Drivers - Bus Reviews & Opinions

[2900]

From experience I find staff from AVL seriously well mannered and polite on the radio it takes some getting use to, its in sharp contrast to local call from garages not saying they are rude it's all straight to the point.

[2900]

4232: recently refurbed so body still in good shape, seats recovered in grey moquette.
Chassis volvo b7tl voith gearbox, good solid chassis every thing works as it should, decent pace, very good up hills as well a bonus. The E40d chassis from Dennis can't match this in its dreams.
Body: alexander alx400 shame really to festoon a great chassis with ones of these really but to be fair this isone of the better ones other than the leaking windscreen, it seemed decent not much in the way of rattles. cab has a new steering wheel and many new switches,cab heater Luke warm, Salloon heating very poor.
Engine:smooth and solid no issues
Gearbox:smooth no issues
Suspension:good all round no drama deals with speed bumps rough roads properly
Steering:good positive steering no slack
On the whole a solid bus would scor higher if heating was better. 7/10

[2900]

4084: I have reviewed this in past, but I,ve had it fair few times recently it's seriously excellent bus to drive , it makes my duty, it's the beast  of west brom imO, should fetch good money on the second hand market I think, once new sheds start arriving , mind you most probably will, if I had space I wouldnt mind this one for myself it's that good.

[2900]

4706:Early repaint done many years back not a good job I thought back then so very disappointing I remember thinking at the time. Interior still the original dark blue seats fading here and there, upstairs various seat bases are light blue specs so miss mash.
Chassis: Drives really well for 4700 series gem , chassis still all solid no issues from drive train, decent pace, suspension works well so comfortable ride. Not bad for a bus that's pounded up and down dudley rd for the last 8 years.
Body:on the whole pretty good minimal rattling from front saloon door area, cab:driver seat replaced hated those air cushion seats, cab sliding windows do rattle not good.
Engine:smooth plenty of power no issues
Gearbox:smooth no jolts all good
Retarder: smooth and effective
Brakes: smooth all good
Suspension:all good
7/10

[2900]

2094: just a general observation, yesterday while parked on colmore waiting for my departure time, I,m staring at the the bus in front bored shitless at this point, I noticed how shiny the paint work I thought they haven't started repainting 2.5 year buses have they, the rear indicators were flashing which drew my attention the n/s is of the led variety and o/s of the the standard bulb type. As the bus pulled I noticed just the back had been re sprayed must say  a very decent job all decals placed back correctly,  no overspray evident. I assume it's had a rear end shunt at some point.

[2900]

4951: one of the 14 plate enviros that did the common wealth games last summer. This does seem a little faster than 64 plate examples, flies up hills 25mph on tame road that is very good going. The one thing I,ve have learnt you can't drive these enviros as you would a volvo b7, with volvo you just feather the trottle pedal and it goes. I find with the enviro pedal to the metal err I mean plastic seems to work.
Engine: decent lump in this bus, beginning come round to these engines
Gearbox: party pooper obviously programmed to keep rpm down
Retarder: not bad, but no where near as good as the ones fitted to the alx400 b7tl voith box combo
Suspension: front axle hopeless on speed bumps
Body: some rattles from cab door and platform area , general grubbyness here and there
5/10 I am awarding such an high score purely for the way it eats up hills. The route I was has more than its fair share of hills.

[2900]

Can some one help, I think Tony mentioned it , subject re,engined buses. Some where in the country a volvo b7tl has received a cummins b series 6.7 litre, has any one here experienced it.

[2900]

4504: another good solid gemni recent refurb still looking good, to drive quite nippy this one holds gears in the power band allowing for good acceleration when needed, hardly any rattles from cab area all good with me that. Annoyingly the fan was busy droning away out back even though its freezing weather.
Driver seat doesn't go back far enough for my liking. It still has the hugemongous passenger rear view mirror not a fan of this.
Engine: all good no issues
Gearbox: as above
Retarder: nicely balanced pleasure to use
Brakes: all good nice smooth
Suspension: delt with most roads really well, smooth ride, pot holes only thing to knock the bus about
Body: overall still very solid
Chassis: overall still excellent
Even with its few flaws a deserved 8/10 still a million times better than a ADL E400 E40D crap

[2900]

I don't need to see the video I do my analysis from the drivers seat, as for squeaks I can't make out every one that might happen down the back or upstairs. Please do remember it is 12 years old which is the remarkable thing and still way better than a brand new ADL bus.
I did mention the cooling fan was running constantly.
As for it being slow that's down to the driver input or the vehicle itself there could be a multiple reasons for this, the day I had it I was driving around in service at 15 to 20mph max because it was quite and the running time is excessive on the route I was on. When I run it back to garage after service believe me 4504 does shift.

[2900]

Update on 4513, after driving a lot of alexander VOLVOS recently I got this, first thing I notice while driving is how solid the body is on this on normal roads it's quite , Portland road is a test for any bus this road is destroyed extremely harsh around rainbow casino its a joke, most buses will rattle on this road, on 4513 you hear things shaking but in a muted way, got to be one best in body terms, chassis excellent as well, still don't like the brakes. Even though I,ll compare it to the new crap at west brom I say 9/10 is well deserved. Wrightbus I salute you for this one. Oh it's 12 years old bloody amazing to be honest.

[2900]

1450: training vehicle, first drive of a wrightbus B10L first impressions cab what's left of it seems very similar to B6LE imo, I only got to drive this bus up to 30mph, all seemed very smooth except brakes which required effort to stop smoothly. Some rattling here and there from saloon door area.
Engine: all good not sluggish
Gearbox: all good
Retarder: not bad
Suspension: ok on normal roads, humps becomes very unsettled
Brakes: not good
Overall it's better than most  ADL  vehicles I,ve recently come across which are 18/19 years newer
7/10

[2900]

I saw 4511  in the garage yesterday, it does look the business after its refurb very tidy indeed almost as new. Alexander's at west brom which have been done have come back looking very good too but the gems do look that much better Imo. There can't be to many 4500,s left at west brom now, I,ve only had two last week.

[B.C Driver]

Hope you don't mind me gatecrashing your thread 2900!

4141 - BCs oldest bus, but one of our best.

Warm heaters (always good at this time of year). Doors fairly quick to close. Good at pulling away. Suspension good. Steering not too heavy and not too light - perfect. A few minor rattles from cab area, but nothing to write home about. Nice to drive.

9/10

[Liverpool Street]

Hope you don't mind me gatecrashing your thread 2900!

4141 - BCs oldest bus, but one of our best.

Warm heaters (always good at this time of year). Doors fairly quick to close. Good at pulling away. Suspension good. Steering not too heavy and not too light - perfect. A few minor rattles from cab area, but nothing to write home about. Nice to drive.

9/10

How's the brakes though? Your knee wrecked?

[2900]

Update 4264 I,ve had this a number of times now since refurb, excellent job on the bodywork, re spray very good, small details really help eg rather than paint over the rubber seal above the engine cover door it's been replaced looks so much better,  interior seats now covered NX grey moquette, new steering wheel  nice, still drives really well, overall it's worth 9/10