Now just what are we to make of this? A backhoe mounted on the back end of a school bus? Someone help me out here, because I’m having a hard time finding a practical reason for this none-too small undertaking. stembre (I’m not sure who that is in CC-speak) posted this at the Cohort, and unfortunately the pictures are very poor quality. But I’ll show you another one, if you can come up with a good explanation. I know you will.
With a little googling, it looks like it is a Warner & Swasey Hopto 200. From what I can tell they where designed to be mounted to a truck frame, instead of the tracked configuration normally seen. I believe they where produced in the 60’s. I would bet that whatever it was mounted on previously wore out, and a bus was the most economical option.
OK, I get that. But how about a little imagination? “Randy’s Back Hoe School – We pick U up and take U home again”.
The school district decided to bring back voc ed.
The school district came up with a money-saving idea for putting the buses to work while the kids are in school.
Or?
Sorry, I was to busy imagining how cool it would be to have around the place. How about these?
Its great on the freeway, no one ever tailgates.
Our school district is the best, they let us play on heavy equipment on the way to school in the morning, no more Tonka toys for me, I’ve got the real thing.
The van with “Free Candy” on the side wasn’t working out, as all the parents where on to me. So I put this baby together, no shovel required, and I get to play bus driver too!
“Keep back 50 ft….. or else!”
I love the “jack stands” under the Lebaron.
Simple explanation from a simplistic mind here. Whatever toted the backhoe was broken. School bus not broken. Sawzall plus welder and everything works again.
I have seen a bunch of things mounted on school buses here. Don’t really remember a backhoe. Cheapest way to get a 2 1/2 or more ton frame are the auctions when they have too many miles.
Saw one owned by a logging company with some sort of crane mounted. It’s all fair game.
It looks like a perfect example of work with what you have. A bit like the Jitterbug tractors Farmers used to build.
That LeBaron in the background looks downright scary!
Looks as it should be living on the island of misfit toys.
let’s be honest: the Lebaron, the bus/hoe, the twilight & dodgy location makes this a horror scene.
Pretty much what wstarvingteacher said. Truck mounted backhoes are semi-common for jobs where road mobility is more important than off road mobility. In this case somebody tried to build the cheapest possible version by buying an old unit and mounting it on a cut down school bus because that was also either cheap or available.
Maybe it was cheaper than a brake job.
I have to wonder what kind of front suspension is going to end up under that LeBaron….
‘ho school?
Parking this might be easier than you’d think. After all, you can just scoop the other cars out of the way if space is tight.
Why? Why not?
+1!
All interesting, though the that backhoe does look to be a bit rusty on the surface but it apparently may still be serviceable.
I am wondering if that Le baron is sans motor and the entire front drive train/suspension.
We used to have a game in our high school auto shop. It was called: “I bet you can’t weld that together”…
The person who put this together won.
Why, so they can transport kids to school and dig a hole with the same vehicle, of course!
I’ve seen a few (old) short wheelbase Isuzu trucks out here with a forklift & controls mounted on the back, similar to what slow joe crow says these were owned by contractors for use in rural locations – cheaper and quicker than transporting a forklift to site.
The long wheelbase on this one would seriously compromise maneuverability up to a job, but on the other hand it provides a good counterweight! Would the backhoe arm fold right over and lay on the chassis for transport?
Used to be a Fork lift mounted on a O series Bedford behind the Pitt Town garage. Channel 7 always managed to avoid getting it in shot on Country Practice and its not featured in Home and Away also filmed there.
I’ve seen a site by a UniMog enthusiast/rancher where he’s got a backhoe mounted on one of his Mogs. Useful if you need it, I guess. I’d like his expedition camper-back Mog, myself.
There’s a couple of vehicle type around here that are pretty odd. The road-legal hay squeeze is nice–it can stack and transport a cube of hay bales (maybe around 8′) and load them on a flatbed. There’s more call for the service than to own one, so you see them running around the highways during hay season. They’ll do 50mph at least, and parking in tight quarters might be fun–just move the Smart car out of the way.
Not quite sure what to call the other thing–kind of a three-wheel-tractor meets a Kenworth-meets-a-swamp-buggy. It’s a tractor, presumably set for really low ground pressure, with 3 wheels, maybe 3′ tread width. We have a lot of ranches with portions separated by roads, so you see these beasts on the road a few times a year. Never got to see what implements are on them, but there’s a lot of engine and operator height is pretty high.
If it has an engine and wheels, you’ll eventually see it on the road around here.
Hm, I don’t think I’ve seen a hay squeeze out here, I’ll have to ask my uncle what they use. The forklifts I mentioned are used for harvest too, fruit/veg. However they have changed to larger bins since & now use container forklifts mostly I think.
Even just plain tractors have been highway ready at times, there the famous “Tail-End Charlie” which was a 1955 Chamberlain tractor converted to reach 60mph road speed (up from 30+mph which itself was a nod to the distances tractors would cover in Western Australia), and was used on the Redex and Mobilgas round-austraila trials. On the 1957 one for example, it covered over 11,000 miles in 19 days which included recovering & towing broken down cars, often 2 or more at a time.
They use the big three wheelers around here for spraying crop fields, usually before planting. After planting, they use the big spindly looking ones with tall tractor tires – you could drive a Miata right underneath one…
Ah, that would be the photo I posted on the Cohort (stembre there = res here).
A bit of sadness goes with the photo – a close coworker died last weekend (he had been recovering from multiple myaloma cancer), and I found these photos while going through his files before IT recovers the computer. He and I shared a similar whimsical sense of humor and love for older vehicles.
As far as a caption goes, the only thing that comes to mind is the Red Green quote, “If women don’t find you handsome, at least make sure they find you handy!”