page_title: Freightliner FS-65
section_title: Model history
hierarchical_section_title: Freightliner FS-65 / Model history
caption_attribution_description: English&#58; Freightliner FS-65 bus in Moscow.Русский&#58; Автобус Freightliner FS-65 в Москве.
context_page_description: The Freightliner FS-65 is a cowled bus chassis that was manufactured by Freightliner from 1997 to 2007. Derived from the Freightliner FL-Series medium-duty trucks, the FS-65 was produced primarily for school bus applications, though commercial-use buses and cutaway-cab buses were also built using the FS-65 chassis.
  While developed by Freightliner before its acquisition of the Ford heavy-truck product range at the end of 1996 the FS-65 would go on to serve as an indirect successor of the long-running Ford B-Series chassis. After 1998, Ford concentrated bus production towards van-derived chassis, leaving Freightliner to acquire much of the market share of full-size bus production owned by Ford.
  The FS-65 chassis was assembled in Gaffney, South Carolina by the Freightliner Custom Chassis subsidiary of Freightliner; as an incomplete vehicle, the chassis was shipped to body manufacturers for final assembly of a bus. After a total of 62,764 units were produced, the final Freightliner FS-65 chassis rolled off the assembly line in November 2006.
context_section_description: Following the 1991 introduction of the Business Class medium-duty trucks, Freightliner Trucks began development of a school bus chassis based upon the vehicle.  In May 1996, the first prototype (with a Thomas body) was unveiled.  The first completely new school bus chassis introduced since the 1980 redesign of the Ford B-Series, the Freightliner school bus chassis (later named the Freightliner FS-65) was scheduled for mid-1996 production; the first Freightliner bus rolled off the assembly line in January 1997.
  The FS-65 distinguished itself from other school bus chassis by the standardization of hydraulic anti-lock brakes at the time of its introduction (two years before their requirement in 1998).  In tandem with the sloped hood, to aid driver visibility, the design of the chassis used a raised platform for the driver's seat.  Although the FS-65 was designed alongside Thomas Built Buses (a company which Freightliner acquired in 1998), the Freightliner chassis was made available to other body manufacturers.  As a result of the driver's platform, many bus bodies saw revisions to their designs to accommodate the FS-65 chassis, including windshield redesigns or the standardization of high-headroom bodies.
  During its production run, the FS-65 chassis saw relatively few changes.  For 2002, the Mercedes-Benz MBE900 diesel engines were added to the powertrain line as an option.  For 2004, the Caterpillar 3126 became the Caterpillar C7 (as part of an emissions upgrade).  A redesign of the instrument panel adopted a new instrument cluster, shared with the M2 and Sterling trucks.
  In 2001, Freightliner introduced the second-generation Business Class, the M2.  In 2004, the Thomas Saf-T-Liner C2 was introduced as the school bus variant of the M2.  Sold alongside the C2, the FS-65 remained in production into the 2007 model year; the final Thomas school bus based on the FS-65 was produced in November 2006.
  The 2006 discontinuation of the FS-65 marked the end of the FL-Series (alongside its severe-service variants), as medium-duty production ended after 2004.
caption: Freightliner FS-65 in Moscow (Blue Bird body)
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