Just an amusing Youtube video

[Jeremy]

As the owner of a Bedford coach (although sadly not a Bedford Val as used in the film), this recreation of the classic Italian Job bus sequence amused me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NU2B5DOv8s


Jeremy

[DoubleEagle]

I have a Mini and two buses, but I think this idea would be best kept in the model realm. There was one fellow that was featured in Bus Conversion Magazine back in the nineties that converted the rear of his Eagle to have a flip up door with fold out ramps that he drove his 4X4 Susuki in (while parked). I don't know how well it lasted.

[Runcutter]

In the early 1970's, when I was an active member of the Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport, Maine, the FMCA had a chapter meeting on the property.  I recall a coach (4104 I think), that had a small car "partial garage" in the back, above the engine compartment.  Although I was in the bus industry by then, I was more involved with the streetcars, so not really involved with the FMCA folks and their equipment.  It was, however, and interesting concept.

Arthur

[Iceni John]

Here's an Australian Bedford motorhome with a Mini Moke under the bed:  http://www.hobohome.com/the_motorhome/motorhome_overview.php

I also recall seeing something about an Englishman who puts his car inside the lower deck of his double-decker bus.   Then there's that crazy-expensive German RV with a car under the floor.   I suppose nothing's impossible.

Jeremy, I like the fag in the driver's mouth, just like a real lorry driver.

John

[Jeremy]

About the only sort of 'bus conversions' you see here are either band buses or race coaches. Plus occasionally hippie / traveller buses, although you very rarely see those actually on the road. When I tell people that I'm converting a bus which I will use to go to sailing events, 95% of the time they assume I mean I will carry the boat inside the bus.

I guess the reason race coaches don't really exist in the US is that your buses are invariably rear-engineed, whereas there are a lot of mid-engined buses here (including my own) - although nowadays race coaches very often use a tail-lift rather than a ramp so it's entirely possible to do the same thing with a rear-engined bus.

Here are a couple of photos of typical British race coaches

With ramp (and co-incidentally with Mini)



With tail-lift:



(This one's just to prove that the previous vehicle is a bus and not a truck)




Jeremy

[Dreadnought]

"This is the Self Preservation Society!"

[Dreadnought]

Jeremy I'm from England too. Except I emigrated to the USA a few years ago.

Ocassionally over here, you'll come across a Routemaster converted into a Motorhome but there are height restrictions in most states.

They usually either have the Leyland engine or a Gardner straight six diesel. I found one in Florida that was being used as a presidential campaign bus- but it would have cost too much to convert and they're a lot slower than even an MC-8 or 9 with an 8v71.

[Oonrahnjay]

Jeremy I'm from England too. Except I emigrated to the USA a few years ago.

Ocassionally over here, you'll come across a Routemaster converted into a Motorhome but there are height restrictions in most states.

They usually either have the Leyland engine or a Gardner straight six diesel. I found one in Florida that was being used as a presidential campaign bus- but it would have cost too much to convert and they're a lot slower than even an MC-8 or 9 with an 8v71. 

        In about 15 of the western US states and some western Canadian provinces, the height limit is 14'; East of the Rockies (both countries), the limit is almost entirely 13'6".   Since almost all Routemasters are 14'4", it's very hard to use them in the US as a coach with the roof on.
        A few routes in the UK, frequently involving railway overcrossings, require a "low-bridge" bus but I'm told that in the 60s - 80s, fewer than 1% of buses delivered in the UK were to low-bridge standard.  They're hard to find.  A 33-foot stretch low-bridge Daimler Fleetline will top out at 44 Mph with the highest available gearing set and a Leyland O-680 engine -- don't ask me how I know.

        With sincerest regards, I remain, yours faithfully, etc.  BH

[Iceni John]

Jeremy I'm from England too. Except I emigrated to the USA a few years ago.

Ocassionally over here, you'll come across a Routemaster converted into a Motorhome but there are height restrictions in most states.

