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TulsaOK
Active Member
USA
40 Posts |
 Posted - 10/20/2005 : 09:59:57 AM
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Hello everyone. I'm new to the forum and enjoy reading the posts. I work at the IC bus plant in Tulsa. From what I've read so far looks like a lot of experienced folks in these forums. But if these guys and gals get stumped I'll see if I can offer an answer. Or if anyone has a question specific to the Tulsa plant I'll be glad to respond.
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William Johnston
Senior Member
USA
135 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2005 : 11:17:18 AM
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Welcome to the forum
William |
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thomas86_a
Top Member
USA
4413 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2005 : 2:17:07 PM
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| Welcome to the forums! |
Edited by - thomas86_a on 10/20/2005 2:17:28 PM |
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B. Busguy33
Top Member
USA
3444 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2005 : 5:08:32 PM
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Welcome to the SBF Forums. Nice to have you join us!
I was at the IC plant in Tulsa this past summer. Quite a place! I was there along with 15 other drivers to pick up some brand-new buses. I saw a lot of nice buses there, some with very interesting specs. It was a great opportunity, and I hope I get that same opportunity again.
Looking forward to your participation in these forums. |
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IC RE 1629
Top Member
United States
5097 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2005 : 5:30:04 PM
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Welcome to the forums!
I'm a big fan of IC buses. I really look forward to hearing what you have to say about IC buses. |
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IC-RE
Top Member
USA
4117 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2005 : 5:59:57 PM
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Hi and welcome, I have a question for you... Are all 4 types of buses (RE, FE, CE, and BE) manufactured in the Tulsa plant, or how is it set up? Also, do you have any pictures of the plant?
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 bus 1980, a 2008 IC RE 300 for Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax, Virginia. |
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B. Busguy33
Top Member
USA
3444 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2005 : 6:33:41 PM
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quote:
Hi and welcome, I have a question for you... Are all 4 types of buses (RE, FE, CE, and BE) manufactured in the Tulsa plant, or how is it set up? Also, do you have any pictures of the plant
I don't mean to steal the spotlight from TulsaOK, but I can answer that for you.
Currently, the CE is the only bus manufactured in Tulsa. The BE, FE, and RE are all manufactured in Conway, AK. The Tulsa plant opened just over five years ago, while Conway has been in existence for a long time. |
Edited by - B. Busguy33 on 10/20/2005 6:35:51 PM |
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TulsaOK
Active Member
USA
40 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2005 : 09:53:29 AM
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Not a problem, Busguy33. You're exactly right. We only build the CE model in Tulsa.
The plant is an old Air Force building built during the WWII era. 1 mile long, 300 feet wide and 80 feet to the ceiling. Free span building inside. Only posts are ones that support 2 levels of mezzanine area. We have just over 1/2 of the length and Boeing is in the other end of the building.
I have some pics that I'll share as soon as I figure out how to do that.
I appreciate all that took the time to welcome me to this forum. Looking forward to hearing more from you.
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TulsaOK
Active Member
USA
40 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2005 : 1:48:32 PM
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OK, see if this works. I can publish more pics if anyone wants to see them. I can also take additional pics if anyone has anything in particular they would like to see about the plant or building a bus.
http://home.earthlink.net/~vatusa6/ |
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ModMech
Top Member
USA
948 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2005 : 2:57:59 PM
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Thanks for the photos.
It looks like the Tulsa plant is a little more organized than the Conway plant, but they try to do too much on the property they have, so they do the best they can. |
If you want customer service, you NEED an International! |
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TulsaOK
Active Member
USA
40 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2005 : 4:47:11 PM
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Yeah, CBP has been building buses for a long time. I can't say anything bad about them. What has made a difference is TBP raised the quality bar by being a new division. Its a lot easier to start new traditions than to change old ones. Anyway, CBP has accepted the challenge and raised their level of quality as well.
We've had 3 great plant managers in our short 5+ year life. The 2nd one was very quality minded. He is now in charge of CBP and the first thing he did was a field review of all the buses on the property. Price, service, availability and some other things may sell buses but quality brings a customer back for a 2nd purchase.
