Even before motorized transportation, when people traveled from town to town in stagecoaches in the early 1800s, passengers had windows to look out so they could see where they were at any time and to allow light and fresh air in. 

Stagecoaches had no glass windows, but they did have roll-up leather curtains to keep out the dust, wind, and rain.  Passengers could always enjoy the smell of fresh sweaty horses along the route instead of that nasty diesel smell we have nowadays.  LOL!

Some stagecoaches could accommodate up to nine passengers cramped inside.  They also could carry six more on the roof, a feature most buses in the U.S. still do not have to this day. LOL!

Many stagecoach riders passed the time, by consuming enough liquor to sleep through most of the trip.  They frequently shot at wild game through the windows which is frowned upon nowadays when doing it from buses. For the most part, stagecoaches were not as bad to ride in as depicted in most Western movies, but then again, they had no heat or air conditioning like we have nowadays.

Buses came along years later, and like stagecoaches, they were built to transport passengers from Point A to Point B.  A bus arrives at Point A, passengers board the bus and select a seat, then the bus drives to Point B where they may disembark or go on to another stop. 

This is true of both school buses and over-the-road buses, what some people refer to as Entertainer Coaches, Tour Buses, or just Coaches.  The main difference is, that an over-the-road bus provides a smoother ride, and lots of baggage storage space underneath, whereas most school buses have no bays, but they have more ground clearance so one can get off the beaten path a bit more.  Read Doomsday Prepping in a Bus.

All buses have windows along both sides and of course, a big windshield, which seems to grow larger with each model year. There are exceptions such as purpose-built buses like those for entertainers or bus converters right out of the factory, which generally have fewer strategically placed windows along the sides such as the bus in this photo. 

When buses are built to be used as motorhomes, i.e., purpose-built buses, they are shipped directly to high-end converters such as Marathon and Liberty to be converted into motorhomes for very well-to-do customers. 

Many people like Prevost buses due to their modern styling. These buses, with slides, now can cost over two million dollars, which is over budget for most of our followers.  The rest of us buy used buses, such as yellow school buses with sometimes hundreds of thousands of miles on them, or over-the-road passenger buses that may have a few million miles on them, that have been put out to pasture, sometimes literally, that are ready for retirement from revenue-generating service. 

Greyhound and Trailways used to put about 3.5 million miles on their buses before they traded them.  Tour buses are built to go 24/7/365 and last a long time with minimal maintenance whereas most school buses only make two trips per day, but are very well maintained due to the young cargo they carry.  Buses are sold that have been fully amortized and are getting to the point in their life where the maintenance is beginning to cost too much each year to justify keeping them or when they start requiring major repairs. 

Engines and transmissions can be swapped out of coaches in just a couple of hours, so most high mileage buses have been through several engines and transmissions in their lifetime but the chassis and everything else can go forever if properly maintained as long as rust does not eat them up as can happen in the northern states and Canada.  That being said, buying a used bus in the southern states is always preferred over any that have traveled in the snow and ice up north.

If they had engine or transmission problems, it frequently would be faster to slide the old engine out and slide in a new or rebuilt engine and transmission combination and they would be on their way very quickly. In the meantime, they would fix the problem with the bad engine and/or transmission in the shop and have it ready to slide in the next time a bus needed an engine/transmission combination.

When they get to this point in their life, they are just not dependable enough to carry revenue passengers anymore.  Bus companies like to get their passengers from Point A to Point B without breakdowns or delays as that can upset the customers at the very least.  Breakdowns can leave them stranded and uncomfortable on very hot or very cold days, or it could put them at risk, such as being parked on the side of a dangerous highway or in bad weather unable to move off the road completely.

Breakdowns can also cost a company a lot of money if they have to hire a local bus company to carry the passengers to the next stop on their trip and then have their wounded bus hauled onto a Lowboy trailer to be delivered to a repair facility perhaps several hundred miles away where it could be out of commission for a while.

Some buses came with two engines, so if one quit, they could limp home on the second engine as you can read about in this article; The Original Two-Engine Scenicruiser.

