It seams to be whether cool or comfort is your main gain. In regards to lowering a hire bus. We hired 2 campers before we bought just to see what we were getting into and have ridden/driven a few lowered bus's. We would not have been impressed driving all round Devon and up Cheddar Gorge in a "glorified go cart". But in saying that when we hired one to go to Busfest boy would it have been cool to turn up in a slammed bus. Horses for courses on this one. You might limit the range of people hiring from you if that is your intention. Here's a nice scenario/question: Adjustable beam and adjustable rear spring plate set up a trip to Busfest with stock height and adjust the ride height five miles before you get there?????? Is that to idealist and impracticable? . Sorry might fall into stupid question area with that one.
Of course in reality it's not not really practical for me to be at the side of the road lowering our bus so I can cruise into a show in style so to speak but as the guys on here will point out "everything is a compromise". Can I ask how serious you are about hiring your van out and for what?
Very serious about renting, set up the insurance ready to go!<br/> Although I could give you dozen reasons not to hire your bus out I imagine you've done all your research and had enough of sceptics. As someone that has hired a few bus's off people before why would I want to hire yours lowered as opposed to a similar bus of standard ride height? Are you gonna add a nice set of alloys, nice chrome, throaty exhaust etc. Sorry to sound negative but rather that than know you made a mistake. I would love to slam our bus on the deck but the more I hear of people going back to stock the more I think not. If we do it I will go with adjusters front and rear.
Part of the way to success in any business is to keep on top of outgoings. Volunteering to lower at expense for no profitable reason is silly in this context. If you want to hire out vans profitably, what I see others do is buy cheaper scruffy buses with ok interiors, tart up the bodywork with GRP and filler and a quick cheap blowover. Service the engine, get MOT and cross your fingers. Then you have cheapest respectable bus = largest profit possibilities. One thing's for sure, you'll do well to keep up with costs and maintenance, let alone make any useful profit, despite the seemingly high rental charges. All IMO of course. People come and go at this, but not many stick it out for more than a few years because it doesn't pay the bills and takes up all your best free time in the summer.
Your right but I'm building completely new engines for my buses because I don't want to spend all my Summer under them. Yes that's expensive but it means that buses spend a better chance of surviving being hammered
... and chewing gum on the seats, dirty nappies stuffed in cupboards, car sick not cleaned up, dirty burnt frying pans... you've probably heard it all before, but I'm reliably informed that change day can be hard work even without mechanical problems. I wish you all the best though - how many buses?
As Zed says there's a lot of finger crossing involved. Have you got a contingency plan for if you have a pending hire and a last minute busted van. Most hirer's I've dealt with are "pals" with another hire company just in case. Sorry risking telling you how to suck eggs here but have seen at least three camper hire vans give up doing it in the last year. If you have more than one bus that's always a bonus. Have you been put off dropped spindles yet lol
........ I suppose once we finished with all the negativity it would probably be nice to see some pics
