Bus Gurus - Help me!

"If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent" (essextee) 03/30/2015 at 16:43 • Filed to: None

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As some of you may know, my Mom runs a garage. Well, she's got a potential contract with the superintendent to take care of the district's school buses, and she's looking for materials that she can use in her presentation. What she's looking for are preventative maintenance schedules and checklists for Bluebird buses, as well as checklists and requirements for MA state inspections. Does anyone know anything or have any links to resources she can use?

ki-ki-ki-kia > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 03/30/2015 at 16:51

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http://www.centralstatesbus.com/Manuals.html

That is all the owners manuals for them. Maybe just do some googling.

Aaron M - MasoFiST > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 03/30/2015 at 16:54

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I consulted for one of the three major bus manufacturers several years back; dealers keep service stuff available for maintenance as many school districts self-maintain. There are two Blue Bird dealers in MA, which are listed on the Blue Bird website (service territories are way bigger for buses than they are for cars or other vehicles). They should be able to help you out, especially if they already have a business relationship with the district in question. The smaller cutaway buses are kind of a wildcard; the chassis are all either Ford or GM but the body stuff varies (in specification and quality, frankly).

Blue Bird and Thomas use Cummins engines pretty exclusively for diesel, IC Bus doesn't but that bit them in the ass a few years ago with regards to emissions. Still, Cummins means sole-sourcing at least for engine parts. For bus-specific parts the dealer may be the only one who can get things to you...basically everything on a school bus is either going to be body-specific or so common you can pick it up at any NAPA.

Out of curiosity, which district? I went to high school in Concord, MA and by the time I moved back up to the Boston area Concord was one of the only towns in the state that didn't contract their bus service out to a group like FirstStudent.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > ki-ki-ki-kia 03/30/2015 at 16:55

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I found that already but I was wondering if there was anyone on here that was maybe in the industry and would have some insider info.

ki-ki-ki-kia > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent 03/30/2015 at 17:02

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Sorry haha. Just thought I would give you a basic start. I don't know too much about the large busses just the ones based off Econolines.

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > Aaron M - MasoFiST 03/30/2015 at 17:05

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Dukes County on Martha's Vineyard. For the longest time they contracted out to another local operator, and they even used the local transit authority for a while but now they self operate and are looking into our garage for maintenance.

Thank you very much for the info!