1973 Blue Bird

[Rudy]

A couple of views of the front room heater.





Oh, look, There's my pretty girl Emma.

[Rudy]

That's all for today. Next week, we hook up the water tank and run a few water lines. I am going to use Qest tubing. It is the flexible stuff that we use when building the tour buses. Y'all come back now, y'hear?

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

I like those Wave heaters. I have a wave 8 up front, a wave 6 in the hall by where the kitchen will be and 3 wave 3's one for each of 2 bed rooms and 1 for the bath.

[Rudy]

Hi, Y'all. I have moved to the boonies and will not be doing any more work on the bus until I get things straightened out. I no longer have access to the shop I used to work at.

Fortunately, most of the carpentry work has been done. Now comes the plumbing and electrical. It may be a while before there are new pics, unless of course, you want to see the underside of the bus.

Please reply if there are any specific parts of the bus you would like to view. I do have electricity and a water source. The toilet is hooked up to the waste tank. I have a portable tank on wheels with which I can drain the waste tank into a septic line. I have internet capability, but no phone. I guess I am camping out.

I had the opportunity to drive the bus 100 miles altogether to get here, where I am now parked. It was somewhat nerve racking. I kept too far to the right hand side of the road. On narrow country roads, I found myself almost running into ditches.

I will have to learn how to drive this thing better. The bus ran great. I must say, though, a diesel engine and air brakes, are WAY different than my little pickup truck.

The very next project that I will tackle is getting the big brake lights in the back to work. I will have pictures of that project. It will be a mind bender as I totally suck at electrical stuff.

I DO have a temporary electrical panel set up (30 amps) that handles one roof air and will handle two electric heaters. I also have the propane heaters hooked up. So, I will make it through the winter.

I cannot afford front tires right now, so I am thinking of taking the two outside rear tires (which are good) off and putting them on the front. What a chore THAT will be. Keep in touch.

For now, here is a cool picture of a bus I found online. Rudy

[dburt]

Rudy, when I brought my bus home a couple of months ago I had to remember to stay left, it was easy to drop the right side tires off the pavement on narrow roads. I drove school bus when I was a college student, and it brought back memories of getting in the habit of staying more left then right, especially when everything else you drive has a much narrower wheel track. And most of the flat front buses put you quite a bit ahead of the steering axle, so it takes a little getting used to feeling like you are very much behind the steering curve, when you actually aren't- it just feels that way.

[Sharkey]

Rudy, several of us here have good electrical skills, don't hesitate to ask questions when you get to that part of the project. You have read my "Electrical Advice" articles in the Bus Barn, yes?

[Dennis The Bus Dweller]

Sorry to hear that you had to move on but things happen for a reason. There must be something better about to happen for you, keep your eyes peeled. Well, it’s a good thing your such a multi talented guy cuz at least you can just do some of those other things to bring in a few bucks. Good luck Rudy.

[Rudy]

Thanks for your replies. I guess that we are a small "bus family". I will go to the bus barn in search of electrical knowledge. Thanks, Rudy

[Mark R. Obtinario]

Before you go to all of the trouble of swapping tires around, first verify the rear tires are not recaps. You really do not want to put recaps, particularly old recaps, on the steer axle of something as big as your bus.

You also do not want to have different sized tires on your drive axle. Two short tires on one side means your diff is always working, a good way to burn your diff out. One short and one tall tire on each side means instead of duals carrying the load you only have one tire carrying the load.

Usually you can go to locally owned big truck tire shops and you find good deals on used/take off tires.

Not too long ago I was able to purchase a pair of nearly new take offs for our church bus. Mounted and balanced the cost was $200.00.

[Rudy]

Mark, the rear tires ARE recaps. So I guess that that method is out of the question. I will check into other options that you suggested. Thanks Rudy

[Sharkey]

One short and one tall tire on each side means instead of duals carrying the load you only have one tire carrying the load.

