I've seen it done with conventional buses many times. Cut the back wall of the bus off and you have an opening big enough for a small to mid-sized car to fit. I really like the idea of a diesel pusher bus because they are far less noisy. With the engine in the back could you think of a fairly simple way to put a car inside of it? You could cut the side of the bus open, but you would need an angled ramp to get in? I'm talking about carrying something the size of a Miata.
An angled ramp seems like it would high center anything lower than a jeep wrangler.
Options I see are:
1) Turn table: load perpendicular to bus and then rotate platform to be parallel with bus.
2) Side loading lift: think trailer lift gate but on the side of the bus. May need stabilizer legs when loading.
3) Alternate to lift gate is the way the current 5yd (maybe 10yd) dumpsters load with hook to pull it up and then forward, but do it sideways.
4) Chevy Vega method: go with a dry sump, and load vertically (just brainstorming).
Search Taylor Ray on YouTube. He has a diesel pusher bus conversion with rear lift gate. It's not a build series, but is an idea for how it can work.
The Volkner approach isn't simple or cheap but is elegant:
Black Smoke Racing has a diesel pusher bus with a rear loaded car transporter area. It's shown in a few of their videos but I can't find it in limited time this morning.
I don't know how high the engine compartment is in those but I would try very hard to build it with long ramps up the back onto a horizontal deck. Lots of storage space underneath, of course.
Pretty tough to do without some silly long ramps. The cooling package and rear wheels are in your way.
Yes, that is correct, but what is cheaper/easier to do?
1) extra long ramps, or
2) a rear/side liftgate; turnable; lower tray; catapult; etc?
Edit: and it isn't that difficult to more the cooling pkg if it's up high.
Crown school busses had a big cam Cummins and a road ranger 10 speed laying flat ahead of the rear drive axles.
They also look pretty cool.
How about we use the forward cab Ford truck but rotate it backwards and at the top - then drive your car in. Sounds super complicated now that I say it.
Hot Rod Finnegan guy has a nice trailer for $15,000 - just get that.
I think you could do it like one of the dumpster trucks that has arms with chains hanging down. You aren't talking about a ton of weight. I think if you designed it specifically for the weight of a car with a platform, it wouldn't be that heavy. If you had to add outriggers they would be really light duty.
I suspect you could even do it with winches and save the need to have hydraulics.
I couldn't find a better picture but like this, but sideways.
Ho w about something like a side mount boat lift?
It turns out that there are flatbed tow trucks made to do this kind of job, just gotta mash one up with a bus chassis.
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