I Bought a School Bus And Here Are My Plans

Well, put Sir!

Roland Scharathow

I love that you quit your day job to do cars videos full time, supported by your Patron's, and you go over the top with your personal weekend project. You sir are a Glorious Crazy Bastard, and I love you for it!

You should check out and talk to gingium he just finished a bus to camper conversion with full electric it does not have the car hauler part but it has everything else

MILK THE BUS! MILK THE BUS! MILK THE BUS!

Something like 170k. A little on the high side, but I'm not too concerned.

Aging Wheels

Do you happen to remember how many miles are on your bus? Looks pretty well cared for regardless.

Nick Elrod

I don't think I stopped laughing the whole video

Meh, you can handle it. And if you can't, it sets up a collab video series.

Matt Dupuis

That bus stretches a long way past the rear wheels. If you put a heavy vehicle, let alone mount a car lift on its arse, it might tip over backwards...

I defy anyone to tell me that they expected you to do this for your next move! I think, that beast looks expensive to do anything with... I think an increase in my Patreon subs is due :-)

Shhhh....

Aging Wheels

I bet this is all just an elaborate cover story for a planned career change to a school bus driver.

I hadn't thought about widening the deck for step off danger. Maybe some flip down rails can take care of that. To clear the wheelwells I've thought about maybe the back a ramp style load deck with the angle between the tail and the wheel well tops setting the angle of the ramp. This requires a fair amount more fabrication than just having a jog up over the wheelwells, but it would allow me to carry cars with awful approach angles like a Ferrari or something. A roll back deck also occurred to me, but that seems like a pretty daunting challenge with my skillset. Mainly because it moves.

Aging Wheels

I figured you'd have thought about this. I assume you're planning on a wider deck for the car surface, so you've got a little less chance of falling off when you get in or out of the car? Or are you considering a roll-back type loader similar to a commercial towing service would use. Given that the bus' wheelwells intrude into the floor space I'm guessing you'll have to raise the deck somewhat anyway to get the cars above the bus' wheels. This approach would even eliminate the need for you to enter or exit the car up on (or fall off of) a 6 foot tall platform - you'd just winch them up into position and roll the deck forward.

Matt Dupuis

Car loading is just about the only thing I haven't figured out even a theoretical solution to. It'll require some thought for sure.

Aging Wheels

I had considered this, but a bus is about a foot narrower than a typical car hauler trailer. And I want the ability to haul anything without worrying if it'll fit in the confines of the bus.

Aging Wheels

Within the width, yes, but not the existing height. I also want an open deck because I don't know what I might be hauling. Anything will fit on an open deck

Aging Wheels

So what you want to build is a flatbed tow truck with a large cabin. It's going to really interesting to see how you tackle the loading problem with such a height. Maybe you can find a bi-fold hydraulic trailer ramp the length of only half of Massachusetts that doesn't cost five times the price of the bus somewhere.

I wonder if someone has tried this... (checks internet) Yep. There is at least one entire website dedicated to converting old school buses to things other than scrap metal. I did not know that.

I love bus builds!!! One question, though: rather than chop the bus apart and possibly never getting it back together, have you considered just opening up the rear section and driving your cars up inside of it? Lockable, weather protected, and far far likelier to be completed. Raise the roof for the living quarters and put in a partition wall (with door?) and go nuts up front. Either way you go, I'm on board!

Matt Dupuis

Do you cars fit within the existing width of the interior?

Graham Parks