Schoolchildren and adult passengers that travel around the city or cross country like to look out the windows to enjoy the views as they are traveling, and since buses were first built, they came equipped with a lot of windows along each side of the bus.   

Some windows open and some may not on these buses, but all tour buses have emergency exit windows that can be opened from the inside if necessary.

Even people who ride short-run shuttle buses that carry people from the hotel or the rental car lot to the airport terminal, like to see how close they are getting to either the terminal or their car so they can finish that last text message or email and be prepared to grab their luggage to disembark. 

Shuttle buses usually have very large windows to see out whether they are sitting or standing.  They do not have luggage racks overhead as people carry their luggage on the bus and put them in lower easily accessible luggage racks as luggage can be heavy.  Instead, they are stored close to the door when traveling to and from the parking lot or hotel and the airport, usually a very short trip on a predetermined route every day. 

Passengers are only on these buses for a short amount of time.  They usually have large heating and air conditioning systems as people are constantly opening and closing the doors which may remain open while parked for extended periods waiting for passengers to fiddle with their luggage when boarding or exiting the bus. 

The large windows make it nice for converting into motorhomes, therefore many people like these little buses.  The only drawback is that like most school buses, there are no luggage compartments underneath, and shuttle buses have very little ground clearance as they are designed for people to get on and off quickly and easily with armfuls of luggage.

Bottom Line, everyone traveling on a bus, of any kind, likes to have windows to look out of both sides when traveling and when parked.  Can you imagine if buses came with no windows?

Compared to Buses, Many Conventional RVs Have Very Few Windows

Some factory-built Stick-N-Staple RVs on the other hand, have very few and very small windows as you can see in the photos below.  I took these photos at an RV park in Arizona recently. Can you imagine living in an RV with windows as small and as few as these? 

It costs money to cut and install windows, so they install very few as these manufacturers are all about building these units as cheaply as possible.  Also, as much as these stick-built RVs flex going down the road, it is difficult to keep them sealed anyway.  Living in this trailer would be like living inside a dark cave.

So, if you are planning on buying a school bus, or an over-the-road type of coach with windows all along both sides to convert into a home on wheels, how many windows should you remove…if any? 

All Windows, No Windows, or Some Windows?

The nice thing, because it is a bus, and because it is yours, you can convert it to your own exact specifications that best suit your needs.  You can leave all the windows in to give your home an open, airy feeling which will let in a lot of light from the outside so it will be almost like you are sitting outside, but without the direct effects of any inclement weather.

Personally, I like the idea of leaving all the windows in a converted bus because I love the outdoors.  When I park my bus, I want to experience nature and see the animals, birds, rabbits, deer, lions, tigers, trees, lakes, mountains, or whatever, when I am inside my bus.

Because I work from my bus for about 4-6 hours every day on my computer, I enjoy looking out the picture window over my desk on the curbside of my bus, where I can monitor what is going on outside.  I can see what is going on out my windshield by turning my head 90° to the left and I have a large window on the opposite side of my bus I can look out by turning around 180°.  I can see out three sides of my bus from my office chair, so I never feel confined. If I do, I can always step out and walk around a field, forest, or beach, then go back to work after a relaxing break.

I also like to look out my kitchen window when I am cooking or doing dishes as I don’t like staring at a wall behind the sink.  Most people have windows over the sink in a bus or even in a house, but not all do.  It is also helpful to have a window you can open in the kitchen to help remove any cooking smells and any smoke from burnt toast, cooked fish, roadkill, or whatever.

A window in the bathroom is nice to be able to let not only light in but fresh air and unpleasant odors out.  Most factory-built units have an openable frosted window in the bathroom, or a fart fan in the ceiling or on the exterior wall to draw out the bad air.  In a bus, most people use either a Maxxfan or a Fantastic fan in the bathroom to draw out the heat as well as the smell.  This also aids in keeping the bathroom dry which helps in reducing mold and mildew.

