How tall is your bus?

[sledhead]

143 " to the tip of the cell phone ant. booster and 6 " less to the roof wart

6' 4 " inside

dave

[tomhamrick]

Ours is 13' 3" to the top of the A/C units. 12' 8" to the top of the roof and 86" head room inside.

[luvrbus]

We looked at a H-45 that was 13 ft to the top with no AC on the roof it had 8ft of head room inside we saw a X that 11.2 to the top of roof and had 7.5 of head room on the inside go figure 

[Lin]

"When I first floated the idea of converting a low floor on this and another forum, some said it couldn't be done."

Lostranger- I am a bit surprised by that statement.  Can you reference the thread so that I could see what their reasoning was?

[Jeremy]

I've always imagined that low-floor transists would be extremely easy to convert given that they're just big rectangular boxes on wheels - simple vertical sides, loads of headroom - easy. And dirt cheap to buy too. They are make very attractive candidates if you can get around the fact they don't have bays and are generally designed for short distance and low speed use rather than long-distance travel

Jeremy

[Oonrahnjay]

I've always imagined that low-floor transists would be extremely easy to convert given that they're just big rectangular boxes on wheels - simple vertical sides, loads of headroom - easy. And dirt cheap to buy too. They are make very attractive candidates if you can get around the fact they don't have bays and are generally designed for short distance and low speed use rather than long-distance travel     Jeremy 

     Yes, it takes a bit of creativity to get around the issues of bays (although Gary Throneberry "Garhawk" built some underfloor storage into his RTS that was about as big as bays and had slide-out rails to make it convenient, too) but it can be done.  I think that in years past, many N American transits were built with low gearing/low speed but American cities have sprawled so much that many transits are designed and spec'ed as 'regional' buses and have to be capable of open road commuting driving.  I don't have a lot of experience but I think that many now are fully road-speed worthy.
     But I do absolutely know that a Daimler Fleetline with a Leyland O-680 engine was geared for 38 MPH.  DAMHIK ...   

BH  NC  USA

[Jeremy]

I wonder about the ride quality, noise, handling etc, as well as the speed itself - especially on low-floor buses with the way their suspension and running gear is squeezed into the smallest of spaces. I've been reading a lot of modern bus magazines recently, and the manufacturers all promote their low-floor models by showing-off about how much side-to-side width there is between the wheel arches - in other words, the mechanical arrangements suffer because of the desire for a low and flat floor.

Jeremy

[luvrbus]

I don't see that bus any harder to convert than the RTS myself both are a challenge but very do able 

[Oonrahnjay]

I wonder about the ride quality, noise, handling etc, as well as the speed itself - especially on low-floor buses with the way their suspension and running gear is squeezed into the smallest of spaces. I've been reading a lot of modern bus magazines recently, and the manufacturers all promote their low-floor models by showing-off about how much side-to-side width there is between the wheel arches - in other words, the mechanical arrangements suffer because of the desire for a low and flat floor.
Jeremy 

     That may be an issue - I suppose that time will tell.  The low-floor Gillig buses have the air bag suspension members spread out and they are duplicated; two smaller ones where you'd expect one larger one.  Whether this is an advantage, spreadiing the load and making the ride better, or a disadvantage with needless complication, I'm not sure.  But it certainly works well and my take on it right now is not "good or bad" but just "different".  (And this is from a confirmed "Keep It Simple" adherent.)

[Lostranger]

Our Gillig rides and drives like a dream. Plenty of speed and plenty of power for us, but we do not use a toad. I think it would still be okay.

Bruce mentioned the eight airbag suspension. They did something right. I did not know until after purchase that our bus also has a small ring and pinion. They made up final gearing by using planetary gears in the hubs. Some might call that cramming stuff in, but I think of it as an elegant solution for keeping the floor close to the road.

On top of all that, the kneel feature dumps air at both ends rather than just the front like our Flxible Metro. I don't know if Gillig transits do the same, but our bus was a shuttle and did not have a front door. A front-only kneel would be silly. Net effect is that I pull into a spot, hit the kneel switch, and that first step becomes even shorter.

I can't speak for other low floor busses, but I love this one.

Jim in NC

P.S. Just went back and found this:

Title: Re: Gillig Low Floor Conversions
Post by: Geoff on November 10, 2012, 04:05:45 PM
I've been in a few low floor buses and I purposely looked at the floors and interior build and quickly decided that it was not a good candidate for a serious bus conversion.  Like you said: "inherent design problems".

P.P.S. I had been talking about design problems specific to our Flxible Metro

[Oonrahnjay]

...  Bruce mentioned the eight airbag suspension. They did something right. I did not know until after purchase that our bus also has a small ring and pinion. They made up final gearing by using planetary gears in the hubs. Some might call that cramming stuff in, but I think of it as an elegant solution for keeping the floor close to the road.  ... 

     Yeah, the planetary diff rear end is very similar to the one originally installed in my Daimler bus -- except 450 pounds lighter and with a 4000 pound GAWR higher.  In fact, since the diff is nice and compact and the rear air bag suspension is so good and the engine and transmission is mounted on a ladder-like subframe, you could even just drop the rear axle, suspension, B400R transmission, and Cumming ISC engine out of a front-end-crashed Gillig and graft it right under a British double decker bus and have all-N American engine, transmission, and rear axle with a cruise speed (2 overdrive) of 65MPH -- and save ~2000 pounds hanging off behind the rear axle.  Not that I'd do anything like that, of course     

BH   NC   USA

[Lostranger]

You could even just drop the rear axle, suspension, B400R transmission, and Cumming ISC engine out of a front-end-crashed Gillig and graft it right under a British double decker bus....  Not that I'd do anything like that, of course     

Come on, Bruce. Take a walk on the wild side....

[seaton@mta]

Jim,

Would love to see pix of interior.  Your Gillig looks a lot different than the low-floors run in transit service in NYC. In fact, the exterior of your bus is a lot better looking.

- Seaton

NY and NC

[luvrbus]

Bad thing about the planetary gear system is the bearing load one has to stay on top of it or it will run into big bucks,it is used in a lot of off road equipment like loaders and scrapers 

I would cringe when the mechanic would tell me a Cat loader was down you could count on 10k or more for each wheel in just parts that gear system to me on bus I would pass on JMO

[Lin]

My reason for asking the question was I did not see how someone could say that such a bus could not be converted.  Yes, different formats offer different challenges, and some are easier or more practical then others for various reasons, but none are impossible.  As once mentioned, I knew a guy that lived in his old Fiat and even had a bed and cook stove in it!  Calling a particular format unsuitable is not the same as saying it can not be done.