So, if I were to buy a 1987 school bus to make it a party bus (lol), what kind of license would I need? Seems like a CDL wouldn't be required since it isn't technically for hire, just my own bus.. but it's over 26K lbs so I know the normal license won't cut it.. Anybody know?

6/20/2007 11:15:48 PM

get it titled as an rv (or house car as nc calls it) and you won't need anything. otherwise, you'll need a passenger endorsement and air brake endorsement. also at least a class b license iirc.

post some pics up in the bus thread:
http://thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=472078

[Edited on June 20, 2007 at 11:19 PM. Reason : .]

6/20/2007 11:19:22 PM

btw, here's your official call out... my blue bird will whip that ass!

6/20/2007 11:21:40 PM

we'll see, we'll see

6/20/2007 11:22:44 PM

6/20/2007 11:27:14 PM

^where did you find that and how much $? i need one as a jeep hauler/camper

6/20/2007 11:40:41 PM

ebay, $2500

[Edited on June 20, 2007 at 11:41 PM. Reason : in Dunn]

6/20/2007 11:41:00 PM

that is a lot of vehicle for 2500

6/20/2007 11:44:23 PM

I thought so haha... and me and my bro are splitting it so only $1250 for that son of a bitch and I get free help working on shit.. he'll be too drunk to drive, ever. I'm gonna have to get some kind of bus driver hat for cruising the strip

6/20/2007 11:45:23 PM

I'll pay you to DD bars here in Raleigh? Someone could make a killling the cabs suck so abd

[Edited on June 20, 2007 at 11:53 PM. Reason : bad]

6/20/2007 11:53:45 PM

seriously i'd love to do it, get a group of friends together.. as long as it's a good time you guys pay for gas then i'm in

[Edited on June 20, 2007 at 11:58 PM. Reason : asdf]

6/20/2007 11:56:32 PM

and

i'm not sure on the status of the AC system

perhaps this will be added

6/20/2007 11:57:18 PM

Fuck that cut the roof off. I went to Camp Seagull and they had tons of em.

6/21/2007 12:05:03 AM

haha, not cutting the top off

6/21/2007 12:19:37 AM

mine uses a rooftop system from an old camper and a harbor freight special 4kw generator. nothing fancy. it stays a little warm in the driver's seat, but gets nice and cool in the passenger/sleeping area.

6/21/2007 1:56:30 AM

nice, whats it have for an engine?

6/21/2007 8:12:04 AM

8.2 detroit diesel

6/21/2007 9:41:43 AM

This was our tailgating machine a few years ago:


The dude bought it off a church for like $600, then fixed it up and painted it. He said the bitch of it was the insurance, but managed to get it titled as an RV. He had to install a sink and toilet (or at least get them in there for a picture ) to do so. Great times.

6/21/2007 9:44:21 AM

word, i'll look into that then and probably go that route anyways haha

6/21/2007 9:59:16 AM

insurance isn't terrible on mine. ~250 every 6 months. i've got good liability and pretty hefty underinsured/uninsured coverage. no comprehensive. i've got one insurance point also.

[Edited on June 21, 2007 at 11:51 AM. Reason : .]

6/21/2007 11:45:54 AM

^x8

Sea Gull's chop buses were great. that water was COLD!

were you a camper when they could go 4 wheeling in the Scouts / jeeps with kids on benches in the back? At some point insurance made them stop and counselors started buying the Scouts.

6/21/2007 1:05:02 PM

^^ PM'd you before I read this.. guess I'll call the insurance company now

bigblue.. did you have to get a seperate policy for it? that's what they're telling me..

[Edited on June 21, 2007 at 4:08 PM. Reason : asdf]

6/21/2007 4:03:36 PM

your insurance might be higher since it's still titled as a bus. you can always get a refund/redo it after you get it retitled as an rv though.

like SymeGuy said, you'll probably have to provide some proof or at the least sign an affadavit saying you have electrical, water, etc. in it. i'm not positive what the requirements are in nc, mine had already been retitled in sc.

i have no idea if mine is a seperate policy or not. i have all my vehicles and homeowners with the same agent (state farm). i just call him and tell him to add/subtract something, and they send me a bill/refund.


