In this video I go through the vandalock system in a conventional International school bus. The key switch is on the outside for a good reason. The operator can disable the bus from starting if he happens to either leave the bus with kids still on or has to park it over night or while on a field trip.
I also cover one fault with this system that has occurred a few times within our fleet. This only happened to the same model CE conventional in 2011 and 2012 models. In the video I’m working on a 2013 bus and the lever system has been changed from a bolt with 2 washers to a stud and fastener.
I’m guessing but I am sure this has been an issue in other areas around the country. We had a service call the first time it happened on a 2012 unit and we were baffled and couldn’t figure it out. It was fairly new at that time so it went to the dealer and it was covered by warranty.
It was such a simple issue and now we go above the entrance door every time this scenario occurs. Just last week another bus up north was on a run and after he dropped off some students the bus would not start with alarms on. Sound familiar?
Note: In our school district we have a “no idling” policy so for every stop the driver shuts down if it’s a longer than normal time period. I was able guide the driver through this problem by phone and it saved a lot of time not having to go on a service call.
