This blog is continued from the beginning forum...…...as suggested by kb0zke...…

 We bought a school bus to do a modest conversion and not spend a fortune. We for sure know we will not turn a profit on this venture!! We in no way want to devote it or us to "full timers". The School Bus is a 1998 Thomas Built International with the DT 466E Diesel, Allison Auto Transmission, and weighs 25,500 pounds. It was a 24 passenger bus with a wheelchair lift. It now has 150, 050 miles on it and no telling how many more it will see. We are keeping it simple so it will have many uses, we are photographers and the plan is to use it for photoshoots on locations with the ability to stay overnight. The bus will also be used for weekend trips to wherever.

 The seats are all removed and 3/8" hardwood flooring has been installed. We have 4 beds that were used in the school's nurses office. These beds will be used for seating while traveling and for sleeping. We are accustomed to primitive camping so this will be an upgrade for sure. We will still use our camping gear, just not sleeping in the tent any longer. There will be a small pottie for those middle of the night "nature calls"!!

We will be posting some before and after photos along the way.

The journey continues!!

It's hard to imagine those beds have seatbelts. If not, I hope that never causes you a problem.

Linda Sand

  On 8/31/2018 at 1:47 PM, sandsys said:

It's hard to imagine those beds have seatbelts. If not, I hope that never causes you a problem.

Linda Sand

Thanks for commenting Linda. We had not planned on them having seatbelts but now that you mention it, it might not be a bad idea. The seats that came out of the bus had no seatbelts. It is something for us to consider.

  On 9/2/2018 at 10:15 AM, PapaJohn said:

Thanks for commenting Linda. We had not planned on them having seatbelts but now that you mention it, it might not be a bad idea. The seats that came out of the bus had no seatbelts. It is something for us to consider.

I've never understood why school buses are not required to have seatbelts while our cars are regulated to the nth degree. My van's sofa bed faced sideways but it had three seatbelts. I never had need to use them but they were there and I was glad they were just in case.

Linda

  On 9/2/2018 at 11:23 AM, sandsys said:

I've never understood why school buses are not required to have seatbelts while our cars are regulated to the nth degree.

I believe that they do nowadays but only fairly recently. 

There are only six states that require seatbelts in school buses over 10,000 lbs, although many more are considering them. Under 10,000 lbs, they're all required to have them by Federal regulations. Here's an interesting article that explores the issue:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/nyregion/seatbelts-school-buses.html