H O M E I S W H E R E V E R W E R O A M
cascade —
Is our 1995 International Amtran 3800 school bus that we call home. We picked her up from the Bend, OR school district, with just over 330k miles, after having bought her on auction for $4,091. Under her hood is a DT466 all mechanical diesel motor with an Allison MT643 automatic transmission. She’s a beast and we love her.
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— the conversion
It’s took nearly 2 years to turn a $4 K school bus into Cascade, our home on wheels. We started by completely gutting the interior, brown vinyl seats, rubber gum floors and all. We removed all of the original side windows, sheet metaled over and installed rv windows. We rewired the entire electrical system, removed the wheelchair lift as well as 1 of 3 emergency doors and replaced the emergency ceiling hatch with a Maxx air fan. The existing ceiling, side panels and flooring were removed to re-insulate the bus. Then we built a new sub-floor, reinstalled the original metal ceiling panels, upgraded the drivers seat, replaced the main door with an RV door, installed plumbing for the propane and water systems, built a roof rack the entire length of our 27’ bus to house our 900 watt Grape Solar, solar panels, 2 Roam Adventure rugged cases and a super rad deck that doubles as a place to hammock. Inside we have a queen sized bed, a fully functioning shower, sink, oven and fridge. We have both a diesel heater and Cubic Mini wood burning stove to keep us warm (but let’s be honest, we chase the sun.), a composting toilet, full size closet and plenty of garage space. It’s quite literally a house on wheels and over the last two year, as we’ve traveled across country in her she’s truly turned into our HOME.
O U R T ra v e l s
you can follow our journey on insta @roamingrivers
