One of my favorite things to write about is when someone turns an old school bus into a cozy RV. I love the idea of an old vehicle creatively given a new life. Back in the 1960s, school bus manufacturer Blue Bird saw an opportunity to expand, and ended up building a luxury RV so sought after that it would attract the likes of President Jimmy Carter and Johnny Cash. This is the wonderfully expensive Wanderlodge, an RV built by a school bus maker.
Blue Bird has been around for almost a century, and through much of that time the company was known for one thing: building buses. Today, the company is one of the top school bus builders alongside Daimler’s Thomas Built Buses and Navistar’s IC Bus. The Henry Ford Museum notes that entrepreneur Albert Luce Sr. was the owner of two Ford dealerships in 1925. That year, he was approached by the Penn Dixie Cement Co. with a need for a bus to transport the company’s workers. Luce obliged, building a vehicle out of a wooden bus body sourced from North Carolina combined with the chassis of a Model T.
Unfortunately, the bus body didn’t stand up well to Georgia’s rough rural roads. The body was so poorly equipped for the task that Luce reportedly feared that it wouldn’t even survive long enough for the cement company to finish paying for the bus.
This didn’t deter Luce, and he decided to find ways to improve on the design. By 1927, he perfected the design. His new bus improved on the original design with the incorporation of steel.
While wood and even canvas was featured in the new bus’ design, a steel frame served as its backbone, adding strength. The bus was put into service as a school bus and it’s often credited as the first steel school bus. Luce would build a handful more of buses before incorporating the Blue Bird Body Company in 1932. The 1927 bus, now in the hands of the Henry Ford, is called the Blue Bird No. 1.
As the Volume 35 of the International Directory of Company Histories notes, Blue Bird would grow through the 1930s to the 1960s to become the fourth-largest school bus manufacturer in the United States. Also during this time, Luce’s health was declining, and his sons George, Albert ‘Buddy’ Jr., and Joseph began taking over Blue Bird operations. Buddy was reportedly company President in 1950 and the sons were running the company when Luce passed in 1962.
That brings us to the Wanderlodge, or the Transit Home, as it was originally called.
While Blue Bird was known for its school buses, the Luce sons wanted to expand the company’s portfolio. The company tried its hand at transit buses, charter buses, and even window fans. Vehicle history site Coachbuilt notes that these products were failures, but its foray into recreational vehicles would be different.
The 1960s were a great time for RVs. The concept of the motorhome became popular and at the end of the decade, fantastic fiberglass campers would arrive on the scene. Blue Bird wanted in, and in 1963 introduced the Transit Home.
Unlike motorhome pioneers like Raymond C. Frank, Blue Bird didn’t have to build an RV from the ground up. Instead, it looked into its own catalog and chose the transit bus-style All American school bus as the base for its RV. Thus, its body is steel like a school bus and unlike the fiberglass motorhome designs of the era.
The 1963 Transit Home prototype toured the country for a couple of years. Blue Bird hoped that people would see the RV out in the wild and place an order, but the trick reportedly didn’t work. It was looking like RVs would go down on Blue Bird’s list of failed ventures. Then, in 1965, House Beautiful magazine published an article about the Transit Home. The company got five orders for the $12,000 RV ($116,964 in today’s money), kicking off production.
These first Wanderlodge RVs looked a bit like their school bus siblings with similar front fasciae, lighting, and windshield. But the side windows are different, and the side door is moved back.
The door placement allows a passenger to sit next to the driver, like in a typical motorhome. Length comes in at 31 feet with a width of 8 feet.
[Editor’s Note: I adore those arrow-shaped turn indicators. So good. – JT]
I found an old brochure from Blue Bird detailing options and features for the 1964 model. A lot of it is nothing amazing; just standard RV stuff. Some of my favorite specs are its weight; 17,520 pounds (later models would weigh 40,000 pounds or more), and the expected fuel economy of 8 mpg.
