I am looking to buy a 28-32 ft class A. A pusher would be nice. A BARTH caught my eye. What is the good and the bad. Thank you in advance for your feedback.

quote:

Originally posted by ctshaag:
I am looking to buy a 28-32 ft class A. A pusher would be nice. A BARTH caught my eye. What is the good and the bad. Thank you in advance for your feedback.

There are probably many good reasons to buy or not buy a Barth. My five-cent's worth is the analogy of biological transportation: You can buy a thouroughbread, a donkey or a quaterhorse. A Prevost is the thoroughbread, very capable, very expensive. A donkey is the typical plastic box with a mattress in the back. The quarterhorse is the Barth, rugged, hard working, not too demanding.

Another way to compare is to look at "primary" use. Prevost or MCI conversions, Barths and other high-end coaches are 75+ MPH "Motorcoaches" you can live in. They are industrial equipment that need major work at 200,000-500,000 mile itervals. Run-of-the-mill "Motorhomes" are campers or cottages you can carefully move from place to place, provided they are unloaded to stay within legal weight limits. They are consumer products that run for up to 100,000 miles.

The resale value of a 20 year-old "motorcoach" is about 50%. The resale value of a 20-year old "motorhome" is slavage value (about 10%).

Hope this helps

The Gyrene



[This message has been edited by GyreneSix (edited March 10, 2002).]

After spending the last 25 years in the aviation industry and being very well aquatinted with the life cycle of equipment I have found the Barth's are like no other "Motor Homes" on the market. Yes Prevost & MCI conversions are real nice, but they are conversions. Barths are built for what they are. In other words you have an aluminum hull built to your specifications. With proper maintenance they will have an infinite life cycle. Just like an aircraft when the interior is worn out you can strip it out and remodel. I am particularly fond of the P30 running gear because you can find parts in any 3rd world country for these. Okay maybe that�s a slight exaggeration but my point is there is a lot of parts out there.

I have owned a 1976 21' and more recently a 1977' 27' that is currently undergoing a midlife restoration project. I fully intend to do a complete tare down in about 5 years.

Your imagination and finances are the only limits to what you can do with one of these, and whatever you put into it will be worth it.

Besides, only special people own Barths!

And Eric, wouldn't you agree that Barth owners children are smarter and much better looking than owners of other motorhome?

------------------
Shortcuts always take longer



[This message has been edited by davebowers (edited March 17, 2002).]

[This message has been edited by davebowers (edited March 24, 2002).]

Well Dave; I have to admit, mine are! >Grin<

Buying a Barth is like buying any other classic, be it car, boat, motorcycle, or airplane. I have been though it all. It will be a labor of love, and will cost you dearly. You will never get your money out of it, unless you bought it REALLY cheap.

BUT, and this is a very important consideration, you will have a motor home that you can own and love forever. You will have pride of ownership. Not only will your children be smarter, but your dog will become a pedigree. You will have something unique and timeless. The coach and interior are absolutely FIRST CLASS construction, and will never slowly fall apart like so many others. I have had RVs for over thirty years, and they all became a formation of loose parts going down the road, more or less together. Dry rot, insufficient or loosening staples, delamination, seams coming loose, end caps not mating with the roof anymore, rubber roofs blistering, etc. The subsequent owner of my Southwind even had the #*%!@#*% windshield blow inward onto the dash in high winds. It seems Fleetwood did not think it necessary to use a metal piece where the windshield halves joined. We used to call our last one "the shifting paradigm", which was a vague reference to the fact that it was a moving parallelogram of shifting angles. It achieved the elevated status of a rectangle only for the brief moment when it went from one set of angles to another. The Southwind had 22 000 miles on it when we bought the Barth. The Barth had 73 000 miles, but felt like a NEW coach. Everything was tight, no air leaks, no flexing and squeaking, better brakes, better straight line stability, etc.
Barths were built by skilled AMERICAN craftsman, not unskilled illegals. And, because of the quality construction, you can remodel it, just like a house. Trust me, so many other RVs are of such poor or unconventional construction that remodeling is an invitation to disaster or self destruction, even suicide.
I can only speak for the gas models, but Barths are built on heavier chassis than most of their counterparts, so weight, safety, and brake issues are not as critical.
As long as you are planning to keep it, spend and work away! It will be a labor of love, and you will be rewarded as long as you own it.
Most of these comments apply to older Barths. Of course, the newer Barth you buy, the more you will spend upfront, and the less you will have to spend on upkeep and restoration.

If you are interested in a Barth, take a look at what my wife and I were able to do with our 1989 33 footerhttp://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4291289809&code=3675945&mode=invite. This coach drives like my buddies 40 foot 1996 Bluebird. If you go out and drive some of the other factory built coaches and then drive a Barth, I know you will see what I mean. The Barth handles like a Bus, fantastic, does not get pushed around by trucks and is an economical coach to maintain. I also believe they will maintain a value much greater than the fiberglass toys that are out there.

Good luck with your hunt.

Jim May