{"id":40,"date":"2014-01-27T05:04:00","date_gmt":"2014-01-27T05:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/abuffalobus.kleinmartin.com\/?p=40"},"modified":"2014-11-03T20:51:24","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T20:51:24","slug":"in-the-beginning-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abuffalobus.kleinmartin.com\/?p=40","title":{"rendered":"In The Beginning …"},"content":{"rendered":"
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… we got a bus.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 \u00a0Well, not just like it fell out of the sky. \u00a0A wonderful Steampunk craftsman, Jake Von Slatt<\/a> documented how he built an RV out of a used school bus<\/a>, my wife found it and showed it to me, and I thought, ‘hey, I could do that’. \u00a0I can do carpentry and plumbing and electrical and mechanical work, and I’ve always loved the idea of driving big vehicles (I drove my first bulldozer at five).<\/div>\n
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\u00a0 So, I did what we always do when faced with a new project – we researched. \u00a0One of the best resources that I got was from the\u00a0The School Bus Conversion Network<\/a>\u00a0where plenty of people owned school buses that had been retired from service and sold, becoming ‘Skoolies’. \u00a0I discovered that school buses are not all the same. \u00a0Different manufacturers have different building techniques. \u00a0Even within a manufacturer, there are many different options in terms of size and amenities. \u00a0And the bodies and engine\/drive train\/chassis are from different manufacturers as well. \u00a0It means that the bus that one person gets need not be much like what someone else gets, outside of the National School Bus Yellow and red and amber lights on the outside. This was 2008.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0 By July of 2008, further research found a local dealer who had what looked to be a great bus, full size, front engine, used locally, with only 70,000 miles (with a diesel engine rated for a lifespan of 450,000-600,000 miles), but it got sold out from under our agent, and they weren’t going to have another like it for maybe another year. \u00a0We were a bit crestfallen, but kept looking.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0 In August, we found a dealer in Herkimer, NY, who had a full size, front engine bus, with the same engine as the first (but 135,000 miles on it), but because it was from a different manufacturer, it had taller windows (which was another of the selling features on our getting a bus over factory-made RV, since we like to enjoy the scenery of travelling so much).<\/div>\n
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So official looking, but the high windows are evident.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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\u00a0 #267 had one more thing in it’s favor – it was a standard!<\/div>\n
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The gear shift is a plus, the dash left a little to be desired.<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0Both my wife and I prefer standards, and they get better mileage and control than automatics. \u00a0And mileage can be a big deal. \u00a0Many modern factory-made RVs boast only 2-5 miles per gallon of diesel (and less for gasoline). \u00a0(As of our last trip in 2013, it’s looking like our bus gets 9-11 miles per gallon.)<\/div>\n
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\u00a0 In October of 2008, #267 arrived and we started the conversion. \u00a0Due to many factors, not as much progress has been made, and this blog is going to be the place to document what will hopefully be the final ‘push’ to getting the whole project as close as can be to being finished.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0 I’ll be documenting what I’m doing with the water system, the electrical system, the propane system, the air system (for horns\/chimes, not air conditioning as of yet) and all the finishing work. \u00a0I’ll show the parts, give reviews and as much step-by-step as I can manage. \u00a0I’ll also go over what I’ve already done, and discuss a bit about travelling and camping by bus.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0 Come along for the ride.<\/div>\n
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… we got a bus. \u00a0 \u00a0Well, not just like it fell out of the sky. \u00a0A wonderful Steampunk craftsman, Jake Von Slatt documented how he built an RV out of a used school bus, my wife found it and showed it to me, and I thought, ‘hey, I could do that’. \u00a0I can do … Continue reading In The Beginning …<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[112,113,4],"class_list":["post-40","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-school-bus","tag-skoolie","tag-von-slatts-conversion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ieo5-E","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abuffalobus.kleinmartin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/MVC-002S.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abuffalobus.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abuffalobus.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abuffalobus.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abuffalobus.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abuffalobus.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abuffalobus.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115,"href":"https:\/\/abuffalobus.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40\/revisions\/115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abuffalobus.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abuffalobus.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abuffalobus.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abuffalobus.kleinmartin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}