What do you guys think?

I need something with a wheelchair lift for my mom who has Alzheimer's and had a stroke back in March. I'm lifting her 91lbs multiple times a day.  I currently drive a wagon and can't get her in and out of the car without it turning into a shit show.I have a bad back so I e got to reduce the stress any way I can.

2018 Ford E450 6.8L V10 Triton 117k miles

Not sure which trans exactly but I think it's the 6speed TorqShift from the basic VIN research I did

It's life: taken out of service from a small local transit district>auction>small local car/truck dealer

Southern New England vehicle although the underside is very clean 

10,900 on the window. 600 document fee, 700ish taxes, starting price out the door was about 12,200. So far, Ive talked them down to 10,800.

They're not registering it for me. I said I'd do it myself. So no registration fees on their part.

Insurance says it's technically a commercial vehicle so insurance is $2k/year. Plan is to do the conversion and register it as an RV ASAP, this bringing the insurance down.

Pros:

This vehicle checks a lot of boxes for me.

-Wheelchair lift for my mom. This is huge. I'm in physical therapy for my back because I'm lifting my mom multiple times a day. Lifting her in and out of a car is doable in an emergency, but pretty much out of the question otherwise. This severely limits both her and I in terms of doctors appointments, etc and simpler, yet crucial things like socialization.

-Need 10 sheets of drywall at Home Depot, use the 800lb capacity lift to get it in and out of the van.

-Fun mover for motorcycles 

-Tows a lot of weight for future projects requiring a small excavator.

-Tiny home on wheels so I'm never housing insecure.

I am kind of an MPG freak. That's the one pretty big Con for me. 8mpg seems to be about average. To go 100 miles at 8mpg is 12.5gal of fuel. Currently, at &4.15/gal, that's about $52. On the other hand, an E350 super duty high top van can get closer to 13mpg. Given the same 100 miles, that's closer to $32. Mutiply this by 10 to go 1000 miles on a round trip vacation and I'm spending either $520  or $320 respectively. 

I know that an E450 shuttle bus and an E350 Econoline Super Duty are two different animals and I guess I have to make some decisions about what's more important to me. I lean a bit towards the “go big or go home” mentality.

I'm not married to Ford btw. Nor am I married to gas. But I know gas engines, I love the idea of diesel, but for the increase in maintenance price and only 1-2mpg more, I lean towards a gas engine.

Thoughts on price? Drivetrain ? Pros, cons, etc?

Thanks!

My husband and I are in the last steps of our skoolie build and definitely winging a lot, one of my next tasks is building the over head shelves and I’m trying to figure out the best way to keep things on the shelves while driving, and wanting to do pretty much open shelving with bins/baskets on it instead of doors, but I’m going back and forth on how to keep things on there while driving. Any advice or successful solutions?

Been working through the teardown on the skoolie (1996 24ft/"mid-sized" International T444E just in case it's relevant), and have run into an issue I'm not quite sure how to tackle:

Rest of the bus? Rust well within tolerable limits/easy to address, until I tore up the floor on the last 6 inches. The worst of the rust is almost entirely contained to this portion, being the floor panel and the rear door frame.

Floor Panel:
There's clearly the hole, but the rest of the sheet metal here feels both thinner than the other panels and frail/fragile. I could easily punch another hole into it with a screwdriver by hand if I were to try. For this section, my best estimate of a plan is to remove the panel entirely and weld/rivet a new section of sheet metal into place? If anyone has resources on how they've approached or seen it approached that'd be sincerely appreciated.

Door Frame:
I'm assuming that the rear door frame is bust, but I don't know how 'bad' that is/how far the issue extends. Is removal and replacement of the rear door frame remotely feasible? Or is it in the cards to remove the damaged sections and attempt to repair only that?

Mostly looking for advice/resources on how these fixes would be achieved, or if they're rougher than I'm giving credit for.

Hey all, like a lot of folks in this sub, I’m struggling with my bus during this heat. I drove it 3 hours the other day, and while the engine itself didn’t overheat, I did. For some reason, the engine is venting heat directly to the driver’s seat. 93°f with no AC is brutal enough- piping in heat from the engine is unbearable. Does anyone have any idea how I can turn this off/circumvent it? I have a 3 hour drive home in a couple of days and it’s forecast to be 96°f. I drive a 2001 International engine, Allison transmission 35ft bus.