Besides the kitchen, some people also have an exhaust fan in the bedroom to draw any heat out before going to bed at night.  You must be careful in the bedroom, however, because if the ceiling fan/vent leaks, or is left open in the rain, it can make a mess of your bedding. It is not as much of an issue in the kitchen or the bathroom, especially if the fan is located over the shower or sink.

While we are on the subject of exhaust fans, MaxxFans have a built-in plastic cover, which many people like so they can leave it open in the rain.  On the other hand, the Fantastic fan’s cover automatically closes when it senses rain. 

You can also buy a separate cover for the Fantastic fan, and I always had them on all of my bus conversions.  An external cover serves two purposes. One, it keeps the rain out and I like to leave my fan on sometimes even when it is raining outside to draw in the smell of fresh rain.  If I am cooking on a rainy day, it also draws out the smoke and cooking smells to keep the inside of the bus cleaner. 

The additional cover also protects the factory lid that comes on the roof vent fans from the wind when traveling down the road. Wind at 60 MPH has been known to flex these covers back and forth so much over time that they eventually deteriorate from exposure and break then blow off while driving down the highway, leaving the inside of your bus exposed to the weather until you can replace the cover.

The only drawback to these covers is that they cut down the CFM (Cubic Feet per Minute) of air volume that they can expel, but that never concerned me as I felt the tradeoff was worth it.

There are vent covers for MaxxFans as well.  If you have a vent fan over your bed, this may be a good investment to ensure that no rain comes in through your vent and onto your bed.  Rain can blow sideways as can snow and sleet, so these provide more protection than the stock factory cover.  MaxxFan covers are much larger because the MaxxFan has a bigger footprint than the Fantastic fan, so if you are big into solar, these may consume too much real estate on your roof.

Both the Fantastic fan and the MaxxFan covers will protect your fans from exposure to the elements and is one more layer of protection from keeping the bugs and varmints out.  I highly recommend using an external cover as it will make your exhaust fan last longer.  

However, be cognizant that these covers will also cut down the light entering your bus and that may or may not be a concern depending on where it is located. You may want less light entering the bedroom.  Note: The translucent covers (above) will let in more light than the opaque ones, like this one.  This can make a significant difference.

Having windows in the bedroom is nice too.  It brings in some light when you are making the bed or putting clothes away.  However, some people don’t like windows in the bedroom as they like it dark so they can sleep better, like the 5^th wheel pictured above.

People who work the night shift especially appreciate the lack of windows in the bedroom as it enables them to sleep more soundly in the daytime.  But that problem can also be solved with blackout shades.  That is what I have in my bus.

The other advantage of not having windows in the bedroom is that it cuts down the noise from the outside if you are staying in a noisy neighborhood or a noisy campground.  That is not generally a problem when boondocking but can be a problem in the big cities, next to a noisy highway, or in a campground that caters to kids.

I like to have a window in the bedroom for another reason as well.  If I am inside my bus at night in a dimly lit area or when boondocking, if I hear something suspicious outside, or if someone knocks on my door, I can go to the back of the bus to my bedroom, which is usually very dark inside, open the shades and open the window quietly to look at my entrance door see who is out there without being noticed. 

If they are up to no good, they will expect me to be in the front of the bus where the lights are on or will expect me to open the door to greet them.  By looking out the back window, they will not be expecting that, and probably won’t even notice, and I can see who it is and decide if I want to visit with them or not.

By having windows on both sides of my bedroom, I can look out on either side. I also like to sleep with the shades open at night so I will know as soon as the sun comes up.  Therefore, I will always have windows in my bedroom.

If you convert a school bus, chances are there is an emergency door in the back of the bus.  This could be very helpful in case of a fire, someone tries to enter the front of your bus, or the police toss a tear gas canister in your front window.

An emergency door in the rear provides an escape route day and night.  The drawback is that it is another point of entry for a burglar who wants the stuff inside your bus while you are away, so it must have a good lock on it, like all doors.  Just be sure you can unlock it quickly from the inside in the dark or smoke if need be. That being said, you should always leave a way to get out of your bus from the rear of the bus.  If you have a rear emergency door, it needs to be left intact so you can open it from the inside. Never block them in any way.