[Edited on June 21, 2007 at 4:19 PM. Reason : ,]

6/21/2007 4:13:03 PM

aight, what's the process for that? and what has to be done for it to technically be an RV or whatever?

6/21/2007 4:18:01 PM

see my edit...

6/21/2007 4:18:40 PM

K thanks, I'll look into it some more

edit: and i'm more worried about having the right drivers license than anything else.. few bucks extra on insurance isn't a big deal cause I won't have it insured all that long but yea.. i'll just call the dmv

[Edited on June 21, 2007 at 4:28 PM. Reason : asf]

6/21/2007 4:26:24 PM

pm minion, he's been through the process i believe. i think he might have already left on his cross country trip though...

6/21/2007 4:31:59 PM

somebody give me the basics of air brakes, am i gonna get thrown thru the window the first time I drive it?

^ other thread says he just left... gonna PM him anyways tho

[Edited on June 21, 2007 at 4:34 PM. Reason : asdf]

6/21/2007 4:33:32 PM

okay, i just found a post of his on skoolie.net. apparently you need an mvr-5 title form (found it on the dmv site under vehicle services/title forms) to change the body style over to house car. you also have to schedule an examiner to come out and look at the bus. he didn't really detail what the examiner looks for though. i'd call the dmv and see. be prepared to call a few times until you get the answer you want.

there's really nothing to air brakes. they can be a little touchy, but you'll get used to them. keep an eye on your air guage. it'll have a needle for your front brakes and one for your rear brakes. if one is lower than the other, you might have a leak. if the pressure drops below a certain point, the brakes lock up.

[Edited on June 21, 2007 at 4:44 PM. Reason : .]

6/21/2007 4:43:43 PM

awesome... so does it use air to release the brakes or engage them? i've always heard they'll lock with no air pressure but something else i read said the opposite

6/21/2007 4:45:51 PM

it uses air to release them. safety feature. that way if you lose pressure you don't lose brakes. i mean, you might have a wreck because the brakes lock up and you lose control, but whatever.

i believe the parking brake works the opposite though, at least one mine. using air pressure to engage a seperate mechanism.

air brakes make cool sounds, you'll get a kick out of them.

6/21/2007 4:59:44 PM

awesome... between spraying black smoke at ricers and air brake noises this should be awesome

6/21/2007 5:13:24 PM

oh man, smoking people is the best. the pump has been turned up on mine, and it blows a HUGE thick cloud.

6/21/2007 5:31:32 PM

Most drive axle air brake chambers are the double-chamber style. Requires sufficient air pressure to disengage the front chamber, which is spring loaded. The piggyback chamber is actually the one that does the braking, and uses air pressure on a diaphragm to do so.

If you'll notice, the fronts are single-chamber only. Service brakes only, in other words. The rears are usually the only dual-chambers.

And driving air brakes is really not that different than hydraulic brakes on a SMALLER vehicle. One thing that you do need to remember is that it's best to apply continuous light pressure on the air brake pedal rather than pumping it...you lose air pressure pretty quickly if you pump enough.

I've driven both single rears and tandems with air brakes. Started when I was 16, got licensed when I was 18 (Class B), but that was before Federal CDL was mandated. I never got grandfathered in, and quit driving right before CDL became mandatory for all commercial drivers, so I never renewed my B.

You do have to have a multiple passenger endorsement on your license for 16+ passengers, I believe.

6/21/2007 8:46:09 PM

I've got a truck that has no spring brakes. If you crank it up after it's leaked down, you better not move it till they pump up. it also does not have a dual system, but it's a 67 and they didn't require it till 75. I have a license to drive a bus, and a vehicle that hauls over 15 passengers requires a class B CDL with a passenger endorsement. that's why all the big vans are 15 passenger. One plus is that when you get the class B's to drive a bus, you can drive a large straight truck without it having to have farm tags. school buses have another endorsement in addition. You get a lot for your money with old buses. A lot of blueberry farmers around here cut the backs off and make flatbed trucks out of them.

