hauling a bus??

Before you get to the trailer issue, you have a dead vehicle, flat tires?, stuck brake shoes if air brakes, won't start with new batteries, what else could be wrong. Oh yeah. No winch to drag it onto trailer. Not being negative, just realistic.

 

most of them issues could probably be accounted for pretty easily with stuff i carry in my truck all the time anyway. glad hand air hose will air up tires, or even a whole truck screw a quick connect fitting into the air tank and air the whole truck up if it wouldn't start. heavy duty jumper cables, i think i could probably hook a chain to my truck disconnect the 5th wheel put some dunnage under the back of the step and drag it onto the trailer that way, although i wouldn't feel entirely comfortable with that. stuck breaks, i carry enough tools to handle that as well. would defiantly add time and pia to the equation though.

 

Time and money wise this is the answer.

That being said I wish I was close enough to help you when you do it just for the experience gained.

One of them "here hold my beer" type situations! I love those times!

 

I loaded, unloaded, loaded again, and unload again a bus off of a step deck that we had hauled from IN to AZ and back for work. It was a city bus. The information of what was needed for measurements was not accurate. The guy showed up with a stretch RGN. It wasn't stretched enough. We ended up loading the rear tires on the rear elevated portion of the step. It took a bit of lumber to get it up there but we did it. The highest point on it was the exhaust at the rear of the bus. It was right at 13' 6".

Other than that most of them show up at work on the back of a hydraulic Landall style trailer.

 

oh i am sure it would be more than 1500 for a heavy duty wrecker to do this esp in the dakota's a buddy of mine had to have his truck towed less than half this distance cost him more than $1500

certainly pm me there phone number ill certainly forward it to her, the more options the better

 

yeah really from a business standpoint, time/effort-compensation possible things to go wrong id really rather not do it, from a opportunity to learn something standpoint, its intriguing.

 

Something to keep in mind, the big buses do not have a typical frame - they are more of a unibody type design and cannot be picked up by a wrecker without folding the bus at the front door. I think a wheel lift wrecker will work if one can air up the suspension in order to gain enough clearance to get the wheel lift under. I used to run wrecker during the winters in the early 80's. We were tasked to tow a Greyhound about 3 hundred miles, and had to provide air to the bus for brakes and then just flat towed it because we did not have a wheel/axle lift on the big wreckers at that time. I mention this just to add caution for however it gets moved. Most towing outfits now have a Landoll type trailer specifically for buses. Good luck and be careful if you decide to help with this.

 

This reminds me. I worked in a truck shop once. A guy had an old 50's era gmc bus. It broke down and he called for a tow. The tow truck showed up and decided to haul it from the back. Keep in mind those old buses has the engine on the back, they kinda sat in a swinging cradle. The tow started to lift it up, and ripped that old 673 Detroit right out of the bus. A true oh #### moment!

 

Not to be a smart ### or anything but I can't believe nobody has said this yet..

There are WAY to many unknowns here. To begin with you have no idea what kind of bus it is, what kind of trailer has potential been arranged or what kind of shape said loaner trailer is in.

Somebody did mention something about where is it parked and overhead clearance once it is on a trailer. A much bigger question though is this; Just because it was driven into its current location does not mean you will have the room to maneuver a 70' or so long rig into position in front of it. And that is just one question on a page that has a dozen or more mission critical questions.

I haul cars all day. I have a winch on my trailer. Overall my rig is 80'. At least once a week I get a call from someone asking me to come get a DOA car. "Civilians" have NO CLUE what it takes to manuver a rig into a neighborhood much less down their driveway, between the house and an outbuilding, around the 100 year old oak tree and get the back of the trailer lined up straight enough with the DOA vehicle to have half a chance of successful winching it onto the trailer.

And no disrespect here at all but your getting your information from a woman who is getting her information from another woman over the phone.

Even talking directly to another trucker unless he is experienced in moving this sort of cargo your likely to get inaccurate information. Relying on a 3rd person information relay consisting of a couple of housewives? Disaster... LOL.

What we have here is a failure to communicate and a almost guaranteed setup for a nightmare of problems and issues.

Without question this is absolutely a situation where you need to go in advance and do an in person survey of the vehicle and the "arranged" trailer.

Not to go in person to survey the situation would be outright foolish and a total set up for failure.

While you are there for the initial survey you can take some time and see if you can get the thing to start. If they don't want to spend the $ on batteries, you could pull batteries out of the wife's car, the bus owners car and any other vehicles around to use temporarily for the start attempt. Bring a few sets of good jumper cables.

Questions you need to have on your list:

Exact dimensions of the bus including how much front and rear overhang and how much ground clearance your going to have available for loading onto a trailer.

Will it start or not, if not, exactly what will you need to do just to get it to move? And do you have all the tools/equipment you'll need for that?

Will the old dry rotted tires even hold air long enough to get it loaded onto a trailer?

Accessable to back up trailer in front of not? If not, how move it into an accessable location?

If won't start and no winch, exactly how to get it onto trailer and do we have room for that to happen? And what about unloading and placing it wherever they are going to want it parked?

Trailer: condition, (tires, lights, brakes) legal tag, and most importantly, exactly what kind of trailer is it and will it even work? I assume your going to have to deadhead the trailer back to the owner?

There are a dozen other questions but I'm sure this is not your first rodeo and your capable of figuring out the rest.

I hope this was helpful and not taken as being condescending or disrespectful as it was not meant in any way as either.

Best of luck and of course if you do this.. PICTURES..! Before, during, after..!

 

Best thing you could do is find someone with a Landoll to haul it, that way you have low load angle and no ramps, so you could technically "drag" it on and off, also they are low 34" deck height.