This blog never gets many viewers. I think the last post was viewed 3 times in the months between that post and this.
Today I was reading about somebody who was trying to get rid of their bus because their engine gave out. Well, that's to be expected with a poorly maintained old bus. People just don't have a clue when they start just how much is involved with keeping a bus on the road.
Right now on mine, I have still to finish brake lines. I need to change the engine oil and oil filters as well as the transmission fluid and filters. It has been sitting idle for 4 years and needs maintenance. I still need to work on the roof leaks that have appeared.
Did I make a mistake in buying an old bus? Yes and no.
I was in a poor place when I bought the bus - just out of a bad situation. I really needed a decent used RV but couldn't afford one. I looked at step vans and to be quite honest, a step van would have been a far better purchase than an old bus - largely because it's already registered as a van, looks like a van and has no windows. It would also have a flat roof.
I am very much not sold on solar panels as being the answer to anything. I have a few smaller panels and they do what they are supposed to do. That is all. They are obvious to the onlooker and identify the vehicle as a home. Not great for security.
Insurance is a persistent problem. Nobody wants to insure a school bus as an RV because it's an old school bus and not an RV. Sure - people online will claim they can get great insurance etc. I could sit here and write about the flock of pigs I just saw flying past my window too. The fact is people online will claim all kinds of things without any of them being true. My personal experience, based on walking into insurance agents and sitting down with them while they researched their policies is that they do not cover school bus conversions. They will cover the base vehicle for the cost of a replacement base vehicle but not the contents.
Was it a mistake to buy a bus? Probably. I would have been far better off with a van. Mind, I also needed space and time to downsize my possessions - which the bus gave me. A simple long wheelbase van would have worked - something like a long wheelbase Ford Transit.
I'm seeing people having major problems trying to offload their converted busses. Some scrapyards are charging people to take them off them. I drive regularly past two converted busses in one secondhand dealership that have been there for the 10 years that I have been passing. I see an unconverted bus that has been languishing for 5 years. The local school district just scraps its busses. I see busses lying in fields too.
I'll keep on with mine for the moment but I'm beginning to wish I'd gone a different route.