School buses and police cruisers are two things you shouldn't buy at government surplus auctions, and for the same reasons.

And rubber gloves. Ewwww.....

I'm going to stick with the small off-road trailer I'm building, for medium to long term use if needed.

If I had the space to store one, I'd get a used ambulane or Red Cross/Salvation Army ERV or the like. I do know that the ERVs tend to get replaced in shall we say "better" condition than most box back ambulances, brcause they tend to SIT, and SIT in some counties, and then get replaced by AGE from funding by the nationa "Hey, it's 14 years old" (and yeah, it only has 5-10k miles on it)

Some have stoves (around here, the Salvation army trucks), all have counters, most have commercial radios mounted, but will be stripped on the way out, but at least the wires will be run (Red Cross is in the VHF 'low' - aka 50 Mhz band)

One thing you will find, surprisingly, they they get crowded, fast. The 2 groups I belong to that have one have found that they really really want to invest in the "tents" that attach over the rear doors (you will see them on Telco "box" vans if your area has them

I heard of a guy in my folk's hometown that got an old school bus and buried it behind the house for a tornado shelter.

Don't know how long it lasted before it rusted out, but as a child that sounded like a really cool thing to do.

Seeing the picture reminded me of that.

Makes me think that you could build a pretty secure tornado shelter by burying a shipping container?

[quote=PackRat

Makes me think that you could build a pretty secure tornado shelter by burying a shipping container? [/quote]

I'd guess that rust would be a big concern.

Actually, the bottom of your pit would need a couple feet of gravel lining with a drainage pipe running from the pit to the outside.

The container would need a couple coats of coal tar sprayed on the exterior, after having air intake & outtake pipes, and antenna & power conduits, and water piping from an exterior sealed tank, installed through the roof.

The container would be mounted on cement dragon's teeth.

Use heavy duty treated timbers to form an entrance with a dog leg in it. Then put the dirt around the sides and over the roof gently to a thickness of 2-3 feet.

Move your equipment and supplies into it.

Notes:
You would probably want to include a drainage pipe connected to your sewage line for dumping your porta potty into.

You might also consider using this as a root celler so it always has rotated foods in it.

Now you have a Root Celler, Tornado Shelter, an Emergency home (in case your home is destroyed by a tornado), and a Fallout Shelter!

Go to www.radmeters4u.com/arktwo/pictures.htm and look what Bruce Beach did with 50 school busses in Ontario Province, Canada.

It is 1 very large private shelter system. All of the busses are interconnected.

edited to add Ark II web address/Bo

Im thinking of buying one of these:
http://www.wee-kender.com/

thought mabye it might make a pretty good BOV. I can even get it painted camo.
i like them cause they're small, and can be pulled with almost any kind of vehicle.
peace
al

basically a big teardrop. I want to build a teardrop trailer but swap the shape from front to back and stretch the center taller to make it able to stand in.