I get to drive a couple of early 90's rear engine Bluebird school buses that we still have in our fleet in Bremerton and they are still great rigs.I think these are the ones that were built on Freightliner chasis'.The only problem is that the front suspension is very soft and they bounce a lot. The first one that I drove full time over ten years ago made you feel like you had a stomach ulcer for the first few weeks till you got used to the up and down.
GO COUGARS
2001 Tradewinds 7390 LTC
330 Cat Turbo Freightliner Chassis
2004 Chevy Trailblazer LS (toad)
The confusion related to skoolies and Wanderlodges, a curse the WL owner has to endure. Only thing they have in common is the body panels, that changed in 89/90 production. I scanned the latest FMCA mag road test, new Monaco 41' 4 slide, just north of $250k. What always catches my attention is the tankage, my 1983 WL front engine, has same house tankage, twice the fuel capacity, 8 bag Ridewell suspension, and alloy wheels standard. Of course it cost $211,000 in '83 dollars. The coach the OP posted would have been mid $300's. When one considers some of the after sale debugging experiences of late model coaches, I wonder how bad a old 'Bird could be in comparison.
Recently a 32' version of that NJ Bluebird was sold locally. I took an opportunity to admire it from outside a couple times. The 32 really caught my eye. It was on the affordable side. Perhaps it traded for around $25,000. It looked to be in very decent condition.
All of the 'Birds are pretty neat. I have a friend who owned a 40' 'Bird back in the 80s and drive her from Michigan to the Calgary Winter Olympics in '88. He has gone thru plenty of RVs since, even sold them for a time at his favorite dealership
Mike Hohnstein wrote: ... When one considers some of the after sale debugging experiences of late model coaches, I wonder how bad a old 'Bird could be in comparison.
As cool looking as they are, I would think that a 30 year old coach would require a lot of TLC. I own a 30 year old motorcycle and a 40 year old VW bug. Fun "projects" but I wouldn't want to use either one as a daily driver. Hats off to the guys (and gals) who can keep those beautiful old MH's on the road, but not for me
bigdog: Your school bus experienece does not relate to a Wanderlodge. Most BB's are built on a custom chassis made bt BB. It is not a Freightliner nor is it a school bus conversion.
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