[Edited on June 21, 2007 at 10:37 PM. Reason : ...]

6/21/2007 10:35:42 PM

^^ yeah what he said, only time youll get thrown through the window with air brakes is if you just grab that little yellow rectangular-ish button on the dash




another thing to check on is how many miles are on that detroit, if its ever been properly overhauled, water pump replacement, turbo, injectors and the like. also check on the condition of the trans, since it appears to be an auto itll be hella more expensive to fix than the manuals.

detroits are the least expensive to maintain and about the easiest to work on but one thats never had the basics done is a damn ticking time bomb, but thats just in my experience in the short time i worked around/on em

6/21/2007 10:59:25 PM

he doesn't have to worry about the transmission, i've got a pair of very low mileage at545's and would make him a hell of a deal on one since i picked them up for a song...

6/21/2007 11:02:02 PM

took all of 45 minutes for me to get my class b cdl with passenger and hazmat endorsement

6/21/2007 11:04:22 PM

hellz yea

6/21/2007 11:24:07 PM

swear to fuckin god, one of the hazmat questions

If you are transporting class II explosives, and have a cargo fire do you-

A. stop at a gas station to call for help.

B. stop in a well populated area to get help.

C. open the cargo doors to provide air to the fire.

D. stop in a remote area, and attempt to control the fire only after contacting the local emergency services.

6/21/2007 11:30:29 PM

all of the above except D. amirite?

6/21/2007 11:31:41 PM

did you know you can carry 500 pounds of small arms ammo, 100 pounds of toxic compounds, 100 pounds of explosives, and 500 pounds of oxidizers or caustics on a passenger bus, and i forgot the radioactive specs ?

6/21/2007 11:38:15 PM

ok you guys have me damn near pissing on my self between this thread and that one about the kids firebird for sale.. something i desperately needed tonight after finding out my gf is a fucking whore..

so, yeah, bout time to take that test

[Edited on June 22, 2007 at 12:44 AM. Reason : and by girlfriend i mean ex girlfriend]

[Edited on June 22, 2007 at 12:45 AM. Reason : ]

6/22/2007 12:44:29 AM

^ so she's available now?

[Edited on June 22, 2007 at 12:56 AM. Reason : sweet]

6/22/2007 12:56:42 AM

^^ Been there, done that, hope it wasn't your best friend/roommate she decided to go for like me

Vehicles are a great therapy solution though, I got my S2000 right around the time it happened and I swear it saved my ass from doing something really stupid.

[Edited on June 22, 2007 at 8:39 AM. Reason : .]

6/22/2007 8:39:24 AM

^^^ damn son, you have a lot of pics to delete from your gallery, she had a big forehead anyway, but not as big as southern4x4's girl's fivehead

6/22/2007 8:44:26 AM

total man face

are you sure that she isnt a post op tranny?

6/22/2007 9:51:13 AM

hahahaha, nah.. i've known her for like 10 years now

and no it was some random dude... try [me] randomly meeting a dude in a bar at the beach and telling him you're from asheboro and he asks if you know angela (my gf) i say yea i've heard of her (just to see what he had to say without knowing who i was) and he goes on to tell me about her asshole boyfriend and how she slept with him after they got drunk at some bar bc she was so upset about me..which just happens to be a night she didn't answer her phone all night and gets fucking pissed everytime i question her about it.

i'm thinking she's a goner


[Edited on June 22, 2007 at 11:40 AM. Reason : asdf]

6/22/2007 11:34:57 AM

damn


sluts!

6/22/2007 2:36:40 PM

^^wow...you need to post the thread with details about when you tell her you know. That would be priceless. I'll give you $10 to record it, either audio or video.

6/22/2007 2:45:08 PM