These first Transit Homes didn’t have the diesel engines that you’ll commonly find in RVs of today. Instead, Blue Bird offered your choice of domestic gasoline power flavors. The brochure speaks of a 5.4-liter Ford V8 making 205 HP, a 6.6-liter GMC V6 making 210 HP, and a 5.7-liter Chevy V8 making 220 HP. The 1967 Wanderlodge in the above photos has a 6.4-liter Ford Super Duty V8. In these early ones, the engine is up front and is accessed through a hatch between the seats.
Even though I’ve owned two buses, there is one thing that hasn’t really crossed my mind, and it’s what happens when a tire blows. None of my buses had a spare tire and neither does the Transit Home. Well, Blue Bird explains what it recommended. You would take the RV’s tire change kit, remove one of the outside wheels of the rear duals, then place it up front.
The RVs would receive updates through the years. One major update happened in 1968, when the Transit Home name was ditched for Wanderlodge. The base price also increased to $25,000 ($217,236 in today’s money). As production continued, the Wanderlodge line grew to include different lengths, widths, rear engine models, and diesel engines. And through much of the RV’s production run you could tell that it had school bus origins from the shape of its body to its lighting.
Through this time, the Wanderlodge became known for its build quality and customization.
As a 1987 issue of the New York Times notes, Wanderlodges were individually optioned by each owner. They even had a choice of their own color. Thus, Wanderlodges are often very different, and you can see it by going through forums dedicated to the RVs. Blue Bird’s high level of quality and customization reportedly attracted all kinds of celebrity owners from President Jimmy Carter, to King Hussein of Jordan, Muhammad Ali, John Wayne, Johnny Cash, and many more.
The the New York Times report describes the incredible level of luxury that you could get:
Nothing about a Wanderlodge is ordinary. It’s big – up to 40 feet long -and rides on a bus chassis. It’s posh. Inside, there’s a separate bedroom, full bathtub, VCR, complete kitchen with a microwave oven and gas grill, a dining area, a central vacuum system, two TV’s, carpeted closets, electric drapes, an intercom between the bedroom and the driver’s seat and an electric gear shift (push a button and you’re in a new gear).
There’s also a computerized horn that can be programmed to play up to 60 tunes; the standard repertoire includes ”America,” ”Rocky” and ”Amazing Grace.” The doorbell, meanwhile, plays 60 more melodies. Owners can have the company add their own favorites. College fight songs are very popular.
[…]
Those features are just the standard equipment. There are something like 200 options, including a compact disk player, a computer and a satellite TV dish. What’s more, if you’ve got some nifty idea of your own, Blue Bird will try to accommodate you. Waylon Jennings bought one and, to achieve maximum living space, had the bathroom yanked out. Another man decided that it was important to have a coal-burning stove in his Wanderlodge. King Fahd of Saudi Arabia needed four-wheel drive to plow through the desert, and, instead of a bed, he had a throne installed.
How successful was Blue Bird’s push into hyper luxury RVs? At the time when the New York Times wrote that piece, the company was selling more school buses than anyone else. Yet, the Wanderlodge was responsible for 20 percent of the company’s sales. The article goes further to describe the crazy modifications added by Wanderlodge owners. One person had their RV painted black on the outside, and done up completely white on the inside. Others had gold fixtures, leather headboards, or a custom rack to hold six-ounce bottles of Coke. Basically, if you had a dream and the money, Blue Bird was willing to make it happen.
Back when the New York Times wrote its article in 1987, the base price of a Wanderlodge was $199,000, or $530,268 today. The range topped off at $350,000, or $932,633$ today. But remember, both of those numbers were coaches without any options added, like a literal throne.
As time went on, Blue Bird further evolved the design. Newer buses looked less and less like their school bus siblings and by 1991, the design was changed so drastically that you couldn’t tell that the Wanderlodge was a product of a school bus manufacturer. But through the time they remained famed for build quality and incredible customization.
