Bus Life – Here We Come

Recapping from the last post; I suggested to Fred “Why don’t we buy a bigger bus to live in”.

That was all Fred needed and within a week Fred was driving to Maryborough in Western Victoria to inspect a 12metre, 2000 model, Hino RG 230.  It was an ex school bus.  He came home very excited because he had found a bus with good kilometres on it, a good year production and about half the price of any others he had found closer to the city.  We were sure it would require some repairs for a road worthy, let’s face it, they always do.  After speaking to the owners over the phone we placed a deposit and arranged a pick up date.  Within a week we were on the V-Line to Maryborough to pick up our new home. 

Now I know this may seem like a rush decision, but Fred is an avid researcher and trust me he did his homework.  Countless hours spent in front of the ipad.  We have learnt over the years to do the research but not to overthink it.  Our history shows that our best decisions have been our first.

The honours of the first drive of the bus went to Fred with trusty Gayle navigating.  Rookie error, Gayle obviously didn’t consider the size of the bus as she chose to go the no toll route.  It was alright for her, she wasn’t driving!  So Fred is now driving through suburban Melbourne at peak time in the afternoon, there were some close calls, street posts, other vehicles etc but no touches.  Good job  Fred!   When Gayle had a turn at driving her first comment was “bloody hell it’s long, I’ll need a magnifying mirror to see the back”!

Now home it was time to put him in the shop for the roadworthy.  We were a little surprised at the extent of repairs required. Lucky for us the tester didn’t date the report and gave Fred the repair list so we could fix the repairs at our leisure. This list wasn’t substantive and with the exception of one job, Fred could fix the remainder quite easily.  There was a seal leaking, although very minimal, in the injector pump, and this was the task we had to outsource.  Time was against us and no-one seemed to be concerned other than us.  The problem we had was that the registration was supposed to be transferred within 28 days and it was quite clear that this was not going to happen as it was over 40 days before we got the bus back from the roadworthy tester. Luck was in our favour as the sellers had not dated the transfer papers. Once we had the leak repaired we were able to date them to be only 20 days ago.  Gayle took the forms to Vic Roads the very next day and they didn’t ask any questions, just stamped our papers, took our money and sent her on her way. The COVID 19 was taking over and they just wanted everyone in and out as quick as possible.  Needless to say we were doing our happy dance!

We purchased our bus from a wonderful old fellow, Charlie Maffescioni  in Maryborough, Victoria.  Charlie, a real gentleman, owns the motor repair shop and the local school bus run.  It was an honour to take over ownership of Charlie’s bus with the intention making it our home.  Charlie was happy about it too and once we have the renovations complete we plan to take a trip to Maryborough to let Charlie see for himself.