The Great Bus Disaster

In February of 2021 I purchased a 1988 GMC Bus posted on FB Marketplace.

I then spent the next 5 months fixing her up and converting her into an RV for an upcoming road trip from here in New York to Clovis, NM to Orlando, FL, and then reverse that back, to take an ill relative to Walt Disney World for a vacation.

This story skips all of the transformation of the bus itself. If you want that there is a YouTube series I did, documenting most of that part. (Click Here for that Playlist)

The trip was to take a month or two, and cover about 7,000 miles, round trip.

July 29, we head out.

August 14, $8,000 of debt, a trip of only 650 miles, and 2 weeks of headaches and hardship later, we return home, tails between legs and completely drained of will.

Here's our series of unfortunate events.

Weeks after purchase, I brought the bus to {a local truck dealership} down the road from me, for a thorough inspection that would include inspecting the engine and drivetrain etc. I specified that we do not know enough about such things and that we want to know what all might be wrong with the bus before our planned trip in August. (Noting the distance and purpose of trip and that we did not want any surprises on the road.) A few days later we got the call saying the inspection was done and that the bus was in good condition aside from a small leak in the engine manifold that might need to be welded and that most of the exterior lights were out. We paid the shop $150 for the inspection and brought the bus home. However, it could not make the journey and died pulling into the driveway. (That's called foreshadowing.) The next day we returned the bus to the shop so that they could diagnose the issue and I then pointed out more that I could see as issues, even with my small amount of knowledge, so that they could andress those as well. Their response was to point out the leak and address that and my other concerns with “well we are not used to working on these types of engines” and that they couldn’t do anything else but, it seems alright aside from a few minor fixes.

I make the minor repairs that I can, and start the conversion. Laws differ depending on where you live and what your intentions are but, in NY you must insure it, before you can register it. That meant completing enough of the conversion to pass muster for the insurrer to approve as a motorhome so that I could register it as such. That meant, the first time it was driven, off property, was on its maiden voyage. (Heh, nothing ever goes wrong on a maiden voyage, does it?)

July 29, Day 1 of the trip, we leave the house before noon, and all seems well until just past the Seneca Travel Plaza on I-90. That’s when we lose the tread on the inner, passenger-side, tire. We make it to the next exit to ask a tire shop for assistance locating a new tire for the bus. They recommended a RV shop down the road who ended up recommending {X tire shop} who might be able to help. I called them and, after chatting for a bit (and sending photos of the tires currently installed), they informed us that almost certainly the other 5 on the bus would go in very short order and recommended a replacing the full set. In the end they were able to sell, and come out to install, a set of 6 used tires with replacement rims. We stop for the night around sunset that evening at the Angola Travel Plaza on I-90. We also start to notice a loss of power from the engine but assume it was due to an overheating issue. We check fluids and rest for the night.

Day 2, We start to see issues getting up to and maintaining speed; we no longer can maintain speed above 55 MPH for more than the first dozen miles from a cold start. We are still under the assumption it is an issue with the fluids and that, if we top them up, it might correct itself after a few more miles. We make it into Ohio; however, we are now stuck doing under 45 MPH and as the day continues our speed is decreasing. Stopping an letting the engine cool is no longer helping as the window that we can maintain any speed above 35 is narrowing. It now cannot hold 55 for more than a couple miles from a cold start. During a rest stop, we notice a section of the exhaust is hanging down in a way that it is not supposed to. A section of the pipe has rusted to the point that the jostling from driving has severed the pipe at that point and now the last 5 ft is disconnected. We find a auto parts store and purchase some supplies to make a quick repair to hopefully help resolve the problem, as well as some more oil and coolant should the bus require more because of our suspensions of a leak of one or both of those fluids. The repairs and the slow speed means that we don’t make it very far that night either. We stop for the night, after dark, at the Richfield, OH Rest Area on I-271.

We decide that we need another mechanic to look at the bus first thing in the morning.

