I just bought this Crown.

[mokibra]

I just purchased this 1990 Crown...I believe it could be a Super Coach.........If not it's sure Super to me. Bought it off Ebay in the last 12 seconds. It is located in Wahington......it has the manuals and the Maintenance Records.........Model 2a-40c-855 In other words, 40 feet two Axel and has a 300 HP NT855 mounted mid-ship. Has a Five-Speed Eaton Fuller. Looks Very Sweet. I heard that they had made some prototypes for this year that had fiberglass caps on the front: this is not the case here. Coach has 152,000 miles on it. This is my first Crown, though I did drive one for a living many years ago, for the Taylor Bus Company in Orange Count.........I'm assuming this bus was in Service somewhere around Bellingham, and it was number 26.........So I have reached the Holy Grail, the Pinnacle of the Worship of the Yellow. I currently have another Bus in Ohio, that I put 2200 miles on this summer. I will be selling that one. It is a BlueBird All-American, 30ft in length, with the Chevy 427 TD and the MT643 Allison............I put a high performance Holley (blue) in line fuel pump in this Bird, adjustable from 6psi to 14psi............and that made the difference. This BlueBird is a fine riding and very good riding machine. Very, Very straight down the road with fantastic air Brakes.....burned about a half a quart of oil in 2200 miles, is geared at 8.45 (rear axel) governed at 65 and climbs hill exceedingly well, and cruises effortlessly on the highway.......I had it sold on Ebay, but I pulled it, as I wanted to ensure I got this Crown, before I just cast into the Wind...........this nice little bird. If I can put pictures in here, I'll shoot you one of the crown, as well a Moki.............my Bird............Love this Bus thing..............Love this Crown.........wasn't really possessed to buy another Bus...........but this one spoke from a deep place in my soul....I hope you guys think I did ok............Aloha................Mokibra

[dburt]

I was watching that Crown on EbayMotors, wishing I could spring for it but alas, the money numbers just didn't add up! You scored a really good deal!!

[Rudy]

Mokibra, Welcome to the forum. I hope you can post often. Are you going to make an RV out of the Crown? Photos of both those buses would be cool. We all love looking at photos because we are bus nuts. I wish I had taken photos, way back when, of the 1964 International bus that I lived in for five years. There is, however, no shortage of photos of my 1973 Blue Bird. Rudy

[mokibrabrant]

I have photo's to post, I just need to have some input as to whether to post actual photo, or urls......as it sits right now I can give some urls, but the big picture they will fade in time, and I'd like to be able to incorporate actual photo's in Posts initiated by me, and in response to others.

Here are the urls to the current Buses I own............

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... OTORS:1123

This is the url to my 30ft Transit Style All American FE........This is a sweet driving, sweet riding coach..........I listed it..........and pulled the listing with 12 hours left; I could not justify selling this Coach without having the Crown, I would subsequently purchase in Hand.......This little Bird is a no nonsense reliable and beautiful Coach to Drive.......

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... OTORS:1123

And this is My Crown: I am so jazzed..........I didn't expect to get this for as little as I did............I was prepared to go higher. I Love Buses, the Crown will make my Sixth Bus. I started with a 28ft 1965 GMC Conventional.......Then I wound up with what would become the most fantastic journey I every began, outside of building a House: A 1962 Western Flyer one of 18 ever made........of Which I did a Ground of Restoration.......This story.........The story of the Flyer, could not be told without a manuscript. It was an awesome Bus, absolutely incredible. A fe of it's peculiarities, it was a Puller, International Harvester Red Diamond (550 cubes, Gas} Allison 6spd tranny with an Electric Clutch, Thermostatically controlled venting on the Rad, done by Rolls, Positve Ground which enabled the Alternator, to be "switched" which enabled the bus, "in the field to become an AC generator.........The Beauty of this Bus, aside from it's lines, Which I dare say were considerably nicer than the Crown; was it was designed for the Canadian Army, and was meant to be broken down and repaired in the Field. There was no aspect of this bus, either mechanical, pneumatic, or electrical, that wasn't immediately available, through the turning of a Zeuss (sp) fastener........

