Bought a pretty nice '02 Freighliner school bus for my company. It has about 120K miles on the 3126 Cat, and runs sweet. Starting up, running, and playing with all the stuff.
That 'weird idle' control is called your High Idle buttons... ever had to DOT or drive a school bus in the midwest in January or February at 5a.m.? Comes in handy when your trying to get the darn thing to heat up!
Quick story about the camera. I was idling the bus empty with the windows closed...and started hearing voices. I thought the radio was on...but it wasn't. Then I heard birds chirping loudly - thought I was losing my mind! The rear camera has a microphone too with a speaker in the monitor! Also cool is the air powered tilt steering - I'll try to get a vid of that.
@CWM480 Actually it's a brake lamp indicator that just says BRAKE, I happened to be stabbing at the brake pedal at the same time they were pulling the doors open. Idle control is used to rev the engine to warm it up or to build up air pressure when the driver is busy doing other things.
@bronxfireradio NO it will not hurt a thing If the park brake is set the piggyback chambers are already pushing the back spring in with the inner shaft. The diaphragm is what expands and pushes in the back side spring (foot brake) BUT if you already have the park brake set you are just wasting time with the foot brake.
Also, I'm going to post a detailed video of the Veeder-Root tachograph. That's one hell of a bizarre british truck-driving thing that we are sure not going to use.
@bronxfireradio im 18 and i got my class a cdl..but i thought thats what they ment by stepping on the brake while spring brake is applied 2 b4 i got my cdl....but since the spring brake is applied the the push rod is out in the back brake chamber so the brake pedal has nothin to do with the back brakes while the spring brake is on.so the foot brakes only work in the front chambers...what they dont want u to do is push the brake pedal all the way down to the floor and THEN apply the parking
@stack4321 Thanks pal. Just wanted to make sure pressing the foot brake didn't mess up the parking/spring/emergency brakes in the back while applied. I have seen what the dual chamber brakes look like and don't want to cause an unnecessary trip to the DOT for a burned out S-cam.
i dont think there is a model difference(i live in north carolina, where thomas's are made and used EVERYWHERE and i think the lower cab ones were used for what we called activity buses and the raised cab ones were used for regular school buses
Thanks! The company I work for runs a Head Start day care school in Westchester. John (the guy in the cap) is the driver and takes the kids on trips around town.
@bronxfireradio That is a really good deal for such a new bus. I have been looking at 97 and 98 Freightliners for about the same price. I am down in Virginia although I am hesitant to purchase another bus from up North. We bought a bus from Massachusetts once and it had all kinds of problems due to rust. Where does your dealer get their buses from?
can u get a video of you driving the bus (video from the inside of te bus), because i really forget what these motors sound like from the inside driving!
Anyone out there who has your CDL - has stepping on the brake pedal while the spring or parking brakes are on (like I did in this video) caused any damage? Compounding or overcamming the brakes? Bent pushrods, exploded slack adjusters, or an axle falling off? I thought most vehicles had anti-compound devices in the brake chambers.
@mifan93 bronxfireradio, the first button you hit, I'm assuming RPM control, will get you up to 1300 rpm's which is a high idle feature. The buses I have been in have a plus or minus to the right of that switch and didn't drop or rise the idle up from 1300. I'd share you a video I recorded of doing that feature but my camera won't read with dock of it so I'm out of luck.
@MonsterJam2010 - no problem - I want to post a new one soon too. Unfortunately the bus is just like the smallest part of my (and John's) job!! Will let you know.
That camera in the inside of the buses is to monitor and record what goes on in the buses. And that speaker out side is a PA system and the idol control is for so u can build up air pressure and warm up the engine quicker.
@MonsterJam2010 - I can go shoot it and give a video tour and probably move it around the parking lot where we have it stored, but to open it up out on the streets, I need John on board because he has his CDL and I don't yet (NYS rules). Our saturdays have been hard to coordinate. Also, it's been hotter than hell here lately, and that bus does not have air conditioning!!
@bronxfireradio aight neat. i wanna video shot from the inside of you driving it into different gears. sorry to be sooo pushy but theres no video on youtube of a cat 3126 driving! plz message me when you post vid.
@arcofadiver1 I was hesitant about it too, but it turned out to be a really good deal. Even though the dealer was about 150 miles from us, I had an independent mechanic check it out before we bought it. This bus was from the Warwick, NY school district, a rather well-off place and they babied these things. Dealer is Don Brown Bus Sales - buscrazy. net Good luck.
