He Puts Pickup Cabs, Spreader Boxes On Schoolbus Frames

He Puts Pickup Cabs, Spreader Boxes On Schoolbus Frames SCHOOLBUS CONVERSIONS Schoolbus Conversions 28-2-11 Chicken litter trucks don't have to be fancy. In fact, the cheaper they are, the better. That's why when Roy Patton went looking for a low cost chassis to replace a worn out truck, he turned to a used school bus. The first one worked out so well, he has since bought several more. "I pay $560 to $1,000 for old buses," he recalls. "The first one I bought was a 1989 Chevy." Patton could have jury-rigged a cab, but he wanted a truck that looked like a truck. He had noticed that pickup cab firewalls were similar in shape to bus firewalls of the same make. Fender and body shapes were also similar, so he decided to merge the two. "I paid $50 for one old pickup and have had several others given to me," he says. On his first bus, Patton went to work with a torch. When he finished, about all he had left was the firewall. He had cut it away just below the seam where the windshield wiper was attached. He also cut the bus body floorboard about a foot from the firewall and across the transmission cover. The bus firewall contained all the wiring, airlines, clutch pedal and shift selector. Once he had the bus body unbolted from the front, he just rolled it off. "I discovered that I needed to take the steering column out or it would get bent when rolling the body off," says Patton, who warns that each bus is different. "While the clutch was no problem on the first bus, it should have been disconnected when the second body stripped." Once the old body was gone, Patton mounted a new 18-ft. litter bed with drag chair on back. The new bed is designed for complete clean out. On an 85-passenger bus, he found he needed to cut about 4 ft. off the frame to accommodate the litter bed. His next step was to cut away the pickup cab from its firewall and lift it free of its chassis. Using a winch truck with ropes through the open windows of the pickup cab, he set it down about 3/4 in. back from the bus firewall. He then used steel strap to weld all the way around the firewall to attach the pickup cab. "The toughest part is lining them up," says Patton. "I have registered them and insured them as trucks, and they carry about 5 tons of dry litter. If you have a welder, a winch, truck and someone to help, it doesn't take a lot of money." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ray Patton, 4522 Dizzy Dean Rd., Booneville, Ark. 72927 (ph 479 675-2166).

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