2000 - Volume #24, Issue #6, Page #32

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Old School Bus Makes Cheap Hauler Hay

Old School Bus Makes Cheap Hauler Hay SCHOOLBUS CONVERSIONS Schoolbus Conversions 24-6-32 When Armin Scripter, Abilene, Kansas, went looking for a semi-truck to pull his 23-bale hay trailer, he didn't have to go far. He found what he needed in one of the old school buses he'd picked up at an auction. Scripter simply shortened the body of the bus by cutting the rivets that hold the body together just behind the first row of seats. He cut the rear body section off, too, and then, using sheet metal screws, put it on the remaining front section. He then cut down the channel iron frame under the bus and shortened the drive shaft to the right length to handle the semi fifth wheel hitch and plate he salvaged from an old truck. Scripter also installed a Brownie transmission he found at a salvage yard behind the bus' 4-speed automatic transmission. And he converted the engine to run on LP fuel. The bus already had air brakes, so he merely added lines to hook up the brakes on his trailer. Scripter says the cost of this conversion was under $1,000. "I paid $500 for the bus, $100 for the transmission, another $100 for the propane conversion, and $60 for the semi-trailer hitch. There were a few other costs, but those amounted to under $200," he says. To Scripter, the conversion was fairly simple, though it took several weeks to get all the pieces together. He had previously converted another of his bargain buses to a straight truck and mounted a grain box on it. He still has two or three remaining buses and is considering a number of different uses for them. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Armin Scripter , 3421 Mink Road, Abilene, Kan. 67410 (ph 785 461-5642).