Leyland National Conversion?

[foxbat]

Hii,
First post, first query!
My wife and I are moving to Granada in Spain from the UK. For various reasons we are considering carrying out a partial conversion of a Leyland National East Lancs Greenway. The vehicle will need to act as temporary living accomodation(whilst our 'place in the sun' is being refurbished) , for furniture removal and transportation for the move.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to the capabilities of the proposed vehicle and its suitability for the intended purpose(s).
I also need clarification on the point of driving the bus.
According to information downloaded from Ensignbus, I can drive an RML double decker on my car license.I read elsewhere though that the rules have changed.
The vehicle is essentially going to be used as a motorhome.

If anyone can help I'd greatly appreciate any comments.

[Jonathan Smith]

Hi.

Firstly welcome to the site.

What you can drive depends on when you passed you test, if you passed your car test prior to 1997 you may under certain circumstances be permitted to drive a routemaster.

If your passed after 1996 then you cannot drive a routemaster.

There is much written on the subject on this forum, I will let you decide what you consider to be legal.

The Leyland National is a proven chassis, the greenway conversion was basically a rebody of an older chassis.

The national normally has a leyland or gardner engine and will normally have a top speed of 45 or 50 mph depending on engine and gear box. So not very fast on the motorway!

The internal volume is more than ample for a couple to live in, there is no under floor storage or boot and the vehicle is rear engined with a raised rear saloon area.

[foxbat]

Jonathan,
Many thanks for your prompt response.
This much information I have retrieved from website 'http://www.fortunecity.com/silverstone/subaru/98/National/LS_a.htm'

LS449 GUW 449W 2/81 new to Aldenham
3/81 to Leyland Nottingham for finishing..
3/81 BW ..into store (Bow)
4/81 AG into service, Red Arrow (Ash Grove)
1/83 CA transfer, mechanical trainer (Clapham)
AG
7/85 AG to overhaul
11/85 GM from o/h (Victoria)
AG
8/87 WL transfer (Walworth)
9/88 RA transfer (Waterloo Red Arrow)
89-91 RA
7/92 FW transfer into store (Fulwell)
8/92 SW transfer (Stockwell)
10/92 FW back into store
3/93 RG to Reigate for conversion
1993 Greenway conversion to GLS449
GLS449 6/93 RA return to Waterloo
1994 RA privatised to London General for Red Arrow
12/97 RA London General
4/00 RA
6/02 sold to Nash/Blue Triangle - to Rainham
6/03 sold to Stafford Bus Centre
by 4/04 bought by Tally Ho!, Kingsbridge, Devon
painted overall pink: "The Pink Parker", for Park & Ride
7/04 "Pinky"

The vehicle is now back in the hands of the Stafford Bus Centre. It has a Gardner Turbocharged 6HCXLT engine and a ZF Auto gear box.

The fact that the interior comes ready compartmentalised is one of the principle attractions, not to mention the price!

Having held a UK driving license since 1973, and given the planned useage of the vehicle no-one pays or is paid, not for hire or reward and no passengers other than my wife and the dogs, I believe I can drive the vehicle legally on my UK Car license.

I have been inn contact with Tally Ho Coaches, the last users of the vehicle, and they described a tendency for the engine to overheat when climbing hills all day intersperced with a gearbox overheat when descending the same hills, due to the operation of a limiter in the gearbox. Given that this problem sems to be due to the shared cooling system, it is not necessarily beyond the wit of my support team to come up with some form of additional cooling should this prove necessary. This apart, the vehicle seems to meet our requirements.

If we do decide to go ahead with the project I will report daily progress, no doubt doing a little brain picking on the way...

Many thanks again and keep up the good work on this veery informative site.

[Frits]

Hi foxbat, i hope you're settled in your place in the sun.

My wife and I bought the above detailed vehicle (Pinky) from the staffordshire bus centre. our intentions being to do a "Living" conversion on it.

Funds are a bit tight so we're going to spend about a year doing the basic modifications.

I noted when we first saw it that an extra electric fan had been fitted in front of the radiator and the nose had been modified to accommodate it.

At the moment it's parked in a local farm having spent some time on the forecourt of a local Van Hire company.

Progress has been made, seats removed, poles removed, measurements taken, plans drawn, dumped and drawn again, dreams discussed and fantasies pondered.

It would be nice to get a few extra MPH out of her, 42 is the current max.

Does anyone have a clue of how this could be achieved??

Any info would be massively appreciated.

[daren]

hi .. in response to speed you will need to find out wot diff you have in the back axle and see if you can get one more suited or just change the whole axle for one better geared ! sounds like hard work but its not that bad really . there should be a small tag on the diff case with the gearing details on it . as for overheating i know of a few nationals that had large scoops made underneath to draw more air . made up from some thin ally and pop rivets !!!!!! hope this help a little bit .. cheers