As ModMech said in another thread, International listens to the customer and reacts. We've had customers send pictures back along with a message telling us what we should do differently and we've changed our build process because of it.
I started out on the chassis line at TBP and now I'm on the Body side of things. We are always looking for ways to improve our product.
I'll get off my soapbox now.
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IC-RE
Top Member
USA
4117 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2005 : 7:46:45 PM
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| That is absolutley true! We have mostly AmTran and IC products in our fleet (1,600 buses) Many of our older AmTrans are Genesis, while our 96-2006 Buses are ALL AmTran or IC RE and FE except for a few hundred Thomas's (which we are having 'trouble with due to our poor specs) We speced our 96-01 AmTran RE's rather well, aside from the fact that they have the T444e rather than the DT466's. Our 2002-2004 IC RE's have the T444e's, but we got high headroom/A/C, and Air ride. Our 2006 IC RE's have the VT365's, and our 2007 IC RE's will have the DT466!!!! We are very excited. The quality of International buses is beyong great, and that is part of the reason we continue with you guys. This year I am saddened, out contract with AmTran-IC expires, and IC, Blue Bird, and Thomas will be bidding. I am HOPING that IC will win again, we are thrilled with your product! BTW, we are Fairfax County Public schools of Virginia. |
bus 1980, a 2008 IC RE 300 for Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax, Virginia. |
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TulsaOK
Active Member
USA
40 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2005 : 04:44:55 AM
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Talk about specs for a bus. We literally have thousands of options available. I've often wondered if customers knew what was available to choose from. Last year we had over 2,500 buses on our lot ready for pick up. This year we'll have closer to 3,000. I often thought if I were a customer I'd come to the plant and ask if I could roam the lot just to view the different options. We build everything from the bare bones bus to the fully loaded. I'm talking about strobing LED flashers, strobing stop arms, removable faceplate CD player, dome lights connected to all entrance/exit doors, dual door controls (one on steering wheel & one on either right side dash or left side switch panel), 20 minute snooze on the post-trip alarm (some states must shut off engine when loading or unloading students), post trip reset button on light bar at rear of bus in place of opening rear exit to reset alarm, park position on shifter and on and on and on.
My point is, if you have an IC product and don't like the way its configured chances are there is an option available to configure the bus the way you want it. Its a matter of knowing that option is there. And if its not, we constantly do "special quotes" for customers.
We currently build 48 buses a day at Tulsa. That's one buse coming off the line every 12 minutes of our 10 hour work day. Many times each bus is different from the next. Long bus, short bus. Standard bus, special needs bus. Yellow bus, white bus, green bus, blue bus, tan bus. And the list goes on. |
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thomas86_a
Top Member
USA
4413 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2005 : 1:18:53 PM
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Yes the amount of options you can get on school buses are amazing. Some of the not so common specs our district has are dual switches for the heated mirrors, an extra loading light mounted on the left side of the bus on those buses with luggage compartments, the reverse lights and loading light(s) activate when the rear door (or side door and rear exit) is opened. On our last bus order for two rear-engine transits we also got quite picky about how the interior mirror and visor were mounted. Modern options we added this year were an electronic control for the parking brake (which can also be configured to automatically put the 3500 transmission in neutal when the reds are on and door opens) and also a tire pressure monitoring system.
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If you have an International, you NEED customer service. |
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92FrdCarp#11
Top Member
USA
1455 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2005 : 2:15:44 PM
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| Welcome to the forums! I, too, am a fan of AmTran/IC buses. The majority of the fleet in my county is AmTran/IC. I hope IC wins the bid again this year. The Transportation Director in my county is hoping that IC wins the bid this year, too. |
Johnny
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Bus 29
Active Member
USA
47 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2005 : 4:05:58 PM
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| This might sound like a dumb question, but why the heck can't they put the defroster fans in the same place as the bluebirds? |
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Rich
Top Member
United States
5768 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2005 : 5:18:54 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Bus 29
This might sound like a dumb question, but why the heck can't they put the defroster fans in the same place as the bluebirds?
