Macy Neshati
Jerry,
thanks for the positive post on the generator move.
Regarding
the question raised by David Brady about the changes being made to their
coaches I will take the liberty of attempting to clarify what is going on.
First
very importantly as the current owners of the Blue Bird Wanderlodge and Blue
Bird Coachworks this is NOT and I repeat NOT our recall, these units were built
and shipped by the previous owners of the company and it is their recall and
their responsibility to design and recommend fixes.
We
have strived to be an advocate for our owners, make sure the recall is handled
quickly and to facilitate the repairs.
There
are some mandatory elements to the fix which are new tires installed, and
properly pressurized to 130 PSI, an alignment done and new tie rod ends
installed which revises the rating of the whole front end to a 17,000 capacity,
also a new Hadley computer module is installed to help the air ride system do a
better job of load distribution between all three axles. Once these changes are
done we have found several coaches that are comfortably below the 17,000 front
limit allowing for passengers and cargo, and those units are being returned to
the open road.
For
the units that are still close to the 17,000 limit there are some choices the
owners need to make to help get their units in line. The original program from
Blue Bird Body Company was to work with Arvin Meritor to develop an 18,000
front suspension but that will take a year to accomplish, so we looked at our
2009 which we had already decided would have the generator mounted in the third
bay on production units for the benefits of less vibration and quieter
operation and found that we had also saved about 1000 pounds off the front axle
so we went in and modified the last LXI our 2008 450 LXI and found the same
benefits 1000 pounds lighter front axle, quieter operation and less vibration.
This
is a great alternative to waiting a year for a new front axle, not being able
to operate the motor home or having to operate it very lightly loaded.
The
owners that have seen and heard this unit run have been very impressed.
As
we have stated on many occasions including this forum, we want to help preserve
and enhance owner value and enjoyment of their Wanderlodges and while we aren’t
perfect and while this situation isn’t of our making, we are doing what
we can to help minimize owner impact and return these units back to service as
quickly but most importantly, safely as possible. But ultimately, beyond the
mandatory elements of the fix which I described earlier, these changes are
choices the owners will need to make.
Our
THANKS to all the owners for their patience and support as we work through
this.
Macy
Macy Neshati
www. completecoach.com http://www.bluebirdcoachworks.com
email: macy@...
Cell: 951 836 6525 Office: 951 684 9585 Fax: 951 684 2023
1863 Service Court
Riverside, CA 92507