GM PD-4106-446

Meet Zephyr – our full time home & office on wheels!

Our bus began life in September 1961 as a regional charter tour bus in Arizona for Citizen Auto Stage Co out of Nogales, AZ – and is serial # PD4106-446.

While our bus was never a “hound” – this model of bus was designed in cooperation between GM & Greyhound to be the heart of their fleet in the 1960s. It was designed to seat 41 passengers and carry all their luggage.  With its aluminum construction and beefier engine, the 4106 was considered the ‘sportscar of buses’ for its day.

Our bus was converted and titled to be Class-A motorhome in 1989, and had less than 20,000 motorhome miles on it when we found it in Yuma, AZ in June 2011.

She’s 35′ long, 96″ wide and weighs in at about 24,000 lbs dry.  She has a 2-stroke 8v71 Detroit Diesel engine, with Allison v730 automatic transmission.

We did extensive research on bus conversions starting in spring 2011 after deciding it was time to sell our prior home on wheels – a highly geeked out fiberglass 17′ Oliver Travel Trailer that we traveled in full time for 3 years.  We even bought an Amtrak Rail Pass to travel the country to look at buses and learn from other ‘busnuts’.

Our bus before and after her first bath.

We found our bus on Craigslist, and the ad was so simple and lacking in details that we almost didn’t go look at it. But we are so glad we did!  When we walked in, it held more promise to become our ideal technomadic home & office on wheels than any other bus we had looked at.

The interior was well designed (with solid wood cabinetry), the engine ran strong and the body straight & nearly rust free. She needed to be caught up on nearly 15 years of neglected maintenance – but she just begged to be given a chance to go out adventuring again!  We said YES!

Before and After Round 1 of our interior remodeling (Day 42)

Our bedroom - with a walk around queen bed & hanging closet behind mirrors.

We’ll be working on updating the bus and making her truly ours as we travel full time.  We’re doing the projects mostly ourselves, with help from friends we visit and hiring professionals with tasks well beyond our skills and available tools.

Our's buses' interior - with our newly added dual office setup (Oct 2011).

Thus far we have done some massive interior updating (new floors, kitchen, ripped out the dinette, installed a dual office desk, etc).

We’ve also installed a cutting edge Lithium Ion battery & inverter that will be the foundation of our eventual solar power system (we’re planning to line the roof with as much solar as we can get). We are also planning a hydronics system to serve as our heater, hot water heater and engine heating system and eventually going entirely propane free.

Our aim is to create an all electric & diesel coach that can be completely self sufficient for a couple of weeks at a time.

For more information on our bus, our projects and why we went this route:
Why we sold our Oliver 
Why a Vintage Bus?
Our Search for a Vintage Bus
Buying our Bus
Interior Remodeling: Round 1
Interior Remodeling: Round 2 – Dual Office Desk
Our Lithium Ion Battery Research and Installation
7 Months in a Bus (Review of bus life, plus maintenance & remodeling costs so far)

Take a Video Tour of our Bus: