truckguy -
I guess you have to choose which benefits are more important to you.
From what it sounds noise and ride are at the top. And with a HDT your gonna have noise and a rough ride at times. You can add airride and ping tanks to try and smooth it out, but the more you soften the ride the less stability you'll have in cross winds, cornering and when trucks pass you.
If you like the sound of your current diesel, than you'll love the sound of a 300 + hp Cummins, Cat, Detroit, Mercedes will pump out. But it's anything but quiet. For me I love it, nothing better than 12 hours at the wheel and at the end of the day all you hear is a turbo whistle ringing in your hears.
It doesn't bother my wife at all and many times it puts her to sleep. (she not driving) So it works for us.
So 2 drawbacks to a HDT, and actually 1 once you throw some weight on it's back. But what you gain far out ways those 2 drawbacks; stopping power, reliability, 24/7 service, pulling power, safer in an accident, and stability in most any wind condition. And I am sure I'm missing some others.
Is a bus going to ride better than a truck conversion, most likely and for sure quieter since the motor is 40' behind you. But a HDT is much cooler than a bus any day!
Some great sites to check out to further your knowledge of HDT as a tow vehicles would be escapees.com they have HDT forum that is real active. And busnuts.com for bus conversion info.
Class 8 trucks are definitely not for everyone, kinda has to be in your blood. Two years ago I drove back to Cleveland from San Antonio (1450 miles) left at 8 a.m. Saturday mourning and was pulling in the driveway Sunday at around 4 p.m. Ran mainly at about 65 mph and even stopped at a Hampton Inn for a good nights sleep at 9 p.m. I did all of the driving and when we got I home I was not dead to the world, actually washed the rig before putting it away. Sitting in my comfy air chair floating along, never sawing at the wheel even when we hit the Okie winds. With 300 gallons of fuel on board, never had to stop for fuel, and with the air chair keeping the body form jarring only stop twice a day to hit the restroom. You just can't do that in a F250 pulling a trailer with out killing yourself.
As I mentioned before, definitely take one for a spin you may just fine that you have big truck blood running through those veins
Keep us posted