Trailers, trucks, and cars, oh my!

[Ryan Caldwell]

We Bought a retired school bus for ~1K and insured it for about the same. The hard part was getting a driver so i went an got a CDL.

We took out the 3 back seats and put in a safety cage.
This summer we want to paint the bumpers red and put our # on them. I believe there is talk of upgrading the sound system as well.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Ryan Caldwell

We Bought a retired school bus for ~1K and insured it for about the same. The hard part was getting a driver so i went an got a CDL.

We took out the 3 back seats and put in a safety cage.
This summer we want to paint the bumpers red and put our # on them. I believe there is talk of upgrading the sound system as well.

Ok that is crazy......crazy cool!

[Rosiebotboss]

I LIKE IT!

I used to own a school bus years ago with some friends. We had a lot of good times in that 'magic bus'.

Originally Posted by Ryan Caldwell

We Bought a retired school bus for ~1K and insured it for about the same. The hard part was getting a driver so i went an got a CDL.

We took out the 3 back seats and put in a safety cage.
This summer we want to paint the bumpers red and put our # on them. I believe there is talk of upgrading the sound system as well.

[pfreivald]

We bought a small trailer for under $1000; the school covers insurance and registration. It is a fantastic investment I wish we'd made years ago!

[Dancin103]

Originally Posted by Ryan Caldwell

We Bought a retired school bus for ~1K and insured it for about the same. The hard part was getting a driver so i went an got a CDL.

We took out the 3 back seats and put in a safety cage.
This summer we want to paint the bumpers red and put our # on them. I believe there is talk of upgrading the sound system as well.

First off, the bus is really awesome! And secondly, we ended up buying a trailer to haul everything around.

[Brian Ha]

Just gotta say, that bus was one of the coolest things i saw.

Cooler thing?

When our team rode in it.

Thanks crev for letting us borrow it!

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by squirrel

lucky me gets to haul it in the back of a pickup.

Get much snow and rain out there in Arizona??

Originally Posted by akoscielski3

(2 mini vans, 1 pick-up truck, and an impala)

A live impala? I heard they run very fast.

We were very fortunate to have a trailer donated to us several years ago, and another sponsor donated the vinyl wrap that makes it look so cool.

For our travel to Atlanta 2 years ago, and Virginia last year, we rented a Sprinter Van from a local rental agency. We convinced them to give us a break on the mileage charge as sponsors of the team - they were very nice about it.

The Sprinter gets about 27 MPG on Diesel at 65 MPH, can easily carry 3 or 4 teams' worth of stuff, has a high roof (over 7') and really wide doors. I think for Virgina it cost us a few hundred dollars, most of that being mileage costs, so for a closer competition it may be quite reasonable.

[treffk]

We generally haul everything in the back of parents vehicles. When we went to Atlanta one of our sponsors allowed us to borrow their 16 foot trailer that we had a parent drive down with all of our luggage.

Past few years to haul everything back from competition my dad has been bringing us a trailer to make it simpler.

[kgzak]

My mom (The coach of the team 2075) knows many people who have trailers so we always find someone to let us borrow one and take that to our competitions, My dad (a mentor) usually tows it.

As for 4392, we have attended one event and we rented a UHaul Trailer.

[Hawiian Cadder]

We live in Colorado, so almost everyone has a truck at least available to them, If it is raining/snowing, well, that's what tarps are for.

[notmattlythgoe]

Did you rent a U-Haul truck or trailer? The trailers are under $20 a day, so if you have something to tow with it really isn't that bad.

[DELurker]

Originally Posted by notmattlythgoe

Did you rent a U-Haul truck or trailer? The trailers are under $20 a day, so if you have something to tow with it really isn't that bad.

We actually rented the 10' truck. The final price wasn't as bad as we had feared, but it was still more than we could have hoped for. Of course, that was after Budget bailed on us with 4 hours to go before we were to pick up the truck.

Part of what we are trying to do is to eliminate reliance on the mentor/parent vehicles. All of the mentor vehicles that could tow a trailer are unreliable enough to give us, in the words of King Julian, the "heebie-jeebies". The one mentor that we used to use the minivan of is moving too far away at the end of the school year.