Avoid Failures

Most people buying and converting schoolbusses are unwittingly setting themselves up for abject failure. Try to avoid failure - it can get expensive and embarrassing. Here, I'll go over the main failures.

1. Insurance. There's a myth going about online that by retitling your schoolbus as a "motorhome" that insurance will somehow magically be easier to acquire. Be a realist - get commercial insurance. The fact that it's incredibly hard to get other than collision only commercial insurance should tell you that it's not worth doing and if you did, would this policy actually pay out in the event of a collision? They say they will but all insurance agents will make vacuous promises in order to get your cash. 
2. CDL. If you have a bus then please get a CDL. It scares me to see schoolbusses - usually with large dents in them - driven by converters that have never driven anything bigger than mummy's Prius. You need the skills training to operate a schoolbus safely. If you have air brakes then yes, get the CDL and get the air brakes certification. Aside from making you a safer driver, it also means you're not going to get fined or arrested for driving a schoolbus. Despite what the title says, it's still a schoolbus. Some jurisdictions take a dim view of title fiddling.
3. Huge amounts of solar power. If you seriously need more than 50W of solar power, you're really throwing money away. Solar power is to keep driving batteries topped up or to charge a small house battery to run things like lighting, phone/tablet charging, water pumps and ventilation. Nobody is ever going to be able to run air conditioning off solar power unless the whole roof is covered from end to end with solar panels and huge numbers of batteries are employed. If you need 120v then pay to plug in at a campground or use a generator. The number of times you'll need to run the microwave is not worth spending thousands on a solar setup when a $200 generator and $50 of fuel a year will suffice. 
4. Buying a bus without having anywhere to park it. How many times I have heard people saying they've just bought a bus and have nowhere to park it or their HOA has objected to them having it outside their house? Busses are big things and they look like a bus. 
5. Repair costs. This is something people never seem to factor in. Busses need repairs and regular servicing. The more you can do yourself the better. Don't skimp on oil, fuel and other fluid filters. That's the way to seize and engine. At the last count a new engine is about $16,000 and a used engine (that might fail within a few weeks) is about $8,000. 
6. School bus signage. There's a lot of just plain bullshit posted about this online. What the law states and what the police will act on are two entirely different things. There are plenty old schoolbusses driving around with no changes to the stop sign, school bus lights etc. Just take off the stop sign, the crossing barrier and paint over the school district logos. As for the 4 lights and the front and back, switch the rear ones around so the ambers are outwards and turn them into brake and turn signal repeaters. The front ones - the outer ambers can be turn signal repeaters. The inner ones you can just put clear lenses on and use as a floodlight when needed. 
7. Facebook "experts". I say facebook but it could be any social media site. Just don't listen to the "experts" that produce "evidence" that what you're doing is wrong. They're like all the internet constitutional law/Covid virus "experts" whose day job (if they have one) is working in McDonalds, sweeping the floor. There's a lot of horrible advice out there. 
8. Professional bus builders. If you can seriously afford to pay somebody to build a schoolbus into a motorhome or don't have the skills to do it yourself then stop right there. You need a real motorhome not a cobbled together motorhome that you won't be able to get more than collision only insurance on. From what I've seen of these "professionals" it all looks good until you look beneath the surface. Most of those "professional" conversions will disintegrate within a year.
9.  Boondocking. Where, exactly, do you plan to "boondock"? If you have not investigated this thoroughly and "boondocked" in the various areas, sleeping in your car then you do not know whether this is a myth or reality. The fact is every inch of land in the USA is owned by somebody, whether the state, companies or private individuals. Staying on land belonging to others - including the state's - is known as trespass. Sure - some people get away with it. We've all seen them - the camper in the store parking lot with slides out, lawn chairs and a folding table with an umbrella set up beside them. Just because you've seen somebody else do it does not mean you can do it too. There's a myth that's popular about being able to park overnight in store parking lots. No - they're commercial businesses. They don't want hobos camping. You might get away with it in a church parking lot if you ask the pastor nicely.
10. Speed. Most school busses are limited to 55mph. Many are built with engines that are designed to provide traction rather than speed. Don't push an engine beyond what it's designed for. It'll make a screaming noise and then after a while it will die on you and you'll have to spend $8,000+ on a new engine.
