Driving a big bus

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Thanx MedicNovo. I am a newbie and had neverseen one. It would be cool, but I imagine a pain in the butt.

Chaz,
Looks to me that your a Sr. Member, Not a Newbie......lol
Nick-

[Chaz]

Nick,
  I'm a senior member ONLY because I'm such a rookie!!!!!!!!    lol 

    (But I do have allot of "Senior Moments"!!!    Does that count for anything?? LOLOL)

        Se Senor',
              Chaz

[JerryH]

Hi WorkingOnWise,

I haven't been online for a while and thought I'd respond to your post.  Then your query regarding towing a 10-foot trailer.  Towing a 10-foot trailer with a long wheelbased tow vehicle is much more difficult than a short wheelbased tow vehicle and longer trailer.  No doubt you looked green with such a tow configuration.

I know that this website and bus conversions in general is the "do it your way" crowd.  That being said, there's also got to be some logic applied to the things we do.  "Personally" speaking ... I think with an $80k budget you could do much better buying a professionally converted coach (possibly Prevost) and spare yourself the investment of time and resources for something that, when complete (if complete), will have (in my opionion) more negatives than positives.  I'd compare it to a really extensive home remodeling project to a double-wide.  Why?

Despite your love of the coach, it's just not overly logical.  Why not keep the coach the length it is and tow a nicely planned trailer and add any necessary re-power you might need to your bus?

Really ... you should take the suggestions of most of the members here.

Jerry H.

[Lee Bradley]

Looking at that MAN, I'm pretty sure the engine and drivetrain are in the front half, so the rear end is just a trailer - so it occurs to me you could probably make something like fairly easily (obviously still a huge job, but then so were your original proposals).

My coach is mid-engined, which would make things more straightforward than a rear-engined layout as I imagine yours is. The rear wall on mine is certainly not structural - in fact there is no metal in it at all above the floor level - so you could remove it without concern (in fact, I am removing it on mine as I am currently busy putting a slide-out there).

The reason I suggest making your existing bus articulated is that the MAN type mentioned is clearly a low-speed city-bus, whereas I guess you want something more suitable for driving long distances. There are articulated highway coaches about (eg, the type shown below, which I've posted 'photos of before), but the cost of one of those is likely to be prohibitive.


Jeremy

Hi Jeremy,
That may say MAN but I think it is a Neoplan. It looks like the engine is in the rear section; Seattle has several articulated buses with the powered wheels in the rear, and the last snow storm, they were everywhere but straight.

[Jeremy]

Lee:

If you re-read the post you will see that my comments on the MAN were referring to a bus mentioned in the posts just prior to mine.

Incidentally, if you want to see a good example of an articulated bus out of control, watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdBFi5ug7gE

Jeremy

[Jeremy]

I've just realised there's loads of bus stuff on YouTube!

There's even a video by a British enthusiast showing some sort of celebration of Plaxton's 100th birthday (Plaxton being the builders of my bus).

If you want to prove how much of a bus nut you are by sitting through 7 minutes of old Plaxtons being driven past, here you are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6eBP8y1pY8

Jeremy

[Chaz]

OT.
WOW!!! WHAT is UP with that Russian tunnel??  Man. That is wild stuff!!
  Oh, and I'll bet that bus driver dirtied himself!! But at least he kept it up!

    Chaz

[Busted Knuckle]

OT.
WOW!!! WHAT is UP with that Russian tunnel??  Man. That is wild stuff!!
  Oh, and I'll bet that bus driver dirtied himself!! But at least he kept it up!
    Chaz

I hear ya Chaz! Seems like that tunnel has something just before the position of that camear that actually causes accidents! Because most of the time the vehicles were already sliding or swerving before the camear picked them up!  BK 

[Jeremy]

I think the story is that the tunnel runs under a river, and water leaks through and causes ice on the road. Supposably that piece of film is just one day's worth of accidents, but I find that hard to believe.

Jeremy

[DrivingMissLazy]

This 3150 m long tunnel in Russia is the longest in-city tunnel of Europe. There is a river running over it and water leaks at some points. When the temperature reaches -38 degrees like it did this winter, the road freezes and the result is the attached video taken during a single day with the tunnel camera.

[Chaz]

DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Come on!!!!!!  After a couple wrecks -- HELL, even ONE wreck -- wouldn't they "get it"!?!?  Flashing lights, salt, flagmen, stop sticks, sheep..... put something out there!! 

Oh well, it made for fun viewing.  ( Carnage and mayhem CAN be fun!! ) lolol

  I like "butt puckering videos,
        Chaz

[Green-Hornet]

Sheep! That is funny,,I don't care who you are!

[belfert]

That may say MAN but I think it is a Neoplan. It looks like the engine is in the rear section; Seattle has several articulated buses with the powered wheels in the rear, and the last snow storm, they were everywhere but straight.

Yes, those articulated buses with rear engines are terrible in an ice storm.  We had an ice storm last winter and the local transit agency had something like 200 buses crashed.  The block I work on had 4 articulated buses crashed around it.  The rear engine causes the bus to jackknife on the ice.

We have a fair amount of snow and it never causes much issue with articulated buses, but ice is a different story.

Brian

[Jeremy]

DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Come on!!!!!!  After a couple wrecks -- HELL, even ONE wreck -- wouldn't they "get it"!?!?  Flashing lights, salt, flagmen, stop sticks, sheep..... put something out there!! 

We had an ice storm last winter and the local transit agency had something like 200 buses crashed.  The block I work on had 4 articulated buses crashed around it. 

Sounds like it's not just the Ruskies who can't take a hint! Perhaps we should train sheep worldwide to deploy themselves in front of buses when it drops below freezing

Jeremy

[belfert]

DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Come on!!!!!!  After a couple wrecks -- HELL, even ONE wreck -- wouldn't they "get it"!?!?  Flashing lights, salt, flagmen, stop sticks, sheep..... put something out there!! 

We had an ice storm last winter and the local transit agency had something like 200 buses crashed.  The block I work on had 4 articulated buses crashed around it. 

Sounds like it's not just the Ruskies who can't take a hint! Perhaps we should train sheep worldwide to deploy themselves in front of buses when it drops below freezing

The bus crashes here in Minnesota did not result in property damage in some cases.  The articulateds mostly jackknifed with no damage.  Some of the other buses simply slid into medians and ditches.

There were questions about why service was not suspended due to crashes.

Brian Elfert