Modified VW Vans

YUCK

Remember those big "balloons" that they used to sell for off-roaders - you stick it under the vehicle when you're stuck and then hook the hose up to the exhaust pipe. They were so big that low pressure was enough to lift the vehicle (or so went the marketing!) Seems like something of that nature and a bunch of boards to stack under the wheels would be necessary just to drive around in the Bellevue / Redmond / Seattle area! I'm nosing my bus into blacktop all the time and it's only extended 8"! There is quite an extensive step-by-step explanation of how these went together. If I remember correctly, there were three of them. There is also a bunch of info somewhere on a bay window bus that had two rear sections added, complete with engines and transaxles, so it was tandem axled and dual engined. It also had a stretched midsection. Sounds scary to me.

When I drove schoolbus in the late '70's the fleet had a

1950 Kenworth Pacific 35-foot bus that had rolled in it's earlier years and they had welded gussets everywhere to reinforce it. They hauled kids on it right up until about 1981 when I was using it... Driving down the highway empty, you could look in the big overhead mirror and see a "wave" coming from the back forward. Imagine the tops of the seats stretched out behind you like a row of dominoes and instead of toppling, they just get a bit higher in succession. When one wave was just about to the front, the next wave was starting from the back! It steered kinda funny, too!

- Busahaulic