Old Bus Photos > 1951 General Motors PGA-3301 Ex-Army Bus
1951 General Motors PGA-3301 Ex-Army Bus
Hello Bernard,
This is my bus, AKA "Super Silver Turbo Twinky"
PGA3301-428 #428 off the line
There were 840 of these buses built by GM from
September 1951 thru
April of 1952 exclusively for the US Army. An 8month
production run.
Twinky bus was taken out of service sometime in the
mid 1960's then ended up finding a home with a family
in Bellingham, WA who's business was converting buses
to Motor Coaches.... they converted the Twinky and
kept him for their personal coach in the same family
for 30 years.
A drunken neighbor backed into the bus in the driveway
and the insurance company totalled it for sheetmetal
/steering arm support damage...
I bought my Twinky bus on ebay from a fellow who buys
large lots of hi-end wrecked coaches from insurance
companies and he didn't want it near his fleet.. I
bought it site unseen inside @ abit of a risk . It's
very well professionally converted and everything was
done with quality in mind even the dated gold shag.
It fired up immediatly and after replacing a cracked
fuel line from the injector pump, I drove it home to
KC from Seattle. It ran 60-70mph and got 10-11 mpg
Powered by a 6.9 ford/IH diesel /C6 auto it runs very
well.... original power was a 6 cyl. gas engine around
500 CID./ manual 4spd tranny. In the 1970's a 460
ford/C6 was the power.
THE TRIP HOME.......It's a long story. I understand if
it's not printed.
A missing $10 part caused alot of trouble.
My friend John and I took a flight out to
Seattle...Checked out the rig as good as novice
fellows can...then fired up the Twinky and drove it
south then west to a ferry over to VanCouver Island...
I needed to winterize my old wood fishboat,Vesta,
while in the neighborhood.
Upon arrival in Cowichan Bay we lost all gears
including reverse in the tranny except low one(1st).
A local good soul offered a 20' tow in reverse so we
could get out of the parking lot. A 25,000 lb ,35 ft
mammoth minus reverse with snail gear makes one choose
destinations and entries with extreme caution.
After a few calls that yielded outragous rates and
quotes.. I called a local auto parts store and asked
if there were any "shade tree mechanics" who where
good.. I got the name of a local fellow named Brent
Love... One call later,... Brent said to swing by next
day. He had a nice shop in the country and his wife,
Kathy was a sweetheart.
For $100 Brent leased me all the tools in his shop and
a couple days to pull the tranny and get it back in.
He knew a good guy who could get the tranny rebuilt
and back in a day.. I had him add a Transgo shift kit
to the rebuild and the whole job cost $250... Next day
the tranny was back & in, we decided that heat must
have been the culprit as the tranny fluid was burnt.
Brent took us to a local salvage yard and we found a
large tranny cooler and a dual fan setup off an
import... We added an oil temp gauge to keep on top
of it and launched the next day.
All went well and the new tranny shifted crisp and
smooth.
The return Border crossing was not so smooth... they,
"the American's" had a big problem with bringing back
a vehicle not titled to us back to the US.. after an
hour or so they were bored and told us to get temp
tags next day or face the wrath of the hiway patrol
and sent us cruising....... we decided to follow their
advice,...opted to find a local pub.. get drunk and
find the license bureau LATE next morning.
All went well for the next 280 miles,. we headed east
thru Washington State into the mountains. Around one
AM we were tired and heading up a pass in heavy snow
when the Twinky bus got slower and slower.. the dash
lights didn't work at the time so a red laser light
was our means every once in a while to check the
gauges.
John was driving and commented on the slow going so I
tossed the light on the gauges only to find the tranny
temp totally buried in the burn zone....
We pulled to the shoulder and parked...gauge said
"toast". I asked John to try drive?... nothing,
2nd?... nothing.... reverse? ...nothing...1st?....got
it! ....DAMN.. Same thing again.
It was 10 miles to Pinehurst, the next exit.... we
tossed it in low and creeped @ 10 on the shoulder to
town... there was only one store open,... a gas
station so I bought all 20 qts of auto tranny fluid
they had. We found a supermarket parking lot and
crashed for the evening... it was around 16 degrees
so we left the Twinky bus running all nite like a
semitruck.
Next morning after good donuts and bad coffee we shut
down Twinky bus ... drained all 15 qts and refilled
with new fluid.... decision time.
It was 120 miles and 3 mountain passes back (the
wrong way) thru snow to the next town of any size or
150 miles ahead thru snow and 2 mountain passes to
Missoula, Montana ..the right way... we opted for the
latter.
It was a loooong day... 10 hours of 15 mph in 1st
gear, half on the road half on the shoulder when
traffic approached,... where the grating makes tires
sound like snair drums. In a metal bus it's like being
INSIDE the snair drum!...Luckily, I had some pot and
John had some earplugs... a long day.
Upon arrival in Missoula.... (very much anticipated @
15mph), we entered a large truckstop and parked in the
outer corner away from anyone who might corner us and
force the need for dreaded REVERSE!!!
