Rubs chin thoughtfully

have been looking for a bigger camper van

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14256&item=4555370906&rd=1

Anyone ever driven one of these?

 

There's quite a price range if you look

from :
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14256&item=4555600362&rd=1

to

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=14256&item=4553468332&rd=1

 

I haven't, but the steering is said to be *fucking* heavy.

Budget for a paintjob. And curtains.

 

#We're all going on a summer holiday...

 

Bear scribbled on the back of a napkin:

AFAIK no, after all they were designed to run day in, day out...

See the end of the galaxy over there ?

 

Travel from job to job, with a trailer/garage on the back and the name
"Sanders" painted over the door.

Shouldn't be - Routemasters were built to be maintained by chaps with grease
guns and 18" Whitworth lump hammers.

Total or per gallon? Probably terrifying in either case.

 

alternatively http://www.thedoubledeckers.com/song.htm

I doubt it - they are still running in everyday service and there is an
immensely resourceful Routemaster Owners Association that can find
almost anything to do with a Routemaster or tell you where to find
someone who can help.

http://www.routemaster.org.uk/

 

A lifelong buddy of mine was a bus driver in central london, and whilst
I have to admit he's a pretty good driver when he put's his mind to it,
he's not the sharpest of tools from the cabinet, and is/was also a
complete dopehead.

Ergo; they can't be that difficult to drive, albeit I'm sure they have
their tricky moments - like some of the 90 degree bends in cobblesville
areas of Preston - always impressed me when a bus driver got it spot on.
Amused me when the fucked it up too <g>

 

Not particularly. It's just a big van in essence - all the bits are
fairly conventional, just bigger.

 

Grimly Curmudgeon scribbled on the back of a napkin:

Don't forget heavier as in "a lot".

 

You mean if it said "Bear's toy library play bus"?

I'm sure that can be sorted.

Just think, who else do you know that drives a play bus with sandpit and
upstairs soft play area?

 

Imagine, if you will, the passengers' reaction to the driver turning
round and announcing his identity. Much like the b/w (Hammer?) film
as the skeletal driver reveals his visage for the first (and last, of
course) time.

I've always fancied a big old bus like this, but a dim and distant
memory surfaces, a faint chord is heard - about fuel consumption. I
recall an article from the 80s reporting on the highly successful
fitting of a water injection system to such a SOBus - among the
advantages was the improvement in fuel consumption, improved by 50% -
to three mpg. FFS.

There again, I'm sure we could organise a whipround amongst certain
posters of this parish, to buy the bus for the Bear ...

.... providing he recreates the final scene from the Young Ones with
it.

 

ISTR Routemasters are remarkably light (for a bus), actually, because
all the bodywork is aluminium.

 

*Want*

 

Bear scribbled on the back of a napkin:

With locks and handles only on the outside of the doors, I assume?

 

The Older Gentleman scribbled on the back of a napkin:

In that case, just chuck the brake drum in the back of the cage and get
it down to that nice Mr Eaton so he can give it a skim, willya?

Bus *bodywork* tends to be fairly light as you said.

Bus *components* tend to be a bit on the lardy side...

 

The Older Gentleman scribbled on the back of a napkin:

Just imagine the number ShiteOldBikes you can store downstairs...