The school system where I live, uses Navistar buses. Diesel power, Allison trans, heat, air conditioning, air brakes, and air ride suspension. Very nicely equipped.
I believe it's to prevent kids from being trapped in between them doors, remember the infamous backpack incident where the driver didn't even know they dragged a child by the doors? Yeah...
I can’t believe places are still order spring ride suspension. Don’t mind the hydro brakes. Doors are weird but if you get air doors (the proper option) then you don’t have to worry about them closing weird. Lol
Never understood spring ride. They wreck the frame and passengers. Our trucks have springs, if you could call them that, and the vehicle just hops. No spring, no damping, the whole thing just bounces.
Cheapest options in Ms. It’s only a few districts that actually spec their buses. And air ride is like a 3k option. And most don’t know you can get it without air brakes. And they don’t care.
I dreaded the T-Handles of the first generation MV, the twist handle with integrated Jake control is far superior. Then again, I had to get used to it, my old ProStar had the push button Eaton, the new LT had this style.
Funny thing is. School buses were not allow to have a/c even for the driver in 1980. My mother bought her first 16 passenger Chevy g30. It had a weak 350 4 barrel 3 speed auto 400 transmission 4.10 gears and a 30 gallon fuel tank.
Idk why people dislike the sequence door closing rather than closing at the same time? Have you seen those videos of students being dragged on the road by their backpack because the doors closed on them? This helps remedy that
boy these kids these days have it nice lol. Im barely into my 30's and I can remember the last new buses in my school district literally only had heaters as a "luxury", got hot? slide a window down ha.
Usually it comes down to the mechanics they can find. A chicken and egg scenario. Do they get the buses for the mechanics, or find mechanics for the buses. Many take the second option, get a bus that the drivers, students, and school board likes, and find the mechanics to suit, instead of the U-Haul approach, spec your trucks for the automotive mechanics they already had, hydraulic brakes, spring ride, gasoline engines, Ford chassis.
@@jaysmith1408 I know most of the school buses have air brakes and in many places air conditioning and also dealing with diesel emission systems. That’s more training than what auto technicians have to deal with except those who work at Ford or GM or Ram or Mercedes Benz dealerships.
They’re mostly hydraulic here. They have a hard enough time recruiting drivers as it is; requiring them to be air brake certified would make it harder yet…
That door design is gonna be changed I’m betting. I see too many problems coming with that. When you showed under the hood, they could’ve designed how everything is set up better. It’s all smashed in there now. Can’t work on that motor without taking all kinds of shit apart
the specs on their stock unit seems a bit watered down compared to some of the other stock buses i've seen, but it looks good, i can bet alot of mechanics are not going to like the new cramped engine bay.
Being a former school bus driver I'm nearly 40 years I like the doors the way they are that way a child won't be caught in them he doors closed individually not all together where they could trap a child or a student
It’s the fleetwide update. The ProStar got it first in 2017, then the DuraStar in 2019, new front end in 2021. The bus chassis always seem to take a while to get the update, I guess they have a lot of chassis they have to run through before the new ones get built.
@@HavardCastiglionihaving most of my career on the old design, I was certainly intrigued by the update, a little quirky, but several thousand miles later, I felt right at home.
@@HavardCastiglioni thanks, I’m fairly boring. So many drivers have their own taste and preferences. I don’t like Allisons, I find the 6.7 almost useless, will not drive a vehicle that size with hydraulic brakes, and demand air ride, but do prefer Internationals to Freightliners.
My dad drove school bus for 33 years,his last bus which he got new at the time had radio,no ac,5 speed manual,no power steering and the driver,s wasn,t allowed to drink anything while driving so there was no cup holders.A big change to now,,that was 1969.
My Uncle drove school buses in the 1970's the International 1700's 5-speed stick shifts, Blue Birds no air, straight bus, not this fancy stuff they have today. Back then if could not drive a stick shift, they would not hire you.
I love about a school bus had led headlights is great for 20 century be great for Many years to come. It’s a lot better and then halogen headlights They shouldn make all of them like that. Led are Energy Efficient by 2030 of 2050.
Any good shop will put them in. I was at a convention a couple months ago. I asked about a standard transmission. They said that all of them come with Allison Automatics (worst transmission I have ever seen). I came back with, yes, but you are able to put in a standard, no? The engine can be mated to one, the chassis will support one, so put one in. The lightbulb lit up. They are able to, just find someone who will. And if your contract has that explicitly, they’re going to find someone who will.
I would love for models like this to arrive in Panama. Unfortunately with that decree they have on the importation of school buses from the United States, it is complicated. I hope one day they will remove that senseless decree.
It's a good bus does your district use Wi-Fi on the school buses and maybe they should put USB ports for the students to charge their phone while on the bus that would be handy I thought IC still equipped that with buses but i guess it's not ordered by the school districts but it would be useful for students to charge their phones especially on long trips or field trips
I don’t like the hood redesign at all. For a box truck the redesign looks okay, but for a bus, that has rounded roofs, this is just weird. A “squared” hood with a rounded roof body, that doesn’t mix well.
Those brackets may not be for a broom. I’d say it’d be great for upright mounting of shotgun and AR. That’s probably a prison transport model that still had the brackets. If you rather put a broom in it that’s ok too. 😂 lol I really liked the old Thomas buses from the 70’s and 80’s and the last batch before the new cheap body style 🇺🇸
220hp seems a bit light. I wonder how much HP those dual AC compressors draw plus probably a big alternator to power the other AC and all the lights and blowers.
tbh usa needs to just get some toyota coaster like in jamaica even the older ones still have fully automatic doors( and can ve easily added bcz the automatic system is a machine automatically retracting its arms to open and close the door) and passenger heater and ac for every single row(each row has 4 ac vents) instead of these uncomfortable cheaply made buses
More problems with the emissions control on this bus. It is much more difficult to delete the DPF, EGR, DEF/AdBlue-SCR, and much more difficult to delete the catalytic converter. Our tax dollars will be buying those new buses frequently because the School Bus companies don't want to deal with the diesel emissions problems.
