You’ve decided to build a skoolie. Now you’re staring at listings for Blue Birds, Thomas Safeliners, IC buses, flat-nose pushers, short buses, and something called a “Type D transit” — and you have no idea which one is right for your build. Let’s fix that. There are nine types of buses that work well for … Read more
You’re standing in your half-built bus, looking at the roof, wondering how many solar panels you actually need and what all of this is going to cost. Maybe you’ve watched a dozen YouTube videos and you’re more confused now than when you started. Sizing a solar system isn’t as complicated as people make it sound … Read more
You’ve got the bus. You’ve been staring at that empty tube of metal for a week now, maybe walking back and forth inside it with a tape measure, trying to picture where the bed goes, where the kitchen goes, whether you even have room for a bathroom. This is the part where most people get … Read more
You want to know how much it actually costs to turn a school bus into a home. Not a vague “it depends” — real numbers you can plan around. That’s what this article is for. (See our guide on How Much Does It Cost to Convert a Bus Into a Home? for more on this.) … Read more
You’ve got the bus, you’ve got the dream, and now you’ve got the question everyone asks: how do you actually pay for all of this? It’s the single biggest concern people have before going full-time, and honestly, it’s a fair one. The short answer is that most full-time bus dwellers make money through a mix … Read more
You bought the bus. You’ve got a Pinterest board full of ideas and a YouTube playlist 200 videos deep. You’re ready to start ripping out seats. But before you do, let’s talk about the mistakes that trip up almost every first-timer, so you don’t have to learn them the expensive way. The most common skoolie … Read more
You’ve watched the YouTube tours. You’ve saved the Instagram posts. The dream is real, but there’s a whole layer of bus life that nobody puts in the thumbnail. Here’s what actually catches people off guard once they’re living in it. The reality of full-time bus life isn’t bad, it’s just different from what you expect. … Read more
If you’ve been scrolling through Instagram looking at those gorgeous skoolie builds with the butcher block counters and the cedar ceilings, at some point you’ve probably asked yourself the same thing everyone else does. How do people actually pay for these things? The short answer is yes, you can finance a bus conversion, but not … Read more
You’ve got the bus built and you’re ready to go full-time. But the question that keeps people up at night is, where do you actually put this thing? You can’t just park a 35-foot bus on any random street and call it home. Most full-time skoolie owners park at RV parks ($400-$800/month), on private land … Read more
You’ve found a couple of buses you like, but one’s gas and one’s diesel. The diesel costs more. Is it worth the extra cash, or is gas good enough for a conversion? Go diesel if you can afford it. Diesel school bus engines last 300,000-500,000 miles versus 150,000-250,000 for gas. They get better fuel economy … Read more