We stay in the rest area until we can locate a mechanic that can come out to our bus to help diagnose the problem. We call a mobile mechanic dispatch operator who sends out a guy that diagnoses the possible culprit being that our brakes are seized up and therefore sucking back all of the power and causing us to have trouble getting up to speed if the brakes are constantly engaged. About 6 hours later we are on our way.

While waiting, we discuss with the other members of the family, who are going down to Florida to meet us, and we make our first changes to the plan. It is obvious that we no longer have time to go to New Mexico and then make it to Florida before our check-in day so we change our route to drive straight to Florida instead.

We Don’t even make it to the next exit before we start to see the same symptoms as before. We get off at the exit and travel through town on roads where the maximum speed is 55 MPH so that we can 1) get to the other interstate to start heading south and 2) get there without having to slow down interstate traffic with our 35-45 MPH max speed that we were now moving at.

Upon reaching the interstate, we immediately pull over on one of the first exits we get to as it is obvious something is still very wrong with the bus. We settle on getting a hotel room for the weekend so that we can get some rest, clean up, and find a repair shop that can take the bus in, to look over it completely. We are done with these one-off repairs that only help, but not solve, the underlying root problem that we seem to be having.

We know that it being 5pm on Saturday that no one else would be open today or tomorrow so we need to make arrangements to send the park tickets (we had everybody's tickets as we bought them with our discount) and adjust the check-in, for the other family members to start without us. We also settle in for at least a week here in Akron.

The first place we get ahold of starts to accept the bus but after we drop it off they decided that, actually no, they won't work on it and that we should have not even brought the bus on this trip. No spit but here we are, and you won't help, fine.

A few days later, We have found a place that works on these large vehicles, including busses and motorhomes. We double and triple check that they will work on it, telling them that we know it's old and has a lot of issues, but we are in the middle of a trip and need it to work. They fit us in, so we attempt to get the bus to them by the end of day today to be seen first thing in the morning. The distance is approximately 10 miles from the motel we were at. We got to less than a mile away from the service center when we turned onto a steep hill that the bus decided it would not make up to the top. The engine cuts-out and begins rolling back and doesn't stop until we run it onto a curb and into someone’s brick garden wall. (Yes, the brakes were ineffective with the engine off.)

After waiting a few minutes, we attempted another try at the hill; This time we made it a few houses further, but again, the engine cut-out and we started rolling backwards. The second attempt we managed to restart the engine and were then able to apply the brakes and stop it on the sidewalk out front of an empty lot so that we may be as much out of the way as possible. We knew that the bus would not safely make it up this hill on its own. We called roadside assistance and, after a 7 hour wait, we were able to get the bus towed to the service center.

We get the bus back and it seems to be fixed. We’ve spent ALL of the extra money we borrowed and saved to enjoy our trip, and we are not sure if we will have enough to get back with, but we seem to finally be able to complete at least part of the trip and visit with family. We get packed and, the next morning, we depart from Akron and start heading south toward Florida.

We make it about 75, trouble-free, miles and then all of the symptoms return with a vengeance. We are now doing 25-35 MPH and, at first, we assume it’s mostly the hills as we are about to enter West Virginia. As we do, we realize the exhaust pipe is broken, again, my temporary repair has failed and will need to be re-repaired. We find another auto parts shop and slowly make our way to a place where we can park to attempt the repair again. After waiting a while longer for the engine to cool down before trying to start back down the road, we try to get back to the highway and the bus immediately starts failing again. This was it, we decide that we cannot continue on this trip and must stop at the nearest motel and figure out a plan to get back home instead.

