New to Group; New to us, older 'bird.

[mccoyb24]

Hello Group!

My name is Bruce McCoy. My partner in the new to us bird is Tom
Meehan. We are kind of accidental newbies to the Wanderlodge
experience. Tom saw his first Wanderlodge about three years ago in a
campground north of Chicago. He has been intrigued by them ever since
but never really thought about buying one. I already have a
motorhome. It's a '95 Safari Trek. Before I bought that one in '03, I
never thought I would be buying it. I was working on it for an estate
sale.

About a week ago, we saw a listing on Craigslist for a '79
Wanderlodge. It looked a little rough but with a little TLC and a few
bucks and a bit of sweat equity, we felt that it could be brought
back up to very good shape. We put a deposit down on it this past
weekend and will pick it up sometime next week. It will be awhile
before it's much to look at. That's not my highest priority.

I will be doing most of the systems repair and troubleshooting on
this rig so I felt that since I will probably have the most
questions, I should open my own discussion board account. I will have
Tom open up one as well if he opts to do so.

It will take me some time to figure out how Yahoo! Groups works. I
want to sift through some of the older posts and see how things work
around here. That also gives me a chance to see who the regulars are.
In time, I hope to be able to contribute as well. There will be a
learning curve that I will be going through with this rig. I'm
looking forward to the challenge.

I still have to learn which model number we have but I can tell you
that it is a '79 33 footer and has been re-engined with a CAT 3208
turbo. There's just over 90,000 miles on the chassis and the motor
swap was done simply because a previous owner (we bought it from the
second owner) wanted a turbo. The tires are just over a year old. So
when looking at an older coach, having to worry about the condition
of the engine, drive train and tires is not as bad an issue with this
one. It does need a new refrigerator and two of three Suburban forced
air furnaces need to be overhauled. The interior is fairly original
and in need of cleaning. We don't plan on gutting it. In fact,
there's something to be said about keeping these things as original
as possible. I kind of like the aircraft style stowbins!

Anyway, I'll be seeing you guys around the board. I'll have much more
to post when I actually get my hands on this thing. In the mean
time, I have lots of reading to do.

Bruce McCoy
'79 33' FC