Crown super coach on govdeals

[windtrader]

Well, some folks appreciate the Crowns. SOLD - out the door $6k. lots of money these days for a 30 year schoolie.

As for adding a bit of extra boost to get it up to speed, check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfkOOt_Sf68

[CrabbyMilton]

Interesting perspective. I agree that if they were still building skoolies, they would have had the modern power trains but where I would beg to differ is that they likely may have phased out the mid engine version and concentrated on the the rear engine since they had an updated version toward the very end that was indeed a handsome model. But, the market moved toward the lower cost shorter life skoolies.
Now a question for you CROWN experts out there: How many CROWNS were sold in the midwest and east coast?
If so, how did they hold up to harsh winters since most were sold on the west coast?

[Oonrahnjay]

...  As for adding a bit of extra boost to get it up to speed, check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfkOOt_Sf68 

      Where do you find school bus tires good for 300 MPH?

[HB of CJ]

How many Crowns sold in total as schoolies?  Dunno.  Crown also made special weird stuff including weirds, fire apparatus, mobile libraries, medical vans, military, etc..  Each practically hand built.

In total?  You will get different numbers.  I was told around 5500 but that might be wrong.  Started around 1949?  Ended 1991.  There are many websites discussing Crown Supercoaches. ... 

www.crowncoach.com?

www.crowncoachjunkies.com?

Try a Google search?

[Iceni John]

Now a question for you CROWN experts out there: How many CROWNS were sold in the midwest and east coast?
If so, how did they hold up to harsh winters since most were sold on the west coast?

For school buses, essentially zero.   AZ and ID had a few, but they were essentially a Southern California bus, with some in OR and WA.   Even Northern CA had fewer Crowns then SoCal, because Gillig had more market share there.   Crown did build some Fire Coaches for non-CA agencies, but again they were mainly for the left coast.   Highway Post Offices were used further afield, as were the TV production vehicles and tour buses, but compared to MCI their numbers were much smaller.

Regarding holding up to harsh eastern winters and salted roads, they had mostly aluminum body panels, and their frame rails and understructure were thoroughly treated with a tough tar-like coating;  on my bus, albeit a CA bus all its life, it is still as as fresh as the day it came from the factory.   I see pictures of mid-West and Eastern Blue Bird and Thomas buses on Skoolie.net that are badly deteriorated by severe underbody rusting, with little evidence of any real factory corrosion protection.

A Crown or Gillig quite simply was overkill for most non-West Coast areas.   Who needs a school bus with a 290HP Cummins 855 and 3-stage Jake in Nebraska or Kansas or Florida?!   When some CA school districts retired their faithful Crowns after many hundreds of thousands of miles, they quickly realized why the generic eastern-built disposabuses were so cheap  - they sometimes couldn't even climb the same steep high-altitude grades at all with a full load of sprogs on board, especially in icy winters, that their Crowns could easily manage every day without fail.   Some of the CA desert school districts have put well over a million miles on their Crowns  -  what ThomBird can do that?   Quite simply, all school buses these days are mechanically based on medium-duty trucks. e.g. short-haul city delivery trucks, while Crowns and Gilligs have the same underpinnings as true Class 8 trucks.   For example, what eastern bus had a drivetrain like an MC9, complete with Jake and huge brakes?

A Crown is NOT your generic school bus.   Every one was custom-made to order (no two are exactly alike!) with mostly hand-built construction.   Crown was a niche manufacturer  -  obviously their business model and method of manufacturing was no longer sustainable when competing with buses mass-produced as cheaply as possible for a maximum 15-year life.   If General Electric "We Bring Good Things To Life" hadn't killed off Crown in 1991 they probably would have further developed their rear-engine Supercoach II, but the traditional mid-engine models were still outselling the Super II right up to the end.   My 1990 Super II is still a handsome and fresh-looking bus, and it looks better than the current disposabuses which in some cases just look plain ugly.   No cheap plastic interior and CANBUS for me!

John         

[Iceni John]

As for adding a bit of extra boost to get it up to speed, check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfkOOt_Sf68

That's one way to deal with tailgaters behind you.   The old Hall-Scott Crowns also could throw flames out their tail pipes when their drivers wanted to deter tailgaters, but not quite to that extent.

Is that a bus with an aircraft engine, or an aircraft with a bus body?   Nah, who cares, it's not a Crown . . .

John

[chessie4905]

I believe in Pa., at least, school busses are only operated for ten years due to state requirements of subsidies. Because of that their used value drops like a brick when off-loaded at the 10 year mark. ACF Brills were made similiar to Crowns; Underfloor engine, radiator between frame rails, mounted at an angle. Fans, generator, and air compressor mounted in a cluster run by a front driveshaft. Big baggage compartment at rear. Engine was a Hall Scott 779 cu. In. 6cylinder. Same rated hp as a 4104 of same time frame. Springs were 4 inch 4 each parallel with axle in-between. 4 speed trans was same as 4104, but not angle drive. Ratios were different, 2 to third was closer with big gap from 3 rd to 4th. Reverse was selected same way. They came up with a Cummins diesel version in early 50s, but too late and too costly to try to compete with GM after Greyhound went to them. They went out of business in mid 50s.

http://www.curbsideclassic.com/bus-stop-classic/bus-stop-classic-acf-brill-ic-41-silver-screen-standout/

[Oonrahnjay]

I believe in Pa., at least, school busses are only operated for ten years due to state requirements of subsidies. Because of that their used value drops like a brick when off-loaded at the 10 year mark. ACF Brills were made similiar to Crowns; Underfloor engine, radiator between frame rails, mounted at an angle. Fans, generator, and air compressor mounted in a cluster run by a front driveshaft. Big baggage compartment at rear. Engine was a Hall Scott 779 cu. In. 6cylinder. Same rated hp as a 4104 of same time frame. Springs were 4 inch 4 each parallel with axle in-between. 4 speed trans was same as 4104, but not angle drive. Ratios were different, 2 to third was closer with big gap from 3 rd to 4th. Reverse was selected same way. They came up with a Cummins diesel version in early 50s, but too late and too costly to try to compete with GM after Greyhound went to them. They went out of business in mid 50s.

http://www.curbsideclassic.com/bus-stop-classic/bus-stop-classic-acf-brill-ic-41-silver-screen-standout/ 

       We had an ACF Brill as our sports team bus when I was in high school -- 62 - 65  (it may have been sold off before I graduated in '66 or maybe not).  I didn't know anything about it or think anything about it -- it was "just the bus" but even then I thought it was pretty cool.  The football/baseball coach drove it and he sure could grind the gears!