Ckass A vs Bus Conversion - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Tropikat · RV-Dreams Community Member

Ckass A vs Bus Conversion

GENECOP · RV-Dreams Family Member

I like the Bus Conversion Platform, more suited for heavy duty use....if you can, Research Research Research, new or used, many good deals out there, welcome to the Forum....

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Kathy and Andy,

I'm sure that more knowledgeable folks with this comparison will be much better than anything I can say, so let me first welcome you to the RV Dreams forums. You will find that the folks here are friendly, helpful, and encouraging. So, feel free to ask about anything related to the RV's or the RV lifestyle.

Some will say that a bus conversion will give you the benefit of not having slides and thus the need to maintain those associated mechanisms. Others will say that a Class A with slides will give you a lot more room, so I guess it is a trade off. As Gene suggested, do your research and make sure that it includes being inside each kind. If you don''t have bus conversions close to you, when you are on a dealer's lot for Class A's be sure and first get a feel for the space inside with the slides pulled in. That will give you a "sense" of what a conversion might be like.

Good luck with the research and planning, and have fun doing all of that.

Terry

kb0zke · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome, Kathy and Andy. You might need to define "bus conversion" before you are led astray. Are you talking about a vehicle that used to be a school bus and has now been converted into a camper? Are you talking about something like a Bluebird Wanderlodge, which was originally built to be a motor home by a company that also makes buses? Are you talking about something like a Prevost, which has the body of a bus, but is taken off the bus line, sent to a converter, and turned into a motor home? All three can be considered "bus conversions" but they are three totally different animals.

You also need to consider your budget. If you are looking for a diesel pusher motor home with no slides you have quite a few to select from, but they will be older coaches. Our Foretravel is 20 years old, and doesn't have any slides. In our price range we didn't have any with slides to consider anyway. If you start getting newer, say around 2000 or so, you will find some with and some without slides.

PM or email me and I'll share the short version of what we learned in our three years of research.

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

Greetings... and welcome.

We have been full timing in our vintage bus conversion for over 2 years now (full timing in total for 7 years). As David mentioned above, there's a whole range of bus conversions out there... to add to his list, there's also self converted intercity highway coaches (which is what ours is), transit buses and more.

You can read more about our bus at:

www.technomadia.com/zephyr/

And at the bottom of the page is links to our posts on why we selected a bus conversion instead of a Class A, and our adventures in finding a bus.

Would also recommend lurking over at www.busconversions.com - which has forums for bus folks.

- Cherie

Tropikat · RV-Dreams Community Member

Thanks All. We are trying to find any bus conversions in our area, so far no luck. We are thinking about a early to mid 90's in the $100,000 price range. We like the idea of no slides , we don't think we need the space and it would be one less thing to maintain. We are hoping to be on the road by Jan 2015, that is if our house is sold by then. We still have a few minor fix ups to do at the house to get it ready for sale. I don't know if we can get it all worked out by then but who knows???

Cherie, I have been reading the stuff on your site for quite a while. All good info Thanks!

folivier · RV-Dreams Family Member

Look at mid 90's Newells. They are built to the highest standards in the factory at Miami, OK. Most will be 45' with no slides (didn't start adding slides until '97). Top quality construction. 24/7 support from the factory, can't be beat!
Until '95 they have Detroit Diesel 8v92 2 strokes, then will have series 60 Detroit.
PM me if you need more info, I know of a few for sale in your price range.