Lone Star Skoolie Conversions

We contracted Lone Star Skoolie in late 2020 to source and build a full conversion for us. We knew we were going with a newer company but they talked a good talk and seemed to have multiple customer testimonials about positive experiences.

We were given a build time that would be completed in early Spring 2021. After multiple delays, broken promises, surprise additional expenses, and 4 different point people, we were finally able to pick up our bus in late December 2021. In trying to get her from San Antonio to Los Angeles we had multiple mechanical breakdowns: a cut fuel line, under-powered batteries, a missing air filter, a front tire blowout on the freeway due to a bent bracket in the wheel well where the grey tank was located, broken air bag levelers, wiring hazards within the build, solar power that connected to nothing, unsecured appliances and fixtures, plumbing that leaked, non-functioning turn signals and tail lights, and LSS had boarded over the access to the panel that would have allowed us to fix them.

After a three-week attempt to limp her home we were finally able to get her to an expert. The YT video Bus Conversion Gone BadFor Lots of Money is an assessment of the many issues and hazards he discovered in his initial inspection:

https://youtu.be/CXzHD5PRYco

Theyve never made a decent or safe build.. they even use other companies bus builds photos and videos as if its their own.

I gave them the 75% down payment a year ago (~40k) and brought them MY OWN bus to build out.

Waited forever just getting excuses and delays..

as well as being lied to about the progress .. but nothing was being done.

They just kept tacking on more and more $$ to the estimate and demanded I send more money or they wont begin the build, going against our original agreement.

Once I wanted out they refused to give me a refund and even title jumped and sold MY bus to someone else..

they wont get away with this. :/

We contracted with Lone Star Skoolie Conversions to do a complete bus build which they assured us would only take 6-8 weeks. After the build was a month underway, we flew to TX expecting to drive our bus away in just a few weeks.

What we ended up doing is living in hotels and rentals for the next 4 months while Ben, the owner, and his assistant Amber continued to over-promise and under-deliver. Mistake after mistake and delay after delay with promise after promise that "tomorrow the workers will be focusing solely on your build to get it caught up", only to show up the following day to the workers working on somebody else's bus. Dare to show any negative emotion toward them and they'll gaslight you and threaten to stop the work that "they weren't even doing." They told us four times the bus build was DONE only to arrive and discover it wasn't even close to being completed, and horrified with the quality of what was partially completed. After months of delays we finally had to insist on taking the bus away from them, without a single phase of the project officially "completed" and what we ended up with was what multiple contractors have said is the need to completely gut it and start over.

They have ALL said they have zero confidence in every aspect of the build we received, and worse yet, they said there are parts of our build that are horrific safety hazards and will likely result in seriously hurting or killing somebody. Even the parts that won't kill you are abysmal. Flooring that isn't glued down. Toilet plumbing that wasn't even connected, just wedged into *** in the floor.

A "suicide cable" to connect the generator. Raw exposed wiring that was painted over with house paint so that you can't even tell what any of it is going to anymore. "New" plumbing that was installed using old pipes stolen from some other build. Hoses and wiring run through raw holes in the floor with no protection whatsoever.

The "new" solar equipment we paid for turned out to be the used solar equipment they took from another build. I wouldn't trust a single thing this company says and wouldn't accept a bus build from this company if you paid me to take it.