If you have a bus with no rear emergency exit door, you really need at least one openable window in the rear of the bus, so that you can escape through it if necessary.  If not a window, then a door or hatch of some kind that you can open from the inside in a hurry, and large enough to crawl out of and lower yourself to the ground.   

All over-the-road tour buses have windows that open from the inside by pulling on a handle at the bottom as they are all emergency exits. It may be a long way down to the ground, but at least it is a way out and a broken ankle is better than being burned alive inside your bus because you couldn’t escape in the event of a fire. Also, if you have propane on board, that makes it even more important to have a way out.

While on the subject of emergency exits, at least one roof hatch should be left intact as well, and preferably both if your bus comes with two.  In the event of a rollover, this may be your only way out.  If a bus is lying on its side, there is no way you will be able to climb on furniture and reach the windows at the topside of the bus and then open them and climb out.  More importantly, if the bus is on fire, you may never get out in time without this easy-to-escape exit. 

It can also be nearly impossible to kick out a windshield in a bus or open a rear door if a bus rolls over and twists the door frame or it may be wedged shut by an object outside of the bus such as a tree, a rock, or even a pile of dirt or snow.

Almost all emergency roof exits can also be left partly open when driving down the highway to get additional air circulation inside the bus.  Always leave the emergency hatches intact but you can install a ceiling fan in them as long as the fan is attached to the hatch and swings open so you can crawl out if necessary.  I did this on one of my buses (not shown). 

I see too many people permanently closing these off and as an emergency responder in a previous life, I try to discourage this practice.  Everybody should experience crawling through a bus lying on its side at least once so you will know how difficult it can be.

Now that we have discussed the minimum number of windows all bus conversions should have, let’s talk about the maximum number. 

We said you should have windows in the front of the bus in the living/kitchen area as well as in the bedroom in the rear, and perhaps one in the bathroom.  However, it is not even necessary in the bathroom if you have a vent/fan in the ceiling, or on the wall venting outside of the bathroom.

On my last bus, a 1983 MCI MC-9, all factory windows were left in for the conversion and I loved it. If I built another bus, I would consider doing the same thing again.  By leaving all windows in a bus from the factory, you let in the maximum amount of light making the bus look larger inside.  

Editor’s Note:  You can read all about my MC-9 Log Cabin Bus by clicking HERE.  

This really brightens up the inside of the bus so you can see everything you need to without having to use lighting during the daytime.  The inside of my bus was the brightest bus of any bus I have ever been inside.  It had light polyurethane-stained knotty-pine wood on the inside which also helped. 

Not only that, but if it got hot, smelly, or stuffy inside, I could open almost all windows for cross ventilation.  Cross ventilation is just as important in a bus as in a house in the country and it can save you from having to run your air conditioners as much.

One drawback of leaving all the windows in a conversion is that you have a lot of windows to wash and who likes washing windows?  The other disadvantage is that it not only lets in a lot of light during the day, but it also lets in a lot of darkness at night. However, this is not a serious problem as most people are using much brighter LED lighting now which can help compensate for the darkest of nights.

Another disadvantage of having a lot of windows, which is a bigger concern, is that it makes the bus harder to heat in the winter and cool in the summer in extreme weather.  Windows are great conductors of heat and cold. It radiates through them very easily.

My MC-9 bus was converted in Southern California and was designed to be used for occasional weekend and week-long trips in that area but was not designed to live full-time or travel in extreme weather.  Therefore, it did not have any additional insulation other than what was installed at the factory.  It was fine in the southwest, but heading north in the winter, you would get a bit chilly.

It also had no A/C, other than the factory over-the-road A/C.  It would have been very uncomfortable in the hot desert in the summer without the bus engine running.  I added two roof A/C units after I bought the bus as I planned on traveling in many different climates, and on very hot days. 

