Great memoroes riding these in elementary and jr high. The sounds and the shifting from my bus driviers...was an art to watch them. Led me to my love of buses 23 yrs cdl. Such great times and field trips all over California 😊🙌🏾😎
That engine sounds fantastic, it’s like I’m really there. It brings back sweet memories. I remember the day our elementary school sent us on a week long field trip camping in the Angeles National Forest. The morning we took off was bright and sunny, perfect. And there were five of these gorgeous buses parked in front of the school waiting to take us on our adventure. They looked SO good all clean, yellow and shiny. Then we took off and the view outside the huge windows was fantastic as we chugged along Angeles Crest Highway. The engine sounded just like this. 🥲
Camp Hi Hill was so fantastic, i'll never forget the drive up Angeles Crest and getting out of the Crown bus to the frigid October air at the red box picnic area.
There were a handful of Crown "Twinkie's" still in regular service when I was in elementary school, but most were used as substitutes, with all the remaining ones in regular service being put on sub duty by the time I was in second or third grade. Most of them were sticks, but there were two or three that had an automatic transmission in them.
I learned to drive on a Crown, we used to say if you can drive a crown you can drive anything. Now 39 years later, I'm driving Prevost and MCI Motorcoaches. I miss my crown...
I'll never forget that sound. I started riding these in the fifth grade all the way through 8th grade. Stopped riding when I started using the public transit bus instead. I used to love sitting in the front row as a kid to watch the bus driver double clutch shifting gears. I remember it was a 5-speed transmission. LAUSD bus # 29-U in the 5th and 6th grade. Driver's name, Mr. Wallace. Fast forward 10 years later and I became a diesel mechanic and found out why the engines have a distinct sound that only a two stroke Detroit Diesel produce. Till this day anytime I hear the roar of a two-stroke Detroit, I always turn my head to where that sound is coming from.
I rode these buses late 60's and 70's. Some had Cummins NH220 (great sound too), Hall-Scott gasoline (great sound), and the Detroit 6-71. I always felt sorry for the drivers shifting all day. I now drive a Navistar school bus with 6.7 Cummins and Allison automatic. It is truly a hot rod compared to the old Crowns and Gilligs.
Some good old school memories 2rd grade in 1997 I rode a crown school bus loved sitting in the front seat watching my bus driver shifting and the bus sounding like a race car they sure dont make school buses like they used to anymore!!
Oh my god that is the sound of my childhood, I'd recognize it anywhere. Growing in in Fresno Unified we had a ton of these with detroit diesels and manual transmissions, and I remember I could always hear the bus coming before anyone else because of that very distinct sound. I always would sit up at the front like this too so I could watch out the huge windscreen and talk to the driver
I lived in Fresno for 40 years and the Detroit Diesels roaring were part of the background noise on every school. My house backed up against Marks Av and I’d sit and listen as the buses cruised by my bedroom as they started their routes. I have Fresno #20. Here’s a pic.
@@aljenningscrownandgillig No way! I used to live on the corner of Escalon and Cheryl growing up, just off Marks, and went to Edison High class of 2012. I'm pretty sure I used to walk by your property on my way home every day because I used to see your old school bus backed up against the wall and I always wondered how somebody ended up with one of those. Hell of a small world, eh?! I'd honestly give anything to ride on one of those old Crown's again
The crown busses we experienced as kids had a clock/tach mounted on the dash. Normal analog clock and a sweep tach above it with a red light at the end of the sweep to let the driver know it was time to shift (as if the sonic reminder wasn’t enough haha).
Retired Old time Crown school bus drivers get pretty excited to drive one again. There is no similar experience except driving a vintage Porsche 911 or 930
Now that's it's too late and most are crushed, I'd bet they'd be awesome to be electrified. I don't remember being in a Crown, my school district didn't use them, but I grew up in Orange County in the Seventies, and they were all over. Crown Fire Coaches, too, pretty sure all the nearby fire departments used them.
It's weird what sticks with you... OVSD. Bus 3 was an International Carpenter. Bus 7 was a GMC Bluebird, it was the quietest. Bus 14 was the only flat nose, it was a Bluebird All American. Bus 22 was the new one, it was a Ford Superior with foam on the backs of the seats so you wouldn't lose your teeth in an accident!
I am trying to get enough information from the seller to make a decision. For example: What are the total miles on the vehicle? has the engine ever been overhauled or in-famed? What is the total miles on the engine? Does it have any oil leaks? Has the rock been run in the last few years? Do we have maintenance records? what brand and viscosity of oil has been used in this engine? What is the condition of the battery and charging system? Do we know if the engine has ever been overhauled? How many miles are on the engine? How long has he owned the vehicle, and what work has he done doing? Condition of fluids in the transmission? Conditioner brakes? Do the air powered windshield wipers work properly? Are the gauges all working? Condition and age of tires? Cracked or broken glass? Window rattle problems? Does it steer and track well? Shock absorbers full of oil? Front tire tread wearing evenly? It’s worth somewhere between $4000 and $23000 depending on how much work has been done on it. You can spend $20,000 on an old Crown and you can spend nothing. It needs to be gone through by an expert. Buying a 40 year old Crown with no idea what you’re getting can be financial suicide. I’ve been burned several times and I’m supposed to be the expert
They were good engines for their time. Mind you, they sucked the fuel alot compared to the engines of today. He needs to stop talking and consentrate on his driving.