Now to the Crown........by far.........in "over all" aspects this is the sweetest starting point I've ever had. It is also my first diesel. So I have much, very much to learn.....I am a hands on guy, and need to be able to rectify most problems on the road. So the learning curve begins;

Will this Crown become an RV? No. At least not in the conventional sense. One of the Reasons I chose this Crown, of the many, is the tinted windows, and the fact that people walking by simply can't "peer" in. This frees me from sheet-metal..........this frees me from Curtains.

I am slow. I like to sit and allow the space to speak........one thing I'm very confident in is I like Light, and open space. If I'm going to have a Space, that travels, at the end of the day I want to settle down in my living room. If it is possible, and it is, I've done it: All cooking will be done outside the bus, as will showering........I've engineered this in the past. For these purposes the "trunk" will be instrumental......and I'm also considering incorporating the emergency door in to a space that will contain the "heart" of the showering, eating, heating and washing amenities.....I will attempt to do this by dedicating the space just fore of the side rear emergency door, and isolating it, from the interior living space of the Bus itself. With the emergency door acting as access to this area. Much like most elevator's have a room adjacent to the elevator, so to this area will contain the propane, inverters, panels for shore power and possibly a dedicated water supply. But I will do this and maintain access to those beautiful rear windows. Where everything goes what goes where will be determined after my first real road trip next summer. Or Spring for the Indoor Championships in Seattle.

I know way too long with not much said. I look forward to all the input from the ancient warriors of Crowndom........I don't think I could have asked for a better platform from which to begin. I have much to learn with regard these exquisite machines. Can you tell I'm in Love.......I happy beyond these words........to have this Big yellow condo.......I know it's considered "incorrect" to paint these..........but........I can see tapping into the compressor, putting a water filter in line to take moisture out of the compressor air, ..and painting this in the Home Depot parking lot at 3 in the morning..............Probably take about thirty minutes, using lots of Hardner............so that's all for this post. Please feel free to chime in at any time.....One of the things that is so cool about this Crown is the Air-Ride 4 bags per axle........which will enable me to cater the "profile" to the terrain. Wow......Rock Crawling in a Crown...........And its got the Sanders.............I'm a warm weather dude.........but Sanders.........How cool is that..........I'm out........aloha...........mokibrabrant

[Rudy]

Brant, We'd love to see photos in your posts. If you size them to no more than, 640X480, they will be just right for the forum. I use TinyPic.com for uploading them to the forum. If you have never used TinyPic, I can help you with the specifics. I can see that you like to write. You write well, I might add. I presume that you are a tennis pro. Is that correct? If, sometime, you could tell us about the Western Flyer, that would be awesome. I sure hope you have pictures of it. Thanks for posting. Rudy

[mokibrabrant]

I see DB (not DB Cooper) probably watches The listings of those Buses, sounds like all three of us, that includes you Rudy, have got it pretty bad. I was reading DB's thread regarding a couple of 78 Crowns on Ebay..........at the time he was selling his Ward. And there were some comments as to Their Worth. Well the Market place establishes Value doesn't it? One hears people talk frequently about Market Value, Cars, Houses, land and Buses. And it is all speculation. It is all talk. Market Value is the thing desired, met with purchasing power. The Sale establishes Market Value, and the Market Value for that thing exists only in that moment in time. Tomorrow is a different Market.

I too was surprised to see how recently, The sale prices for Crowns have appeared to be rising.................Could it be that they have been undervalued far to long?

Let's look at it this way. What other vehicle was offered with a 20 year 150,000 mile Warranty.......Were the engineers at Crown brilliant enough to Warranty a Bus for 20 years, only to have it fall apart at 20 years 6 months? No I think they were brilliant.........but not that bright. I think Crown manufacturing came from a place where they were Naive to the way of the World. They actually believed they could make a product that would never become obsolete. Notwithstanding that they perhaps even had an ethic, about safety, about quality, about pride.