They can put the defroster fans anywhere you want them, just write them into the specs. |
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thomas86_a
Top Member
USA
4413 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2005 : 5:55:40 PM
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"no dumb questions- just dumb people" Kidding, Kidding!
I've always thought the IC setup was kinda weird, although with Blue Bird it's hard to angle the fan towards the drivers side window when it is up above. I always liked how Thomas had the drivers side on the control panel, that way I could easily turn it towards the window. Thomas will move it up above if you wish.
We speced 3 of the fans on our HDX's, one in the left corner, one in the center, and one in the right corner. The drivers side (left corner) is mounted so that it hangs down below the windshield instead of being up above the side window. There are certain specs we are picky about! But when you hand out nearly 85K for a bus they are usually pretty good about meeting those specs. |
If you have an International, you NEED customer service. |
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Thomasbus24
Administrator
USA
4547 Posts |
Posted - 10/23/2005 : 06:28:23 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by thomas86_a
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We speced 3 of the fans on our HDX's, one in the left corner, one in the center, and one in the right corner. The drivers side (left corner) is mounted so that it hangs down below the windshield instead of being up above the side window.
That's one of the best things you can do for a pusher IMO. We outfitted a couple of OLD pushers that way in their final years and it helped keep the glass clean tremendously!
Sorry to go off on a tangent like that! |
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ICfan
Top Member
USA
1251 Posts |
Posted - 10/25/2005 : 09:22:36 AM
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| As everybody has been saying: Welcome TulsaOK!! I love IC CE's My hometown brought 37 2005 IC CE's last year, which was great. I beleive that it is amazing that 48 Buses are produced a day! This could be the wrong question to ask, but I'll ask it anyways: What are most common specs that a bus company or district uses? If this list is long can any one email the list to weatherman1@charter.net Once again Welcome! |
Tyler Roys Weatherman and International Fan,
http://www.freewebs.com/thectschoolbusyard |
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TulsaOK
Active Member
USA
40 Posts |
Posted - 10/25/2005 : 09:51:20 AM
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I honestly couldn't answer that one. There are so many different variations and so many different districts ordering that it would be almost impossible for me to list them.
When I was on the Chassis Line in 2003 I took at look at Air brake units vs hydraulic and I6 vs V8. We were running somewhere around 65% air units and 60% V8 units.
I'll try to put a couple more shots of the plant up this afternoon. |
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thomas86_a
Top Member
USA
4413 Posts |
Posted - 10/25/2005 : 2:10:30 PM
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| What is also a factor is that the state specs/requirements vary so that alone makes a lot of units different, in addition to those items the districts/contractors specify. |
If you have an International, you NEED customer service. |
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ICfan
Top Member
USA
1251 Posts |
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BlueBird44
Top Member
USA
1639 Posts |
Posted - 10/26/2005 : 6:43:14 PM
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| Welcome to the forums you produce nice buses there I am currently driving a 2006 IC-CE that was produced there this summer I love the bus it's defintley my favorite bus I've driven! Keep up the good work there it's one solid bus. |
IC-The Golden Shield of School Transportation |
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TulsaOK
Active Member
USA
40 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2005 : 06:10:03 AM
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| With a handle like yours that's quite a compliment. Just kidding. I appreciate the kind words. I hope you have an opportunity to visit our plant sometime. |
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Dravo
Senior Member
USA
93 Posts |
Posted - 10/27/2005 : 6:00:22 PM
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| thomas86_a, You said you speced a tire pressure monitoring system. Is there anywhere can I see info on that system? |
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thomas86_a
Top Member
USA
4413 Posts |
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PCW
Senior Member
USA
171 Posts |
Posted - 12/11/2005 : 1:59:14 PM
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I was priviledged to visit the Tulsa, OK factory this past week and I will say this much. It was absolutely amazing to see all these school buses, each different from the next. The purpose of my trip, along with three other drivers, was to pickup 4 IC CE's and drive them back to Westcoach Corporation (IC Dealership in California) Upon arrival to the Tulsa Factory I notied some buses already being picked up by others. They were staged in a holding lot where they were being pretripped before going out on the road. One inparticular had a tow hitch on the back with a sedan attached to it. As this is illegal in california, I thought it was kind of odd to see. Merely looking at the buses in the lot I could see several variations of the same type of unit. Some had full skirts vs. high skirts, yellow rubrails vs. black, all red warning lights instead of the amber/red combination, manufacture logo on some but not all, yellow rims vs. all black...the list is endless. I was just excited to be there. As it stands now, I'll be going back once a month to bring new buses back to california. In February I'll get a chance to go on a factory tour and start bringing some RE's back. I can't wait!!
