Jump Starting a Bus?!

[TinnedFish]

Greetings wise ones...

Situation:

I've got a bus w/ a dead battery that I need to move before Monday (Story below). It's a 1973 International Carpenter. The battery is a huge wedding cake sized drawer mounted thing that I doubt I could lift myself. (6 - 2v cells in a single plastic body, rated 1150 cca).

Can I jump this rig using from a standard vehichle? I've got a '92 land cruiser and a '82 chevy C20 in my stable. Both w/ very large batteries (800+ cca). Just follow typical jump starting practices? Or are there tricks to launching a bus? Can I jump it putting the cables on the + and - terminals of the battery? (since I can't stretch the - to the engine block, and the + down to the battery drawer)

Normally I'd just pull a battery and throw it on the charger, but I really don't think it's physically possible in this case. Once I get it home I can put a tender on the battery and keep it plugged in.

Story:

A long time ago when we first decided to move into busses, we saw an ad in the paper - the school district was takin' bids on a bus that they had to eject from the fleet. Apparently this model has questionable roof strength in a roll-over accident. So, after 32 years as a daily driver, they had to put # 12 out to pasture.

After takin' a peek, we put in the minimum bid (1k), and forgot about it. Well, it turns out we were the only ones to bid.... So we couldn't back out even though we've got another bus in the works. Not that we mind much (other than scrapin' up cash unexpectedly) - this bus is in pretty amazing shape - brand new clutch last spring, excellent tires, no major leaks, no serious rust, and regularly maintained. And the speedo reads 73K! <grin> There was a small pool forming w/ guesses about how many times that has rolled around.

We are going to stick to our second bus plan - pull all the seats, dress it up w/ wood floors, and install shelves on both sides. And finally get all of our books and vinyl out of storage and set up a proper library and listening room. Also dreaming of adding a glassed-in reading nook on the roof, and my daugter has requested a slide down the back of the bus to the ground.

Anyway - dreams are good, but right now we just need to get it stashed while we work on our other bus (posts to come) and prepare for a wet winter in the woods. And Tuesday is the first day of school. Our bus is parked in front of the school... Hence the window of action.

So, thanks for any tips or insight for a newbie learning to jump a bus, and we'll keep you posted. Also, if anyone knows a good source of information on this rig (shop manuals, etc), it would be much appreciated.

TinnedFish

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

Hi Tinnedfish
If you put a plank or something on the battery conpartment you should be able slide that huge battery down the plank. Now, If you can get that battery out of the rig you can take both of those batteries out of your other 2 trucks and link then togeather ( still for 12 volts ) It should start right up. If that "Monster" battery is totaly dead you will have little chance of jumping the rig with your truck. The other thing you can do is beg, barrow, steal or buy a big batter charger (Sears or a Napa auto supply store) for about $100.00 then get a genarator the same way and go to the bus with your lunch and put a good solid 40 or 50 amp charge on that "Big" dead thing for a couple of hours and she should turn over. Now, If all els fails rap a chane around it and see if there is a local place you can tow it to so you can take a couple of days without panic to see if you can get the rig up and running. This is the best I have to offer at the moment. If I wasn't out on the east coast I would give you folks a hand. Im allways happy to give another bus dweller a helping hand. I live full time in my 89 International Wayne school bus/home I have tuns of solar, a wind turbine and 24 /6 volt / 220 amp hour deep cycle batteries ( 50 lb's each ) I just installed 6 new Rolls 820 amp hour deep cycles that are 318 lb's each Good luck with your new home. Drop me a line some time and let me know how your rig/home is coming along. busdweller56@hotmail.com

[TinnedFish]

Dennis, thanks for the offer of assist! Yer information was plenty good enough!

We figured we'd give the standard jump a try, and then use the plank trick to wrestle the battery out of the compartment and haul it home for charging. The battery wasn't 100% dead. When we pulled the headlights, the filiments would glow like coals in a late night campfire. <grin>

We jumped the Land Cruiser straight to the battery, and I gave it a few cranks. It fired up but didn't hold. Then there wasn't enough juice to spin the starter at all. But, 10 minutes of charging w/ the Cruiser spinning at 3k RPM and the bus finally lit up. I was hoping that the oversized alternator - intended to winch cars out of the mud, could also start a bus - and I got my wish.

The kids got their first ride in a school bus, about 1/8 mile down the road! Now we've got to stash the bus before the landlady sees it, but that's a whole new game! <grin>

I'm going to start a new thread, I'm curious about towing!

TinnedFish