bigmoparjeff
Senior Member
Just moving this discussion that me and Chris started into the General section from the "71 Monaco Coupe for sale post".
I bought the RTS way back in 2002. I had been thinking about getting one for a few years and finally got internet in '02, which made the search much easier. I found a real good Yahoo group for RTS buses and one of the members hooked me up with the one I bought. It came from VTA in San Jose, California. It's a 1988, made by TMC. The guy I got it from bought it for himself, but decided he was too far into the 1982 GMC RTS that he already had, and put the '88 up for sale. At the time, it was kind of a big deal because it was one of the first affordable 06-series RTS's available for sale. My original plan was to convert it into a motor home, but it turned out to work much better as parts hauler being left as an almost empty shell. I installed the bare minimum accommodations to qualify for RV plates in PA. It served us well from '03 till the trans went in '16. It still drives, but leaks real bad from the output shaft when in reverse. This was quite disappointing, since the entire drivetrain has less than 15K miles on it.
The Phoenix RTS's came up for sale a year or so after I bought mine. I believe that some of them, or maybe lots of them were up on eBay at the time. They were a bit on the rough side to jump in and run across the country with, so they wouldn't have been good for me. IIRC, they were 04 series GMC's, so they were '82 to '86. I think a few people in the Yahoo group bought some.
Not too long after I bought the VTA bus, I learned about the Holy Grail of RTS's, which were the Golden Gate RTS's with the 6V92 coupled to a VF 5 speed trans. As far as I know, they were the only Transit agency to ever order that engine/trans combination. There are plenty of Series 50's with the VF, but not the 2 stroke. I was then on a mission to further reduce California's RTS bus population. It took a few tries, but I ended up buying one that had been abandoned at a storage facility in Concord, California. This one was also supposed to be involved in the big RV project, but now that it's been cancelled, I'd like to get antique tags for this one some day so I can drive it again. This one really drives nice, even though it's not nearly as clean as the VTA bus.
This is along the lines of what I wanted to do. This bus belongs to a friend in the Yahoo group, who now lives in AZ, about an hour or so north of you.
Like many others on FCBO, I'd like to move out of the northeast in the next five to ten years, so an expensive RV is no longer anywhere on the priority list. Anyways, I now have a substitute RV that I can travel the country with. I'm a bit limited to the places that I can go, but I manage to see enough neat things to keep me happy.
I bought the RTS way back in 2002. I had been thinking about getting one for a few years and finally got internet in '02, which made the search much easier. I found a real good Yahoo group for RTS buses and one of the members hooked me up with the one I bought. It came from VTA in San Jose, California. It's a 1988, made by TMC. The guy I got it from bought it for himself, but decided he was too far into the 1982 GMC RTS that he already had, and put the '88 up for sale. At the time, it was kind of a big deal because it was one of the first affordable 06-series RTS's available for sale. My original plan was to convert it into a motor home, but it turned out to work much better as parts hauler being left as an almost empty shell. I installed the bare minimum accommodations to qualify for RV plates in PA. It served us well from '03 till the trans went in '16. It still drives, but leaks real bad from the output shaft when in reverse. This was quite disappointing, since the entire drivetrain has less than 15K miles on it.
The Phoenix RTS's came up for sale a year or so after I bought mine. I believe that some of them, or maybe lots of them were up on eBay at the time. They were a bit on the rough side to jump in and run across the country with, so they wouldn't have been good for me. IIRC, they were 04 series GMC's, so they were '82 to '86. I think a few people in the Yahoo group bought some.
Not too long after I bought the VTA bus, I learned about the Holy Grail of RTS's, which were the Golden Gate RTS's with the 6V92 coupled to a VF 5 speed trans. As far as I know, they were the only Transit agency to ever order that engine/trans combination. There are plenty of Series 50's with the VF, but not the 2 stroke. I was then on a mission to further reduce California's RTS bus population. It took a few tries, but I ended up buying one that had been abandoned at a storage facility in Concord, California. This one was also supposed to be involved in the big RV project, but now that it's been cancelled, I'd like to get antique tags for this one some day so I can drive it again. This one really drives nice, even though it's not nearly as clean as the VTA bus.
This is along the lines of what I wanted to do. This bus belongs to a friend in the Yahoo group, who now lives in AZ, about an hour or so north of you.
Like many others on FCBO, I'd like to move out of the northeast in the next five to ten years, so an expensive RV is no longer anywhere on the priority list. Anyways, I now have a substitute RV that I can travel the country with. I'm a bit limited to the places that I can go, but I manage to see enough neat things to keep me happy.
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