3 school buses, 48K #'s net

Scrapped 3 full-size school buses last week. Net weight of 48K #'s at $125/ton in Milwaukee. One bus was drive-able, the other two had to be towed about 50 miles. No profit yet, as I bought the buses to get some diesel engines for inventory, 2 Cummins and 1 Cat. I weighed the buses in (54K #'s) and weighed out with the engines, tires, etc. that I kept. I'm into the engines for about what I've been paying for cut-outs, which have been scarce due to the low metal prices.

Broke my heart to give away the 100-200 gallons of diesel fuel that was in the tanks but I had to take the buses directly to the processor, couldn't bring them here to pump the tanks down.

Good stuff. How did you come across the busses? Keep us posted.

I can't say for his case, but a lot of school districts just auction them off.

If they don't bring much, you can profit on the components. Plus, the body can make a nice storage shed ;)

Depending on you heat your places in Wisconsin it might be worthwhile to keep the diesel. It can be used in place of #2 home heating oil. (Been doing it for years here.)

The diesel is actually a better burning fuel because of the lower sulfur content. It won't soot up the boiler or furnace like #2 will.

The extra 350.00 - 700.00 $ in fuel might be worth fussing with in some situations.

Like I said in my original post; it broke my heart to leave all that fuel (and $$$) in the tanks. But I had to get the buses from point A to point B before the end of the month to get the quoted price. All 3 were supposed to be drive-able but 2 of the 3 had lift pumps go out from sitting and had to be towed. That was a bit of a snag and added a significant $$ to my cost basis.

I got the buses from a bus contractor/truck dealer/scrapper that just wanted to flip them. I found the deal by hard shopping; pavement pounding if you want to call it that. I saw 1 bus in a local auto shopper magazine and then saw it again for less in the next edition. The lower price was within striking range of where I needed to be on a deal, so I called. Turned out he had 3 units and was willing to deal to move them.

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Broke my heart to give away the 100-200 gallons of diesel fuel that was in the tanks but I had to take the buses directly to the processor, couldn't bring them here to pump the tanks down.

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You can buy up to a 150 gal tank to install in the bed of a 3/4 or 1 ton truck. Some camper haulers use the step tanks off semi trucks into the bed with straps. Those are around 75 gal.

For my tank to transfer from it to the factory tank in my Chevy diesel I used a small electric (from one of the racing companies) fuel pump I found on closeout at the auto parts store. I mounted it up high on the bed rail and run the hose down into a copper tube I brazed onto the filler neck. That way gravity would not play a factor. Mounted a lighted switch under the dash so I wasn't accidentally pumping diesel out of the lower tank and down the highway. When your running tired you don't notice a lot around you.

If you had a larger tank in your truck you could use the fuel pump to pump out of the bus tanks and into your truck tank. Just add as much rubber hose as needed to hit the lower part of the bus tank.

Excellent suggestion, Mechanic. I have plenty of old truck tanks. I could fasten one to a pallet and run my 110 transfer pump off my little Harbor Freight generator. Could put in the truck bed but that's usually full of chains, spare tires, tools, etc., so I would probably strap it down on my trailer. Easy on and off with the forks on the Bobcat.

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Originally Posted by diesel1

Excellent suggestion, Mechanic. I have plenty of old truck tanks. I could fasten one to a pallet and run my 110 transfer pump off my little Harbor Freight generator. Could put in the truck bed but that's usually full of chains, spare tires, tools, etc., so I would probably strap it down on my trailer. Easy on and off with the forks on the Bobcat.

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Way to generate an idea, use a couple of tanks and dedicate an old trailer to the tanks for hauling.