Who would get in a Barth that hadn't been driven for four years, and drive it from Prescott, Arizona, to Charlotte, NC.? Only a slightly off balance 67 year old man who thinks Barths are off the charts! And guess what? It made it, averaging almost 10 mpg! Here are a few highlights. April 28th, from Jon Bourke's house in Prescott to Flagstaff, starting at 5 PM. No problem including the blizzard in Flagstaff. Nothing quite like looking in the Barth's rear view mirror and seeing only two tracks in 4" of snow. No slips, skids, just smooth sailing. April 29th, Flagstaff to Vega Texas. Again no problems-just a steady 58mph. April 30th- Vega to Sallisaw, OK, and a very nice KOA there. No problems except the coach water pump tried to catch on fire when its' pressure switch failed. Rapid heart beat and smelly stuff for a while! May 1st Sallisaw OK to Crossville, Tenn, and another KOA which will eventually be nice but is a little rough now. May 2nd Crossville to Charlotte. This beauty runs like a deer. A small oil leak took us to the Chevy dealer for a new rear main seal (which I expected). What a surprise when we found a 6" long crack in the transmission case. It was an old crack and Jon was really upset about it. He had the tranny pulled 20000 miles ago and they cracked it getting it back on. But God is good and kept it together for both of us. Now we have a rebuilt tranny with a TCI converter ready to go in on May 9th, and we'll be back in business, at least when we get another water pump. It was a one man show. The bride couldn't get everything together on one days notice, but she's looking forward to our next trip which we hope will be next weekend. I'll try to send some pics soon.
Jim

Talk about your good fortune. When we bought our Barth in Prescott, we only drove to Yuma. The heater wouldn't shut off, the engine air conditioner didn't work, the cruise control didn't work, the speedometer quit, and the whole thing stunk of gasoline from a leak in the filler pipe. When we hooked up the water, there were frozen pipes under the galley floor.

The next month had a long list of minor items to complete, & on the way back to Washington, coming down out of the Siskiyou mountains, an awning arm fell off..

To date, about 50 items are complete on a do-list that has grown to about 70 altogether. Nothing as expensive as a tranny, but about $5 grand of smaller things so far. The Barth is still a work-in-progress, but I still love it.

Congratulations on finding a good one.

God bless our repair lists. When I first bought my Barth, I flew from Springfield, MA to Naples, FL. Then drove 1700 miles with a friend in three days. We had a clipboard and the list grew. By the time we arrived home, there were over 30 items.

Over the last two years, I've completed nearly everything on the original list and added another 20. This list rivals my wife's "honey do" list in the house.

My good fortune for lists has improved recently. My daughter and husband bought a house just up the street and now she has a "daddy do" list as well. She has really simple tasks, like "new kitchen" etc.

How lucky can one man get?

Bill G

Nothing WRONG with DO LISTS. I have always done such and now plan my day around FOUR lists.

* MASTER LIST

* SHORT PROJECTS, LESS THAN TWO HOURS TO COPLETE,

* LONGER THAN TWO HOURS

* NEED TO BUY ITEMS.

Oh, and don't forget the REMIND ME TO REVIEW MY LISTS note.

Fun is good....

Dale

Our "To Do" list will start tomorrow when I pick up the Barth from the Chevy dealer who is putting the tranny back in. First is to install a new water pump on the coach to replace the one that burned up en route to Charlotte. Next will be to convert the coach to a 50 amp service. I'm not allowing myself to think much beyond that.

Well, the journey continues. I picked up the Barth from the Chevy dealer and took it for a test ride. Five miles out and it started to pop and smell bad and then it died right on I 85 north of Charlotte. Seems like the wires from the chasis battery dropped on the exhaust manifold heat shield and everything went bonkers. After pulling off the road, I lifted the doghouse and there was a bundle of wires smoldering and burning, not flames but glowing embers. No fire extinguisher but prayer works and the smoldering wires finally went out. A couple of hours later, it's back at the dealer and this time we decided to fix it right and wrapped both headers (Thorley's} with header wrap and the wires with heat resistant fiberglass wire wrap. I finally picked it up again today and had a very pleasant ride home. So now the bride and I are busy making it like home. I love it!

Jim, wrapping the Thorleys will lead to early failure and will void the lifetime warranty.

Omygosh! I'll contact Thorley right away. Thanks for the heads up.
Jim

Bill
I contacted Thorley and while I'm the third owner since the headers were installed, the real point is the early failure you mentioned. It seems moisture gets trapped in the header, maybe condensing on the inside, and rust occurs. They make chrome/moly and stainless headers and I don't know which I have yet, but they both will rust. It just takes a little longer for the stainless. Now I've got to cut all that stuff off. Any ideas on how to keep the heat away from the top part of the engine?

I do several things.

I tie things out of hot areas. (buy me a drink and I'tell a good joke on myself on that one.)

I make heat shields out of sheet metal.

I use thermo Tek wrap or sleeves

I install a splash shield on the right side like on the left side. It improves the air flow.

I think there is a post here somewhere on that. I am in Wyoming MI, now, so do not have access to my own computer for a while, so can't dig the pn out of my docs now.

Hey Bill
Where do you use thermo Tek wrap? I've got sleeves around the spark plugs but that's about all. I'll check with my auto parts store on the wrap.

quote:

Originally posted by humbojb:
Hey Bill
Where do you use thermo Tek wrap? I've got sleeves around the spark plugs but that's about all. I'll check with my auto parts store on the wrap.

I use sleeves or wrap on the plug nipples and first few inches of wire, starter wiring, and just about anything that is near the headers. If you have a factory oil cooler, the lines on the left side of the block are very near the headers, and would benefit from some insulation. Also any plastic air bag lines. they melt easily.

Bill
I looked up Thermo tec on the internet and all I could find was a company that made a skirt for the bottom of mobile homes. Where do you buy the stuff you're talking about?

quote:

Originally posted by humbojb:
Bill
I looked up Thermo tec on the internet and all I could find was a company that made a skirt for the bottom of mobile homes. Where do you buy the stuff you're talking about?

Sorry, it is Thermo-Tec. http://www.thermotec.com/

When these companies deviate from standard spelling, I get all confused.

I get it from my local speed shops or www.summitracing.com

PAW https://secure.pawengineparts.com/newform.html is an axcellent catalog for browsing. they also ship really fast.