf walking beam suspension-which is pretty stiff. Hendrickson makes a 4 air bag conversion for this suspension.
Crowns walking spring suspension is unique in that it has bars and struts holding in the axles. So to switch from spring to air ride-simply remove the leaf spring and install the air bags. Many of the last versions of the Crown tandems had air suspension-but usually still leaf spring in front. The 2 axle 40ft Crown that was either mid engine or rear engine could be had with full air suspension. Good Luck, TomC