My husband and I are currently waiting for our house to sell back in Iowa before we can become full-time RVers however we've stumbled upon an opportunity that we just can't pass up. We are out in Oregon right now; I will be done with my contract job on May 29th then we'll be returning home to look for my next contract.
After doing some searching on-line we found a 1964 MCI Challenger Diesel 35' Bus Conversion for $6000. It's owned by an elderly retired couple that has lived in it for 14 years; it's fully self-contained but needs a little TLC (mainly inside). We just got back from viewing it for the first time and have already put earnest money down on it so that on Monday all we have to do is call about insurance, licensing and still need to pay the rest of the monies to the owner. After sitting for a year the engine popped right off and ran beautifully. The bus traveled round trip from Oregon to Arizona once a year for 14 years; the owner maintained it very well and made some great upgrades including Jake brakes and an awning. The owner even has the original owner's manuals. It's got a 318hp 4 speed manual Spicer transmission. We did not get to drive it but ran through all the gears and they all felt smooth. There are no signs of water damage.
The thing is we did all our planning as though we were going to purchase a fifth wheel and heavy duty truck so we are bit thrown off course. At the end of May this bus will be traveling 1700 miles back to Iowa. We are guessing that it'll be two weeks before we can actually move the bus because the tags are currently not up-to-date on it but to us it would not be worth updating the Oregon registration since it's going basically straight back to Iowa.
Does anyone have any history with a bus such as this one?
Do we have to pay back registration in Oregon in order to register it in Iowa?
Any other suggestions or advise would be greatly appreciated.Thank you from a very excited couple.
-- Edited by jdkblue on Saturday 2nd of May 2009 07:54:52 PM
Great find if it meets your needs! Why would you need to pay "back" registration in OR? As long as you have the title you should have no problem registering it anywhere. You may be able to get temporary transport tags from OR or Iowa for a nominal fee to drive the bus back home. I know VA has these through the DMV for a cheap price just for this purpose (moving cars/trucks/etc that you just bought back home). Hope the mechanicals are in good shape and everything works out. Congrats
Racerguy said
10:27 PM May 2, 2009
If this meets your needs then go for it, but just a word of caution.An engine setting for a year may fire off and sound great but often setting that long the seals dry up and you can end up with engine oil leaks that can be quite expensive to repair.Also I would not buy any thing I havn't driven for a few miles.There is no way you can know if the transmission is o.k without driving it.Just because it shifts fine sitting there you need to drive it to listen for noises that would indicate worn gears and to make sure the clutch works properly. Do the owners have legitimate service records to prove upkeep by a qualified tech? I never trust what someone tells me just because they seem honest. The term "Buyer Beware" always rings true. Do not get in a hurry on a major purchase without being absolutly sure what you are getting. Not trying to rain on your parade,just hate to see someone make a hasty decision they will regret later. Good luck on whatever you decide.
Luvglass said
07:27 AM May 3, 2009
I'd be very careful if I were you. A 45 year old vehicle has to have many potential issues with bearings, bushings and seals drying out and needing replacement. Getting parts will be a challenge I would imagine. If you plan on using this bus for travel I would think your maintenance costs will be significant.
Is it REALLY that nice?
TheBobGuy said
07:31 AM May 3, 2009
Think "New Tires" before you undertake the 1700 mile trip!!! Please don't overlook the importance of those little rubber things...they will make or break your trip! :)
Judy said
09:15 AM May 3, 2009
You say you haven't driven it yet does that mean you haven't even test driven it? Why would you put money down on something if you haven't? Just remember that "airplane aisle" can get pretty close at times. I am sure with the economic conditions you could do better with something newer and not much more money spent. Good luck in your decision. southwestjudy
bjoyce said
09:25 AM May 3, 2009
There are many people happily driving bus conversions and some are from the 50s. Parts are available since these old buses were built to run millions of miles and many are still on the road. Just because our commercial RVs fall apart after a few years does not mean a bus conversion will.
Resources are Bus Conversions Magazine Online and the various Bus Conversion groups of Escapees and FMCA. Join the Escapees forum at http://www.rvnetwork.com/ and read through messages on the "Bus Conversions" section, then ask your own questions.
"Bus Nuts" are some of the happiest RVers I know, they have what they want, it will last a long time and they don't mind changing things over time.
jdkblue said
09:45 AM May 3, 2009
We do plan on returning and demanding that we get to drive it. If the owner won't let us because the tags aren't up-to-date and won't update the tags, then we'll walk away. The bus has been sitting on bottle jacks and the tires do have quite a bit of life in them. They've had the tires covered and the lines have been winterized.
I appreciate all your comments.
bjoyce said
10:02 AM May 3, 2009
Good luck. Not many of us have seen a usable RV for $6,000. It sounds like you are expecting to spend money fixing it up, make sure you don't shoot your wad making it pretty before you make sure all the systems are solid.
