BUS-BYIN II

[Jim Blackwood]

(This guy's my hero!)

So... If I buy a $800 schoolie then I'll be good with my $10K bankroll for all the repairs, upgrades and such, right? I mean it's sort of like a fractional thing, I get that.

Jim

[oltrunt]

BCO.  I really like the way your epistles seem to bring out the best in all of us--both fans and detractors.  Keep up the good work!  Jack

[oltrunt]

Jim, you are right about the fractional thing except that the statements heard from the admiring public go something like this: "Do you guys have any idea how many nights you could have stayed in a ground floor room at the Motel 6 in Bakersfield for the price of that thing?"
Jack

[Jim Blackwood]

I don't think I could handle Bakersfield for very long... well maybe in January or February, but it's really too dry for my constitution. My skin cracks and my nose bleeds and it just gets kinda miserable after awhile. So I'd have to pack up and head towards the coast or the east where it's more humid.

You know, I love those multi-million dollar bus conversions. I've been fortunate enough to have been given the grand tour in one or two. All the comforts of home, lots and lots of shiny stuff! My Racoon Brothers would fall all over themselves inside one of those. But me? I'll never own one of those. I pray to God to let me win the lottery but he keeps telling me I have to buy a ticket first. How does that make sense? I'm already squeezing every dime until it squeaks, I'm gonna start lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills next? It's just not me.

There's a spectrum, I can see that. The $800 skoolie is a tent on wheels with a hard top. If you can be comfortable living in a tent (or better yet, saplings and visqueen) then it puts you solidly in the lap of luxury, with lots of room to grow your domestic bliss. Believe me, I had one. I know this. And best of all, if a major expense comes your way, another cheap skoolie is only a phone call away. Transfer the goods, throw the seats in the old one, and get it to the recyclers for a nice handful of good green cash. Cheapest way you can possibly go and still live in comfort.

Of course many of us have wives. That complicates things.
Live in a Skoolie? Oh no.
What to do, what to do.
Get rid of the wife? What would the kids say? Besides, she's a good little money maker, and has a few other uses besides. You do tend to get sorta attached after a while.
OK, got to move up the spectrum some. Problem with an S&S is that they just aren't durable. I'm sorta thinkin' Dixie Cup here. You spend very much time in an older one and you soon realize that it's really not much more than luck and wishful thinking holding it all together and at some point the big bad wolf is gonna blow your house down. Do I wanta be 75 when that happens? I don't think so. Not even a good intermediate step really because they keep on losing value until there just isn't anything left. (A Bakersfield Motel isn't even a great value if you're full timing it there.)

So now we enter the wired (weird?) wonderful world of metal buses. But no skoolies apparently. Too bad really, because those are a true bargain. And if you've never experienced the joys of gravity plumbing and a solar shower you just really have never lived life to the fullest. Even better if you can collect your own rainfall and keep up.

But wives seem to tend to be such domestic critters. Somehow or other, odd looking appendages to the rig don't seem to appeal. Not sure exactly how that happened but it's very clear that form DOES NOT follow function. OK, ok, no awning expandable rain gathering hardware on the roof and there has to be a pump and a water heater, I get it, it's a small concession, one of many, and then many more, one after the other until the entire scheme becomes massively unworkable unless you just happen to be a multimillionaire or have just won the lottery...(PLEASE God? Please? Just a little one?)

Humpf.
OK then. DL3 anyone? $3,000! I've got 3 big ones right here in hand! Just need a '94 with under 300K and no rust or damage, half tread or better and batteries that will last out the year. I'll pay you to bring it to me.

...please God?

Jim

[Jon]

around $199,200
The median home price in the U.S. is $200,000 ? here's what that will get you across the country. If you want to buy a house this year, you may well be paying around $199,200, the median price for a home in the U.S., according to Zillow.

I don't know why everyone seems to think everyone with a store bought Prevost conversion is a millionaire. No doubt most driving them have done OK, but really rich people seem to have other interests than bus ownership.

But a person can get a very nice professionally converted Prevost, likely with 100,000 miles or less for less than the cost of the average home. In other words the fairly average man on the street that has saved a little and decided to get into a Commercial Bus Conversion is likely able to do it for not much different cost than the average home in the US or a typical new sticks and staples.  With that coach he has one that will not disassemble itself in an accident which is a real big deal for most bus conversion owners.

[Jim Blackwood]

Oh Lord, won't you give me a Conversion Bus,
Just throw in the Lottery, there won't be no fuss...
It's easy for you Lord, what's there to discuss?
So Lord, won't you give me a Conversion Bus?

(Thanks Janice)

Jim

[Gary Hatt - Publisher BCM]

Costs to own a bus?  What costs?   Do you mean the $10,000 I spent this week at Wrico in Eugene, OR buying and installing a new 12.5K generator and having my Series 60 injectors replaced and not only that, next week I have to have my Allison 740 adjusted because the mechanic said it is shifting at the incorrect RPMs.   Like they say, you can't take it with you.   

[luvrbus]

Costs to own a bus?  What costs?   Do you mean the $10,000 I spent this week at Wrico in Eugene, OR buying and installing a new 12.5K generator and having my Series 60 injectors replaced and not only that, next week I have to have my Allison 740 adjusted because the mechanic said it is shifting at the incorrect RPMs.   Like they say, you can't take it with you.   

Nope you can't take it with but you sure as hell are not going anywhere without it (money that is) Damn Gary you should have bought another bus you are close to 30k in the last couple of months

[boxcarOkie]

(This guy's my hero!)

So... If I buy a $800 schoolie then I'll be good with my $10K bankroll for all the repairs, upgrades and such, right? I mean it's sort of like a fractional thing, I get that.

Jim

Freight-Liner is now charging $450 for a diagnosis, then comes cost of parts and actual repair of the offending item (Often in thousands of dollars, ask Gary Hatt) shop supplies (that they keep), tire shops in Oklahoma are charging $30 to just break down a tire and dispose of it.  $450 to just put on the hook, some tows over $1,000.00

Money ...Money ...Money ...Money ... Money ... First yo' money and then your clothes
that is the way it often goes.

$800 indeed.

Everyone knows the PRICE and what it costs.
But few know the true VALUE in the end.

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Jack you crack me up!  Hey Dave, Lee, and a few others, got a new phone and I have lost your numbers.  Send me your contact info to LDSRR91@GMAIL.COM