Unfortunately, the good times wouldn’t last for the Wanderlodge. An archived RV Business report notes that Blue Bird changed hands a number of times in recent decades. It was acquired by a management firm in 1992, bought by Henlys Group PLC (the then owner of Volvo and Prevost) in 1999, then filed bankruptcy in 2006, with the remains getting handed to none other than Cerberus Capital Management. Yep, that’s the company that owned Chrysler back then!
In 2007, Blue Bird decided to leave the RV market, and put the RV division up for sale. Complete Coach Works Inc. bought the division and kept it going until 2009, when it to shuttered production.
Today, Wanderlodges remain coveted by people who know what they are. Otherwise, they seem to fly under the radar. If you want one, you’ll be happy to find tons of them for sale. I found at least one in every region of the United States and with prices ranging as low as $3,000 for total projects to over $200,000 for one of the last ones. My favorites are linked in these two sentences.
But really, these RVs are more or less what custom skoolie builders try to emulate. They are luxury RVs with the build quality and incredible longevity of a school bus. You don’t have to worry as much about water leaks when the roof and walls of your RV are built like a school bus. It’s a combination that today you’ll really only find in something like a Prevost.
Just to show how old I am, and what a malaise childhood I had, my father actually built a business around these in the 1970’s and 80’s, converting Wanderlodges to diesel. While running a diesel in something that an average civilian drives daily is now common sense, it was still a radical idea in the 1970s. The business model was that a Detroit Diesel or Cat would pay for itself in fuel costs over the long run, given the crap milelage these got with the gas engines, and the high cost of fuel. Always installed them with Allison automatics and often an electric Jake Brake. While each one was configured differently, I remember viscerally how each one had the same damn smell. Must have been outgassing from the upholstery and carpet. One particularly high end customer Wanderlodge had a built-in safe, and after the conversion was completed, the owner opened the safe and paid my dad cash right out of it.
While these were very high end, they did have the same problems all RV’s do. They are a house that is subject to regular, extended shaking. A huge part of the shop’s work was just fixing all the various systems — typicaly for free — that had failed along the way and never been properly repaired. Not a great business model, as it was tough convincing people wealthy enough to buy one that the savings in fuel economy were worth the inconvenience of delivering the RV to Albuquerque, New Mexico and leaving it with us for a couple months. And, of course, most non-gearheads have no idea how much labor goes into diagnosing and fixing all of those ancilary systems. For a while in the 1980s or 1990s, though, every once and a while I would see a Wanderlodge somewhere on the highway with the name of my Dad’s shop hand stenciled onto the back, tastefully bragging about its powertrain upgrade.
We absolutely love our 1986 Wanderlodge. Just don’t try going anywhere in a hurry (it makes friends very easily). It can be seen at http://www.Buoy4AK.com/c/YouTube if you’d like to see it (we sure love showing it off ????
What a strange coincidence. I saw a beautiful blue and silver Wanderlodge at an outdoor weekend music fest a few weeks back and was going to send you photos. What a fantastically cool machine!
A friend of my brother has a Wanderlust in his barn. A total project but he claims it was Jimmy Carters tour bus. I am sure that decreases it’s value.
A Wanderlodge being formerly owned by Jimmy Carter only decreases its value among treasonous knuckledraggers.
The rest of us either don’t care about the political angle, recognize how rare it would be to own such a significant piece of property owned by a former President, or like Jimmy Carter (especially for all the humanitarian and charity work he has done after leaving office).
I’m currently building a huge RV/ ramp truck from an equally huge American Lafrance Quad cab Centry class fire truck. Total length will be 40 and be able to cary my car and another small car ( fiance’ MGB). And have a bed, shower and toilet and tons of room, plus about 500 gallons in fuel and water as well with enough storage to haul a motorcycle in the side of the bed!
That dash is fantastic!
Also a 6.6L V6?
Yep, that is not a typo. And it’s not the biggest one they made either – not by a long shot!
The story of GMCs mid-century V6 & V12 truck engine family is quite fascinating.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMC_V6_engine
Anyone know why GMC went with a V6 instead of a V8?
