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second.flood
Top Member
USA
640 Posts |
 Posted - 05/06/2015 : 06:46:36 AM
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I've had my two BB conventional buses for several months now. these are my first full BB buses after years of IC. I really don't think they are better, just different. Time will tell.
#27, Dome lights and window alarm comes on occasionally. Dealer said there is a pinched wire somewhere. They thought it was repaired but the batteries were dead when they tried to return it. Round two :)
Engine light and ABS light comes on intermittently. Found wire harness against engine, burned through. repairs made.
#28, Dash goes on and off and flashes. Engine and ABS lights also come on intermittently. Dealer will pick this bus up after #27 is repaired. |
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RonF
Top Member
867 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2015 : 10:18:13 AM
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Hopefully that is isolated. BlueBird use to be a good quality bus. We will have a special needs BB delivered in June. We have a mixed fleet like most do. All of our BlueBirds are 2005 and older. International run from 2006-2014. We do have 2 2012 Thomas C-2's and right now they are our best buses maintenance wise. I'm impressed with the body and the ride. I do have a good influence with our board on bus buying |
US Army retired CMBT |
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JoeHEB1
Advanced Member
498 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2015 : 2:37:13 PM
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| Like you most of our fleet consist of IC, this school year I finally convinced the big wigs to try something other than IC and they went with it. We purchased 5 BB with Cummins engines and have not had any of those issues you mentioned. I'll keep an eye on this thread for a heads up on what problems to look out for. |
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krmvcs
Advanced Member
362 Posts |
Posted - 05/06/2015 : 2:59:20 PM
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| Ive purchased 5 Thomas HDX's with ISC/ISL engines over the last few years and couldn't be happier. as the only tech for the school, and from the looks of this forum, id never be able to leave work if they were IC buses. |
-Ken- |
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aaronwilmoth80911
Top Member
538 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2015 : 04:21:28 AM
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| We've already had our fair share of issues with new BBs. 3 new sped buses, all 3 came from the factory/dealer with things that were wrong. One had the lift door switches wired wrong, so the light wouldn't come on when it should and the buzzer would come on when it shouldn't. All the wheelchair tracks had lots of metal shavings in them, numerous check engine lights, just all sorts of little things that add up to being really annoying and time consuming. Then, the dealer tends to try and get away from having to reimburse us for warranty work. It is too far to take them back to the dealer, and most fixes are generally small, but being new, we shouldn't have to keep fixing things. Seems to me that BB quality has really gone downhill. |
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Thomasbus24
Administrator
USA
4544 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2015 : 04:38:44 AM
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My last two birds were from July 2013 and have been nothing but trouble when it comes to electrical. One year/12,000 mile warranty just plain stinks.
Liking the new IC's so far, but it's pretty early yet. Only issue has been a Cummins one.
Honestly, it doesn't matter which we buy, quality just isn't there anymore IMO. |
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second.flood
Top Member
USA
640 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2015 : 06:29:46 AM
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| Thomas is not an option unfortunately. Our Thomas dealer is atrocious. |
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Thomasfan89
Top Member
USA
1155 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2015 : 07:14:10 AM
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| Man, I really hope I don't regret my 2 All American FEs on the way... We went with Bird because the dealer is pretty good and the Thomas dealer isn't very good at all. Plus our last 2 2010 EFs are electrical nightmares... Can't win these days with the buses. |
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second.flood
Top Member
USA
640 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2015 : 07:19:20 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Thomasfan89
Man, I really hope I don't regret my 2 All American FEs on the way... We went with Bird because the dealer is pretty good and the Thomas dealer isn't very good at all. Plus our last 2 2010 EFs are electrical nightmares... Can't win these days with the buses.
I bet we have the same dealers. I'm in north central Ohio. |
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second.flood
Top Member
USA
640 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2015 : 09:33:59 AM
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#27 was finished and ready to be brought back and unfortunately the batteries were dead after sitting overnight.
They are digging back into it. I hate intermittent electrical problems. |
Edited by - second.flood on 05/07/2015 09:34:35 AM |
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RonF
Top Member
867 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2015 : 12:12:47 PM
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We currently have 23 2012-2015 IC buses and it is one problem after another. All the engine issues are taken care of by warranty but we eat the out of service time by running 20 year old spares. Our dealer takes for ever to get to the bus and get it back to us, 5 week turn around time. This biggest issues I have with a $70,000 + bus are, the windows won't stay up, glass falls out, screws fall out of the ceiling, rattles and squeaks, flimsy seat backs, (cushions) A lot of those problems happen since day one. I worked for a different county school system 10 years prior to me being here and we had the same problems with those IC buses.
