Inspector Morose Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Good 680s are getting a bit thin on the ground now but a Leopard motor could be converted given the fucked engine is still in place. Then again, you could always do what NZ did and put a M.A.N engine in instead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rml2345 Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 It's funny you should mention an engine swap, CMS and myself were discussing possible engine transplants for REs the other day. We reckon a horizontal LT10 would be quite entertaining... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspector Morose Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Already thought of that one. Rear axle wouldn't take it. It really was the weak link in the design of the transmission. Main failure points were the intermediate shafts inside the drop section, a real pain in the arse when they fail as it meant splitting the axle to replace. DAF DKFL1160 without a turbo would be a good one. A sort of development of the old 680 and without the turbo, power would be well within limits of the rest of the transmission. A RELH was converted to DAF power once but it was a turbo and wasn't that successful due to the relatively short gearing of the RE. Volvo would be not bad I suppose. Pretty bombproof and lesser power versions were available. Can't think of any other horizontal engines that are available at the moment. Of newer vertical engines, a modern B series would be okay but the drive prop to the gearbox would be more like the pole used by vaulters in the olympics unless the engine was placed under a lump in the floor just behind the rear axle. rml2345 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willswitchengage Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 Found it! Pride of the Clyde RX07RKV by haley111, on Flickr I looked it up on the MOT website and it's currently SORN. Do PCVs get MOTs or another type of acceptance test? I was intrigued to see if it would also give the mileage. OMG! part 2: saw the Optare twice again now, this is when I was out 'nightclubbing' yesterday evening: And for bonus points... can anybody write a paragraph about this? rml2345 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarvinsMom Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 is that Cyclops, from the disaster film "The Big Bus", atomic powered, and slowed down with the flags of all nations? saw the film once, as a child many moos ago. think airplane! only its on a trans-continental bus. it might even be the same cast?....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
320touring Posted January 10, 2016 Share Posted January 10, 2016 BigBus is on Netflix.The burd wisnae impressed. Didnae stop me, but! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felly Magic Posted January 10, 2016 Author Share Posted January 10, 2016 I have the BIG BUS on dooooovde, classic American 1970's Disactercomedy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harvestman Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 How about this little gem: the Orion II. How easy they are on the eyes, and how they ride/drive, are directly linked... Sloth in a bowl, Inspector Morose, LightBulbFun and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspector Morose Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 I rather like that. It looks like some freak show combination of a MCW Metrorider and a duck billed platypus. harvestman, rml2345, Lacquer Peel and 1 other 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quicksilver Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 It appears to be a front-engined low-floor bus. That actually makes far more sense than trying to put the engine in the back of the passenger compartment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inspector Morose Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Yup, the CVE omni was such a good idea. Shame it was mindbogglingly useless as a bus though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rml2345 Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 Yup, the CVE omni was such a good idea. Shame it was mindbogglingly useless as a bus though.An unprecedented amount of hallucinogenic material must have been consumed before they set about designing the Omni. Similar amounts produced the Quest 80 and Optare Alero, both of which have appeared before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quicksilver Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 What about the Talbot Pullman? Again seemed like a good idea but I've heard conflicting reports of how useless or otherwise it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harvestman Posted January 13, 2016 Share Posted January 13, 2016 It appears to be a front-engined low-floor bus. That actually makes far more sense than trying to put the engine in the back of the passenger compartment.That it is. Fairly solid idea, but unfortunately these were mechanically shit. I found a lady on Facebook who drove for the local transit agency, which had Orion IIs, and she recounted how her steering went out at 65mph on the highway and the bus ended up flipping over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidfowler2000 Posted January 16, 2016 Share Posted January 16, 2016 What about the Talbot Pullman? Again seemed like a good idea but I've heard conflicting reports of how useless or otherwise it was. Apparantly they were an UTTER UTTER CUNT OF A BASTARD to get the brakes balanced to the point they only got done within spec for MoT. That was on top of how thunderously shit they were. catsinthewelder 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willswitchengage Posted February 4, 2016 Share Posted February 4, 2016 DISCUSSION TIME!! Who makes the best buses? Rearrange this order: MANMercedesVolvoScaniaDennisOptareVDL/DAF (these being the main sellers of chassis/integrals) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felly Magic Posted February 4, 2016 Author Share Posted February 4, 2016 Well ADL are right out with us ATM, 5 brand new E200's being returned as the body flex has destroyed windscreens, and now the front and rears are trying to part company with the roof, and our Scania E400's have rear end chassis issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cms206 Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 Despite being SVM through and through my order of preference is... VDL/DAFScaniaMercedesDennisVolvoMANOptare Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Six-cylinder Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 Several lost Routemasters on the M40 Southbound yesterday! willswitchengage 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willswitchengage Posted February 5, 2016 Share Posted February 5, 2016 Well ADL are right out with us ATM, 5 brand new E200's being returned as the body flex has destroyed windscreens, and now the front and rears are trying to part company with the roof, and our Scania E400's have rear end chassis issues. Similarly I have seen two broken down brand new E400s in Reading recently (both borked gearboxes though so perhaps a ZF issue) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidfowler2000 Posted February 12, 2016 Share Posted February 12, 2016 DISCUSSION TIME!! Who makes the best buses? Rearrange this order: MANMercedesVolvoScaniaDennisOptareVDL/DAF (these being the main sellers of chassis/integrals) From my diminishing experience of modern stuff, they're all much of a muchness. The main issue these days seems to be aftersales support. From my time at Stagecoach, the Volvo coaches always proved the most reliable and nicest to drive but took major hissy fits whenever they did go wrong. Volvo aftersales for Stagecoach were excellent too. The DAF powered Van Hools on megabus were very maintenance intensive and seemed to provide an almost never ending stream of little niggles. It also didn't take much of a problem to put one off the road. The ones I drove were Aberdeen based who have never had a good reputation for maintenance in the industry. Van Hool always got their work done at DAF and unless it was Cleckheaton or whatever place in Wales it was we used, it usually got a half arsed job. We didn't have any Scania coaches but the service buses were...ok. Reliable, nice to drive but very hard riding and prone to silly problems. The N230 / Enviro 400 would jettison prop shafts if they weren't greased every other day. ADL/Dennis had excellent aftersales but you were never off the phone to them for daft problems. The Euro 6 models seem to be particularly bad but mainly in the exhaust after treatment system. Oh and heaven forbid you have to get Cummins out to them. Cummins in Glasgow only seem to work office hours and the...ehem...Quickserve vans weren't exactly quick at getting out to you. Optare. Shite. Shite. Shite. Shite. Shite. Shite. Crap. Mince. Shite. Horrible. Shite. Woeful. MANs were hit and miss. Some models were utter dogs but drove nice. Annoyingly, the more reliable ones were utterly horrible to drive. They almost all drove with at least one red warning light on the dashboard but they just kept going. It seemed to be the lack of SCR exhaust after treatment on MANs (relying soley on exhaust gas recirculation up to 50% on some engines) that helped keep them going. The only Mercedes I drove at Stagey were the 709d minibus. They. Simply. Never. Died. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felly Magic Posted February 13, 2016 Author Share Posted February 13, 2016 Cummins fitted a recon engine to one of our McPointers in November, Cummins rebuilt ISBe4, last saturday it Shat it's self quite spectacularly, and typically they are arguing the toss, even though the engine is under warranty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harvestman Posted March 14, 2016 Share Posted March 14, 2016 DISCUSSION TIME!! Who makes the best buses? Rearrange this order: MANMercedesVolvoScaniaDennisOptareVDL/DAF (these being the main sellers of chassis/integrals)Funny thing - we got the Optare Solo in the US, rebadged as a NABI. Turns out that the result is the same no matter which badge you slap on it. STUNO and Grundig 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wuvvum Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 One of several old Leyland Titans still doing sterling service dragging tourists around Vegas. chaseracer, MarvinsMom and overrun 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STUNO Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 Funny thing - we got the Optare Solo in the US, rebadged as a NABI. Turns out that the result is the same no matter which badge you slap on it. I couldn't believe my eyes a LA airport a couple of years ago when I saw a couple of Solos being used as ground transport. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martc Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 Spreading the theme to the continent, how about the Ukrania 67? No idea if it was shite or not, but this is what the Soviet Union in the 60's thought the future looked like... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
83C Posted April 24, 2016 Share Posted April 24, 2016 Definitely a thread for me to keep an eye on, used to drive buses for a living, but since I got out of the industry I now only do so for beer money and fun. Spent several days last month driving an Olympian around Cheshire, which was rather pleasant. MarvinsMom 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vantman Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 Inspector Morose, rml2345 and worldofceri 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willswitchengage Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 No phots sadly but I have just cycled from London to Istanbul (full write up later) so whilst Tinder reinstalls on my phone I thought I'd write a bit about buses. Everything is made by MAN or Merc abroad. Nope, not even any Volvo or Scania. They seem to go on forever, especially in the Balkans. The old engines in them sound absolutely phenomenal. IVECOs were fairly popular, but to a far lesser extent. I even saw some Belarussian made MAZs in Serbia along with Ikarbus and Solaris. In Turkey there were plenty of little Isuzu midibuses that hammered it around everywhere. Even saw Trolleybuses, they were the business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Partridge Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 I got papped by a bus photographer driving my coach around Southampton on Monday. Still waiting to turn up on Flicker! cms206 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now