Photo: Craigslist Orange County, CA (edited by autoevolution)
Do you hate paying rent? Do you wish you could travel the country in an RV that serves as your mobile office, your sleeping quarters, and the place you squat down on the porcelain throne? Well, there are basically two different ways of doing this. You could pay up the wazoo for a custom RV on what's essentially a bus chassis, or you can take a van or a bus built as a passenger vehicle, gut everything out of it, and fill the empty void with tables, beds, and a stove.
This is the route this General Motors TDH-3501 has undergone since its years of public service as a city bus. Safe to say, those days are long behind it. But what's ahead in the future of this classic General Motors bus might be even more exciting, if not as historically significant. As a member of GM's "Old Look" fleet of heavy-duty passenger busses built from 1940 to 1969, this particular 1964 GMC TDH-3501 comes from the very tail end of what was a nearly three-decade-long production run.
The Old Look bus was designed by Yellow Coach, then a partially-owned subsidiary of General Motors, who imposed a unique nomenclature that applies to each model manufactured. The middle "D" initial in this bus's name denoted that it left the factory with a diesel engine, while the third "H" initial signifies the presence of a hydraulically assisted automatic transmission instead of a traditional manual gearbox. Meanwhile, the 35 in its name denotes the maximum seating capacity as well as the bus's wheelbase. In this case, it has a seating capacity of 35 with a 30-foot wheelbase.
It's hard to say where exactly this TDH-3501 served in public transportation service, as over 38,000 examples were manufactured and distributed all across North America. What we do know for certain is that you can't hide that classic look of an old city bus under a coat of paint and some Winnebago decals. But that's not to say the interior of this bus isn't totally tricked out, at least by DIY custom RV standards. With wood-grain walls and floors accented with wallpaper over the top, the kitchen area, dual couches, and sleeping arrangements genuinely feel up to par with factory-built RVs, if not quite as high-quality.
Still, one can't help but feel cozy and at home in a bus filled with things the average family home has in spades. We can't quite vouch for how reliable this bus will be over the course of ownership, but the chance is yours to take the plunge via Craigslist of Orange County, California, for $19,000 out the door. At the very least, it's a massive discount over something its size and brand new.
The Old Look bus was designed by Yellow Coach, then a partially-owned subsidiary of General Motors, who imposed a unique nomenclature that applies to each model manufactured. The middle "D" initial in this bus's name denoted that it left the factory with a diesel engine, while the third "H" initial signifies the presence of a hydraulically assisted automatic transmission instead of a traditional manual gearbox. Meanwhile, the 35 in its name denotes the maximum seating capacity as well as the bus's wheelbase. In this case, it has a seating capacity of 35 with a 30-foot wheelbase.
It's hard to say where exactly this TDH-3501 served in public transportation service, as over 38,000 examples were manufactured and distributed all across North America. What we do know for certain is that you can't hide that classic look of an old city bus under a coat of paint and some Winnebago decals. But that's not to say the interior of this bus isn't totally tricked out, at least by DIY custom RV standards. With wood-grain walls and floors accented with wallpaper over the top, the kitchen area, dual couches, and sleeping arrangements genuinely feel up to par with factory-built RVs, if not quite as high-quality.
Still, one can't help but feel cozy and at home in a bus filled with things the average family home has in spades. We can't quite vouch for how reliable this bus will be over the course of ownership, but the chance is yours to take the plunge via Craigslist of Orange County, California, for $19,000 out the door. At the very least, it's a massive discount over something its size and brand new.
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