So why a school bus? Well, before Matt and I were together, it was a dream of his to convert some sort of vehicle into a living quarters while he traveled the country. He thought pretty seriously about buying a Sprinter van because the size and practicality seemed appropriate. The only thing stopping him was time and money because those bad boys aren't cheap. Then he met me and I was all for the idea but was a little concerned about living in an 80 square feet space with two people and two pit bulls. So our first thought was to look at RVs.
We looked at a few but felt that they were too commercialized for our taste. We wanted something more personalized. A blank canvas. So after doing some research, we found out that there's such a thing as "skoolies" and that seemed to be a more like the route we wanted to go. We also found that school buses are more structurally sound than most RVs.
After about a year of research, we found a deal that we couldn't pass up. A 1992 International Ward body school bus with a DT-360 5.9L diesel engine with only 103K miles on it. Another plus was that the seats had already been taken out. We only had to drive a couple hours to look at it and after thorough inspection, we found no serious rust, tires were in good shape, test drove it, and decided to pull the trigger.
The only issue we had was driving it home. We tried getting various types of insurance but every company turned us down because it was in the middle of a conversion state and not yet registered as an RV. We had read that some people get lucky and are able to get insurance before it is fully converted but that was not the case for us. Luckily, the previous owners were kind enough to offer to drive it to us since they already had insurance on it and were planning on taking a road trip our way. So we gave them the cash, they gave us the title and 2 days later, we had it in our possession. Now, we get to fix it up however we want and you get to watch us learn how to do it!
We looked at a few but felt that they were too commercialized for our taste. We wanted something more personalized. A blank canvas. So after doing some research, we found out that there's such a thing as "skoolies" and that seemed to be a more like the route we wanted to go. We also found that school buses are more structurally sound than most RVs.
After about a year of research, we found a deal that we couldn't pass up. A 1992 International Ward body school bus with a DT-360 5.9L diesel engine with only 103K miles on it. Another plus was that the seats had already been taken out. We only had to drive a couple hours to look at it and after thorough inspection, we found no serious rust, tires were in good shape, test drove it, and decided to pull the trigger.
The only issue we had was driving it home. We tried getting various types of insurance but every company turned us down because it was in the middle of a conversion state and not yet registered as an RV. We had read that some people get lucky and are able to get insurance before it is fully converted but that was not the case for us. Luckily, the previous owners were kind enough to offer to drive it to us since they already had insurance on it and were planning on taking a road trip our way. So we gave them the cash, they gave us the title and 2 days later, we had it in our possession. Now, we get to fix it up however we want and you get to watch us learn how to do it!