Joe1
Platinum Member
Bird:
Those Crown buses were built like tanks. In fact, they were too well built and Crown went out of business. The ones I drove had mid mounted Detroit 671 Diesels. The two axle were normally axpirated and put out 170 HP for a bus weighing 37,000 lbs. The three axle 10 wheel jobs had a GVW of 43,000 and had turbocharged 671 Detroits putting out something like 215 HP. The mechanics had the boost set at max to get any performance they could. Consequently they smoked like they were burning coal. They all had power steering and fabulous air brakes plus a 5 speed non-synchro "crash boxes". Each kid was allocated 14" so they rated them at 90 passengers. On one section of freeway, they were so slow, I'd have to run (empty) for almost 4 miles up a slight upgrade before I could get into 5th gear. Even then, they were geared for 60 mph max.
Here in the Peoples Republic of California, school buses without kids are limited to 65 mph and with kids 55 mph.
One thing about those Detroit 2 stroke diesels, they started everytime and were less prone to failure than the 4 cycle Cats and Cummins in the newer buses.
I sure got off the original subject.
Those Crown buses were built like tanks. In fact, they were too well built and Crown went out of business. The ones I drove had mid mounted Detroit 671 Diesels. The two axle were normally axpirated and put out 170 HP for a bus weighing 37,000 lbs. The three axle 10 wheel jobs had a GVW of 43,000 and had turbocharged 671 Detroits putting out something like 215 HP. The mechanics had the boost set at max to get any performance they could. Consequently they smoked like they were burning coal. They all had power steering and fabulous air brakes plus a 5 speed non-synchro "crash boxes". Each kid was allocated 14" so they rated them at 90 passengers. On one section of freeway, they were so slow, I'd have to run (empty) for almost 4 miles up a slight upgrade before I could get into 5th gear. Even then, they were geared for 60 mph max.
Here in the Peoples Republic of California, school buses without kids are limited to 65 mph and with kids 55 mph.
One thing about those Detroit 2 stroke diesels, they started everytime and were less prone to failure than the 4 cycle Cats and Cummins in the newer buses.
I sure got off the original subject.
