Service Pit

[dale farley]

My bus is currently parked under a shed with a floor that is covered by a thick fiber material to minimize the dirt and moisture. I am planning to pour a concrete slab.

I am thinking about having a service pit that is only 15' to 20' long. I assume this will give plenty of room to service the front or rear by just moving the bus forward over the pit. I searched the forum and can't find any posts on the size of pits that others currently use. I need to know how deep and wide the pit should be. Mine won't be as fancy as Jon's, but I do want it to be functional. I have read some of the "Pit" posts before, but as I said, I cannot find them now. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

[Ray Davis]

Dale,

I found this previous post by Jon. Hopefully this helps.

http://www.prevostownersgroup.com/fo...arage#post4550

Does this mean you're keeping the bus?!!

ray

[dale farley]

Ray,

This means I'm keeping the bus unless I sell it. I don't know if or when I will sell it, but uintil then, I'm going to act like I'm keeping it. I'm not in a hurry to sell it. Thanks for the post.

[dale farley]

I read the post on Jon's pit. Don't know why I couldn't find it by searching on severl key words, including "Pit". One thing mentioned was to build it to accomodate a 45' bus. I had already decided to do that; I am extending that part of my building to 50'.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Dale,
Glad to her your keeping the bus. Good decision!!
Some things I came up with on pits since my query.
Greyhound was making theirs 3.5' wide and 5' deep.
Follow Jon's recommendation and make the depth to suite your height.
To find a width you like stand in various door ways and see how the space feels (comfort for your shoulder width).
Don't forget to form up the edge to take heavy planks to cover the pit in the future.
You don't need a long full length pit if your willing to move the bus.
I don't know what your ground is like but in general I would put down a good vapor barrier for the bus garage floor. It would be cheap and it would insure that your floor would be dry, and you could place anything on the floor and it would stay nice and dry. I think you said you were an excavator so I know you know this stuff but I had to say it anyway?

[JIM KELLER]

Dale, Boy am I jealous ! A Pit under my Bus is my dream. Hope to have it some day.

[Just Plain Jeff]

What hasn't been noted here is that Jon's pit has an extra cubicle in it for his collection of Lawrence Welk 8-track tapes and da bubble machine-ah. After he has dinner at 4 o'clock, it is rumored that he retreats to said area to revere in the glory of the day.

It is ultimate search to discover the MTBF of every thread in the coach by repeatedly taking each and every nut and bolt apart on his coach.

Then he can get new ones and repeat the process again while humming along with the Lennon Sisters.

Life is good in Knoxville. (One must guess).

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Dale,

In lieu of a pit Harry uses a ramp he has constructed of rail ties. A full length pit makes it easy to walk from one end to another, but except for being able to loosen or tighten bolts or nuts with your feet planted firmly on the ground, you can do everything from a creeper if you get the bus up as little as 8 inches. The Buddy Gregg facility here in Knoxville services hundreds of coaches each year and they have no pit.

I did all the work on my bus for the first 10 years on a barn floor.

It is impossible to overstate how a full length pit is convenient however because sitting on a barn floor in the space between the wheels is far less efficient than being able to stand up and move freely when doing any repairs or maintenance.

[dale farley]

Jon, I have the ramps that I built out of 3/4" plywood. They are two feet wide and 8" high and work very well, and I have a nice convenient concrete slab and 4 heavy-duty jacks that I use. I am not sure if the pit is going to be worth the extra trouble or not. It definitely won't be as nice as yours if I build it.

As we discuss, I am not sure how I am going to get down in the pit considering the limited space I will have on each end of the bus. I may have to crawl under the bus and roll in the pit. I have been doing all my work on the slab outside, and although it is subject to the weather, I really like the light and atmosphere it offers. Most of our weather is just "hot".

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I have a set of stairs at one end of the pit. The pit was designed for a 40' coach and the stairs extended beyond the rear bumper so I could literally walk down them and under the bus.

Now I have a 45 and the stairs begin under the bumper so I have to lay down and roll toward the stairs. It's a pain but I minimize the issue by lining everything up before I get under the bus. Any pit is going to have some negatives. The most critical is you need a way to drain it. I built a sump pit in mine and it will not drain accidentally. I have to manually turn on the submersible pump. I chose to not run anything I pump out of the pit into the sanitary sewer, so I run it outside through a dedicated pipe into an oil trap. That way I prevent an accidental fuel or oil spill from ending up harming my property or ruining my septic system.

You must have some means of egress for anything that may accidently end up in the pit like small animals. That is the advantage of the steps. They can climb out. The alternative is to cover it when not in use.

If you are currently working on it while it is raised you will be amazed at how much faster you will be able to do things when you have a pit. If you do not do a lot of work on the bus its expense may not be justified, but who among us can justify the expense of a bus?