As the World around us appears to make little sense, the body politic, the economy, all the blather and convoluted extraneous bs that is dreamed up daily for WE THE PEOPLE to contend with.......the continued infringement upon our individual liberties: partic larly through pacts like the North American Union, and the upcoming conference in Copenhagen: Where we are going to pay of the World because we happened to have the Industrial Revolution a hundred years before them: Because we have had a more profound effect on the Global Environment. Because we have left a larger carbon foot print. So are we moving to a Global government managed by the clandestine coterie of Banksters?

Sorry for the Rant. It's like this. Crowns have been undervalued. They aren't making anymore of them.........thanks to GE........one of the leaders in planned obsolescence...How could they be part of a product like Crown, that is purchased and gone?........without a steady maintenance stream of parts and repair....Get rid of that Crown Bus Thing.........it's a loser...Products got no future. It simply doesn't generate enough revenue to substantiate it's existence. Bye Bye Crown.

Prediction: The desire for the Crown mark will continue to grow, but more rapidly than we have seen. More information available, more people means more desire..........more desire........means more presence....which again leads to more people..........the ball keeps rolling. There is going to be a much larger market, we already see that, chasing fewer Crowns. I can't afford a brand new MCI, or a Prevost.........If I could I would be assured of one thing, I'd have several good years without worries. Maybe.
But let's face it. They are big Plastic Boxes..........The Crown styling has remained ostensibly the same since the 40's Art Noveau baby....Land locomotives..........that's what we have

Under-realized value..........scarcity..........in my opinion........an unequaled track record, certainly in the School Bus Industry, qne possibly in the category of all over the Road Vehicles, working under load, day after day..........sleeping for the evening and ready to go again. Twenty years, Forty years, 60 years down the Road............I call that a Remarkable record of function...........I call that American Industry at its Finest moment..............Look around.............where are examples today.....just stop for a moment............look around......what better exemplifies what is the real American characteristic? It's only the Crown standing alone..................and easy is the head in this instance that wears the Crown...........Aloha for the day...........mokibrabrant

[Jones'n4chrome]

Are you selling your Crown already? :?

http://honolulu.craigslist.org/oah/cto/1489245526.html

[mokibrabrant]

Things aren't always as they appear. In this case it is...however the operative word would be "selling". It doesn't appear so, therefore I'll just have to keep it...But then, if someone came along and gave mye $35,000.00 well, I'd simply have to take it, and that would fund the Next crown, and go along way to doing all the magic things I would like to do to it////////You never know until you try right? aloha........moki

[Rudy]

Here are some photos of the crown.

[mokibrabrant]

Thanks Rudy: Your are right on it..........moki

[mokibrabrant]

Rudy: Now checkout the engine on the Crown..Now remember I bought this as a cummins NT855......But I would swear that looks like a turbo setup on that engine....what do you guys think.........Moki

[Forgottenhighway]

Yep...that is definitely a turbo.
Cheers,Pat

[dburt]

As I said before, it was one sweet deal when MOKI got it by being the high bidder from the EbayMotors auction. And turboed to boot! Can't get much better then that! Unless of course he finds that someone stashed an evelope full of $100 dollar bills in a seat cushion!

When I used to deal alot in vintage and antique travel trailers, I had a friend who hit paydirt once when an old gentleman died and left no relatives. It seems the old fellow lived in an old travel trailer, and the city asked my friend if he would move it and dispose of it since it was parked on some disputed property. My friend took it home, and when cleaning it out and preparing to scrap it, he found an envelope with quite a bit of money hidden under the floor boards.

When I cleaned out my Thomas bus and removed the seats, I found almost $6 in loose change. I guess it was better then a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but not by much. I had to take the money and clean it in a tupperware bowl with dish soap, it was very dirty. Lots of old gum, half eaten candy and lots of fuzz and dirt stuck to the coins. I wish I could have found a use for all the chewing gum I found on the bottom of the seats.

[Jones'n4chrome]

It will be a lot sweeter deal if he sells it for anything close to his asking price of $35,000

That would be almost like this:

http://www.gnn.com/article/brothers-liv ... ary/801265

[dburt]

Nothing like a good story with a happy ending!

With my luck, I will be at the airport when my ship comes in!