A bit more advice is to expect delays on your trip back to Iowa. You never know and it is best to plan for a breakdown than to be in a hurry.
If all goes well you can decide what state to really domicile in when you hit the road.
You MUST find out how old those tires are. They can look real good, but be potential bombs waiting to shred. The date is molded somewhere on the tire. I don't remember how to reac the code, but you can Google "determine tire age" and you will find the answers.
A real, honest to goodness working motorcoach for $6K? Amazing. But heed the advice you are getting here. Expensive system repairs can eat up a lot of cash.
And keep us posted.
campinggal said
01:43 PM May 15, 2009
You should email the RV Doctor, Gary Bunzer. He would know for sure if it's a good buy. He is a friend of mine and is an RV handyman expert. I think his email is on his website: rvdoctor.com He's really nice. Tell him Genevieve mentioned you should ask him.
NorCal Dan said
02:49 PM May 15, 2009
Is there any update? I'd be interested to hear how you made out...
jdkblue said
09:22 AM May 18, 2009
We did buy the bus conversion. We went back and drove it and took it home the same day. We did all sorts of searching for a diesel mechanic to come look at it and I even called the local school's bus barn but no one was available or they didn't want to because of the liability issues.
Test Drive: My husband had a difficult driving it for the first time with the buyer sitting right over his shoulder. The transmission doesn't have any synchronizers so he was having a difficult time slowing down his shifting and finding the gears so every time he missed which was often we had to stop and start all over.
The Drive Home: We took it straight back to Hood River which was about a 30 mile drive and the bus did great. My husband even felt more comfortable on the drive home and didn't miss a gear or didn't grind a gear.
We talked the buyer down some because the back tires needed to be replaced so once it was officially ours we drove it straight to Les Schwab and got all new tires on the back. The ones on the front are still good.
This weekend we finally got to take it out camping and tested it out a lot more as well as learned more about it. It took us a while but we got the water figured out and there were no leaks. There a lot of switches but only a few work. The Jake breaks don't work from the switch and we aren't sure how they work. The previous owner said that he thought that some oil dropped on the solenoid. We got to learn more about that.
My husband kept breaking handles off during the whole weekend so we have some replacing to do. Other then the interior needs a good cleaning.
May 29th we leave for Iowa. We're wondering how well it'll do and what condition it'll be in when/if we get back. Thankfully we got the Good Sam's Emergency Roadside Assistance plan.
NorCal Dan said
08:57 PM May 18, 2009
Congratulations on your new coach. I would love to see some photo's of it when you get squared away. Have you started a blog yet?
jdkblue said
08:44 PM Jun 15, 2009
Hello everyone,
Our bus made the 1700 mile trip without a problem but a lot of grinding of the gears. It crept up the mountain passes about 25 to 30 mph and just as slow on the downhill but we were completely ok with that. Once we got home we took the bus into our local mechanic and had some work done to it, mainly an oil change, tune up, tightened the steering, fixed a small leak in the air system, new filters and belts and a few other things. The mechanical really helped us figure out some things on the bus though and was amazed by most of it.
The bus has power steering there just wasn't any fluid in it, now the driver can hear the rpms of the engine from the power steering and know when to shift. The previous owner told us to double clutch is we were having troubles shifting and when he showed us how to drive it he always used the clutch with a little bit of grinding. The whole way home we used the clutch and was really starting to think the worst of the whole situation. Well our mechanic showed us that we don't have to us the clutch at all just starting out and stopping. NICE!! After a little work we got the generator working under the bus and that runs beautifully.
We made one big oops though. The fuel gauge doesn’t work in our bus and forgot the last time we filled up. We ran the bus out of diesel fuel and didn’t realize how difficult it was to prime it afterword. The bus sat for about a day in a half before Good Sam could find anyone to tow back to our local mechanic. It was towed about ten miles to our local mechanical, it took a few phone calls, a few cans of starting fluid and pushing air through the fuel line. We will never make that mistake again.
All in all we are very impressed with the bus and the next trip we taking is to Northern Alabama this Thursday.
It’s good to hear from everyone and hope everyone is doing great.
foxriverguy said
08:58 PM Jun 15, 2009
If you are happy with the bus and it meets your needs, you made a great deal. But I need to talk about tires one more time. Find the "born on" date. They are somewhere on the front tires.
If they are over 7 years old and have been sitting for a long time, you are flirting with a potential disaster. You've got to realize that we other RVers like to spend your money, and safe tires is a good place to spend the dough.
Sounds like you've been learning a lot.
Terry and Jo said
06:53 AM Jun 16, 2009
I have to agree with foxriverguy on this one. Especially since you did not replace the front tires. Having driven 18-wheelers and bobtail trucks professionally, I know that it is important to make sure that your front tires are in good shape.
The last thing you EVER want to happen is to have a blowout of a tire on the steering axle. Should that ever happen, you will soon realize that the big steering wheel in the cab just isn't big enough to really feel comfortable with steering.
