What part of Ga are you located in? Need a clear plan on how to convert your bus from start to finish? Depending on where you live, you might be able to find another person that is converting a bus and work out a trade for use of their land. The price will increase in June, so join now! It seems to me I have read and seen all kinds of adventures of people who have hit the freeway from time to time. If it turns out that you do need a new license, check out what you’ll need to do to upgrade. If you answered, YES to all 5 questions then get out your computer and start searching for your bus. Will you be living on your skoolie full time, or part-timing it? Though buying an older bus did result in a lower up-front cost, we have needed to invest in mechanical parts and repairs over time. Any ideas of where I should look to park it? I want this! To title and register the vehicle with There is no right or wrong, it’s your bus! We opted to rip out the ceiling, walls, and floors to ensure the bus … We have been forced to stay away from places that we wanted to experience because our bus simply won’t make it up the hills required to get there.
Let’s look into it.” Your post was the forstbtjat came up. You can register your bus without conversion, no matter what your state of residence. Good luck with the build out of your own bus – and feel free to shoot us any questions along the way
These are things to consider when buying the “fun” stuff for your bus. Does buying a school bus and converting it sound like a project you would like to tackle? This is when converting a school bus seemed like a brilliant idea. Good luck! Total cost including buying our first bus was less than $5,500. Building the Subfloor
Who will drive the bus? (That being said, we’ve seen quite a few rad short-bus conversions that are full-time homes. When deciding what utilities and appliances you need, contemplate the kind of lifestyle you want.
Our bus came from Arizona and already had a few inches of insulation between the roof and the typical metal grate ceiling so we decided, if we can fasten the wood through to the ribs in the frame and still have head room, there is no need to rip it all out and start from scratch. This just seems like the best idea we have had in a while. The power for our bus is provided by two Optima BlueTop Deep Cycle Marine 12-Volt batteries as well as a 400 watt solar system from Renogy. In our town, once it has a toilet and a place to sleep along with either a refrigerator or stove it is considered an RV. A school bus is a type of bus owned, leased, contracted to, or operated by a school or school district. Most people try find a friend or relative that may let them use their land while converting. In case anyone else is having the same issue here is the number I called 866/570/7335 ext 78802. 347.44(4). One thing that often gets forgotten in initial planning is your tanks. I have also heard where some people have had a difficult time getting their buses tag and titled. Currently, the average price on a bus is around $4000 – $6500. (Our experience doing this in Texas wasn’t painful.). rhwotomotivecom … When we lived in Charleston, SC, any vehicle that was parked in our drive or yard had to be tagged and titled. 347.44(4) To title and register the vehicle with auto, (regular) bus, heavy truck, light truck, motor home or special X license plates, submit the following items:
if they both pass away? All you have to do is send photos that the seats have been removed.
The first piece of advice I will give you is to pick a bus that will fit your needs. How much space you want/need is really up to you.). So helpful, and glad to come across this! It looks nice but staying within perfect weather all the time is nearly impossible. another city said “if you buy any property you must build a home no less than 1000 sq feet and it must look like the surrounding homes, we do not appreciate any vagabonds” WOW! We say, “It never hurts to ask.”. Epperson Family. heavy truck, I would disagree! ( Log Out / My husband is a diesel mechanic and we have animals that make traveling much more expensive and frankly I do not enjoy boarding our pups if we can avoid it. It is so frustrating. Doing so meant that we could buy the bus outright without putting a big dent in our savings.
We added a 32” Samsung smart T.V. 137.03(6) – Motor home definition/requirements: Questions? Two great resources we recommend for researching mechanical specs are: Diesel Hub and Skoolie.net. Backup Camera and 7 Inch Monitor Screen. That being said, we were grateful to find a number of online resources during the conversion process that answered many of our questions. Skoolie Conversion 101 Since it’s the first thing to deplete, it might be a good idea to have a pump and filter system so you can pull water right out of a stream or river. Hi Tiffany, depending on where you are located we might be able to help you out. Now, you may not want or need it for fertilizer, but the takeaway is it is now safe to dispose of anywhere. Thank you! Before you can get insurance or legally drive your bus without a CDL (commercial driver’s license), you have to register it as an RV. And, will you be able to ensure your bus at a price you can afford? Let me know if we can help you in any way. School buses are usually only 10’6″ tall and the maximum height of a tiny house is 13’4″, so if I build my own structure to the maxim height, then it would allow for more head room. So glad I found your article bc it answered all of my “what to know before you buy” questions. I have been reading about bus conversions and they seem to be built stronger and may be more affordable. [email protected]. Camco XL Heavy Duty Leveling Blocks. This is a really great idea. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. A lot of states won’t issue tags/title without proof of insurance. Worth the drive for they have everything!. What kind of engine/ transmission/brake system do you want? Heyyy there I live in a tourist city and my boyfriend and I want to buy a school bus and convert it to a convertible and rent out to tourists. We opted to purchase an older bus with one of the lowest price-tags we could find. Super news! I did NOT see your reply in regards to insuring your second bus but I am hoping I am able to locate all of your other facebook pages. Do you want to live and travel in the bus full-time? You do not want to be hard at work on your bus at 10:30 at night to get interrupted by the police because a neighbor complained. Hey!!! Eventually, we decided to go with Tongue and Groove pine and could not be happier with the outcome. The resources listed above are really just the tip of the iceberg and we encourage you to share any others that you may know of below. Hi Terrance, I am not familiar with the Georgia area. Below you will find, 5 questions to ask yourself in order to find out if you are really ready for a Skoolie. Alex, Keep in mind we found our first bus in 2009. It has sat for 5 years and I am trying to figure out how to move it. Today we saw a bus (short bus) on the side of the road near our ranchbfor sale and thought, “What the hell? It controls exterior and interior lights and allows us to see how many volts we are at.
Last but not least, the ceiling. Six years later, our second bus cost $1,800. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. If you are like us and know nothing about electrical, then this step might be tough. My name is Angela Dean, but I go by Angie.
Legal? Most of the time, the first person you talk to is not going to know the answer to your questions. Let us know in the comments below which bus is your favorite and why. Don’t get us wrong, we’re very happy with our bus, but that doesn’t stop us from occasionally admiring how green the grass is on the other side of the fence. We were there too. Hi. Usually, we found a lot of success when using specific search terms like, “how to…”. Can you park them in the city during working hours? Now you are forced to downsize because your bus is too short.
Because our bus’ GVWR is over 26,001 lbs, we had to upgrade our licenses from a class C (regular car driver) to a class B (big vehicle driver). (More on licenses further down.). Irancically I am school bus driver in Maryland and now I’m super excited to see what you may have available . He has gotten discount after discount at Lowe’s just because he pointed out the damaged wood and offered them a lower price.
To keep things light, simple and most importantly cheap, we faced most of the walls with white beadboard. That’s another post entirely, but there are pretty cool options like this 800 Watt Solar Panel Kit that include everything you’d need to put together your system, and include options from 200 watts all the way up to 800! The bonus of an on-demand water heater is that is saves a ton of space and your water doesn’t go cold mid-shower, and that’s what we ultimately chose for our needs. We hope our blog is helpful! We are Long Islanders in NY and so hope that we are on our way to converting our own bus into a “SKOOLI”.