We try to get ahold of someone who can take our bus in for repairs. Unfortunately, Parkersburg, West Virginia is not the best place to try to find service for a large vehicle such as a school bus. With the assistance of Good Sam Roadside Service, we do find 1 person who MIGHT be able to help but cannot see the bus until the end of the month and there is no room at their shop to store the bus until then either. Good Sam Roadside will tow our bus to any service center needed even if its over an hour away. The only problem is the one we had in Akron, how to get to the same location and then we have to deal with a hotel for an unknown amount of time until the bus is fixed. We talk to the motel that we are at and they allow us to rent a space in their big rig lot for the remainder of the time until the bus can be picked up by the tow truck and towed to the service center. A few Days later, we rent a U-Haul truck to get us, and all of our stuff, home in a couple of days and allow me to go back to work to help dig us out of the financial hole that we are now in. We return home on August 14.

September - We get an update, {place in Parkersburg} has vehicle in their possession for repairs. So far, they have found the spark plug wires replaced by the previous place were not the correct ones and not staying connected. They also are investigating a fuel system issue as they seem to have the same hypothesis that we did, on the engine not getting enough fuel while in motion.

A few weeks later, Update #2, Confirmed the bus is not getting enough fuel, after they inspected the fuel system, which is what we told previous place to do, they found the gas tank was rusted on the inside which sent rust throughout the whole system, clogging everything up and causing the loss of power due to bad/not enough fuel. Long story short, we need a new gas tank and fuel pump assembly. This is something that could have been found by ANYONE just looking in the gas tank from the fill hole with a scope, or by anyone who could have taken the pump assembly off the tank. Shame NO ONE before now caught it.

OK, now the hunt for a replacement begins. time to wait some more. At least I am at home, but also, I'm in a super depressed funk from the whole experience. I was feeling like the whole thing is my fault and I should've known better, or done something different.

Months go by and little progress is made. Eventually, in January, they decide to give up the search for a suitable replacement and tell me they just want it off their lot.

Months have gone by and we had almost forgot about the bus and the escapade that was this trip.

This is an update that I feel should be included as the trip is over for us but the bus is still not home, so, I feel, it is relevant for closure of the bus saga.

The repair shop in Parkersburg said they want it gone by the end of February so I have to figure out how to move it. The obvious option is to call my roadside service and inform them that, this repair facility was unable to complete the repair and it must be towed elsewhere. That would put it as a qualified tow and be covered. Here are some of the problems I faced when I tried to call this in.

• Skepticism, due to it being 6 months since the ticket was initially opened. (When the bus was towed from the motel to the repair center in Parkersburg.)

• Where will you have it towed? There are several places within 2 miles. (Tried those before, they said no, that's why it is where it is.)

• You want it towed home? OK well, we will find a provider and call you back, and we don't know how much it will be until we find the provider. (No Call back)

• It says repair tech, on our computer, you want it towed home? That's gonna be $10k.

• Me: how about another shop? Them: That's $900. your plan only covers the first 2 mi.

• We will only cover 2 miles as, we don't cover bus conversions, effective Dec 2021.

• We should have never accepted your bus as we have never accepted bus conversions.

Meanwhile the mis-scheduled Tech calls. T: What's the trouble? Me: (explains the situation) T: Ok let me see, Its an '88 GMC right? Ok I found shop XYZ, It's going to be a covered tow. No expense to you. You should hear from them in the morning.

(Next Morning) Me: Where are they? (nervously calls Roadside) R: oh that company flaked on us. I am going to escalate this. Ok, there is a new company and because you had to wait 2 days for this tow, it is being overseen by my supervisor. Here's the name and phone of the tow company and I will set an alarm to call you in the morning to confirm they are on the way. (I call tow company.) TC: yep we will be towing you tomorrow morning. The only reason we can't tonight is because the lot is locked at night.

(Next Morning) TC: (calls me) OK we called the shop so they know we are coming, we should be headed out within the hour. Roadside Supervisor: (calls me) I talked to the tow company and they said they are on the way. The Repair shop: (calls me) Tow driver is here taking the bus now.

It ended ok, and the new place has the bus now but, sheesh, this was a huge hassle just to get a covered tow by one of only 2 companies that even offers roadside assistance for an RV.