Filed under: Biodiesel, Green Culture
School bus conversions cover biofuels
If running even the biggest SUV or farm tractor on biofuel isn't a large enough vehicle for you, then perhaps you'd be interested in converting an old school bus to use biodiesel. If so, there is a Yahoo! group you'll want to check out: the Skoolie Conversions group. This group isn't dedicated exclusively to biofuels but instead to converting old busses into RVs. Still, biofuel discussions are not unknown, as this post at Green Trust shows. Last Friday, Steve Spence posted about his friend who is about to convert an old school bus into a biodiesel RV. You have to join the Yahoo! group to read all about it, but if going old Skool is your thing, that won't be difficult.
[Source: Skoolie Conversions via Green Trust Sustainability & Renewable Energy]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SUngam 9:39AM (5/23/2006)
How come these ancient school buses are still used?
They must be extremely inefficient, not to mention uncomfortable.
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Bill 1:09PM (5/23/2006)
Used school buses are very cheap to buy. Because of mandatory "retirement" laws in many states, and because they are largely single-purpose vehicles, they're very inexpensive and plentiful.
In the small town where I grew up, farmers would often cut out the rear and make essentially a giant pickup truck, perfect for hauling watermelons and cantalopes to the regional auction block. I have also seen school busses that have had the rear decks converted to a flat bed tow truck to haul racing cars to and from racetracks. The are also widely exported to developing countries.
Newer busses have better suspensions, and are a lot less bouncy than they used to be, and also have better sound insulation materials and climate control systems. Most now have automatic transmissions, ABS, and many other features.
Better to put them to use than send them all the junkyard, although a converted RV isn't necessarily my taste.
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