Moriarty, the name Brian and I have given to the BangShift.com accountant, would literally die of a coronary if we were to acquire this fine specimen of underpowered, mobile command center greatness. With a roof top deck that seats 15, this sucker is ready for all our broadcast gear AND a studio audience. How could any logical person argue with the greatness of that one feature alone? Plus, since this particular 1981 International Harvester bus is powered by a 404 cubic inch gasoline burner, it might just be the least powerful bus EVER. That means we’d be forced to do an engine swap on it, which would be great tech for our readers. It has two beds, probably gets more than 5 miles to the gallon if you are cool with only cruising at 55, and according to the seller it costs almost nothing to insure! It just keeps getting better.
For the sake of argument, lets say we ARE NOT going to buy this bus. With that said, what do you think would be “must have” custom touches if we were building our own BangShift LIVE Mobile Command Center from an old school bus? Be creative. We want to see what kind of BangShifty ideas you guys and gals can come up with.
here is a posting for a much better buy …
convert it your self by using equipment from a travel trailer or a motorhome some one is robbing the engine out of
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2003-freightliner-school-bus-activity-air-brakes-cat-diesel-1-owner-runs-good-/301173206091?forcerrptr=true&hash=item461f526c4b&item=301173206091&pt=Buses
It’s kind of rough around the edges, but nothing a gear head can’t handle. I’d rather convert my own and have what I want than buy something that’s what someone else wanted.
As a former bus mechanic I’ll point out a couple of problems with this model. Yes it’s underpowered, being an IH engine really limits your swap potential unless you change transmission also. Fuel mileage is never going to be very good, it”s very heavy and geared for around town driving. This style of wheel rarely rolls true, very difficult to get square on the hub and 9.00/20 tires are getting scarce. It’s a cool old bus but I’d go for something a little more modern with 10 hole Budd wheels. Lots of late 80’s, early 90’s with 5.9 Cummins out there.
I like it just the way it is. That IH 404 is a great engine. Has plenty of power. I had 3 Loadstars with that engine on trucks with 25k gvw, and they were all excellent. Smooth running, easy to work on. Yes you may get a bit better mileage from a kerosene burner, but at what cost? I think the only thing I would change on this unit would be the paint. Might look pretty awesome with BangShift logo’s
I was going to say a pair of Moon Eyes on the front upper school flashers, giant Bangshift logo on each side and a stripper poll on the back deck.
Gee, Chad, that conversion seems to have everything to simply add your LSV
production equipment to.
It’s even got a [relatively] Lohnes-proof stairway to the top deck.
How far would you reasonably take it to a ‘strip? Famoso? ‘Vegas?
You’d probably not attempt Tulsa, Bowling Green, or Epping.
Driving time versus a coupla plane rides and hooking yourself up with hotel rooms and a rental car seems more efficient time and cost-wise.
Have Moriarty (?) take an aspirin before proposing this acquisition, especially with current fuel prices.
If your write-up was tongue-in-cheek, belay my response…
Holy crap! I just re-read my post.
The word efficient in the 3rd-to-last sentence should be INefficient!
Is that a pee tube running down the left side?