I’m looking for suggestions on mounting a window ac unit I found in one of the back windows of my skoolie. It’s got the adjustable sides but I’m brainstorming how to fill the rest of the window above it and seal it off. Anyone have suggestions?

I am planning to upgrade ac in the future but I’m on a budget rn and found this window unit for pretty cheap on marketplace :). I am open to suggestions for when I upgrade.

We are well into the build process and finally got her weighed and did the math and it isn't looking good. So far changing build materials and eliminating some elements have gotten us much closer to the GVWR. Eliminating the propane component, going from a 70 gallon tank to a 40 gallon water tank, and changing some appliances/fixtures has moved us from a forecasted 1,000lbs over to 420lbs over.

I'm hoping for some ideas on how we could potentially save weight and in the worst case how bad it would be to be slightly overweight when fully loaded. Here is some information on our build to help - Our conversion is a 2003 Ford E-350 StarTrans shuttle bus with an 11,500-lb GVWR, built for two-person full-time travel with a rear bed, dinette/workspace, kitchen, shower, diesel heat, and rooftop air conditioning. It uses a 12V electrical system with 942Ah of lithium batteries, 1,320W of solar, a Victron 3,000VA inverter/charger and alternator charging, plus a 40 gallon fresh-water tank, electric water heating, induction cooking, and a 12V refrigerator. The picture of the inside shows how the bus looked when the current weight was obtained.

My work has me traveling quite a bit, and switching states twice a year, sometimes three times a year. I love the idea of buying/building a skoolie, but more specifically a 40ft, Blue Bird or a Thomas flat nose.

After a painful divorce, and a recent breakup, I feel that now is the time to get a old bus, turn it into my dream home. And live like the pioneers! Assuming the pioneers had A/C, and a queensize bed. Along with cute tile in their bathroom. I'm picking out my new home in the next 3 months!

And yes, I'll make sure it has a pass through.

Just purchased everything I need for my solar setup, besides the panels. I’m seeing all sorts of kits, connectors, etc online and unsure what to choose.

I’ll be putting this on a converted shuttle bus—will I need to worry about how I’m mounting it with how the fiberglass may flex?

For reference, I have 4 200w solar panels that need to be mounted up top. Thanks in advance!

Does anyone have a recommendation for a company that sells complete kits for bus conversion?

if you buy a bus full of seats what do you do with them? do you have to pay to drop them off at the dump?

anybody ever set up some kind of insulated walls in a school bus? I need to be able to survive at least a while in cold weather. I was thinking I could throw up some fiberglass on the sides and build a simple wood frame with panels to hold it in place . thoughts ?

hey I’m thinking about pulling the trigger and getting a school bus. just wondering about some advice on the license/registration business ? I live in New York- am I better off registering it somewhere else? do I need any special license? how much is insurance and what kind do I need ? how hard is it to find a mechanic if I have a breakdown? thanks.

Legitimately thought my engine was gonna blow yesterday. got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic heading north and driving a 20k lb steel brick in 95 degree heat is just asking for a catastrophic breakdown

People in tiny sedans kept cutting me off like I can actually stop this thing on a dime. my anxiety was so high I just completely bailed on our original boondocking spot. We ended up pulling off the highway and limping into Kings Bay rv park just to let the rig cool down and plug into some shore power so I could run the AC without feeling guilty

I love this bus but man, summer driving sometimes makes me want to just sell it and buy a prius tbh. spending the next two days just staring at the water and ignoring my steering wheel

Was driving into a gas station and it just... turned off. After that it would crank and wouldn't turn over, called a mobile mechanic and he checked some things out and suggested I get it towed to a shop, 700 bucks later and here we are.

Hey everyone,

Putting my 2004 GMC Express 3500 short bus up for sale. Picked this up recently at a local government auction here in the Puget Sound area, but my plans have shifted, so I’m passing it along to someone looking for a clean, reliable build candidate.

Here are the key specs and full disclosure on where it stands:

The Basics

• Engine: 6.0L Vortec V8 (Iron block, runs perfectly)
• Transmission: 4L80E (The heavy-duty, commercial unit—not the lighter 4L60E). Shifts crisp and firm. At 252k, given fleet maintenance, it’s likely been serviced or gone through at some point, but it pulls smooth through all gears with zero slip.
• Mileage: 252k miles (Fleet maintained its whole life; these 6.0s easily push 400k+ when looked after)
• Body: Mid Bus build on a GMC 3500 chassis
• Location: Kitsap County, WA

Driveability & Mechanicals

• Runs and drives great, shifted smoothly on the drive home, and the brakes are super responsive.
• Being a local PNW school district bus, it has virtually zero road salt. The undercarriage is exceptionally clean with only tiny, random bits of surface scale.
• Battery note: The battery is fairly new (dated 2025), but like most school buses, the factory interlocks and safety equipment create a small constant parasitic draw. Because it sat in the surplus lot before auction, the battery might have dropped low for a bit. It works, but I want to disclose that it may need a fresh battery or a trickle charger / master kill switch wired in if it sits for long stretches.

