Help...Us buy our first motoerhome......

[Pete Masterson]

I have to agree. I began looking for a "road cruiser" about 2 years before buying our coach. Our plan was to full-time.

Having passed enough RV wrecks (both fiberglas and aluminum), Class As, Cs, and various trailers -- I simply decided that the risk, however small, of a vehicle that was not substantially built was not worth it to me.

I first started looking at bus conversions -- I realized that those were based on vehicles that were built to safety standards for the traveling public and would be solid with generally acceptable road manners. (Some purpose-built RVs trade off low-speed handling against good road handling on the highway. It's great to be able to maneuver into camp site easily, but the manufacturer can trade that for lousy, unstable handling on the highway.)

Bus conversions proved a problem, while there were a few Country coach and marathon built "commercial" conversions, most were home built with engineering and construction quality ranging from abdominal to outstanding -- but how could I tell -- for sure? Many of the commercial conversions were "entertainer" coaches -- often with 6 to 12 bunks (for the band) -- but those would all have required extensive remodeling to turn into what I was looking for.

Then I discovered the Wanderlodge. It's built on a very solid school bus chassis (newest in 1989) and on a similar highway bus chassis for the Wide Body models (introduced in 1989). These were true "bus conversions" but with a coherent production line design and solid engineering. While each Wanderlodge is semi-custom (especially those where they were presold before construction began), there is enough uniformity from coach to coach that it's a proven design. The design, over the years, has evolved so the learning that went before isn't discarded.

The key and final decider was the wonderful online lists (this one and the Wanderlodge Owners Group Forum) where help and advice was freely given and problems were often easy to identify and solve. (Problems range from "how do I turn on the heat" to more complex maintenance and service issues.) Even though Marathon and Country Coach have a lot of converted Prevost units on the road, no similar online sharing seems to be available -- at least, not to the extent that the Wanderlodge lists offer. (This may be because there are so many older Wanderlodges on the road. The first ones were built in the mid-60s -- and even some of those are still in use -- and there are many more from the 70s and 80s where owners are sharing their experiences with restoration, upgrade, etc. This is not the case with the Prevost-based commercial conversions. It gives new Wanderlodge owners a place to go and share experiences.)

Circumstances required us to sell our coach earlier this year (our plan to full-time having been seriously interfered with by the real estate market crash and other factors) -- but I truly loved my Wanderlodge and deeply regretted having to sell it. Hopefully, our situation will turn around and I'll be able to get another WL in the future.

Finally -- and this is the key -- you MUST carefully evaluate your needs and desired living arrangement. If you plan to carry grandchildren with you frequently -- or if you only wish to use a coach infrequently (and so on) your needs may or may not be well served by a Wanderlodge. But, if your basic needs are met by the RVing experience that a Wanderlodge offers, then you will be very happy you got one.

Pete Masterson

(former) '95 Blue Bird Wanderlodge WBDA 42

El Sobrante CA

"aeonix1@mac.com"

On Jan 12, 2010, at 12:09 PM, Light "Ltenergy@aol.com" wrote:

<snip>Our brother bought our 26 footer and it was hit and was so badly trashed ( like a toy) , we decided right then to not buy fiberglass again. There is always a trade off with RVs... usually MANY trade offs. BUT once we made up our minds to look a Class A's, we just kept coming back to Bluebirds. There is LOTS of support within the Bluebird family of owners. It has been invaluable.

As far as the BUS goes... We wanted a metal body and solid construction and a million mile engine. For us it was Bluebird or Prevost. We didn't consider others, because we wanted steel bodies. For the price and the quality the Bluebird is a steal these days. We absolutely LOVE our Bird! We ended up with a 1991 40 PT WB... When it was new it was around $450K... so the quality is there.

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