Due to the lack of adequate insulation and all the windows left in during the conversion, two units could not quite keep up on hot SoCal days, so I also bought a portable unit with intake and exhaust tubes that went out the ticket window that I used in the summer.

My MC-9 was built in 1983 and had only single-pane windows. Double-pane windows would have been a huge help.  Double-pane windows came later and have significantly better insulating properties than single-pane windows and most over-the-road buses built in the past 40 years have them.  They not only have better insulating heat/cold transfer properties, but they also keep the outside noise from coming into the bus.   

All later model coaches also come with a high-quality window tint on them.  The tint not only cuts out the bright sunlight but also the newer tint significantly reduces the amount of heat transferred into the bus as it reflects the heat off the glass. 

I like a dark limo tint on a conversion, so you cannot see in from outside the bus to provide maximum privacy.  However, at night when it is dark outside, and the lights are on inside you can see the inside of the bus. My current bus has a tint that is a bit lighter than the limo tent, which works fine. 

One disadvantage of a dark tint is that it looks darker earlier outside at dusk and later in the mornings, but that is not a deal breaker in my opinion.  I certainly do not want to have to wear sunglasses inside my bus during the day except when driving, as the front windows in any vehicle cannot be tinted.

I use my Electric Blackout Shades at night which are great.   I can turn day into night with the flip of a switch to close all blackout shades. Pretty much the same as in the daytime if I want to sleep in.

You may ask, but what about the bathroom?  Did you leave the windows in there too?  The answer is yes.  But inside the bathroom windows, there is a plywood wall. The side of the plywood facing the outside is painted flat black.  With the factory-tinted windows, it is nearly impossible to tell there is a wall behind the window as that window looks just like all the other tinted windows from the outside. 

On my next bus, I may leave the windows in the bathroom too and just use a blackout shade for privacy at night.  It is nice to have a nice bright bathroom. When boondocking, you may not even need to close the shades during the daytime, especially with dark-tinted windows.  Or of course, you can use the frosted window covering on the inside so the windows cannot be seen through.

The only thing different about that window in the MC-9 bathroom is that the inside emergency release latch lever that is on the inside of all coach windows was removed and the windows are screwed shut from the outside.  This allowed me to open the windows to remove them completely from the outside if necessary, to replace the glass if it ever got broken, or to repair something behind it.

The same is true of the window behind the refrigerator.  Who wants to look at the back of a refrigerator when looking through a window?  That area too, next to the bathroom on the street side, was also covered with flat black painted plywood so the two windows were next to each other, both blacked out.  

On that side of the bus, the street side, those two windows were the only two covered inside with plywood.  Also, I should note that the inside of the plywood was well-insulated as well.

On the curbside of the bus, two windows were covered there as well.  That included the window behind the sink (I did not design that bus).  Above the sink were some large overhead cabinets as you can see in the photos in the article about my bus. 

Some people install skylights in the bathroom, bedroom, and/or kitchen.  I had a skylight over my shower in my MC-7.  That brightens up the inside of a bathroom and it is nice to have the natural light coming in your bus.  

The one disadvantage of having skylights, especially over the shower, is they let in a lot of heat in the summer and cold in the winter as they cannot be well insulated, so instead, next time, I will provide more lighting in my bathroom and skip the skylights.  

Skylights also are prone to cracking and leaking as they are exposed to the weather all the time and I try to minimize the number of holes in my roof.  Any holes in the roof of a bus can start leaking and can destroy a lot of wood and other building materials in a bus without you even knowing until it is too late, and then you have to spend a lot of time and money on repairs.

That being said, I check my roof yearly and touch it up with silicone or Henry’s elastomer paint as necessary.  A leak in the roof in the front of a bus can show up in the middle of the bus as water can travel down inside the ceiling for a long way before leaking inside the bus, making it hard to find the actual leak.

One advantage of removing all windows and covering both sides of the bus with steel, aluminum, or fiberglass, is that you can add RV-style windows which can be double-pane glass if you do not already have those in your bus.

You can also use sliding type windows, which are much better than either the fold-out windows that come in a coach or the vertical sliding windows that come in a school bus that always seem to rattle and are prone to leaking in heavy rain as the buses get older and the seals dry out.  Besides, with coach windows that fold out from the top, they must remain closed while the bus is in motion.

RV windows are far superior to school bus windows and can be sealed very well and will cut down the noise inside a school bus conversion.  Also, by removing all windows and installing windows only where you need them such as maybe one on each side in the front in the living area, one on each side in the bedroom, and one over the kitchen sink and one in the bathroom (maybe), then you can insulate the rest of the walls thoroughly which can make a significant difference if you plan to stay in places that have extreme weather.

Another consideration for any bus, if you plan to live in the southern states in the summer or the northern states in the winter, is to make or buy insulated window curtains.  These can help a great deal to keep the heat or cold out of your bus.  Ask any Canadian “aboot” this.  The only drawback to these is that when you slide them to the side, they take up a lot of real estate, as they tend to be quite thick, so you will not have as much exposed window as you would have without them.

In the summer, you can also put awnings over your windows on the outside, and that will make a significant difference in reducing the heat that gets radiated into your bus.  By keeping the sun from directly reflecting off your windows, it will keep the inside of the glass from radiating heat into your living space.  A large awning will also keep the heat off the entire side of your bus.  If you can shade the side of the bus from the floor up, the entire bus will remain much cooler inside.

Because I work remotely on BCM most days, I am not tied to one geographical area of the country, as long as I have a good internet connection I can work anywhere. This is one reason we went to digital media exclusively back in 2018.  We do not require an office anymore because everything is completely digital, thereby eliminating the costs associated with a brick-and-mortar office and passing these savings on to our customers.

More and more people are working remotely now, a trend that took off during COVID, and a bus conversion is perfect for remote work while traveling around the country, or even while parked in one area for several months overlooking the ocean or perhaps a mountain range.

I generally travel in the southern states in the winter months where the weather is nice, and in the northern states in the summer where the weather is more pleasant.  To travel where the temperature averages 70 degrees all year, check out this route.  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-20/a-13-235-mile-road-trip-for-70-degree-weather

Therefore, even though my current bus is very well insulated, it is very seldom that I have to run all three of my diesel heater zones or all three of my roof air conditioners at the same time, but it is nice to know I have them if needed. Many people who own bus conversions are like me, they follow the weather from season to season.

Just like Burger King, where you can have your burger your way, you can convert your bus any way you like it.  That is one huge advantage of converting your bus. The decision to remove some or all the windows and cut new holes for new windows where you want them is a personal choice.  It is your bus, and you can do what you want. 

Because I love the outdoors and spend a lot of time boondocking, I like a lot of windows and mine are open most of the time.  You will need to decide how many windows you want very early in the game, as adding/removing windows is one of the first projects you will have to deal with as it can affect your floor plan, or vice versa.

Again, the choice is yours. It is your bus. If you are starting from scratch, you can leave in all windows, remove all windows, or remove some of the windows which is the most popular choice. 

The more windows you have, the more ambient light you will let in, and the more you can enjoy the outdoors.  However, windows have a very poor insulative factor, so you may have to compensate for that by adding additional insulation in the ceiling and lower walls or maybe even installing additional heat or air conditioning depending on where you plan to travel. 

Another advantage of leaving all windows in, especially in a coach-type bus, is that you can park more places, as your bus will look like any other tour bus, and tour buses can park almost anywhere.  Pretty much the same for school buses, if they are designed so they do not look lived in and do not have roof decks and other things hanging off all sides of it like the Clampetts. Tinted windows help.

I hope this helps you decide what is best for you.  Remember, it is your bus so only you can decide what is best for your lifestyle and where you plan to travel in it. Your floorplan may dictate where windows go as well as cabinetry, your bathroom and kitchen, as well as what appliances you plan on installing. Then when finished, share with us some photos and an article on how you chose to convert your bus.