So that they could also have a V-12 that used a lot of the same parts. Wikipedia “GMC V6 Engine”.
I drove bus for a year to try and help out with the driver shortage at my kids school. In that short time I learned that blue birds are the king of school busses and Thomas’s are hot garbage. Driving a school bus will test anyone’s patience, and the blue bird at least gave me a fighting chance to make it through the day without losing my mind. Having seen the build “quality” of most modern rvs its a shame blue bird is no longer in the game.
Love this article. We’re currently looking for another Diesel Pusher and if we could find a Wanderlodge for a decent price, that would be our first choice. Of course there are other motorhomes of similar build and quality like Newell, Marathon, Liberty, or other commercial coach conversions, but none of those fall within our budget range and some of them are ~$2.5 Million new (looking at you, Newell…).
Although some of the older Newells are built like brick outhouses and have a reasonable purchase cost/cost to repair & update ratio. But yes a Wanderlodge or a well-maintained GMC would work for me as well!
“..You’re either on the bus, or you’re off the bus…” Ken Kesey
“..It’s better to first get the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats, and THEN figure out where to drive…” James Collins
“..I did not get on the buse to get arrested. I got on the bus to go home…” Rosa Parks
A few years back I was looking for one of these or a Barth- ended up with a Winnebago as all the others were too far away- it replaced a 69 MCI that had a terminal engine problem
Wanderlodge are awesome and they come with a community ala Airstream.
There was a really nice one for sale locally a while back on FBM.
$35,000 if I recall correctly.
In the ‘90s there were at least 2 different race teams who had gutted the back of school buses and transported their cars to local circle tracks in them. Always respected that level of dedication. Then I recently saw an old-like pontoon fenders old-school bus which had been turned into a stake truck for hauling logs sitting in a field out in Georgia Pacific county (they grow trees on thousands of acres in central Virginia). That made me laugh out loud. Wish I’d gotten a picture-I’ll try to get one next year: maybe we’ll be able to post them by then
I just drove by the 80s dual axle on the highway this morning and wondered what it was- awesome timing! And now to read what is sure to be an awesomely written article
If you can afford the up front cost a Blue Bird is better than a DIY even if it needs work. These also are easy to repower although I’m thinking that a propane converted big block might be better option than a diesel these days. A gas engine is certainly quieter and propane is very clean running.
Mercedes- why do you do this ?
“The brochure speaks of a 5.4-liter Ford V8 making 205 HP, a 6.6-liter GMC V6 making 210 HP, and a 5.7-liter Chevy V8 making 220 HP. ”
I mean – it doesn’t. It says there is a Ford 332, a GMC 401, and a Chevy 348. Someone not bothering to read the linked brochure is going to see “5.7” and assume SBC 350, not 348 “W” motor. Why bother with a metric conversion that leaves info that some would find important or interesting? I’ve noticed this in a bunch of articles, this one just really stuck out another to get me to bother to register.
It was advice from an editor long ago. Their idea was that an everyday reader isn’t going to know what (for example) a “GMC 401” is, so it’s better to lay it out in more familiar liters + engine layout.
If the readers here would much prefer things the other way, I’m all for it!
Why not both?
i.e. 5.4-liter Ford 332 V8
Why do you hate America?
On a site like this, I think using CID is a better option. I also thought the metric measurements were odd because at the time, it was all about the cubes.
On a site like this, I think calling engines by their OEM nomenclature is always correct. For American V8s from the 70s and before, that always means cubic inches, and often includes a nickname or an option code. E.g., the aluminum Chevy big-block monster of the 60s was a ZL1 427. The legendary Chrysler was a 426 Hemi. Neither is ever, ever correctly called a 7.0 liter. (Ford did make the Galaxie 7-Liter, but that was a model name – the engine under the hood was still a 428.)
Or are you okay with calling a 2JZ simply a “Toyota 3.0L six-cylinder” and letting the reader fill in the blanks?
Disclaimer: I misread your comment, and my reply came off unnecessarily shitty. Apologies.
