Buses converted to campervans

I see a lot of these, but don't photograph them all.
There are also a lot to be seen at club rallies.
Today's trio are of the one type: AEC Regal MkIII, operated by Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board, in two lengths.

101204F Ardmona (Vic.) caravan park. R Smith
120506Su LakeGoldsmith (Vic.) NewcastleClub AEC Regal MkIII R Smith
130401M PicnicPoint (NSW) caravan park AEC MkIII caravan R Smith

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

I started this thread full of confidence that I had lots of photos, and now I am not finding them.

Here are a couple from rallies which may have been modified inside. Perhaps rally regulars could comment?
I am sure that I have seen at least one Flxible Clipper converted, but perhaps I didn't photograph it? There must be one in the 'Crawlin the Hume' set, as there were many of the type in that rally.

110313Su Clunes truck rally Leyland Tiger42 R Smith
031130Su HCVC FlxibleClipper FieryLady R Smith

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Hi Roderick, some converted buses look great & some look like ****. There seem to be many that get started but don't get finished or get used in a part finished condition.
I saw a very nice Austral Tourmaster up in Batchelor (NT) Caravan park several years ago, very nicely done. Main colour was Orange with Blue, chrome wheel covers, towing a Range Rover on a tri axle trailer. It was a very good set up & had undoubtledy cost the owner quite a lot of money to do.
About 3 years ago I was coming home from Perth & lo & behold here was the same outfit set up in a road construction camp along the Eyre Highway, still looked good although a bit dusty. Cheers Tim

Most of the early ones which I saw were converted from the ubiquitous Bedford SB.
In recent years, lots of prolific Comair Bedfords have been converted.

Here is something much rarer: a Denning. I am told that both maintenance and operation cost would be greater than those older ones, but perhaps it is owned by a person who grew up in the industry?

This one was in a caravan park or private property alongside Tucker Creek, on the opposite side of Darling River from Wentworth (NSW). Thurs.7.4.11.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

These two appear never to have been converted.

They are somewhere on Wakool River, between the Murray River junction and Kyalite. They were taken by my deckie. Both are from Ivanhoe Bus Company (Melbourne), now owned by Ventura, but the yellow scheme hasn't vanished yet.
There are lots of riverbank buses. I suspect that most are owned by fisherman, and are used as camping bases, with a tinnie in the water.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

A few from Israel



M-B O303



Volvo B10




Ex-Dan (Tel-Aviv's public transport operator) MAN articulated bus converted into a motel



This was a Neoplan airport bus...

The motel's site: www.en.exodia.co.il/

Feels like you never left the outback, lol. This is as near to nowhere as it gets in Israel but for us a chance to get away from the sardine can the center of the country is offers a big change.

T

I loved the Israel selection: very much in the spirit of what I had in mind when I started the thread.
I keep hoping that more members will join in: some will own one, and most will have seen them as rally-support vehicles; others will have seen them in the course of normal travel.
As with all of my thematic threads, I hope that everyone who now knows that there is a thread will grab a shot when they see something suitable.

Today, just one.
This is so elaborate that it may have been purpose built, and not a conversion. I did chat with the owner, but not about the ancestry.
Caseys Weir is a minor irrigation weir on the Benalla - Shepparton portion of Midland Hwy (Vic.). I was trailing Jessie II home from my Christmas - New Year cruise up both arms of Hume Weir; the campervan bus was on tour. It is well set up: trailing a car and a boat.

130101Tu Benalla - Shepparton Caseys Weir campervan R Smith

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria

Roderick,

Your wish is my command:



From Christopher Leach's blog ( christopher-leach-photography.blogspot.co.at/ )

This jailbar Ford was photographed in Nueiba, a tourist resort in the Sinai peninsula, on the Red Sea coast. Your guess is as good as mine as to what happened to it when the Israelis left after signing the peace accords with Egypt, but it is most certainly of Israeli origin. In fact, converting old buses into homes and storage sheds has always been very popular in Israel and is the reason some buses survived to date so that they have been preserved.



Here's another one somewhere in the Galillee, only recognisable as a bus from real close (from the Israeli public transport forum www.tapuz.co.il/forums2008/archive.aspx?...&MessageId=110308145 ).




Royal Tiger Worldmaster, assembled in Israel with israeli Mercavim body.




An Israeli assembled (US) Dodge D-500. Both from www.tapuz.co.il/forums2008/ViewMsg.aspx?...4&MessageId=75872403

Cheers

T

My old girl. My first attempt to post a picture. Lets see if I got it right.

Cocky

Some more (same as last source)




Second one is the bus in the first pic I connected before they put up the wooden beams and painted them blue... Both are 50's Royal Tigers ex Beersheba co-op which had their own spec bodywork usually built by Haargaz, the other large Israeli coachbuilder.

In fact, this habit of living in old buses was popular enough to become a feature of a popular Israeli TV series ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asfur ) as below





http://www.carsforum.co.il/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=123460&d=1218535219

A converted ex-IDF Dodge D-500. Pic from www.carsforum.co.il/vb/showthread.php?p=1785790#post1785790

More later...

T