School Bus

[LucasD]

I am looking into the possibility of shortening a school bus to pull a longer gooseneck. Would I have to have a CDL to go out of state, or would I be free to go wherever? Also, what is the max vehicle length w/o a permit?

Thanks,

Lucas

 

[old]

Doing something like that can be a big big bag of worms when it comes to D.O.T. I know because we made a truck longer at one time and because of the laws we had to double frame it to pass
Hobby farm

 

[rustyfarmall]

A school bus is nothing more than a truck with a special body on it. If you modify that body to carry cargo instead of passengers, or to pull a trailer, then it is no longer a school bus. It is a truck, and all laws pertaining to trucks will now apply to your rig.

One more thought. Sometimes the school buses do not use the heavy duty chassis components, and you might be in trouble there also.

 

[Jeff-oh]

There is a local Concete outfit round here that has a rickety old bus where the cab was cut two seats back and the back end caried all the foundation framing....

No DOT inspection there. Looks like it came up from Juarez.

 

[Dennis Benson]

After making the modification you will want to retitle the bus to indicate it's change. RustyFarmall is right about the frames, they are a lighter weight construction. A 1985 or so IH school bus had a chassis about the thickness and dimensions as my one ton truck. The front springs were a lot less capacity, too. The axle was rated much more than the springs, but still not very much. The weight of a full bus's load can be as much as 6,000 pounds, that's 60, 100 pound kids, so the rear springs will be made for them. But you can get a useable schoolbus for $500.00. It should handle a gooseneck. Maybe retitle it as a RV, turn one seat around to face another and bolt a table between them. Take the middle of the coach out to get rid of the humps over the wheels and move the back forward and pop rivet it back into place. You can use the emergency exit to go out the back onto a flatbed.

 

[john in la]

First off you should not cut out the middle of the frame. You should move the rear end up on the frame and cut off the excess overhang of the frame.

If you need a CDL you will need it in state and out of state. With this size truck you will need a CDL unless you can some how fit in one of the CDL exempt areas. Putting a RV tag on your truck would be the easiest way of being exempt.

Length laws are set by each state for their roads. I do not have the time or the gumption to list all 48 states. Get a professional drivers road atlas from a truck stop and it will have a section on this. I will tell you if you are under 60 ft long total and not over 96 inches wide you are pretty much good to go on any road in the U.S.

The federal highway system (interstates) and 3 miles from such do not have over all length laws. They only control trailer length. The maximum length for a trailer on the interstate is 53 ft.