Inter-city bus / coach for living on the road

[Gene Pavlovsky]

Hello everybody, I'm new on this forum.

I am Gene from Russia, but have lived for years in South-East Asia, and now living and working in Luxembourg.

I was hard pressed to find an English-speaking forum like this in EU, glad to have found yours

Me and my wife are saving money for building a DIY motorhome for full-time living (not just for camping or occasional travel). We'd like to have a lot of room, more than most typical motorhomes (DIY or otherwise).

I've found a lot of articles (all of them from USA DIY-ers) detailing schoolbus or coach conversions, that is what we're thinking about. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any information regarding such conversions in Europe, so base vehicle choice is quite unclear.
Those USA articles all feature quite cheap base vehicles (just a few thousand dollars), but when I checked e.g. mobile.de for Mercedes, Man, etc. inter-city buses, even for 10k EUR you can only find ~15 year-old ones with over 500k km mileage.
As I'm not a bus expert, I'm not sure, maybe it's not very old and not very high mileage by bus standards?

I'd really like to get some advice from people more knowledgeable than me, about which kind of bus to consider - e.g. type, make&model, age, mileage, price range etc.

Maybe it's worth to mention that I've got a truck driving license (category C), so extra weight shouldn't be a problem with regards to the driving license, but maybe there are some other implications to consider?

I thank you for your help in advance.
--Gene

 

[Mel]

Welcome to Fun
There are a few Dutch(Netherland) that have converted a bus into a motorhome.

 

[Gene Pavlovsky]

Hi Mel, thank you. I actually saw one (or it was a truck, I didn't figure it for sure) at a camping while we were on a bicycle trip in Zeeland.
I suppose I should arm myself with Google Translate and head to Dutch motorhome forums, then

 

[pappajohn]

15 years old is practically new....how about 70 years old.
There's a fellow member (Bingo66) on our sister site (RVOC) who is in his 3rd year (i think) renovating/converting a 1947 American Flxible Clipper bus..
You can read his very interesting, and long, blog here.

http://47clipper.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/28th-march-2013.html?m=1

 

[gus-lopez]

There are a few already converted ,usually Dutch, buses on milanuncios usually . It is a Spanish site

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Above is the motorhome one. Only way is to trawl through the lot really.
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This is the autobus section

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[tacr2man]

You might be better looking at an american RV , as they can be found for reasonable money , and with slide out are very roomy , they also are usually low mileage. DIY conversion can be surprisingly expensive to get a level of habitation for full time living . By the time commercial vehicles are sold , its usually that they are starting to cost more than they earn. The exception to this is government owned vehicles , but they are not that many to choose from . Any vehicle you choose needs to be air suspension , as otherwise the ride will be very harsh . You need to allow for having another mode of transport as access to more and more cities particularly in Europe is becoming more and more restricted , by both emissions , and weight, so you need either to carry or tow . Tolls are based on number of axles mostly , but also on emission level. You also need to think about what country you will be based, from point of view of registering, taxing and insuring and also roadworthy compliance. Some countries can be quite obstructionist to what you might be thinking of doing . , BTW Welcome

 

[Gene Pavlovsky]

Hello guys, thanks for the links. A Clipper bus looks cool and this conversion looks like it is an impressive effort, but it is already taking quite a while. I would like to not having to do any major work on the base vehicle, and instead spend my time on the actual motorhome conversion.

The American RVs sound interesting, but are they easy to find here in EU? And wouldn't they cost an arm and a leg to purchase?

 

[tacr2man]

This should give you a feel https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_...R12.TRC2.A0.H0.Xrv.TRS0&_nkw=rv&_sacat=121904

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[hilldweller]

There are some fantastic pictures of a few coach/bus conversions here on FUN. Use the search engine and you should find them.

 

[soreeyes]

I looked at converting a ex council mobile library vehicles as they come up cheap on eBay and because they sit around parked up they are not suffering from high mileage like buses .

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[ianthebuilder]

I looked at converting a ex council mobile library vehicles as they come up cheap on eBay and because they sit around parked up they are not suffering from high mileage like buses .

I looked at them as well soreeyes, they must be perfect due to the weight of books they must have carried!! There not to pricey either! Xx

 

[Riverbankannie]

Do make sure that th base vehicle is as sound as you can find. There is a family on here somewhere, sorry I cannot find the thread, they converted a bus into a family home for life on the road and a couple of months into their new life, the engine terminally expired.
There are lots of videos of various conversions on YouTube.