Hard to believe but it has been a little over 10 years since I bought my 86 RegalSE from my sister-in-law and drove it from Florida home to Michigan. At that time I had never heard of Barth motorhomes. I found this site and spent several weeks searching through the archives for information and learned a bunch before I ever posted. (I figured I might as well get familiar with topics and members before I started asking stupid questions.)

Since then I have become a hopelessly addicted Barth junkie. The 86 was a great coach. I spent MANY hours fixing and upgrading it. In the years I owned it we put over 44,000 miles on it. Enjoyed every minute. (Well, almost. In all the time we ran it I did spend one night on the side of the road.)

I posted my projects to share with other junkies. I have over 4400 posts and well over 1000 pictures here now. Some of my threads are now over 75,000 views, several more are well over 50,000 views. Evidently they have been at least interesting to others, if not useful as well.

We outgrew the 86 and passed it on to another member. Our Monarch is now the subject of projects and travels. Racked up another 25,000 miles or so on it, many great trips and times with it as well.

That said, I found that the real treasures here are not the coaches but the people I have met through the site. It seems that well made dinosaur coaches attract certain types of owners, who are remarkably talented and diverse people, as well as generous and helpful. I have made MANY wonderful friends here I would never have met had I not stumbled onto this site. The list is too long to include all of them here. Others, like Bill NY, cctim, John Canning and others, I have yet to meet but look forward to someday.

Sadly, as time passes, attrition has reduced our ranks and I have become one of the oldtimers, by default. I never met Bill h but always enjoyed his wisdom. Rusty was a great guy and I was fortunate to have known him. He always welcomed "Liz and her driver" whenever we saw him.

I look forward to another 10 years (at least) of good times with the Barth family. Hopefully we will continue to attract more hopeless fanatics who admire old coaches as I do. I would like to continue to meet and help as many as possible. I thank all of you who have been so good to us over the years, it has been priceless.

A special thanks to Bill NY for keeping this site up and running for us all to enjoy.

Have Barth, will travel

Very well spoken .

I hope to be active here for a long time to come . The friendly folks with their vast knowledge and experience is priceless . I've been a forum member for almost 2 years and finally purchased a Barth 2 weeks ago . I have been active on the WOG forum since 2014 and have met many great folks . Looking forward to meeting more Barth owners as the time goes on . We racked up 40,000 miles on our Bluebird in the 5 years we owned it . Additionally , we put 10,000 miles on our Holiday Rambler diesel pusher in the year we owned it . Hoping to put many many miles on the Barth

We bought our first MH in 1978. A 25' champion on a dodge chassis. Next 1 31' Sportscoach thru the 80s. 90s brought a GM4106 highway bus which I converted. Then in 2002 a friend with a Newell called Marleen (better half) and said a friend of his needed to sell his 43.5' Newell. Gave him an offer he had to refuse, but he didn't.

In 2006 we decided to do an Alaska trip in 2007. I wanted to use the frerries and needed something smaller. Marleen wanted a bed rood and I wanted a diesel. We also decided 30' would be max length. Do you know how hard it was to fill these requirements. Was about to give up when I discovered a Barth that meet requirements. Went to TX bought it and drove it to our lot in AZ. Wow, under powered and under speed. Both problems where solved a couple of years later. No time before AK in 2007. It worked great. Kinda like a big station wagon and we were not towing.

Back home I found a transmission on Ebay and marine injectors also on Ebay. Two problems solved. Now we have two MHs and building a house. Put both MHs up for sale and the Newell sold first, so we we still have the Barth. Really works great for our needs. Get lots of admiration from others. Most folks have never seen a Barth.

Anyway finished up 8 decades of life and hoping for one more. Like to get another 5 years minimum of the RV life style.

I know you weren't solicitating gratitude but now is as good a time as ever. The few of you who have the advanced mechanical knowledge, computer savvy, and ambition to regularly post are the reason the rest of us tune in. We should have a Barth Hall of Fame. And no requirement to be out of the game.

Enough drift. Back to the bio's.

My introduction, to MH's was back in the late 80's and 90's when I worked for Dometic and later Norcold. Both wanted their engineers and managers to attend rallies and take RV vacations. Got to use the company owned Airstream, Holiday Rambler, and Monarch, companies paid for gas so took them as often as I could. My Kids were in college so I traveled to see them and college sporting events a lot. After retiring, bought a 86 Winnebago 32' E'lan Dan. Then 3 years ago got ole Nose.

What an adventure, I am not so much a contributor but a user of the site. Have received and utilized exceptional advice from a multitude of knowledgeable and helpful folks. Like a lot of us I am approaching the 8 decade mark and hope for another decade of enjoying this machine and meeting the folks that make owning a Barth more enjoyable.

Y'all are amazing!! Hope festivities are going well in MI!!