School Bus Buying Guide: How to Buy a Bus For Your Bus Conversion

a lot of people dream about picking up one of these big old school buses building it out and going on the great American road trip or simply build in and out and live in the full-time lifestyle but the problem is these school buses are a dime a dozen and it's really hard to find which one might be best for you and which one's gonna fit your needs well in this video we're gonna talk about how to buy a school bus and how to find the best one for you what's up guys my name is Michael and welcome to navigation nowhere where you're gonna have the best tips and tricks about living on the road and how to get from point A to point B and have the most fun doing it let's get into it the problem that many people have when they're looking to buy a school bus they don't exactly know what they're looking for the most experience that you probably have with a school bus is driving one to school in high school or middle school and after that you probably haven't sat a second thought until you decide you're gonna buy one and possibly live in one well there's three key tips that you want to consider when looking for a school bus that can really solve most of the problem when you're looking for school buses on the road there were so many out there to pick from there's high top ceilings there's low top ceilings there's long buses there's mid chassis she's like the one behind me there's short chassis there's so many buses that you can choose from and there were so many out there in the market the problem is you need to find the one that's right for you and not just find a bus well don't worry because there's three simple tips that can really answer that question and get you right on the road tip number one for looking for the best school bus is going to be figuring out the length in body style that you are particularly looking for figuring out the length and body style is gonna be your first step to finding a school bus because that's gonna give you the frame and chassis size that you're looking for then I'm gonna break this down into one simple question how do you see yourself living the bus life do you see yourself traveling around from place to place going from point A to point B busting out like 30 or 40 thousand miles a year like I do or do you see yourself living more of a camper lifestyle where you're going from camp grande a campground maybe only moving once or twice a year this is gonna greatly affect your decision on what size and style school bus you want simply because of the mileage the driving the size that you're gonna have to get into and out of roads National Park State Park for instance if you're looking to go into parks such as Glacier National Park Zion National Park ur arches they have a length restriction so you won't be able to take a typical forty foot school bus into those places you're gonna have to look for something much smaller because those have 21 to 28 foot length restrictions if you aren't looking for something that's small you're gonna have to look for something where you're gonna be able to put a back rack on or a car now if you're just trying to stay in campgrounds or move a little bit slower or you're already thinking about towing a car a larger bus can give you more room and give you the space on the road when traveling so there are ways around both options it's just simply asking the question of how you see yourself living the lifestyle the second thing to think about when you're considering body length and style is going to be ease of driving the bus behind me right here is a 30 foot school bus it's got a very small wheelbase so the turning radius on this bus is going to be much better than say a 35 or 40 foot school bus where it won't be able to turn as easily in parking lots and on cross roads so it's just something to consider of how you feel comfortable driving and if you feel comfortable driving a really big bus or something with a smaller wheelbase the third thing to think about is going to be the interior space this bus behind me has a high ceiling in it the ceiling inside of it is about a six for ceiling now with that you have a lot of interior space you can also find buses with lower ceilings somewhere around a five ten to six foot ceiling but the thing is if you're already someone who's tall or interior space is very important to you that's something that you're gonna want to look for you're not gonna want to look at buses that are five ten ceilings you're gonna want to look for something has a six for ceiling that is of course unless you're looking to do a roof raise which is a possibility and at that point you can find any interior height you want you're already gonna raise the roof anyway the second key point that you want to look at is going to be the engine and drivetrain now this may sound really scary to most of you and many people are probably thinking what the heck I don't know anything about engines or transmissions how am I supposed to understand what type of engine and transmission I'm supposed to be looking at well that's okay because there are many engines many transmissions and many differential options out there and it's not as hard as you think to find the right one for you you don't need to be a diesel mechanic you don't need to be a engine whiz to be able to figure this type of thing out all that you really need to know is the difference between what I'm gonna call a mountain bus and a highway bus now that's not technical terms and if you go to a mechanic and ask him for a mountain bus they're not exactly gonna give you what you're looking for and they're gonna say what do you really mean but that's okay because for this purpose all we need to do is understand these two types of buses now mountain bus is gonna have a high gear ratio so now what this means essentially is that when you're running at highway speeds it's going to also have high rpms what that's going to result in is higher torque more power but less gas mileage so if you're trying to climb over the Rocky Mountains that bus is going to go up it with ease but it's not going to do it with great gas mileage so it's something to consider now a highway bus is a bus out at highway speeds is going to run at a lower rpm now that's going to give you less power and torque but it's going to give you a much more efficient gas mileage and if you're trying to travel long distances gas mileage is key so when you're looking for a bus you really