Anyone near Allenton, WI want to check out a bus for me?

In reply to JohnRW1621:

I saw that as well. I'm assuming the wipers don't work. For rain, it will either be Rain-X or pull over. For snow??? Maybe a pair of vice grips on the wiper shaft. You can bet a grinder, welder and generator will be in the box of tricks to make the trip.

That's the only thing that really worries me about the trip. I'm from the south. I can drive in the slick stuff, but I have no practice. A vehicle I've never driven, combined with icy roads would be terrifying. And worse yet will be I-40 through the Smokey Mountains. A snow/ice storm there will mean a long reroute or waiting for things to clear.

As for the mirror, there will be a drill and an assortment of drill and tap screws as well. I can repair the holes later.

I'm not saying you have to fix the mirror. I was just more pointing at that it is pretty much just there to meet the requirement.
Besides, I wouldn't expect that you'll spend much time in the fast lane.

In reply to JohnRW1621:

That depends on if the brakes fail coming down the continental divide.

In reply to Toyman01:

I'll tell you from my trip up north, I was also worried about driving with ice or snow. I ended up being amazed at how fast they cleared the roads. Driving though upstate New York snow plows came out of nowhere dropping salt and I wondered what was going on. Thirty minutes later we hit sleet. Froze on the windshield but nothing on the road. Down here we'd be closed down for a couple of days and you'd hear about the storm of 16 for sixty years.

plan your route to come across 80/90 into ohio then down 77, and if you need to there are a few of us in the cleveland area. i'm fully equipped to handle almost anything except i don't think i have a jack that could lift that beast. it's sweet though, and i thoroughly approve of this idea.

you don't need brakes, you have a stick and some probably crazy gears, shift down and ride it out. can probably get an electric wiper motor to take with you.

Maybe Stampie can confirm but what you really need for salted roads is the ability to wash the windshield. The salty slush comes up off the road and is sprayed onto your windshield. The wipers sort of clear the heavy stuff but the salty residue stays behind. Quite often you have to hit the windshield washer to be able to see again.
Without washer fuild, the glass turns opaque. It is then dangerous as you try to drive through "bathroom glass"

I'll agree with the washer fluid comments. I've burned through a gallon of the stuff in 150 miles of driving on slushy highways in a snow storm and had to stop to re-fill before going further.

Yeah, here in Wisconsin, the roads get cleared pretty damn quick. 13" of snow overnight is usually just a slushy inconvenience for the morning work drive, but the ride home is typically on wet pavement.

A windshield that high, on a big box of a front end, might not get hit with salt spray as bad as a low, small, aerodynamic sloped front end.

My largest concern would be what kind of brakes it has and what condition they are in.

I don't think a wiper setup for that would be hard to acquire. Just buy two and drill a hole for the other one on the passenger side, then wire them up to the fuse block.

Salted roads and a 1956 bus. I'll be lucky to make it back to SC with a toolbox of rust.

Good thought on the washer fluid. I can rig up something for that fairly easy. Wipers as well.

The brakes are a concern. The owner says they work fine, but I don't know if they are power, manual, or even all 4 wheels. I'm going to get a picture of the engine bay today. Maybe that will shed some light. I'm hoping that they updated the brakes when they updated the wheels. Maybe.

I love this plan. Hope it pans out!

I think I would prefer to take it over the mountains on I-40 more than I would like to drive it on I-77 through southern WV. The elevation changes may be larger on I-40, but the road is way less twisty turny and a lot more interstate like than I-77.

Take warm clothes. Not SC warm clothes, but actual warm clothes, you know, the kind you probably don't own. I was just in MSP and when it is in the minuses with some wind it is too cold to mess around with.

Yea the windshield washer thing surprised me at first. Amazing how salt will smear across the entire windshield.

Get the Rain-X washer fluid.

Any chance you could work something out with the seller so you could buy it now and pick it up in the spring? Or maybe find a near by truck stop or something that would be willing to store it a few months? Picture yourself laying under that thing on the side of the highway trying to fix something, and it's 11 degrees. And every car that passes is flinging slush under there.