Also, this site needs edit and delete functions.
We also use the cubes in metric. I usually call the 999cm3 engine in my Polo a 1L, but for some reason when referring to the 1.1L in my Renault 4 I’ll say 1100cm3 (it’s actually 1108 but I don’t want to sound too pedantic when discussing the C1E 688 D7/12 Cléon-Fonte engine).
Understandable for a generic audience, but I would think the clientele here is a bit more specialized.
My kingdom for an edit button for that last sentence in the original question!
When the converted value loses important information, it seems prudent to at least include a reference to what was lost.
I think you should use the contemporaneous nomenclature – ie Chevy 348 for the old “W” engine or Chevy 5.3/6.0 for the new LS series.
BTW, I had to Google GMC 6.6l V6. I had never heard of these before.
You have yourself a deal. You’ll see the change on my very next article, this week’s Mercedes’ Marketplace Madness!
This. My uncle’s 1966 Impala didn’t have a 4.6 liter V8, it had a 283 Turbo Fire V8. It was America, dammit.
When you are referring to American V8s from approximately 1976 or earlier, FREEDOM UNITS ONLY. PLEASE.
Came here to recommend this. But…Beware! This may be the deepest darkest rabbit hole I’ve seen on YouTube. Detroit Diesels galore, converted buses, Wanderlodges, custom coaches.
Dang it. This is for Busgeeasemonkey on YouTube.
Love me some 8V92 (if someone else pays for the fuel).
And nary a swirly graphic or squiggle in sight.
The swirly graphics are how people know it’s a motorhome, what’s the point of having a motorhome if you can’t show it off?
I assumed the Good Sam sticker was the objective evidence.
They look like tribal tattoos to me, which suggests a similar level of taste.
30 Gallon fuel tank. oof
sorry 300. that was what I tried to type. $1,500 to fill up. yikes
Honestly, either would be shocking in its own way. A 30 gallon tank would you get you about 15 miles before running dry, and the 300 will require a mortage to fill up. 😉
My grand parents had an ‘84 40’ wanderlodge from about 88 until late 90s. Great memories were had in it front trips to Disney world to traveling all over Arizona, was crazy to see the altimeter (yes it had an altimeter) from Phoenix to Flagstaff. They drove the heck out of the thing making it to many motor home rallies, lots of stops at the “Birds Nest” in GA next to the Blue bird plant and even made it up to Alaska a couple times.
I loved the scream of the two stroke Detroit in it. When we heard the PA belt out “On the road again” we knew they were headed off for another adventure.
When you get your Wanderlodge, you will want to get to know this guy, or at least subscribe to his YouTube channel…
https://busgreasemonkey.com/
Heck, if you like buses in general the Bus Grease Monkey channel is pure heaven.
How did they compare with a Prevost price-wise when both were in full swing? Seems like there are plenty of $1-2+ Mil Prevost builds now, so was the BlueBird the frugal approach to a full custom bus chassis RV?
When I heard that they were bought by the same parent company as Prevost I pretty much knew why they went bankrupt. There’s no way that was going to end well.
Yeah, just doesn’t make sense to compete with yourself on such a small volume item.
I figured that it was all over when they purchased by Cerberus – nothing good happens when they get involved. That is the most appropriately name company – hound that guards the gates of hell indeed.
We own one of the last models produced by Wanderlodge, an 06 M450 Lxi. In 2006 it would list for around 900K-1M. Base was around 800K. Wanderlodge produced a coach that hit a price point under the cost of a typical Liberty/Marathon conversion. Those were in the 1.2-1.3 M range in 06. Now (2022) those conversions are at 2.5M along with Newell. We purchased our 06 in Oct of 19. We are the 3rd owners. I can tell you the original owner, where he lived, even when he died. The online resources for these units are incredible. The Wanderlodge Owners Group has a treasure trove of knowledge and owners. The 450 that I own has it’s own dedicated web site. These are magnificent buses that are worth preserving.