want to look for something with highway gearing rather than Mountain gearing it's gonna save you a lot of money in the end and it's going to save you a lot of money during your build if you plan on switching out a transmission or a differential during the build especially if you don't know how to do it yourself for instance I switched out my rear end on my bus and that transfer cost me about sixteen hundred dollars doing it myself so it's really something you want to consider wherever you can buy this bus and this bus buying the bus with the high weight gears is going to save you that money off the bat another thing that I just want to mention about finding the right bus in terms of mountain and highway is you can also find buses with air conditionings you can also find buses with heaters diesel block heaters and cruise control it's just a matter of where the bus was manufactured in what was the purpose of that bus so if you say find a bus from the north or the Rocky Mountains it most likely will already have a diesel heater plug and a diesel tank heater plug and if that's something you're looking for that's going to be an area you might want to look for buses whereas if you're looking for a bus with already built in air conditioner you're gonna want to look in places like Florida or Arizona or Texas where those comes standard in many buses in those states so it's just something to consider where these are options that you can find in the buses already built if you just look in the right location now the third key so you really want to look is the condition of the bus so this is where you're going to look at the actual metal the actual underbody the actual tires and you want to see what the condition of the buses the number-one rule in the bus community is a rusty bus is always going to be a rusty bus so if you look at a bus you really want to get underneath the bust look at the frame rails look at the reel wells and you want to see is there any rust there now surface rust is something you can deal with and that's okay but if you're able to flake rust off or put your finger or a poking stick through the metal that is a clear sign that you don't want that bus it is going to rust away on you and it's going to be more work than you want this bus behind me is almost completely rust free it's a 2003 now this bus I just ripped apart in about two days as you can see the windows and everything are gutted out of it and the reason why it was so easy to gut was because it was completely rust free the screws came out easy the bolts came out easy it's gonna make your life so much better if you can find a rust free bus now I also want to show you where these rough spots are gonna be and where you can look when you see a bus where you're gonna want to look is on the back of the bus below the windows a lot of times the gaskets will rupture water will seep in and it will start rusting out the bottom of the bus so if you just look along the bottom edge and you see the paint bubbling or any rust coming out of the screws you know that it's rusting from the inside likewise you want to look underneath the frame rails and see there's any rust on the frame eyebeams or inside the wheel wells those are two parts you really want to check specifically you want to check the driver's side because the driver's side is the road side and any type of road or salt spray is going to affect that side of the bus before it's gonna affect the passenger side of the bus so if you see the driver's side of them is gonna be quite rusty you're gonna want to stay away from that bus another place you want to look in the window sills the window sills you're gonna tell you if the caulk on the windows is bad and if it's seeping into the bus by knowing that you're gonna know about what its gonna look like behind the walls before you actually got the bus and give you a good idea if this is a good bus for you now on top of that looking at the condition of the bus you also want to look at the tires now looking at the tires is so important because this new set of tires can cost you anywhere from fifteen hundred to three thousand dollars for a six set the reason that is is because tires are expensive so if you can buy a bus with halflife tires or even full tread tires you're saving yourself that money right off the bat whereas if you buy a bus that already has ball tires on it you know right from the bat when you buy that bus you're gonna be dropping a lot of money into it so find a bus with good tires find a bus that's rust free now as I explained there were a lot of buses out there on the market and these three keys are gonna get you closer to the bus that's right for you you got to think of buying a school buses buying a house you would never buy a house with a cracked foundation you would never buy a house with a bunch of leaky pipes or termite damage a bus is gonna be the same way the bus is your foundation you would never want to buy a rusty foundation so you why would you buy one as a school bus you want to start off with the best bus you can because that's gonna set you up for the best conversion look at a bunch of buses familiarize yourself with what's out there and compare them to other buses you've seen previously thanks for watching everyone and I hope that this video helps you find the perfect bus for you just remember that the first step is going to be research and getting out there and looking at buses so get to the auction yards get to the school yards get to the dealerships and get familiar with what buses are out there now if you liked this video feel free to give it a thumbs up and if you have currently converted or are converting feel free to leave tips in the comments below for those who are watching thanks for watching once again and I'll see you guys next time [Music]

Channel: Navigation Nowhere

Views: 302,494

Rating: 4.9411449 out of 5

Keywords: school bus, Bus, Buying a school bus, Buying a bus, Buying a skoolie, skoolie, school bus conversion, navigationnowhere, purchase a school bus, used school bus, how to, buslife, buying a used school bus, buying a bus for conversion, Buying, school, bus conversion, buying guide, school bus buying guide, tutorial, School bus buying tutorial, skoolie conversion

Id: TCepoCK2QiE

Length: 9min 11sec (551 seconds)

Published: Thu May 31 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/WarAndGeese]

/r/vandwellers

[u/lance2k2]

Damnit I just went from wanting chips to wanting a school bus