11. This or that engine/transmission is bad. Not so. There is no bad engine and no bad transmission. If there was then it would not be on the market and school districts would not have bought them. Drive within the limitations of your engine/transmission. They all have limitations. If you charge up a hill in your car in 1st gear then you will overheat your engine. Same with buses. Take it slowly - use the crawler lane if needed. Come down hills on the gears, saving the brakes for stab braking.
12. Roof raises. What in the name of all that is Holy is that all about? Just buy a bus with a taller roof if you really need to be wearing heels and dancing in the middle of your bus and happen to be over 6 feet tall. The fact is most of the time in your bus you will be lying down sleeping, sitting and reading etc. You do not need a tall roof and tall rooves will make it harder to get under bridges.
13. Rooftop "additions". Just don't - no solar panels, no decks, no AC units. Three reasons for this. As supplied a schoolbus will withstand 100mph wind from the side without toppling. Add things to the roof and that toppling windspeed will be greatly reduced. The second reason - anything added to the roof has to be attached to the roof and that involves piercing a waterproof roof to add a point where you can get leaks. Finally, anything added to the roof will reduce the speed at which you can corner without toppling. Remember busses are top heavy.
14. Back shelves. How many times have I seen back shelves and stuff on them that totally block the view of the back lights (turn signals, brake lights) and number plate. That's a ticket waiting to happen. Add to that the increased tail swing - something that can damage other vehicles, take out pedestrians. Then there's the change of the center of balance too. An ATV on a back shelf can lift the front wheels off the ground. Just don't do them!
15. Overweight. Just because it's a bus does not mean it can carry infinite weight. Weighstations exist - pay to use them during your ownership of the bus. I've seen rear suspension compressed pretty hard by overweight loads. Not only is it dangerous but it reduces the life of your bus.
16. It is not a forever home. A bus will last until the first collision, after which it is scrap. For that you are gambling on other people driving well and on your own driving being up to snuff.
17. Servicing costs - a typical service is about $1,000, every 10,000 miles or 4 years. Tires which you need every 8-10 years no matter how good they look are going to be about $3,000. Running a bus is not cheap - unless you take the wheels off and park it permanently. 
18. Domestic kitchen equipment etc. It's a bus, not an apartment. A domestic cooker, fridge, microwave, freezer, washing machine, dryer etc have no place in a bus. It's very hard to secure them permanently so that in the event of a collision or hard braking they won't fly forward. They also use huge amounts of power and/or water.
19. Big water tanks. How much water do you need? A typical apartment shower will use 50 gallons per shower. A skilled person showering with a low volume shower in a motorhome should use no more than 1 gallon. Each gallon of water weighs 8.34lbs. Thus a 20 gallon tank weighs 160lbs. Those that talk of 100 gallons have 834lbs of water. Now imagine that big water tank in a crash, how it will tear itself loose and fly forward. There's also the gravitational effect of large volumes of water. That is sufficient to topple saddle-tank steam engines on curves. There's also the effect on braking of excess weight.
20.  Spare tire. Some people like to carry a spare tire. On a commercial vehicle, nobody carries a spare tire nor a jack, purely because the tire itself weighs 65lbs and the rim another 60lbs. That's 125lbs to lift off and on. It's not possible for most people to lift that amount of weight.
21. Warning triangles - you do need them. Most don't carry them. Behind you the first should be 10 feet behind the bus and in the middle of the lane. The second should be 100 feet behind on the side of the road. The third should be 10 feet in front, on the side of the road.
22. Spending a lot on a bus and the stuff to go in a bus. Don't spend a lot. They will only last as long as the first crash or mechanical failure. Most people are not in a position to spend $5,000 on a repair. There's no point in spending $50,000 on a bus if a $5,000 problem sinks your dreams. Buses are not cheap to fix.
23. Money. Buses are not cheap to run, not cheap to repair and nothing about them is cheap. Most skoolie conversions will be scrapped as soon as new tires are needed. Don't go into a bus conversion believing that just because you can't afford rent that you can afford the much more expensive solution of a bus. If you can't afford rent then you can't afford a bus.
24. Fridges/Freezers. Why? Just why? Fresh veggies will keep for days. A fridge/freezer will cost hundreds as will the solar panels/batteries to keep it running. Those batteries also have to keep it running not just overnight but on days when there is not sun. That is going to cost a small fortune in solar setup that could all be eliminated by using a cooler and a $3 bag of ice from the dollar store. Sure, the ice will have to be replenished every three or four days but over a year that ice will end up costing a ton less than you'd imagine as you'll be moving away from goods that need refrigeration.