Specs 1964 GMC 4106 35' 41 passenger Bus that was working for Trailways Powerpak is 8V71 Detroit Diesel 2 stroke with a low geared VS2-8 automatic trans.
Conversion Technical Specs
6.5 kw 220V propane Generator 98 gallon fresh and waste water tanks (in a do over I would go larger), 6 golf cart batteries for house and two 8D batteries for starting witch either can be charged from 280 Amp engine alternator or 50-30-15 Amp shore power, two 2000W inverters this system can go for 24hrs until a 2 hour charge is needed usually we charge one hour in the AM and one hour in the PM. 30K BTU 12v propane forced air furnace 2 roof AC units and 80 gallons or so of propane.
Ah...the Bus, where to begin? When we first decided to take our lives on the road we went shopping, more like window shopping, with the kids. It was a holiday weekend and we were brimming with excitement. Jim's first thought was a truck camper. We only considered that for about 20 minutes, after that Cindy saw one and suggested that something bigger might be nice...okay, necessary.
Then we looked at some really nice Class "C" motorhomes. But Jim being Jim started to ask questions about the chassis, power and weight limitations. We quickly figured out that after water, gas and our family we could pack maybe a bag of chips before we became overloaded. So we moved on to Class "A"s.
Now we were in the big leagues. Jim figured that with the size of these things we needed a diesel pusher. Hey! No one said we couldn't be comfy! After lots of looking and comparing, we decided on a Winnebago Journey. It was sooooo pretty. How easily we can talk ourselves into believing that this wasn't the same thing as having a mortgage. We crunched the numbers, looked at resale value and said, "let's go for it".
About that same time, Maddie's middle school homeschooling group (mouthful) had an end of the year summer camp-out. We were camping at the beach when our friends, Max and his dad Carl (from here on referred to as Amazing Carl), pull up in a bus. Cindy was immediately taken with it, it had a cool factor of about 5 gagillion. She also did not not miss the fact that it was a kid magnet. The older kids were in there playing cards well past midnight. Cindy told Jim "Now that is US...we're way cooler than a Winnebago" (no offense to those way cool Winnebago owners). Jim told her that they were buying the RV in less than a month, and that he didn't have a year to convert a bus (nutty chick).
But the seed had been planted booohaaahaa!!!
The following Monday, Jim found a 1964 GMC 4106 bus on eBay. He asked Cindy what she thought. While she was excited, she wasn't about to bid that kind of money sight unseen. We consulted Amazing Carl and he told us all the pertinent questions to ask etc. We called the seller and asked if we could see the bus before bidding. Being a nice old guy he told us to come on up. We drove to Oregon that night, and the rest is history. We paid 12k, which included a tow bar and a campground membership!
This is what it looked like when we bought it...
kinda 80'ish... we figured we'd re-carpet and paint the walls & cabinets maybe spend 10-15k on a spruce up.
Then we discovered a serious mold issue. We gutted the bus and rebuild it from scratch. Nine months of fulltime work and 30-40k is what you see below!
Maple cabinets, school-type glue down flooring, carpeted ceiling...HOME!
Galley...that's what you call a bus kitchen!
Dining area...bench opens for extra sleeping space.
Back storage area and kids domain.
Bed/benches flip open to create a wall to wall sleeping space for company.
Click here to see the bus conversion page
