Skoolies vs OTR bus nuts

[Coach_and_Crown_Guy]

Your passion for Crowns sounds similar as our passion with our GM PD4104. The Crowns are a special breed - We've always had a soft spot for the Wanderlodge & the Gillig & the Crown. Sounds like the Crowns had lots of options available more than other busses.

You don't have to convince me about the 4104. The first coach I learned to drive in was a 4104, just like the very first bus was in Crowns. I Love the 4104 as the fantastic combination of excellent engineering and incredibly durable use of materials and construction. I think they are the best and most balanced design and execution of any production bus. The MC9 would be in my opinion the second choice for that classic combination of utility and ease of keeping it on the road and in revenue service. That's why they built so damn many of each and kept them in production for most of a decade in each case.

A good and well maintained 4104 is a true joy to drive and I do miss the experience, but I'm also aware that for a bus conversion and possibility of having to take it into dicey situations of steepness, or having to reverse with a failed reverse solenoid, (all parts availability today sucks), makes it, for me at least, a better choice to use a Crown with simple all mechanical systems and much better terrain clearance and steep grade (driveways and such) capabilities. Time does indeed march along and getting a good 4104 and finding the parts today must be a true and never ending Holy Grail level Quest.

My hats off to all of you that have any GMC and manage to keep them on the road and out of scrap yards. I still think the GMC overall design and construction was the best fleet owners choice for it's ruggedness and simple overall ability to keep them repaired and in service, at least as long as the parts support supply chain was intact. Today probably not so much.

Someday I'd like to meet and maybe drive for old times sake some of the nice GMC coaches I see here. They demanded the very most out of the driver and made us better drivers for sure. It was a point of pride to be able to get one down the road and not miss shifts or spill the passenger drinks by being so smooth they didn't feel us shift. Pretty much a lost art and nobody seems to miss it or remember what it was like to have those skill sets.

[David Anderson]

I think this skoolie is cool and very well done.  Especially since the guy is on 27 years old, which is an infant around old guys like us. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmDwFgQsYhc

David

[Utahclaimjumper]

Looks to me like he just put it in the hands of professionals and wrote the check..>>>Dan

[Brassman]

That really looks top notch, though I wouldn't want to drive that thing too far though.  Doesn't show the toilet.  In skoolie world  the 5 gallon pail "composting toilet" is the thing.

In a school buses you get an all steel blank canvas.  A 40 foot long ,102 inch wide highway coach is just too much machine for most people to enter the bus world.  A $2000 steel tube has popular appeal.

[chessie4905]

In our state School buses lose state subsidy after ten years old, so a lot are dumped every year at very reasonable prices. Great starter platform for first time enthusiast to work or develop his or her talents.Many will eventually move to a bus conversion if they stay in the hobby. Better to screw up a school bus shell than a coach shell in the learning process.