Bluebird Bus Conversion Project & Cross Country Trip

[LuckyHenriksen]

Thanks everyone. I am excited to share pictures with you

You're welcome to join the bearded gang :D

Awesome bus! are you doing the camp over the night before the event?

Yes we will be there for the campout ;D

[delatlanta1281]

Dude... This is really cool. Awesome thing to do as a youngster!

[Farbin Kaiber]

Were those Hellas in the first post going to be HID bus status?

[Andy.B]

Amazing project preceding what is sure to be an amazing journey. Subscribed, and I can't wait to see more!

[Zacm829]

Great progress so far, are you going to be towing a car on the trip? Hoping your not leaving an e30 behind.

[LuckyHenriksen]

Were those Hellas in the first post going to be HID bus status?

Yes the Hellas are going on the front :p

Great progress so far, are you going to be towing a car on the trip? Hoping your not leaving an e30 behind.

Not planning on towing a car, might haul a dual sport dirtbike with us though, if I find a decent deal on one around here.

[mcskibadee1]

Dude, this is so sick!

Couple questionsif you don't mind because I have always thought thought this was the best way to what you are doing.

How much does a bus like that cost? Did you do a lot of research, are these reliable? I am always scared that I would have no idea what to do if it breaks down.

[bikerbill2021]

killer stuff! will def be watching this thread

[mrsleeve]

^
Bluebird Motor Coach, is well known for making some of the best Buses and Luxury motor coaches of all time including a huge portion of the school buses on the road, which this looks like it was based on originally. To say they are high quality and reliable is generally an understatement, but like anything it comes down to owner maintenance and knowing what too look for. But its safe to say if I were to ever get in wreck in a bus I want it to be IN a Bluebird..... Bluebird fell on some hard times and ceased Motor coach production in 2007 (IIRC) due to the decline in sales of Million + dollar Coaches (economic down turn all RV makers were hit hard then) , and a series of issues and law suites both private and from the Federal DOT over the front axle weighting of its Flagship 450LXI at the time. There was not enough money to continue with school type buses and coaches after the lawsuits, so they went to solely producing school buse type stuff.

OP:
amazing work on the conversion, the flooring is where most people skimp on these projects. being you have one of the best actual bus chassis to work with, you should have plenty of room to add and securley mount a more conventional RV water and sanitation set up with tanks under it. Though you might be a little bit limited on tank sizing due to the bus being a FC (forward control lay out) and without a full basement set up you would have harder time when it gets colder to insulate other than just wrapping them.

Also for power in addition to your Solar/battery bank, you might consider if you have the spare funding a 3000EU Honda gen set. Very Very quiet, would run everything your setting up its pure Sine wave for your delicate electronics like computers and such and would mount easily on a slide tray in one of your lockable side compartments

[dinanm3atl]

This is sweet!

[bruner]

This thing is so cool! Are you planning on doing anything to the outside or are you guys just going to leave the old school decals?

[Mr. Burns]

holy labour of love this is quite the undertaking!

pretty awesome! love the concept that you have a whole clean slate and design it as you see fit

I gotta ask tho, from a logistical standpoint...

would if of not been cheaper/less time consuming if you would of simply gone out and purchased a nice used Class C motorhome?

[MR 325]

This is awesome! Great work so far. I'll keep my eye out for it at GFEST. ;)

[LuckyHenriksen]

Dude, this is so sick!

Couple questionsif you don't mind because I have always thought thought this was the best way to what you are doing.

How much does a bus like that cost? Did you do a lot of research, are these reliable? I am always scared that I would have no idea what to do if it breaks down.

I don't mind, I did tons of research. I have been wanting to do a trip like this for a while now and the last few months I have been going over all the vehicle options in my head. At first we were just going to take my old Range Rover and camp in a roof top tent, and ship our belongings home on Amtrak or something, then I thought about getting another full size Ford diesel to haul everything in and put a roof tent on it, but to get into a good truck would be at minimum $10K and thats for a beater.
I decided on a bus do to the space, diesel engine options, price, and cool factor. I researched buses for a while, I really wanted a flat front one. Fortunately most school buses come with Cummins, CAT, or International diesels which are good solid medium duty truck engines. Most newer buses I found were starting around $4500, which isn't bad considering how much machine you get. I scoured craigslist for weeks until I found this one up in Georgia. I immediately wanted it because it wasn't yellow, and didn't have school bus flashings lights and stop signs all over it. Also, it has awesome big windows instead of the little school bus windows. I wheedled with the school for a while and ended up taking it home for the grand price of $2000
The downside to the bus is the size obviously, it will be hard to get in many areas, and also if things go wrong it is a lot more difficult to work on, at least for me. Having to replace 11R22.5 tires isn't cheap either. But the initial price is so low I have a reserve budget for mishaps on the road.

^
Bluebird Motor Coach, is well known for making some of the best Buses and Luxury motor coaches of all time including a huge portion of the school buses on the road, which this looks like it was based on originally. To say they are high quality and reliable is generally an understatement, but like anything it comes down to owner maintenance and knowing what too look for. But its safe to say if I were to ever get in wreck in a bus I want it to be IN a Bluebird..... Bluebird fell on some hard times and ceased Motor coach production in 2007 (IIRC) due to the decline in sales of Million + dollar Coaches (economic down turn all RV makers were hit hard then) , and a series of issues and law suites both private and from the Federal DOT over the front axle weighting of its Flagship 450LXI at the time. There was not enough money to continue with school type buses and coaches after the lawsuits, so they went to solely producing school buse type stuff.

OP:
amazing work on the conversion, the flooring is where most people skimp on these projects. being you have one of the best actual bus chassis to work with, you should have plenty of room to add and securley mount a more conventional RV water and sanitation set up with tanks under it. Though you might be a little bit limited on tank sizing due to the bus being a FC (forward control lay out) and without a full basement set up you would have harder time when it gets colder to insulate other than just wrapping them.

Also for power in addition to your Solar/battery bank, you might consider if you have the spare funding a 3000EU Honda gen set. Very Very quiet, would run everything your setting up its pure Sine wave for your delicate electronics like computers and such and would mount easily on a slide tray in one of your lockable side compartments

Thanks Sleeve, you are right about Bluebird being the best chassis/body out there for buses. This thing is incredibly well put together. For now I am not doing a real RV conversion with tanks and all due to time restraints, but sometime down the road I may redo the whole thing again in a little more permanent fashion.

This thing is so cool! Are you planning on doing anything to the outside or are you guys just going to leave the old school decals?

We have already removed most of the stickers, trying to get the last of the residue off. Thats takes a ton of work too haha

holy labour of love this is quite the undertaking!

pretty awesome! love the concept that you have a whole clean slate and design it as you see fit

I gotta ask tho, from a logistical standpoint...

would if of not been cheaper/less time consuming if you would of simply gone out and purchased a nice used Class C motorhome?

Would be less time consuming for sure, maybe cheaper if I bought a real old Class C...... but have you ever been in an old Class C? All the real RV's that I could afford are absolute shit, and I didn't want to live in one without renovating most of the interior anyway. Plus the bus idea has just been in my head far too long, I needed to do it to get it out of the way haha

[Ether-D]

Real cool. If you come through Middle TN, you can park it at my place for a night or two and use the shower. I wanted to do this back in the day. Really neat.