Hi All,

I just wanted to say hello. My wife Betsy and I are (relatively) new Barth owners. We had been looking for an RV and last year we came acriss a 1973 Barth 34t In almost completely original and very good (relatively speaking) shape. At a price of 3,500.00 it seemed like a steal (too good to be true). My wife found the add and within 30 minutes, I found Barthmobile.com (Computer Networking is my job and my life). I was a internet search guru before google (alta vista was it back then).
SHe found the add on thrusday. By Monday when we went and looked at it, I had already read 30 or more pages from these tech forums. I knew that 3,500 was a decent price but that we were in for 6 or 7k or maintenance (which makes a bit more sense in the grand scheme of things).
Having said all that, we bought it. I had new tires, brakes, all the fluids changed, the engine tuned up and the Q'jet rebuilt. All of that made it road worthy (a few other minor things, but you get the idea). At the time I didn't have a place to keep it or work on it, so I had it done (found some nice (good) RV folks near by (North of Atlanta GA.). In any case, we have her (Rosie, named after the Jetsons robot maid... they have the same rump home. And I will be doing most of the rest of the work amd maintenance my self.
I cannot even begin to thank everyone on this site for the knowledge and insight I have learned. I hope one day to be a contributing member to "newbies".
Anyway, enough for this thread. Thanks for giving me the empowerment to buy (with knowledge) and realize what I was getting into. BTW, we are early 50's and won't be able to "RV" that much for the next couple of years, so I have Rosie on the ten year plan.

johnny

Sorry, I thought My profile would display my "stuff". I still have a couple of things to figure out Here is the plate. One thing that I have an immediate question about is tire pressure. Most folks mention that in excess of 100 psi. My tag indicates 50 and 60. Does this reconcile with the messes ?

ohhhh, wrong image. Man I'm sorry...jg

quote:

Originally posted by johnny griner:
. One thing that I have an immediate question about is tire pressure. Most folks mention that in excess of 100 psi. My tag indicates 50 and 60. Does this reconcile with the messes ?

Get the load chart from your tire manufacturer for your size and ply rating.

Weigh each of the front and each of the drive wheel pairs. This is best done when fully-loaded, but anything is better than nothing.

Inflate each front and drive tire to 10 lbs over the tire chart pressure for the heaviest laden wheel. That is, for example, if the left front wheel has more weight than the right front, you must also use that pressure for the right front. .

How are your front air bags?

Inflate the tag tires to the minimum pressure on the tire chart.

Welcome Johnny, Betsy and of course Rosie. Sounds like you have a good plan, just need to work in some short camping trips.

Would like to see pictures of your floor plan.

quote:

Originally posted by johnny griner:
I had new tires, brakes, all the fluids changed, the engine tuned up and the Q'jet rebuilt.

johnny

Did he include the tag brakes in that? Quite often, a new owner finds that the tag brakes were not taken care of.

quote:

How are your front air bags?

I fear that all my air bags are going to be soon to happen maintenance items. I had the folks working on it to make it safe and road worthy, but the rest is up to me. They indicated that finding a pump for the bags on the tag axel was a problem. though in reading the many threads I have gone through, I feel I am better prepared to tackle that my self. I am currently having a canopy built for it (My wife would kill me for calling Rosie "it")
That is to go up in the next couple of weeks. THen I will Jack it up (crib) and start to look at my inventory list and refine the plan.
I have owned a couple of sail boats and a refurbished an old house boat (many similar issues).
I consider my self more versed in the housing aspects (plumbing, electrical, general remodeling) as opposed to the mechanical (engine) stuff. Still I owned a couple of chevy's over the years and am not unfamiliar with the 454. I'm more comfortable with planned maintenance as opposed to break/fix, but you play the hand you are dealt.

jg

Oh, also... He Specifically did "not" include tag brakes. Glad he told me, we have a good understanding, I won't be pulling a toad for a while...

Good point BTW,

jg

quote:

Would like to see pictures of your floor plan.

Thank you very much Mary. I will start to up load several bits over the next couple of days. I have the jpeg of the floor plan of our model. and again, our Barth looks almost like it stepped right out of 1973, we still have the original orange/brown shag carpet (and as god as my witness it is still in good shape
So far, mostely we have just pulled stuff out. like those two chairs on either side of the rais up table behind the passenger chair. My wife and I are big (tall folks). I am 6'3" and she is 5'12" (She would never ad mit to being 6 feet tall) and we have a mastiff. So we are trying to basically clean it out and have as little stuff as possible (I found sailing far more tolerable/fun when you got rid of all the junk, you really didn't need

Hey Bill, I'm not sure I am uploading images correctly. Sorry about that. they seem to be huge. I will check and figure what I am doing wrong. jg

Welcome to Barthmobile!

Bill N Y's dance card is overly full right now; send resized pix to me for posting to Photobucket. There are a number of free graphics editing programs, including Paint for Windows. Please do not attach any images. I don't mind fixing, but I'm on the road a lot and frequently have wretched connections (as I do now).

Size should be not more than 8" max dimension, 100K size @72 ppi.

quote:

within 30 minutes, I found Barthmobile.com (Computer Networking is my job and my life). I was a internet search guru before google (alta vista was it back then).
SHe found the add on thrusday. By Monday when we went and looked at it, I had already read 30 or more pages from these tech forums. I knew that 3,500 was a decent price but that we were in for 6 or 7k or maintenance (which makes a bit more sense in the grand scheme of things).

I like the way you think, Johnny
You're already way ahead of most new owners

welcome to the fraternity of Barth

quote:

Size should be not more than 8" max dimension, 100K size @72 ppi.

Thanks Rusty, The numbers are what I need. I will pop this into the default output of my jpegMini app and we will be smoking...

Also, I figured Bill was up to his eyebrows Thanks for jumping in. I try not to make life difficult for people and I like to send pictures (since my articulation with the written word can leave something to be desired, especially after a gin and tonic or two

And Mogan, I appreciate the kind words. Not sure about being ahead, I just want to stay above water

quote:

Originally posted by johnny griner:

quote:

How are your front air bags?

I fear that all my air bags are going to be soon to happen maintenance items.

jg

If your front bags cannot hold air between fuel stops, they should be replaced at FIRST opportunity.

I am a giant believer in good bags or better springs up front.

In my pre-Barth days one of the P30s I test drove had bad front bags. On a twisty mountain road, it scared the crap outta me. I returned and told the guy something was really wrong. I got underneath to have a look, and there were deflated bags. They would not hold air.

I told him that I would come back for another test drive after he had the bags replaced.

He did, and the subsequent test drive went fine and we bought it.

Welcome Johnny and Betsy! You have joined a great fraternity here at Barthmobile and I'm sure will gain much insight for the 'care and feeding' of your Barth.

I would second Bill H's recommendation for getting the air bags replaced as an initial 'must do'. Even though ours is a small 22 footer (affectionately called a "toaster" in these parts), once I replaced the bags, the handling and general ride improved considerably. They are no fun to do, but the thread here about using the hose clamps will contribute to your knowledge going in.

Kirk