Ebay now has a 1980 Barth, 37' long on a "Hendrickson" chassis with a Cummings "V555" engine.

I'm a newbie. Does this sound right?

Ironhead, I though you would have been from Northern Minnesota...

I have seen this individual coach for sale before. I did a little research on the chassis and as I recall these Hendrickson-International chassis' were primarily school and transit bus chassis in the early 80's but were also widely used with fire trucks and such. The Cummins V-555 engine was much harder to find info on. With the exception of the fact that they are used big time on boats and even more common on large generators. I called the local Cummins guy here and his reply was...I think that's an industrial engine. It appears by the tag the seller photographed that this was indeed a non production model. Barth sure was an interesting company wasn't it.

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[This message has been edited by davebowers (edited May 12, 2004).]

I know of this coach... a guy I met through Barthmobile.com e-mailed me about this coach a year or so ago, and almost bought it. His wife wanted something newer. Anyway, it is loaded with tons of goodies, and while a little crude by Regency standards, would be a hell of a rig. Hendrickson made firetrucks and such back in the day. Apparently it rode like a dream! Could be a steal for someone... but it's B-I-G! 37'! Wow! Cummins... Allison... air suspension... WOOF! Check out those four captains' chairs!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIte...rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Dave's right about the engine... The Cummins V555 is now a serious orphan. I searched the web and it's typically 210 HP, normally aspirated. Probably marginal power for this rig? GILLIG apparently used it extensively in busses, but I found a GILLIG site that said "most had been replaced along the way with CAT 3208's". Not an encouraging statement... Still parts for it everywhere, though...

The V555 is called the Triple Nickel by the fishermen in Alaska. The engine is not used much anymore. Most of the time they were removed and a replacement engine was installed in its place.