Marmon, I'm confused by your description of the pinion being outside of the ring gear, and this moving the bowl away from the engine pan etc. The big part of the bowl would be where the ring gear is, so if the pinion is outboard of that, the bowl would be pushed towards the engine?

I don't see how the rear suspension on the new model shown gets any travel, either. The floor of the box area appears to be about flush with the top of the axle beams, or is that something else?

I've always wondered why they don't make school buses lower, they look like Conestoga wagons. Seems like they would be real prone to rollover. A design like this would help.