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TulsaOK
Active Member
USA
40 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2005 : 09:50:58 AM
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Glad you enjoyed your visit to Tulsa. Hope the return trip was uneventful.
Yes, there are many, many variations to our buses. Certainly not a cookie-cutter type of manufacturing going on here. Keeps us on our toes reviewing paperwork as the unit is being built to make sure we build it as it was ordered.
Best of luck to you. |
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PCW
Senior Member
USA
171 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2005 : 1:03:58 PM
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TulsaOK,
In addition to the vast amounts of units there, I also want to comment on the friendly yard staff ya'll have there. One gentleman inparticular saw that I was having a bit of trouble adjusting the outside mirror assembly and came up to help. That is service if I have anything to say about it. He simply took a few moments out of, what I presume, his busy work schedule to help. I wish I got his name. Perhaps next time.
The only real problem I had was a leak from the coolant reservior. I couldn't isolate where the lead was coming from but the fluid was in fact red. So deductively I figured it was coolant. I wasn't able to isolate the leak so I had to get a fuel canister and coolant from walmart and keep it on the bus incase the leak got worse...in which it did. After the second day I thought about it and I wondered if I shut off the heater valves if that would make a difference. Well sure enough it did. Apparently the heater hoses had a leak so I wrote it up when I got back to california. No biggy. Other then that, the CE's performed famously, especially on hilly terrain. Going through Flagstaff, AZ was an easy feet for these engines. And this new light check option is very helpful especially when checking your reverse lights. Most of the time our drivers will need a spotter to help with that. Great feature. Keep up the good work!! And I'm sure I'll see ya'll in January.
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TulsaOK
Active Member
USA
40 Posts |
Posted - 12/14/2005 : 11:35:25 AM
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Too bad that getting good service makes you notice it, right? That should be the norm for people dealing with the public but unfortunately its not.
I was over the final inspection, bus prep and pick-up part of the business for a while. I still know most of the folks that work that area. I'm happy to say that it could have been any one of them that stopped to give you a hand. Great group of people. |
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deleon
Senior Member
USA
133 Posts |
Posted - 12/15/2005 : 08:04:47 AM
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Tulasok
do you have some wiring drawing for the ce on-hand? |
DeLeon Anderson
bus 20 |
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TulsaOK
Active Member
USA
40 Posts |
Posted - 12/15/2005 : 09:48:34 AM
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| Yes, I do. What do you need? |
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deleon
Senior Member
USA
133 Posts |
Posted - 12/15/2005 : 10:54:52 AM
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stop arm cancel
flashers
camera
dome light
right fan
booster pump
strode
cl lamps
rear heat
throottle(on/off and decel/accel)
headlights
def. fan
econmy mode
and do you have a panel layout driver area.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
DeLeon Anderson
bus 20 |
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TulsaOK
Active Member
USA
40 Posts |
Posted - 12/15/2005 : 12:44:51 PM
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| Let me get this together for you. Do you have an email address I can send them to? Are you able to accept large files (4 meg or so)? |
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deleon
Senior Member
USA
133 Posts |
Posted - 12/15/2005 : 1:10:01 PM
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| i think.lets try it my email is d.anderson@muchomail.com |
DeLeon Anderson
bus 20 |
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Topic |
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IC Tulsa Bus Plant
