As you can see from this blog, progress on Retro has been essentially stalled for several years. I decided to make Retro available to others who may be interested and published that fact on the Wanderlodge Owners Forum.
A gentleman from Alaska contacted me and described a project called " The Alaskan Brain Bus". He is a doctor and has been supporting the brain injury community in Alaska for some years now. His hope is to build a bus with which to travel to small remote communities in Alaska to provide them with service for patients with various brain injuries.
I have donated Retro to this project. I spent about 3 months of available time finishing various parts of the drivetrain work as well as a little new work on the electrical system. I got new transmission cooler lines and radiator hoses to support the swing radiator ( kind of flopped - the hoses are too long and kink when the radiator is closed. Could possibly be improved to where the swing functions properly. I ended up putting shorter non-swingable hoses on the radiator when closed) I re-wired the battery and finished the alternator.
Dr. Grove flew down from Alaska and we worked on the bus for 3 days together including a couple of test drives. We found the driveline brake parts from a bus parts dealer and installed the emergency/parking brake which was a problem on this bus since I first got it.
Dr. Grove drove the bus to Tacoma where it was loaded on a ship for transport to Anchorage. The bus is now parked behind his clinic and he is continuing the work to convert the bus to a mobile clinic.
Here is the URL for the brain bus project: https://www.alaskabrainbus.com/
Thank you for your interest in this project, please look at the brain bus website to follow along in Retro's future!
Jim Morton
