The church bus has a good front bumper
circa 1993
For years, the Methodist church in Alamagordo, NM, would come to Sonlight for its 3 day winter ski trip. The church owned a nice “school bus” that was in great condition. As the bus was coming in Sonlight Place, it did not have quite enough speed to get up one of our slick short hills. The driver (youth leader) would successfully back the bus down the hill and try again. No luck. After several tries, we decided to hook the GMC snow plow up to the bus and pull it up the hill. No problem for the GMC. It was really a small tank ! I hooked the tow chain on the back of the GMC. The youth leader hooked the chain around the front bumper of the bus. It was a heavy duty bumper. As we slowly got the tow chain tight, the youth leader gave me the thumbs us to pull away. Pull away I did. The GMC, the tow chain and the front bumper of the bus went right up the hill. No problem. The bus was still in the same spot. It had not moved . Only the front bumper came up the hill. We hooked everything up again this time connecting the tow chain to the frame of the bus. Thumbs up and let’s go. The GMC pulled the bus uphill and into the camp parking lot.
The bus’s front bumper was fine. The 4 bolts that hold the bumper to the frame of bus were all broken. Upon departing Sonlight back to Alamagodo, they simply put the bumper in the isle of bus. They came back the next year with same bus and the front bumper reattached with heavier bolts. No problem getting into camp.