They usually either have the Leyland engine or a Gardner straight six diesel. I found one in Florida that was being used as a presidential campaign bus- but it would have cost too much to convert and they're a lot slower than even an MC-8 or 9 with an 8v71.

Are you sure they weren't Bristol Lodekkas, such as the FLF which usually had the excellent Gardner 6LW, or sometimes Bristol or Leyland engines?   Most Routemasters have AEC 590 or 690 engines, even though O.600s were preferred by some of the northern operators.   I've seen a converted Fluff here in California, several Bristol VRs, maybe an Atlantean (it was in the distance), but never a Routemaster here.   Too bad  -  they're still a brilliant bus by modern standards.   I even rode in the one and only rear-engine front-entrance Routemaster when it was on the 234 route out of Purley.   The best RM to get would be one of the ex-BOAC Heathrow express buses  -  they would easily do 70 MPH on the M4, and that's also towing their luggage trailer!

John

[Dreadnought]

Are you sure they weren't Bristol Lodekkas, such as the FLF which usually had the excellent Gardner 6LW, or sometimes Bristol or Leyland engines?   Most Routemasters have AEC 590 or 690 engines, even though O.600s were preferred by some of the northern operators.   I've seen a converted Fluff here in California, several Bristol VRs, maybe an Atlantean (it was in the distance), but never a Routemaster here.   Too bad  -  they're still a brilliant bus by modern standards.   I even rode in the one and only rear-engine front-entrance Routemaster when it was on the 234 route out of Purley.   The best RM to get would be one of the ex-BOAC Heathrow express buses  -  they would easily do 70 MPH on the M4, and that's also towing their luggage trailer!

John

I think they were converted to have the gardner inline six as I never saw that engine in a route master in the UK.
The Gardner engine is undeniably a high quality piece so I can see why.

I think the routemaster was a monocoque construction much like the MCIs.

If anything, these Leyland diesels and gardners emphasises the high specific output of the 2 stroke (essentially a naturally aspirated) Detroit diesel design- and high torque too. 740 ft lbs is 13 plus bar BMEP. Very impressive. America was never really known for high specific output engines, with huge big block muscle car engines barely managing 50-60 bhp/litre in the old days and that's GROSS figures not net, when cars like the BMW 2002 tii managed 65 bhp/litre net- so the 2 stroke detroits are an exception.

[Oonrahnjay]

Are you sure they weren't Bristol Lodekkas, such as the FLF which usually had the excellent Gardner 6LW, or sometimes Bristol or Leyland engines?   Most Routemasters have AEC 590 or 690 engines, even though O.600s were preferred by some of the northern operators.   I've seen a converted Fluff here in California, several Bristol VRs, maybe an Atlantean (it was in the distance), but never a Routemaster here.   Too bad  -  they're still a brilliant bus by modern standards.   I even rode in the one and only rear-engine front-entrance Routemaster when it was on the 234 route out of Purley.   The best RM to get would be one of the ex-BOAC Heathrow express buses  -  they would easily do 70 MPH on the M4, and that's also towing their luggage trailer!  John

    My experience has only been East Coast US.  If anyone this side of the country is fooling with "classic" British buses, Lodekkas are preferred here because of the height issues (for buses with roofs on -- actually, most of the pre-2000 buses that you see for tours in Miami, Wash DC, Philly, New York are open top) but at one time - about 6 years ago, there were two Routemasters in the yard here in Charlotte awaiting sale.  One had been bought by a large shopping mall in Statesville NC and had been converted to right-side stairs (very tidy work, as much as I disliked it) and the other had come from Florida.  I don't know what happened to them -- one day I came by and there was one and soon after, the other had gone.
    I had the opportunity to ride one of the Heathrow express buses (although it was Pan-Am to the Victoria terminal) in 1969.  Quite an amazing ride, indeed.  If I'd known what was actually under them, I'd have been even more terrified!   (And I has no idea that they'd ever made a rear-engined RM - even one, thanks for that nugget of knowledge.