On a very heavily loaded set of duals, it also means that the two tires are attempting to rotate at different speeds (due to different circumferences), and one or both will heat above what the load would normally produce. In the old days of bias ply truck tires, they used a big set of calipers to match the tire heights on every dual wheel installation.

You might have to check with several tire shops to find one that is cooperative. The first place I went to flatly denied that used tires were available. The second shop was very accommodating, and even trucked eight used tires from Portland (100 miles away) to be sure they would have what they needed to fix me up. I paid $50 each for five good used tires, and the shop took all ten tires off the rims and checked them internally before remounting them. The used tires have at least 35-40% tread left, and considering the load my bus puts on them, they'll probably last 50,000 miles or more!

If you are going to have a tire failure, you DON'T want it to be on your steering wheels. This is a good reason to have a halfway decent spare. In my case, I won't carry a spare. I would have to have five tire failures before it would prevent me from pulling a tire off of one of the rear axles to use as a spare.

[Bob]

Hey Rudy! Things do happen for a reason and I hope that you find the great reason for whats going on now. Perhaps you can get on the road sometime soon and start enjoying the all the good things in life! If you can make it out to Quartsite there is a lot of music to be played and bus parts galore to be had for great prices. One more week and we are on the road again...staying in one place for 6 months was "different"...at least it was in a beautiful place in the mountains.

[Rudy]

I wanted to tell you all that I found two Bridgestone 16 ply steel belted and steel walled radial tires for the front of the bus for $100 each They look brand new.

I will have them mounted at a later date. I think, just for kicks, I will take photos of my nice (almost new) tires.

I hope you don't think that is too dorky. I know that they are just tires. They sure are pretty though. OK, so I'm a fanatic.

Hey, while I am at it, I'll take some of under the bus. There are three air tanks under there. I presume they are for the air brakes. Perhaps there will be things under there that you brainy guys can explain to me.

I can also show you how we shored up the waste tank. Gee, another (albeit no so glorious) expedition in the "never ending story".

There is a door on the driver's side that has nothing inside of it. I sure would like to know what that was for.

I also think there is an oil pan heater and another type of heater for the engine.

Has anyone ever heard of this oil additive called MotorKote? I got some.

I was also told to add one quart of transmission fluid to the tankful of fuel to raise the sulphur level. What's up with that? I have not done that yet.

Oh, and one more thing, when I turn the key off, the engine does not immediately shut down. It kind of winds down for ten seconds before coming to a stop. Any ideas why?

[Sharkey]

Some Answers:

Regarding your brakes, see this post I wrote concerning the three air storage tanks on a school bus:

Yes, it's possible you have a pan/block heater. I suggest you use it in cold weather if you have a place to plug it in. Heating the engine will improve efficiency, lower wear and make it start easier.

The "add a quart of auto transmission fluid" is an old trucker's trick to raise the lubricity of the fuel. Some suggest filling the new fuel filter with ATF when changing it. Personally, I would never do either. ATF contains friction modifiers, detergents, anti-corrosion additives, and who knows what else. Yes, your engine would even run on straight ATF, but it's not ASTM approved and probably doesn't benefit your engine, injection system or wallet if the truth was told. If you are concerned about fuel lubricity, find someone who sells biodiesel in your area and start running a blend of 1 - 2% in your ULSD (ultra low sulfur diesel). It will be cheaper, and biodiesel is proven to cause no engine problems, and no fuel system degradation in low concentrations.

Your engine shutdown issue is probably due to the method of fuel shutoff. Apparently the system used on your engine allows the injection pump to continue to pressurize and deliver fuel until it starves out. This may or may not be normal for your engine type, perhaps someone with more experience with your engine can verify?

[Mark R. Obtinario]

The shut down process of the Cat 3208 is normal as your described--they don't shut off so much as wind down.

The door with nothing behind it has always puzzled me as well.

Every AAFC I have ever seen has had the same compartment door without a compartment except for one that did have a compartment (they kept their tire chains in it).

I suppose having an opening there would be handy if you had to remove the drag link or steering box. But other than that, I have no clue.