Crown

[chessie4905]

saw this at our campground outside Missoula Mt.
had a nice film of oil on back. Detroit?

[RJ]

Chessie -

I flipped and cropped your Crown Tandem photo for you.

Yes, most likely a 6-71T with either a 5 or 10 speed.

The side "slants" were a decorating scheme, they're easily removable if one wanted to do so.  But that does indicate that perhaps this was an activity bus, not a regular route coach.

They were definitely rugged workhorses, even more so than a 4104. . .

[chessie4905]

I was going to stop and talk to him when we got back from town, but he was gone.

[Iceni John]

If that's one of my friend Al's many Crowns that he's sold over the years, I drove that bus up to Phelan CA one time for a Crown get-together after it had some work done to it at J & R in Riverside CA.   It has a 6-71T with an MT Allison, and it wasn't very fast up the 215 and 138.  With a color like that it's probably unique.   On the way back I drove an old Thomas, and even the worst Crown drives better than a typical Thomas!

John

[CrabbyMilton]

I wonder how those CROWN's would have held up here in the Milwaukee and Chicago area given how much road salt is used around here. Typical school buses are seldom seen after they reach the age of about 10-12 years. Sure some private schools will have some that are nearly 15-20 but not too many.

[Coach_and_Crown_Guy]

If that's one of my friend Al's many Crowns that he's sold over the years, I drove that bus up to Phelan CA one time for a Crown get-together after it had some work done to it at J & R in Riverside CA.   It has a 6-71T with an MT Allison, and it wasn't very fast up the 215 and 138.  With a color like that it's probably unique.   On the way back I drove an old Thomas, and even the worst Crown drives better than a typical Thomas!

John

I've got pics of that Lime Crown at the event John drove it to, as well as, as it sat at J&R Diesel for MONTHS getting all the stuff repaired so it could be driven reliably. The commercial operator who ran it was famous for neglecting terribly any maintenance on their equipment. The name is on the front by the way and they are still doing it today with the non-Crowns they currently run.

That Lime nasty was a terrible mess when it got to the shop and needed tons of work to get it back into some semblance of a decent running Crown. I understand it came out nicely and the fact it's out there on the road and racking up some serious miles is a true testament to the inherent indestructibility, reliability, and longevity engineered into a Crown.

I don't normally post much, much less pics, but in this case it might be instructive for those who don't get many chances to see Crowns in the wild, and just how special and useful they can be for conversions. I take as many pics as possible when I'm at J&R where I store my own two Crowns so I get chances to see many passing through and am in the position of posting pics of them for nostalgia's sake when and if they crop up later out on the road like this, or when a new owner may wonder about the history of his new acquisition, which has happened from time to time.

In the pic of the rear of the Lime one on the dirt road with two Crowns behind it, I'm standing next to my Tandem Crown which I drove there for the event. It's a gathering we used to do yearly at a fellow Crown enthusiasts desert property and we could get as many a 15 or more Crowns and Gilligs showing up. It's Cool.

I've attached pics of the Lime Monster for your information and so you can see the outside and dash area as it sat in the shop being repaired. The body really wasn't all that bad, but the running gear and systems underneath were a mess, and horribly abused and never really maintained. They ran it till stuff broke and then only fixed it enough to kinda keep it on the road. Crowns could take this abuse for years and keep on running, but the new owner inherited all the deferred problems, hence the Months long work to get it back into shape.  Enjoy.

[RJ]

I wonder how those CROWN's would have held up here in the Milwaukee and Chicago area given how much road salt is used around here.

 
Crowns would probably have held up surprisingly well in the Rust Belt, primarily because the frames and running gear are all "off-the-shelf" HD truck parts, and the bodies are aluminum.

Was not unusual to see 25-30 year old Crowns still in service until CARB forced them to be destroyed. 

[TomC]

Part of the problem with the MT Allison automatic was that the torque converter would not lockup until the high end of 3rd gear. So much below 40mph you were in torque converter loosing a lot of power to heat loss. I believe there is a way to get manually controlled torque converter lockup on the MT. My HT740 has a torque converter lockup valve that is controlled by me. So much so, it can stall the engine. Good Luck, TomC

[luvrbus]

You use the same valving to lock up the MT as on a HT 740,on both they should have a valve that unlocks the converter at 650 rpm,a lot of people don't want to pay the high price for the extra valve so they do it manually with a switch