In reply to gearheadmb:

That's not a bad idea.

The tentative plan is to make the drive to WI the weekend of the 23rd. We will assess the bus and the weather. If all is good, we will make the run back to the warm south. If there is something that needs major attention, we will find a storage location and make another run up later in the year. Probably late March or April.

All of this is subject to change as I haven't officially said I'm buying it or put any money where my mouth is.

A couple of questions for the WI crowd. How common is snow up there? Allenton has it forecast for 5 of the next 10 days. Is that the exception or the norm. Does it stay around until spring and turn to ice, or do the roads actually get a chance to dry out between storms?

patgizz wrote: plan your route to come across 80/90 into ohio then down 77,

I think I'd avoid the lake affect snow belt and head south immediately on I-65, then pick up I-24 in Nashville to Chattanooga, then figure out something to SC.

This is a worthy story

JohnRW1621 wrote: Ah, I missed the back door. No wiper blade and in best case, only one. Also notice that the passenger side mirror is merely ceremonial considering how far the mounting location is behind the driver. I'm guessing that mirror is for the copilot who also has to get out of his seat to get a view through it.

Putting on my grouchy old man hat I remember when we didn't have right side mirrors. They trained us to cover our right side and angle the inside mirror to look out the right side windows. I wouldn't think of driving through salty roads without good washers and wipers. As others have said you can go through gallons of fluid on a messy day.

I think you'd be fine, might get delayed a day or two if you had really E36 M3ty luck, but it should be fine. Most likely this thing possesses manual drum brakes like my International, but they work ok so long as the lines hold.

gjz30075 wrote:

patgizz wrote: plan your route to come across 80/90 into ohio then down 77,

I think I'd avoid the lake affect snow belt and head south immediately on I-65, then pick up I-24 in Nashville to Chattanooga, then figure out something to SC. This is a worthy story

I was going to suggest the same thing. Due south to get out of it quickly, depending on where (if any) crap weather is at the time.

Might not be a bad idea to check the GRM map of help and plan your route with the most possible assistance.

Spoolpigeon wrote: Might not be a bad idea to check the GRM map of help and plan your route with the most possible assistance.

Don't worry, that information will be on hard copy and kept close.

Barring a catastrophic failure, I really don't see much of a problem. The thing is as simple as a rock. I'll check/change all the fluids before I leave, change all the hoses and belts, grease everything, pick up a set of points, condenser, wires, and plugs. They will recap truck tires to 10 years old so I'm not going to change them. As long as I keep the speeds reasonable it should make it home. I'm figuring at least 2 days home, possibly 3 barring any problems.

I'm going to sleep on it one more night and either forget about it, or send the guy some earnest money to hold it until the 30th. That's the soonest I can make it up there, because my wife has to be at the SCCA national convention the weekend of the 23rd.

Worst case scenario, it blows the hell up in the middle of nowhere. I'll have it towed to a storage facility and make alternate arrangements to get it home sometime this spring.

Toyman01 wrote: A couple of questions for the WI crowd. How common is snow up there? Allenton has it forecast for 5 of the next 10 days. Is that the exception or the norm. Does it stay around until spring and turn to ice, or do the roads actually get a chance to dry out between storms?

Snow stays not quite year around but the roads are usually dried out in a day or two with as much salt that hits the pavement. Literally the roads will look like theres a dusting of snow but its actually salt encrusted. Its quite effective. Its the B roads (county trunk rads they are called here) that will stay slick a while, but even those, not much more than a week. They usuall just get greasy feeling because there is enough salt present to keep it from being ice but not enough to get the road dried out as fast as the hi ways.

Dont bother with getting tire chains, i dont think they are legal, useful or sold here.

The southeasten part of wisconsin is pretty flat and boring. Id be more worried about down south mountain passes than up north tundra.

Good luck.

I think it'll make an entertaining story. But I'm not seeing anything that a man of your mechanical aptitude couldn't assemble for salvage money. So I've got to ask...

What specifically do you like about this bus?