Model · Blue Bird Wanderlodge
Blue Bird Wanderlodge M450 LXi
Wikipedia describes the M450 LXi as a 45-foot coach that replaced the earlier LXi sizes for 2004 and lists it as built until 2009. Blue Bird’s 2004 factory brochure, which prints no model year, calls it the Wanderlodge 450 LXi and lists a tag axle, a 525-horsepower Caterpillar C13, an Allison six-speed and a stainless steel body built as one unit with the chassis. Trade press named it as one of the two Wanderlodge models when the line was sold in 2007.
Photo: bus-stuff.com (brand photo)
About this model
Wikipedia says Blue Bird revised its model names in 2004, renaming the LXi the M450 LXi and making a 45-foot length its only size. The factory brochure, copyright 2004 (form code RV-LXi-0704), calls the coach the all-new Wanderlodge LXi, or 450 LXi, and stresses that Wanderlodge built the whole coach under one roof, from the frame rails to the finish. It lists a Caterpillar C13 of 525 horsepower and 1,650 pound-feet of torque, an Allison MH4000 six-speed, a 20 kW generator, 120 gallons of fresh water, and 70-gallon gray and black tanks.
When Blue Bird sold the Wanderlodge line to Complete Coach Works in July 2007, trade press named the 450LXi and the M380 as the two models in the line. Wikipedia says both continued under the new owner without the Blue Bird name until production stopped in April 2009.
The brochure prints no model year. Vintage Birds, an owners’ club, says only the M380 was built for the 2004 model year, so the 450 LXi may have been sold as a 2005 model. No factory documents for 2005 through 2009 were found in this session.