Help find Tow Vehicle large family 9 with seating for 12 min

Saw this in a CG in Spokane couple years ago. They were from Alaska. They were towing a long TT. Can't recall how many kids they had, but it was a pretty BIG family. I imagine these don't have a lot of HP but they were doing okay, making it through BC with lots of mountains to deal with. At least you wouldn't need to worry about a WDH. :D

B-n-B wrote:
A guy up the road from me has six kids. He uses a Mercedes Sprinter. It's huge and has some sorta diesel in it, but I'm not sure what it can tow.

GCWR for the 6-cyl is 15,000 pounds, so with a full passenger load effective towing is about 6,000 pounds or as high as 7,500 with a lightly loaded van (7500 is max capacity for the hitch).

A guy up the road from me has six kids. He uses a Mercedes Sprinter. It's huge and has some sorta diesel in it, but I'm not sure what it can tow.

Bdub753 wrote:
Proxim what gear ratio would you recommend? Also if I do find a shuttle bus with a high GCWR how or who would you recommend to redo the interior? I would love to keep the total cost around $50,000.

If you're going after a bus built on a commercial truck chassis (school, coach, shuttle, etc) then anything from 3.73:1 to 4.56:1 would be good for highway service. Some of these buses (city service) are geared very low, like 6.50:1, which would be insane on the highway and the fuel bill. When it comes to the buses built on heavy duty pickup chassis like the F450/4500 and F550/5500 series trucks/vans, highway service shouldn't be a problem. But you would probably want to get the highest ratio for the chassis, which is typically 4.56:1.

As far as an upfitter, a better source for recommendations would be on one of the bus conversion forums. Most perform a lot of the projects themselves which helps save money, but there's plenty that have their buses converted completely by an upfitter. Here are the biggest groups.

Bus Conversion Magazine

Skoolie

Bus Nut

Bdub753 wrote:
I just want something we can both use to drive around in town and tow when we go on vacation.

Unless you're comfortable driving something huge for a daily driver I agree with those who suggest a 2nd vehicle. How about keeping your present van for a DD and get a pickup for a dedicated tow vehicle? It would mean you both driving a vehicle on vacation but would off set the cost of fuel by realizing you don't need a real expensive HD truck to haul 10,000#. Plus, if just a few of you needed to go to town you could use the truck.

Bdub753 wrote:
Proxim what gear ratio would you recommend? Also if I do find a shuttle bus with a high GCWR how or who would you recommend to redo the interior? I would love to keep the total cost around $50,000.

For what you want to tow, in E-series the chassis needs to be E-450 with the V-10, which will have 4.56 gearing. The E-350 DRW comes with 4.10 gearing, whether V-10 or V-8, and this reduces what it can tow.

Transit bus builds will already have the seating. What they might not have, for U.S. builds, is the safety equipment needed to tie down child safety seats.

It is hard to find the small transit bus on E-450 with V-10, as the 12-14 passenger capacity can be carried by E-350 or G-3500, and the original buyers have no requirement to tow, so they don't pay for the heavier chassis.

Corporate shuttle buses are more often built on the heavier van chassis, to carry the weight of more luxurious seats and high capacity air conditioning. Buses for this market will usually have seating with lap belts, though I've been in a few that also have shoulder harnesses.

$50,000 cap definitely puts you in the van-based category (rather than class 5 - class 6 chassis), or else used. It is not hard to find used small transit buses, small school/activity buses under that price, but they will be usually well used. Luxury bus builds are going to be a lot more expensive, even the small ones.

Watched a RV show on the travel channel a couple of years ago and a fireman from NY had a family of 9 that they homeschooled. They bought a diesel class B+ which had a towing capacity of 20k from what I remember. They had seat belts for everyone as it was set up like a short bus, which is where they planned on homeschooling. They then towed their large van with all their gear.

Proxim what gear ratio would you recommend? Also if I do find a shuttle bus with a high GCWR how or who would you recommend to redo the interior? I would love to keep the total cost around $50,000.

I am sorry that I haven't seen any of these posts. I just thought no one was responding. I have not received any notifications in my email. Thank you all for your responses I will look into all of them especially the company in Oklahoma that stretches fords since I live in Oklahoma and get the ford z plan discount.

The easiest option, if you have another driver, it to take a second vehicle. It's going to be difficult to find a vehicle that can carry that many people and weight at the same time. The problem is that most vans that can seat 12 people will have a max towing capacity around 10,000 lbs. So you have to choose between carrying 9 and towing much less or towing the full trailer weight with no one in the van except the driver.

Really the easiest all inclusive option would be to go with a bus conversion. You'll get a diesel engine and a real truck chassis. You have a lot of options to choose from like school, transit, limo, and shuttle buses. You can get some pretty ridiculous GVWRs for very little money. You can convert the inside to include some living quarters and you'd essentially have a motorhome pulling a TT.

If you went this route, be careful of the short school buses. Lots are typically built off of the 1 ton van chassis. The box that's built on the back has a good amount of weight so you'll end up with the exact same limitations as the off the shelf 1 ton van. Make sure it's built off of a commercial chassis like the one linked above. Also find a bus that's been geared for highway travel. A lot of your city buses are geared for street use and struggle go beyond 55.