I remember my dad always advising that on any vehicle, if you weren't buying ALL new tires, to make sure that any new tires you bought went on the front and kept the older ones on the back. It is better to have good steering traction than "pushing" traction.
My husband and I are currently waiting for our house to sell back in Iowa before we can become full-time RVers however we've stumbled upon an opportunity that we just can't pass up. We are out in Oregon right now; I will be done with my contract job on May 29th then we'll be returning home to look for my next contract.
After doing some searching on-line we found a 1964 MCI Challenger Diesel 35' Bus Conversion for $6000. It's owned by an elderly retired couple that has lived in it for 14 years; it's fully self-contained but needs a little TLC (mainly inside). We just got back from viewing it for the first time and have already put earnest money down on it so that on Monday all we have to do is call about insurance, licensing and still need to pay the rest of the monies to the owner. After sitting for a year the engine popped right off and ran beautifully. The bus traveled round trip from Oregon to Arizona once a year for 14 years; the owner maintained it very well and made some great upgrades including Jake brakes and an awning. The owner even has the original owner's manuals. It's got a 318hp 4 speed manual Spicer transmission. We did not get to drive it but ran through all the gears and they all felt smooth. There are no signs of water damage.
The thing is we did all our planning as though we were going to purchase a fifth wheel and heavy duty truck so we are bit thrown off course. At the end of May this bus will be traveling 1700 miles back to Iowa. We are guessing that it'll be two weeks before we can actually move the bus because the tags are currently not up-to-date on it but to us it would not be worth updating the Oregon registration since it's going basically straight back to Iowa.
Does anyone have any history with a bus such as this one?
Do we have to pay back registration in Oregon in order to register it in Iowa?
Any other suggestions or advise would be greatly appreciated. Thank you from a very excited couple.
-- Edited by jdkblue on Saturday 2nd of May 2009 07:54:52 PM
Why would you put money down on something if you haven't? Just remember that "airplane aisle" can get pretty close at times. I am sure with the economic conditions you could do better with something newer and not much more money spent. Good luck in your decision.
southwestjudy
Resources are Bus Conversions Magazine Online and the various Bus Conversion groups of Escapees and FMCA. Join the Escapees forum at http://www.rvnetwork.com/ and read through messages on the "Bus Conversions" section, then ask your own questions. "Bus Nuts" are some of the happiest RVers I know, they have what they want, it will last a long time and they don't mind changing things over time.
You MUST find out how old those tires are. They can look real good, but be potential bombs waiting to shred. The date is molded somewhere on the tire. I don't remember how to reac the code, but you can Google "determine tire age" and you will find the answers.
A real, honest to goodness working motorcoach for $6K? Amazing. But heed the advice you are getting here. Expensive system repairs can eat up a lot of cash.
And keep us posted.
Our bus made the 1700 mile trip without a problem but a lot of grinding of the gears. It crept up the mountain passes about 25 to 30 mph and just as slow on the downhill but we were completely ok with that. Once we got home we took the bus into our local mechanic and had some work done to it, mainly an oil change, tune up, tightened the steering, fixed a small leak in the air system, new filters and belts and a few other things. The mechanical really helped us figure out some things on the bus though and was amazed by most of it.
The bus has power steering there just wasn't any fluid in it, now the driver can hear the rpms of the engine from the power steering and know when to shift. The previous owner told us to double clutch is we were having troubles shifting and when he showed us how to drive it he always used the clutch with a little bit of grinding. The whole way home we used the clutch and was really starting to think the worst of the whole situation. Well our mechanic showed us that we don't have to us the clutch at all just starting out and stopping. NICE!! After a little work we got the generator working under the bus and that runs beautifully.
We made one big oops though. The fuel gauge doesn’t work in our bus and forgot the last time we filled up. We ran the bus out of diesel fuel and didn’t realize how difficult it was to prime it afterword. The bus sat for about a day in a half before Good Sam could find anyone to tow back to our local mechanic. It was towed about ten miles to our local mechanical, it took a few phone calls, a few cans of starting fluid and pushing air through the fuel line. We will never make that mistake again.
All in all we are very impressed with the bus and the next trip we taking is to Northern Alabama this Thursday.
It’s good to hear from everyone and hope everyone is doing great.
If they are over 7 years old and have been sitting for a long time, you are flirting with a potential disaster. You've got to realize that we other RVers like to spend your money, and safe tires is a good place to spend the dough.
Sounds like you've been learning a lot.
The last thing you EVER want to happen is to have a blowout of a tire on the steering axle. Should that ever happen, you will soon realize that the big steering wheel in the cab just isn't big enough to really feel comfortable with steering.
I remember my dad always advising that on any vehicle, if you weren't buying ALL new tires, to make sure that any new tires you bought went on the front and kept the older ones on the back. It is better to have good steering traction than "pushing" traction.
Terry