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Jnr and I are watching Amazing Spaces, and it just made me wonder why I can't remember any of the van threads on here involving a bus, say one of those 17 seater party bus size things.
I'm assuming there's a reason people go for a sprinter van rather than a similar size bus?
too much Glass is a bollocks.
There was one lad did one from a big transit mini bus..... Cozz ???
For some reason bus/coach conversions used to be popular with sidecar racers. Â They mostly looked right lashups though
The glass was what had occurred to me, but wasn't sure if there was any structural reasons underneath with different chassis or load bearing.
No just masses of singleglazed glass
Horrible
Second only to those crappy eBay special 99 quid non opening windows people fit.
A gang of us briefly considered a Leyland National on ebay for the road trip to the singlespeed worlds in Sweden. Somewhat scarily we could drive a pre 82(?) one as a historic vehicle on a car licence below a certain number of passengers!
The most off-putting bit was fuel consumption, speed (or lack of) and potential cost of ferries. And storage. And breakdowns (probably not a huge issue as we were all ex-Leyland apprentices and my dad designed a good chunk of it). And can't nip down narrow lanes. And and....
As well as the heavy uninsulated glass, a lot of minibus/mini coaches based on large vans have a subfloor installed for the seat and seatbelt fixings, normally welded/bonded/screwed throughout and a nightmare to remove. As well as the big weight penalty it also reduces headroom.
Buses designed for town work and heavier models have an axle ratio designed for city work which makes them rev harder and noisier at higher speeds.
The 17 seaters are often (always?) above 3.5t gross.
Mick A friend of mines dad was on the British speleogical expedition to the Himalayas in 1970
They took a Leyland titan to the himalayas
If you ever find the book it's worth a read " the double decker himalayan caving adventure "
Thanks TR- I'll have to find that book. I presume it was an old style Titan (front engine, regular chassis and coachbuilt body) rather than the late 70s Titan with unitary body / rear engine (similar construction to the National).
This lot? East Lancs cave nutters 🙂
http://earbypotholeclub.co.uk/?p=724
Some photos there.
It was an end of service bus in 1970 so it'll be the old style.
You'd need a CPC to drive it I guess? I'd have thought that Mini would need strapping down aswell TBH, looked bloody nice for 2.1k though!
Yes John Conway was one of the lads.
Hodge was my buddy's dad.
Really good read. Maybe not perfectly written as it's a bunch of lads caving notes transcribed nearly 50 years later.
None of the campervans or motorhomes on Amazing Spaces have looked practical for real use. See also most van conversions on Instagram
There are some great conversions on here though