The Giant 13ft High VW Party Bus | Ridiculous Rides
85 SPEAKERS, neon lights, and an incredible 13ft 2” height are just some of the incredible features on a giant replica VW bus. Kirk Strawn is the owner of Walter The Bus, a super-sized version of the Volkswagen classic, custom-built on the chassis of a 1963 fire truck. Once Kirk and friends discovered the truck in a junk yard, they decided to build the world’s biggest VW bus and Walter, named after the Walter Truck Company that made the fire truck, was born. Kirk, of Arizona, told Ridiculous Rides: “There’s always a smile whenever anybody sees Walter. You just don’t see something like this driving the road every day. It just brightens your day. It opens your eyes and makes you wonder what else might be possible.” After the truck was found in 2003, it took three years and more than 100 people to collectively bring Kirk and his friends’ vision to life. The bus’ unique features have seen him attend desert festival Burning Man 11 times, as well as appear at events for Google and SpaceX. The truck is a three-speed manual with an air clutch and torque converter, and runs on a 330-horsepower engine with a 40-gallon gas tank. 85 speakers have been installed throughout the bus, powered by four amps on each side of the vehicle, giving it a 360-degree sound system that’s perfect for mobile parties. Meanwhile, more than 20,000 coloured LED lights line the contours of the exterior while an onboard misting system adds atmosphere to any event.
Transcript
00:00 Walter had his military service. Next, he ended up fighting wildfires. He's been to
00:06 Burning Man 11 times. He's worked events for Google and SpaceX. You don't see something
00:12 like this every day. It makes you wonder how the heck did that thing get created.
00:16 Walter is a two-to-one scale Volkswagen bus.
00:25 But Walter certainly wasn't built this way. Assembled as a fire truck in 1963, Walter
00:32 saw years of Air Force service before moving to the New River Fire Department in Arizona.
00:37 A couple of us found Walter in an old abandoned junkyard, parked never to move again.
00:45 Kirk and a few friends set about an incredible conversion.
00:51 In his original form, he kind of looked like a giant Volkswagen bus. He was boxy and had
00:57 a split front windshield. And the driving position was out in front of the front wheels,
01:04 which was very, very helpful in ultimately doing the design and pleating the fabrication.
01:11 The team that assembled to turn this old fire truck into a Volkswagen bus has really become
01:19 a family.
01:21 I am Nate Matzenbacher. I am the lead mechanic behind Walter the Bus. The original chassis
01:29 of the fire truck is still there. It's all underneath this shell of what is the bus now.
01:35 When you're in the, I call the observation deck, the big party deck on top, you're actually
01:41 walking on the roof of the original fire truck. When you're in the cab, when you're sitting
01:46 in the driver's seat, you are sitting about five feet above where the original driver's
01:51 seat was and all the controls are just extended up through the floor and you're able to drive
01:55 like that.
01:56 From firefighter to party starter, this vehicle is packing a serious sound system.
02:04 Walter actually has 85 speakers on him. It takes a lot to be able to compact 85 speakers,
02:09 so we had to hide a few.
02:15 I can't say for sure how many people we've ever had up here is the max, but I can tell
02:19 you that after one event we had to take the rear springs off and had them recurved because
02:25 they were flattened out from so much weight and so many people up here.
02:28 I have backup cameras and cameras all around so I'd be able to see when I'm doing anything
02:35 in tight spaces or with a crowd. Essentially, kind of be able to drive a two-story house
02:41 from the second-story window. Quite a trip to be able to drive this thing.
02:44 And at 30 feet long and 13 feet tall, this vehicle makes a big impression out on the road.
02:51 Take the whole lane here. We need the whole road.
02:58 There we go.
03:04 Walter drives a lot like a Volkswagen bus. There's just something special about the way
03:11 you drive a vehicle when you're over the front tires.
03:16 Whenever anybody sees Walter, it's a smile, a wave, and you just don't see something like
03:27 this driving down the road every day.
03:29 I think the coolest part of Walter is just like that. Whoever that was, they certainly
03:35 weren't expecting to see something like this today. It brightens your day. It opens your
03:40 eyes. Makes you wonder what else might be possible and just wonder how the heck did
03:45 that thing get created.
03:48 [Music]
03:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]