What about a 16 passenger shuttle bus as a remote truck?

[barbarrick]

Greetings remote people! I've been reading a lot of the posts lately and this is a goldmine for info on location recording.
I've done a few myself, probably the best was a jazz/poetry concert with Oregon's poet laureate, and some great local jazz players. Then I kind of got hooked on remote stuff. I've done the small studio thing for 12 years or so, but this is very exciting, being live and all.

I was wondering about a vehicle, actually a shuttle bus conversion, would that be a reasonable start - size wise? It seems plausible, but I've haven't seen anyone talk about that for a truck, on this forum anyway.

Cheers,
Rob

[Remoteness]

Hey Rob,

Steve tuning in...

Welcome to our humble forum.
I'm happy to hear that you found our information on location recording helpful.
We aim to please!

I too wonder about the next remote recording concept vehicle.

A shuttle bus conversion, has always been on my mind, especially the larger versions I've seen on the road. It seems like the perfect small footprint mobile unit. The smaller buses also look like they can work if you're not carrying a lot of cargo.

The one thing I would always be concerned about is the suspension.
You must concern beefing up the rig if you're going to build a real remote truck.
IMO, there is no way around this situation.

There's a cat in Tulsa, OK that built exactly what you're thinking about.
He did a nice job with it. I will do my best to get him to chime in on this thread.
You never know; he might bite and come join us here in Remoteville. ;-)

[Thomas W. Bethe]

Years ago we looked at a RV conversion for our mobile recording setup. Good price on the unit we were looking at but the mechanic who was working in the shop took me aside and said "don't buy it the transmission has been replaced two times already" I have a good friend who went with me to look at some other vehicles and we looked at an RTA diesel Circulator bus that was being sold. It was designed for back streets and was about what you are describing. Nice suspension and good gas mileage. The price was good also. There were a few problems with it and the conversion would have cost some money but I still think about it. Here is a picture of one of the units http://www.newsnet5.com/2009/0831/20655391_240X180.jpg and another one here http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009...Circulator.jpg.

One person in town here bought an ambulance and is using it for his home repair business but it looks like it would make a really nice remote truck.

There are a lot of video vans and small trucks for sale see here Broadcast Vehicles / Trailers - TV Pro Gear: Turnkey Systems Integrator : Broadcast, Production, Post, Mobile, Tapeless and I have seen a couple locally. They even in some cases have racks in them and generators.

Lots of choices....

Best of luck!

[barbarrick]

Hey guys, thanks for the input!

Steve, good thoughts on the suspension, I hadn't considered that much. Though my rig isn't going to be that involved, I think probably having gear that is maybe mounted in racks and put in "cradles" that are easily removed to bring into certain venues, but others I can record from the truck.

I'll let you know what happens with pics as soon as I can!

Rob