pass or pursue?

Rick Jay wrote:
cyber_ballz,

Welcome to the Forums! I'm hoping you'll get some good input on your ideas.

I have to ask, though....Is there some sort of "translator" available for your jargon filled post? LOL

It's rare that I'm at a loss to at least know a little about what a poster is trying to convey. But your first post is almost like reading a coded message! LOL I think I understand your second post a bit better!

I guess I'm just getting old!


Anyway, again, Welcome and Good Luck on what you're trying to do...whatever that is. Something about a bus? ;-)

~Rick

My dad passed away, and I've been fortune to be handed down alot of property, heavy equipment, full blown shop and all the amenities, hoist, with floor pit, and lots of spare parts to mock something together.

I do have a set of cement truck axles if I wanted to go 4wd on the bus,but I'm pondering to stay 2wd for fuel mileage and drag a smaller 4x4 with me, and keeping a wet kit will allow using a man style winch instead of a girly electric winch. I'd imagine a bus mired down in some gooey soft spots might pull hard. Having a smaller 4x4 with an over cab camper will allow me to park the mess somewhere and pony into places where longer vehicles are not permitted, or sometimes can't go because of terrain.


My current setup is a regular cab 1990 1ton srw on 8bolt 4.10s. Nv4500 with a np205 cast iron gear drive, no chain and aluminum case junk. It had a 454, but I swapped in a high compress flat top piston mid 60s 350 small block, and was so nice I decided to go 383 stroker. It's got grunt, and cruises down the road nicely in overdrive. It's short, but cramped for longer drives with 2 young kids.

I have lots of small block Chevy for engines, cutting an adapter to fit truck gearboxes against odd engines is nothing new to me. At that point probably go smaller drive train to match the power plant. Another appealing approach to a small block gasser, is honestly with a cherry picker and some hsbd tools, few bolts comes right out easy peasy. With such large vehicle one could easily store a ready to run extra engine, along side the 50 gallons of water. At this point weight is not a big deal.

The 534 gasser Ford sounds appealing, only 3000miles on the rebuild, with mating drivetrain, but not the fuel mileage. I also do have little weiner 5.9 12v out of a dodge, a larger "C" block Cummins, an a big block 855 Cummins that needs to be rebuilt, sadly no drive train against that dude, and finally an old school IHI 444 not boosted, with a zf5, but that engine needs to be gone through, it does run, but has burned valve I believe. Right now it's a power plant running 4 air compressors. I had a thing sand blasting semi flat beds for a while until neighbors got grumpy. So if i used that engine guess I'll need to sandblast the bus before using the engine? Lol. Awesome.

One reason to stay away from diesel is cold weather starting. Besides getting creative, there's no easy way to heat the engine if cold weather did get in the way. Maybe some hoses, a hand pump and a metal box sitting in a fire pit, whatever is needed to get the coolant warm....

Or handful of spark plugs and a spare HEI distributor? /me shrugs


A 383 stroker built with low rpm torque in mind with alot of gear splits might not pull down the road all that bad.

Ive built houses, so starting on a truck frame instead of cement is nothing different really. I also am a full time welder for an undisclosed company. I help build very expensive boxes for companties to test their weapons to kill... Yeah... So I have trades and experience across the paper sort to speak.


I'd like to put something together that simple yet serious and honestly probably be more useful and versatile then some of these motor coaches.

So, with such resources at hand, this truly is a free style direction.

I want to travel with the boys, check out the country, and let my rental properties keep filling my fuel tank so they can see what I couldn't when I was younger.

Oh, can I drive a 5 and a 4? Probably. Have I? No. This summer I managed that 5+3 10yard truck without brakes as I reconstructed my backyard. So I'm last worry, if at all, is if I can drive a 5&4. Haha.