Harbor Freight Earthquake XT 1/2″ Cordless 20v Impact Test
Harbor Freight is the tool store everyone loves to hate and hates to love. I recently tapped my Bluebird's air brake system to set up an extra tank for running air tools. Overall this has been great, we run all kinds of things from it, but there's one job we've never...
The Best Way To Remove Interior Rivets In Your Skoolie!
Most of our buses are held together inside by rivets. There are lots of ways to get remove them, and some work better than others. But I've got the best way. You'll need an air compressor system, a grinder, and an air hammer with chisel and punch bits. Cheap ones from...
Tools – Basic Mechanic Hand Tools
I've been working on vehicles since I was a teenager. As a young broke idiot I had a lot of crappy motorcycles and cars that required near constant repair. Being a broke teenager, I bought cheap hand tools that would either break of get lost. I kept them in a bucket...
Are you considering a bus conversion?
Thinking about getting a bus? Let's explore the positives and negatives of a school bus, and compare to other popular options. Before we bought our first bus, we looked at basically everything else too. Depending on your capabilities, requirements, and goals, you very...
1997 Bluebird TC2000 Owners Manual
I found a PDF version of the owners manual and am sharing it here! They didn't change a whole lot over the years so it likely applies to a lot of other model years. This isn't a service manual, but it has some technical content in addition to basic operation. ...
We bought a new bus!
And there is so much room for activities! Of course, there is also a list of things to fix. When buying a used school bus, you look for the most good and the least bad, but you always get some of each. The good stuff first! The bus runs great. The transmission feels...
About Our Bus
Welcome! Our new bus is a 1997 Blue Bird TC/2000 FE. It has a 5.9 Cummins 12 valve engine and Allison AT545 transmission. It rolls on 11r22.5 tires with a 4.78:1 rear axle. These are all pretty common options for these buses. Less common is that we have a factory...