We were glad to be SOMEWHERE... a large cup of coffee
and the girl at the counter asked why we parked so far
out.. we explained our spot and she instantly said
"you need to see Curley, he works on old weird stuff
like that.. fixed my old car in a day" a few minutes
late 'Curley' was on the phone saying " you got a
WHAT, with a WHAT and it's doin What?...Yea I can fix
that but not till Monday.. gotta tow a mobile this
weekend"
Our fate was sealed and what a place to be... it was
way below freezing, but the Twinky was warm if running
and we were in the largest truck plaza around with
everything a fellow needs to live ,...prepackaged
deathfood galore, coffee, beer, showers toilets,
penthouse and ooogles of magazines... we suffered for
2.5 days.
Half way thru day one John was geting anxious,...and I
was getting annoyed. John is very deaf and plays cards
solo (a retired fireman).
I was a fireman but wasn't deaf... just annoyed @
hearing cards flip.
He was 10 days in to a 5 day trip and no end in
site... I was bumbed he wanted to bale but understood
as he tried to find a flight home to KC.... turns out
you can't get there from here.. at least under a
grand... John stayed.
Next day, Sunday, a fellow cruised by slowly on a
BMW... checking out the Twinky bus as an oddity (
they always do, she draws a crowd), Johns a BMW rider
too and waved him down.... A bit later we drove Twinky
bus to his house and parked in front.... We had a nice
evening with our new friend Dave who was in need of a
story for his college course in Journalism....
We were the subject...Adventures of the Super Silver
Turbo Twinky in full print,... well thats what I
called it anyway.
Next morning we set off for Curley's Shop.. turns out
it was just across the street from the Truck
Plaza....Curley welcomed us with wide eyes and ushered
us into his temple of repair... after greetings... we
opened the hatch for inspection.. His first words word
were..." Where's the vacume modulator?".. the what?...
he repeated it.." it goes right here next to the
throttle, thats what killed the tranny... it looks
like this" he went to a pile of scrap rummaged abit
then grabbed a piece of something! Swinging it as if a
prize ...AHH HAA!
Turns out when th 60 k ford/IH 6.9 diesel was
installed, it came from a PU that had a manual
tranny... the part was not on the motor.
When the new, factory ordered C6 was installed the
mechanics had hooked up the vacume hose from the
vacume pump straight to the tranny ... not thru the
"vacume modulator" .. this tells the tranny when to
shift depending on loads.... since Twinky bus had only
been running the coast there was never really any
major loads put on it... untill WE took HIM to the
mountains of BC and Washington State... My first
tranny man never saw the motor as the tranny was
delivered to him,.. and we had no idea a part was
missing...
A day later the tranny was done... again @ $350
including a used "vacume modulator" and the test run
was tried...NO GO,.. the Twinky bus wouldn't shift
right.... Curley said it was about 1 in 100 that had
an accumulator problem and with no extra charge he
pulled the valve body out and went thru it again.
Turns out that Curley wasn't just your run of the mill
tranny guru...
He was chief mechanic on AIRFORCE ONE... for President
Nixon... and his wife, probably 30 years his junior,
chewed more tobacco than most guys I know and could
probably kick more ass too.
We left Missoula the NEXT morning following a good
test run and headed east. Curley said there was just
ONE more pass and it was down hill from there.. we
were happy,...rrr cautiously!
About 30 minutes later and half way up the 'last' pass
the Twinky bus started running hot....... I was
fumed... pissed .... peaved ....determined to find the
problem.. This was the engine NOT the tranny running
hot and I wanted an answer NOW... we stopped and
yakked for abit thinking what would make the engine
run hot..... what had we NOT checked?
We decided to remove the massive aircan cover inside
the engine room. It was a huge cannister that took
10-20 screws to get apart...which is why it never got
checked...
after pulling the lid off I found our culprit.... the
entire center of the filter was filled with leaves...
dead, dry,old leaves packed like crackers in a vacume
bag... then I remembered where the Twinky bus was
parked.... under an empty branched tree in a corner of
the lot....
There is a huge airscoop on the back of the Twinky to
cool the beast.
With the leaves all gone the Twinky bus sprang to
life. It pulled hills
w/o effort, we cruised 1800 miles home back to Kansas
City without a single incident.
The Twinky drives straight as a pin and there is
really no need or worry about no power steering. The
6.9 Ford/IH diesel is a great engine for this rig and
is very acceptable for power, plus most parts can be
bought at the local auto parts store vs a truck
dealership.
I live in the Twinky Bus while in Kansas City,.. it is
parked in my hangar at a small country airport south
of Liberty. The brakes have been updated to the type
that lock when low on air and the tires are about 90%.
They thump for a bit till warm as they are bias plies
but till they die... they will stay.
Some may find the Twinky too old or too slow but it
has way more character than any of the new plastic RV
things out there... it takes a certain type of person
to appreciate an old quality rig like this and the
great lines. People come over to ask and look
everywhere the rig goes...I never see anyone
approaching a new $1/4 million landyacht and starting
up a yak.
I have thought of selling the Twinky several times but
never did. I plan to switch the main 80 gallon fuel tank to a
"veggie oil tank and have a smaller "starter" diesel
tank. I am into the sheetmetal work this month.
... I love this bus,.. its super cool and I intend to
run him on mostly recycled cooking oil...
Kevin in KC
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