Zephyr: Our 1961 GM 4106 Vintage Bus Conversion
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 & After - Comparing Zephyr's interior between June 2011 and March 2012. Click to enlarge.
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.
Dual Office Desk
Kitchen Re-remodel with slide out counter extension.
Looking towards the front from the hallway
The new bathroom countertop and vessel sink!
Thus far we have done some massive interior updating (new floors, kitchen, bathroom, 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.
The Story of our Bus:
Why we sold our Oliver
Why a Vintage Bus?
Our Search for a Vintage Bus
Buying our Bus
Remodeling & Projects:
Interior Remodeling: Round 1
Interior Remodeling: Round 2 – Dual Office Desk
Our Lithium Iron Battery (LFP) Research, Cost Analysis and Installation
7 Months in a Bus (Review of bus life, plus maintenance & remodeling costs so far)
Our Propane Free Goal
Kitchen & Bathroom Remodel
Project Dominoes – Simple Refrigerator Replacement sparks 33 other projects
Take a Video Tour of our Bus:
14 Responses to Zephyr: Our 1961 GM 4106 Vintage Bus Conversion
Got a comment? Question? Something to add? Love to hear from you!
Welcome!
We're Cherie & Chris - two technomads. We've been traveling full time since 2006, exploring the intersection of travel, technology, career, community and nomadic serendipity.
Current Adventure: Roaming the USA in a vintage bus conversion.
We invite you to follow our journey:
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I want to know if both of you drive the bus. I made sure that in case something happened to me (i.e. broken leg ,arm sick, what have you) my wife could drive our Pick-up truck and trailer.
So do you drive Cherie?
Hi Terry –
Yes, absolutely – I drive. We do live in the 21st century after all
With the bus in particular, we have both been through a bus safety driving course, and are both involved with the safety inspections and preventative maintenance.
Now Chris does the majority of our driving – simply because he enjoys driving, and for me it’s a chore. And we always have the option of getting the bus safely parked and unhitching our toad for emergency transportation (faster, more nimble, more parking options at ERs, etc.)
Congratms on yur ’61 Vintage Home on wheels… It is
B E A U T I F U L !!!
My husband and I have gone to the full-time RV lifestyle as of Oct. 1, 2011. However his job is not compatable with the nomadic chapter we are yearning for. So for now he and I along with our 2 chihuahuas shall be content to full-time it in our local campground … inside our 27′ TT.. while he continues to report to his cubicle 3 1/2 miles away.
Once we locate a ‘motorized’ home it is our desire to become true nomads and join your ranks.
Until then God Bless and traveling mercies upon you and all you pass or meet.
Cherie,
Did you guys ever check out this 4106 in AZ? Used to be in Bullhead City, owner now lives in Apache Junction. Curious as to your thoughts if you ever did, if fact, see it.
http://www.nationalmultilist.com/listing.php?listing_id=111660
Thanks!
Chuck
After reading your website – I am a little confused. Apparently you now have a bus that you converted to an RV. Are you looking for another one???
We actually didn’t do the conversion ourselves.. we bought it already converted back in June. We’ve just been doing some major remodeling and updating.
Nope, not looking for another one. Very happy with Zephyr
love your site and the idea of living on the road. i also have a 4106 and in the process of renovating it. do you have close up pictures of the inside front end around the entrance and driver area? also above at ceiling level. i am interested in learning more about how to do the electrical system- where to locate braker box batteries,converter(and size)and so on. does your book have this information?
thanks for any help.
Kevin
myhardhat@gmail.com
Hi Kevin … and welcome!
Our eBook is about life on the road, not specifically about 4106s. It’s exactly the same content as is listed on the blog series at http://www.technomadia.com/excuses.
As far as pictures, here’s our Flickr Album of pictures of our bus:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/technomadia/sets/72157628375153863/
And here’s our electrical system posts:
http://www.technomadia.com/category/life-on-the-road/technology/rv-electrical-systems/
As we’re doing a high end, non-standard Lithium Ion battery electrical system – our specs likely aren’t going to be all that useful to you. Would highly recommend getting involved at http://www.busconversions.com or http://www.busnuts.com and posting on the forums – lots of bus nuts there who can give you ideas.
Best wishes,
– Cherie
Thanks for the information and the best to you.
kevin
So cool. My husband and I are soon going to be putting the house up for sale. We are planning on selling everything and go full time. My husband has been early retired for around 10 years now. I am a VP at a bank. So much stress. I want to early retire to and travel. I spend my weekends relaxing reading full timer blogs. Makes me wish I was on the road right now. My husband wants to do full time but I want it way more then he does. Could that be because he is retired? lol…
Enjoyed reading your blog, I have to say that you probably lucked out when you purchased your 4106. I’ve travelled all across the country in search of that rare coach and unfortunately most 4106 were quite tired and the one’s who weren’t, were too expensive to consider.You might want to check out an other couple who have traveled for the past ten years in their 4106 across Mexico(Vandana).Ken
Thanks Ken. We too did an extensive countrywide search for our bus, and did see enough examples to recognize our gem when we found her. We don’t consider it so much luck, as it was doing a lot of research, a lot of searching and following serendipity
Thanks for the pointer to another 4106 fulltimer, we’ll check them out.