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« Last post by luvrbus on November 29, 2024, 08:25:05 AM »
I could always beat truck stop prices even with a discount card of some kind ,truck stops were not my cup of tea.Gary Hatt always fills up here at the tribes stations the price is always lower than a Pilot or Flying J using a fuel card and cash or credit are the same price,the Am/Pm charges a $.35 a one time fee for debit cards ,here in AZ it's dumb to fill you bus at a truck island it going to cost you 8 cents a gal more because RV's get 8 cents off the road tax from truck pumps,diesel at Loves in Lake Havasu is $3.94 a gal before using a discount card for 40 cents off it is $3.06 at the tribes station do the math on that
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« Last post by luvrbus on November 29, 2024, 08:00:10 AM »
Price of the schoolies with modern 4 stroke engines and running gear, the easy of maintenance and a never ending supply chain for the school buses cheap parts and almost any shop will work on the Cummins engines and Allison WT . Plus they like living off the grid and not confined to pavement and Rv parks is what attracts new owners to school buses, Styling the schoolie have none ,but I seen some converted from dumpsters that put the highways buses to shame with the craftsman's work and features inside and people like the safety record on school buses. The inner city coaches and school buses both have their place in the bus world with owners. I like the 4106 and 4104 but never had a desire to own one or any V drive
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« Last post by dtcerrato on November 29, 2024, 07:12:45 AM »
We've owned our 4104 for 46 years now. Owning a commercial bus isn't for the faint of heart. If one can perform their own mechanical work and handyman skills for the conversion portion - I'd say they are prerequisites for owning a bus conversion unless one has really deep pockets. Our take anyway. As far as Allison's & more HP. That's never been an issue with us. We're okay with literally smelling the roses as we pass and are gear heads so we're pleased to keep the 53 oem.running into the future. We'll be coming up on our 5th FL - AK round trip this summer if our maker spares. 
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« Last post by chadspeer on November 29, 2024, 07:07:11 AM »
I think the steering column would be the easy part. You'd probably just need a longer 3/4", 36-spline shaft. The brake treadle valve and accelerator pedal would be my first concern. In my 1984 Prevost, the shifter would be easy. I have an electric Stone-Bennett shifter for an automatic transmission. If you build a false floor that is level with the rest of the bus, you now have to find a way to make sure the driver seat is securely mounted to the frame. I wouldn't even consider moving the original floor itself, due to the number of systems components mounted to the bottom of it in the steer compartment. It's all more than I would tackle, but I'm mostly just a hack who learns from YouTube videos. 
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« Last post by dtcerrato on November 29, 2024, 07:02:00 AM »
We followed Richard's lead on the Open Road aka TSD logistics discount fuel App. Ironically Loves with sometimes the highest price fuel advertised were giving the deeper discounts where a station with cheaper pump prices was giving a lesser discount. We use the card for bus diesel all the time saving anywhere from .13/gal to $1/gal. The $1/gal. discount isn't usual but the semi line was very long and we needed more than 100 gal. And yes saved 100s of $$.
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25 years ago my older brother showed me his 1958 4104 and I was hooked. I still had a family to raise and back then a good conversion fetched north of $40K
In the years since, we've done tents, popups, hybrid camper, and now are pretty content with a Sprinter van. We've taken our teen boys around the country twice.
But now i'm seeing some very complete conversions for under $20K And the sellers seems desperate.
thinking about going full time for a couple years when the last kid leaves the nest and the 4106 is still calling me.
The BNO forum where i read every word for 20 years seems to be on life support.
Young people seem to be attracted to Skoolies. I'm wondering what is left of that community?
What sort on mechanical failures might be very hard to address on the road?
What's with all the Allison conversions? At one time the consensus was that it was impractical and wrecked fuel economy but now is see lots of 4104 and 4016 with automatic transmissions.
Thanks
.
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« Last post by belfert on November 29, 2024, 05:58:01 AM »
I use Open Roads as many Bus Conversion owners do, and get up to 40 cents off per gallon at many truck stops.
Their website claims 40 to 50 cents per gallon savings. When Love's and other truck stops are often more than 50 cents per gallon higher than the competition it would still make sense to go to the competition.
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I've been retired for a few years now but, as an owner/operator, I paid retail at the pump. If you are leased to a company it depends on the company. Depending on the shipper we sometimes got a fuel surcharge, it was never enough. When fuel was over $5.00 it was costing me about $700 every other day.
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« Last post by richard5933 on November 28, 2024, 08:11:51 PM »
Nearly every trucking company (at least the ones that stay in business) have negotiated pricing with the major fuel stop companies. Sometimes these things are negotiated out a year in advance.
The company I drove for had a contract with Loves for years, and then suddenly announced to drivers that we were to buy fuel with Petro. All those coffee and shower points I had saved up at Loves were virtually worthless when that happened as their routing system would ding me for going to a Loves instead of Petro, as they saved a few more pennies with their new contract with Petro.
No - trucker and trucking companies most certainly do not pay the price on the pump.
As mentioned, use the Open Road program to get similar pricing for your bus. It saved me hundreds of dollars quickly.
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« Last post by chessie4905 on November 28, 2024, 06:17:37 PM »
No, just GMC
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