Another issue is the seat covers them selves, 4 to 5 years you have to replace all of the because the crack and flake off so bad. The 03 and 04 CE 300 IC was a great bus, down hill ever since.
In my last system we had 10 06 BB visions and only had one bus with an issue in 2013. All of them have over 160,000 miles on them. |
US Army retired CMBT |
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Thomasfan89
Top Member
USA
1155 Posts |
Posted - 05/07/2015 : 1:52:54 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by second.flood
quote:
Originally posted by Thomasfan89
Man, I really hope I don't regret my 2 All American FEs on the way... We went with Bird because the dealer is pretty good and the Thomas dealer isn't very good at all. Plus our last 2 2010 EFs are electrical nightmares... Can't win these days with the buses.
I bet we have the same dealers. I'm in north central Ohio.
You, Thomasbus24 and I sure do have the same dealers. I'm in Northeast, Ohio. It's sad, really, because I do like the EFX and was willing to give it a shot. It all boiled down to dealer support for me. |
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RonF
Top Member
867 Posts |
Posted - 05/08/2015 : 05:31:37 AM
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| Oh lets not even start talking about the VT-365's |
US Army retired CMBT |
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OxDiesel-Doc
Active Member
25 Posts |
Posted - 05/08/2015 : 08:33:20 AM
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I have a fleet of 9 BB All American RE, 7 of them are 06'-08's the other two are 2015's. The older ones are great, no major issues, they seem pretty solid. The two 2015's have have several problems within a 6 month period...
the incandescent light bulbs filaments break on the tail lights
the emergency exit handles have come loose & fallen off
the emergency exit switch gets stuck and sounds the alarm wont sound when opened.
the seat belt re-tractors always jam up
the manual shut off valve for the CNG gets stuck
the fuel filter metal sleeve has broken off when the housing is removed.
water leaks through the roof when it rains
the engine cooling fan pulley has had the bearing seize and the pulley break.
All this within 6 months.
I would also have to agree that their quality has gone down hill.
During my PM's I have noticed that a lot of parts are made in China now, and other countries as well. I think it has a lot to do with the company going public and now on the NASDAQ. They are trying to take care of their investors and not the quality of their product now. |
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Thomasbus24
Administrator
USA
4544 Posts |
Posted - 05/08/2015 : 09:48:11 AM
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I enjoy the lights that look exactly like Weldons, but aren't. Notice they do not say "Weldon". Where a clearance lamp assembly used to last me 5-10 years, now I've been lucky to get 2 years from them. Same with the 7" stuff. Slowly converting to LED.
Full disclosure: the last genuine Weldon lights I bought don't say "Columbus, Ohio" on them anymore, who knows where they come from now. |
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RonF
Top Member
867 Posts |
Posted - 05/08/2015 : 10:31:17 AM
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| I happen to have a Weldon Tail/Brake light in front of me that came off of my 2012 C2 and molded in the plastic is " WELDON TECHNOLOGIS >PC< MADE IN TAIWAN" |
US Army retired CMBT |
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Thomasbus24
Administrator
USA
4544 Posts |
Posted - 05/08/2015 : 11:53:58 AM
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| Oh goody |
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57fan
Senior Member
United States
148 Posts |
Posted - 05/08/2015 : 7:32:49 PM
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| We have a fleet of buses from the "Big Three". Each brand has there pluses and the minuses. We have 2 2014 BB AARE's that had the Roof hatch wires pinched by a window frame. We spoke to the local BB dealer and he said it is a common problem across there buses. They run the wires to the roof hatches between window frames and roof ribs and usually they are pinched at the bottom of the window. We had to remove the windows and enlarge the hole for the wire so the window did not pinch it. We had this same problem on buses from BB going back to 2011. As for instrument clusters, we had to have both of them replaced on our 2015's due to the same issues you explained. There is not much you can do with them. They either work or they don't. And for those having issues with lamps breaking the filament, another reason to go LED. We have not found a good maker of lamps for them. Just replace them until the fleet is converted over to LED's |
Lead, Follow or get out of the way! Thomas Paine |
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Thomasbus24
Administrator
USA
4544 Posts |
Posted - 05/11/2015 : 04:29:47 AM
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57fan,
Give Maxxima a try if you aren't happy with your LED supplier. Available from tacbusparts.com the 7leda, 7ledst and m90450 for the 7" stuff. I've been using them for 4 years on about ten buses and had had only one failure, which was warranty.
I've used Doran for the triangular markers and 4" stop/tails and been happy. A few more failures of the markers, but nothing to write home about. Soundoff for warning...no failures not caused by a tree!
Now that I've jinx'ed myself!!!!! |
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New Blue Birds
