Making the leap to buying a bus was a big decision for us at the time. We're not mechanically minded folks (yet!), so we couldn't see the value in buying a beater and restoring it. We'd talked to a bunch of people that owned them, including one of bus-loving and -living members, Gary Haupt, and discussed the various merits and disadvantages of air-cooled versus water-cooled, campers versus kombis, etc.
We looked at a few vans around town (Eugene is a VW shopper's paradise), thinking we'd have to spend at least two grand to get a van in decent mechanical shape so we weren't pouring cash down a breakdown-littered pit. Sean also called his cousin in Ohio who had a van and was willing to sell it. It was a post-'72 camper and had some rust, some holes in the canopy and a few mechanical quirks. Due to the family connection, he was prepared to give us mate's rates on the sale.
The price was very reasonable, and we thought long and hard about it. Buying a vehicle from family felt a lot more secure than some dude off the street looking to get rid of a lemon. In the end, it was probably logistics that defeated the sale. Getting one of us out to Ohio, and spending the time and money to get it registered and roadworthy, and then driving it all the way back to Oregon was more than we wanted to spend at that point in our search.
SideTrakka
We have to admit, there were a few times where we kind of got led astray from our idea to have a VW bus be the BootsnAll road trip vehicle of choice.
At one point we drooled a lot over the funky-looking Pontiac Aztek, and even went down to the local Pontiac lot in Eugene to check one out. It was quite swish, and the travel-customized attachments – such as a car-camping kit – were tempting. The $20,000+ price tag was harder to swallow, and after much deliberation we decided to nix the Aztek out of the running. The vee-dub was just more, well, us.
There is an Australian version of the kombi though, that still sticks in our heads. Once it comes time to have a 'Strayin version of the BootBus, the Aussie Trakka could be a top choice. It has some pretty neat features, like a detachable barbie in the side door, solar panels and even a shower attachment – things that might prove handy in the Outback.
We talked a lot about these two vehicles, deliberating their positives and negatives, seeing how they stacked up against a vee-dub. In the end, we decided to stay our course and the original dream: it was a VW bus, or bust.
Jed, Donovan & a Deadline
Living in Eugene and seeing tons of vee-dubs on the road kept the bus in the front of our minds. During our November 2001 end-of-year meeting we decided to stop pussy-footing around, and we set a deadline for having a bus in the BootsnAll stable: December 15, 2001.
A BootsnAll member, Donovan Pacholl, put us in touch with a friend of his who was looking to get rid of his '71 van. Jed Truett had owned this van for 8 years and used it for many a road trip. However, it had sat idle in his driveway for the last 4 years, and Jed had decided it was time to let it go. After a half-hearted attempt to get it running again – spending around $800 on brakes, batteries, carbs, and starter motors – Jed decided enough was enough.
And that's where we came in. We visited Jed's house and checked out the van on a rainy day in November. It was a dirty blue and white, but with some green and brown from a thick layer of dirt and moss. Well, after all a rolling stone gathers no moss, and this stone hadn't rolled in 4 years.
There was a problem with the bus starting if it had been idle for a few days, so Jed had jump-started it and it was running when we arrived. It sounded pretty smooth. The inside was filled with junk: parts, greasy rags, golf balls, even an old futon mattress – it was more like a storage shed than the inside of a vehicle. Sean took it for a test drive down the end of Jed's cul-de-sac – and stalled it. The van wouldn't re-start, so Jed and Chris had to take the car down to the van, jump-start it and drive it back to the house.
That didn't deter us though. We had a good think about it, then on December 14 Sean called Jed with an offer: "$500, and a link to your web site," (Interconnection.org, a cool non-profit that Jed founded). He said, "Sure," and the bus was ours.
Then the fun part began.