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Actually, for what you anticipate doing, a used school bus wouldn't be that impratical. Or if not a used school bus (since the principle bread winner doesn't want a used school bus at his place of work), a used shuttle bus wouldn't be a bad alternative. Both utilize the same chassis.
It would only be practical if you could find a good one that wasn't all used up.
The only real problem with a used bus for every day transportation is most of the small buses have been used brutally hard and they are pretty well used up when they are sold.
I have three mini-buses in service. All three are on the Ford E-350 chassis with the 7.3L diesel engine. Using them brutually hard, they turn in an average of 11-14 MPG.
The real down side of using them as hard as we do is transmissions last, on average, about 35K miles. Front brake pads are replaced about every 10K miles with rotors replaced about every third set of pads. Front calipers are replaced every third set of rotors.
As far as driving them goes, if you understand the sightline limitations from the driver's seat, they are easier to drive than most cars. You sit up higher and you have a lot more mirrors so you can see where you are going and where you have been.
The 4-row buses will go anywhere you can take a full size pick-up since they are about the same length. If you take one set of seats out of a 4-row bus you won't need any special license to drive it.
Good luck.
Mark O. |
RV and bus conversion info since 1996.
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