So 3 busses wasn't enough. I really didn't want a long ass bus in the first place, and I really wanted a side door too. So some influencers on YT told me to STOP building that long bus with the Cat C7 if it wasn't exactly what I wanted, that I'd hate it. Well, I actually did want a rear engine flat nose bus, and I would take that in the 40 footer so I did make a compromise ACCIDENTLY. Here's the story...
So I tripped over this school auction local to me about 40 miles away. I seen these 2 handicap busses that the lifts didn't work, and busses didn't run. I figured, hey I have access to to tow trucks, so I can get them home. One of these busses was a 2000 Chevy BlueBird that didn't run, and only had 44,000 original miles on it. Now come on, what can be wrong with only 44,000 miles on it. So I bid cheap on it. LIke $800, but it didn't meet the reserve so I moved onto the next one. Ohh hell, here's a 2010 model with transmission issues, I can build a transmission and it had the Cummins 6.7. Great length and side door and lift that didn't work also. OK so I"ll bid $1000 on it. Nope, reserve not met. Oh well, didn't need them anyway. 3 days later I get a call from the auction house. The school lifted the reserves to encourage more bidding. I said OK, well I already bid and busy today so I won't be placing any more bids and as low as I bid, I'm sure they'll get beat anyway. 2 hours later, I get a text you won. WTF? Oh damn I won a bus for $6XX + fees, grand total $739. 10 miinutes later, I get another text You won. I thought duplicate text, am I supposed to respond or something. Ohh dammm, I won the 2nd bus too for like $970 + fees, $1140 or so. So I'm saying, ohhh helll naw, I'm going up there, cuz noway do I need 2 busses that don't run. I get up there to jump in their azz and say Hey, you had reserves on this stuff, and I didn't win, so I bid on another and I don't need 2 busses, but I'll go ahead and take the one just because I did bid. Wnen I got up there, the guy says, oh you're the lucky guy that stole 2 busses. What do you mean I stole them? Well, we'll jump them for you and you can drive them home. WHAT??? Yeah, the 2000 just needs batteries, and the one with the transmission problem is just a sensor or something, but since the lifts don't work, we wanted rid of them both. Well OK, I'll be back tomorrow to pay for them and take them home. They both made it home fine. I did have to spend $600 on batteries for both of them, I needed 5 batteries and those Group 31 commerical batteries aren't cheap. I got my tow yards discount on the batteries.
So yeah, now I had 5 busses.
The first one 2000 Blue Bird Handy Bus, Cat 3126 and AT545 Allison. The engine was spotless clean. Paint wasn't even faded yet. Just dust from sitting on a gravel lot. Paid $739, little over $300 for batteries, didn't even clean it up and sold it for $5500. Great running bus, but I wanted for the 2010 with the Cummins 6.7 and the Allison 2500PTS with overdrive and lock up converter, so I sold this one.
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This one I got for $1140 I think it was with all the auction fees, and it took 3 batteries since it had integrated front and rear air conditioning, not the ugly boxes that hang from the ceilings. It's also a 77.5 inch ceiling instead of 74 inch and that's huge when you want to put an inch of foamboard insulation in the floor, and it also has no wheel wells. This is common stuff in the Handy Bus or handicapped busses. It comes at a price though. Notice the smaller 22.5 tires. I like the big full size 10r22.5 or 11r22.5 tires and wheel wells dont' bother me much. I'll just incorporate those into my build and that's where closets or something like that will go. So this one I kept and it'll be the one I build now. It's also missing 2 windows they robbed for othger busses, but I didn't care, since I'm deleting windows with sheet metal for things like the bathroom. It had 130,000 miles on the Red Cummins 6.7 ISB. It runs soooo good, and even though it's all around hydro juice brakes, it does have air ride and air door actuator and seat, so it does have all the air tank, and the air compressor mounted on the side of the engine powered by the cam gear, not a belt driven air compressor. Awesome featured bus for an RV build. The trans does need some work though. I'll probably have to send it to Allison to have them run the codes or I"ll have to do more research and figure it out on my own. But it likes to get hung up in Range Inhibit limp mode at the worst times, like in the middle of an intersction or climbing up a small hill. Fluid is bright red and good, but Allsions go into self protect mode so easy, and this is what they do, so I'm sure it can repaired without a rebuild. So far, I've put about 450 miles on it, and it seems to get 11mpg. I was blown away. This is the same engine and trans in my rollback I was driving and I'd only get 7 or 8. But do keep in mind, busses get the weak tunes in them for good mpg and longevity. So it's probably only the 190-200hp tuen in it, and I think my rollback had the 290hp tune it, cuz it's certainly faster than this bus and they weigh about the same empty. But I might bump the bus to the 240hp tune since it is a bit of sled taking off. Once you get it up to speed it's fine though. 70mph even with the tiny tires.
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