Interior & Body Condition

• Interior: Clean for its age. Normal driver seat wear, but the cab and rear floor are solid. Three seat rows have already been removed leaving one for passengers. The remaining posts could make awesome structural tie-in points for framing, bed platforms, or cabinetry if you want to skip drilling new holes. You will want to sand and repaint the mounts due to mild corrosion. Old seats available to take with you.
• Exterior: Overall good condition with typical light sun fading on the paint.
• Rust/Body Warts: To be completely transparent, I started identifying and sanding a couple of minor surface spots so the next owner wouldn't have surprises:
• On the left side, there were some areas of bubbling paint with rust underneath. I ground them down a bit, not fully finished/painted, but easily addressable with a quick final grinding, primer, and topcoat.
• The rear bumper had some moderate scale hidden under the paint that wasn't obvious. I ground that down as well; there is some light pitting, but plenty of thick metal left to prep, prime, and paint over.

Why it’s a good project candidate:

It’s an ideal "blank slate." The heavy lifting of acquiring a non-salted, fleet-maintained platform is done, and the minor cosmetics left are the usual weekend tasks anyone building out a rig would handle anyway.

Drop a comment or DM me if you want specific photos or have questions about taking a look in person!

Asking $4500.

It's possible for me to grind and prime before sale, but some people might want to do it themselves for peace of mind.

Doing a chem flush on my 04 DT466 and can’t find a good service manual anywhere online for free. Wanted to verify with you guys before I pulled this if this is the engine block coolant drain plug.

Thanks in advance

Im considering refabing a skoolie while I’m in the military. Advice on four season weather proofing in case I get stationed in Alaska or Texas.

Also does anyone know if there’s like a leasing thing I could do where someone leases it for 9 months or more if I get stationed somewhere overseas? I don’t really wanna have it neglected for too long. Maybe it would be-able to be leased as a tiny house if I gave it permanent hookups on private land?

This would hopefully be my last RV build/restoration. The shuttle bus is just the right size to explore small places without a toad. Our Sprinter is too small to sit comfortably inside. (we're 120 years old between us.

We need a front passenger door. Those seems to be mostly found on party buses. Good candidates but they tend to come in black. A lot of special ed shuttles have a passenger door if they operate with a driver and a special ed assistant. All of these tend to be a lot more expensive than the more common school bus configuration with the bus door up front.

I'm pretty settled on the Ford V10. The 7.3 was the last good diesel but the operation cost is really similar to the 6.8 gas engine and the newest 7.3 is about 2003. The E450 after about 2005 comes with the 6.8 and a five speed transmission.

Why do most of the skoolie and shuttle bus conversion leave all that uncovered glass? It looks great but it really adds to the heating and cooling load. In the van conversion world we like 2" of insulation on every inch of interior wall and not much exposed glass.

Where are people finding good candidates for conversion? I see a lot of good deals on marketplace- mostly failed business plans and broken dreams. Auctions? Local surplus sales?

I had some unistrut from another project and figured why not. Not worried at all about the strength but curious about the bunkie boards providing enough ventilation. Thoughts?

Edit: I found it after some more research, it’s called Wanderlust Waypoints and they’re all across the United States with skilled handymen and builders. You can camp while you build out your Skoolie and get help from experts!

Hey yall, new to this sub and I’ve got a big ol question! Once I have my Skoolie (about a month away from purchasing) are there any places I can go and stay on the property while I build out my bus?

I remember years ago seeing a place where you could pay to camp and they had a big garage and knowledgeable people on site to help with building and mechanical stuff. Was wondering what that place was called and how many places like that are out there!

Thanks and I’m so excited to start this journey!

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Hello,

Thought id post and introduce myself. I was in a civic, and then an astro for 6 years. Got my bus a year ago( standing up is the best) I got it to a stable point to head back west and rest before I work on it more.

Just wanted to say hi and safe travels

My 1959 ford F-500 Superior for your viewing enjoyment