After 2 yrs of research and daily attn to this wonderful site, and after 2 trips with cash in hand to buy a Barth that was "under" or "over" described, I have a bid on a Bluebird. I looked hard at a Wanderlodge a couple years ago, but it was a puller, and I passed. But this Bluebird has a story; originally built for Jimmy Carter's election quest in early '80s. A diesel mechanic bought it after that and put a Cummins VT555 and Allison trans in it. He had it for 20 years and passed away, when the current seller got it. The latter did $15k upgrade of the interior, tires, some mechanical and etc, and then chose to go to a 5th wheel. My research says the Cummins "triple nickel" may be slow? But I've always thought the Bluebird had construction respect from this site's writers? Any comments would be appreciated. Can a Bluebird owner still 'hang with' believers in the Barth denomination?

If I needed a bigger coach, I would definitely consider a Bird along with a Barth or Newell. They are built like tanks.

I have been around a lot of Bluebirds and I have always thought that they were overdone. A buyer balked at one of the Regency's they saw with the bank of relays. That is nothing when you look at the electrical compartment on a Bluebird.

Just look at this 1983 Bluebird dash board,



Compared to a 1993 33 foot Breakaway for about the same price,(but has been sold)



They are definitely (especially pre-1990) coaches for someone with a huge amount of personal time, talent or money. We had a Barth sometime back with the 555 Cummins, as I recall it was a John Deere puller. After a some research I recall that the 2-3 Cummins diesel mechanics told me that the engine is misplaced in a motorhome. It is widely used in marine applications, large industrial generators and other construction applications.

Even when I sold RV's for 15 minutes we sold the big million dollar Bluebirds. Trust me folks these coaches had a computer system that during a demo Bluebirds top tech guy couldn't figure it out and had to plug the coach, ($860,000) into a telephone cable to have remote diagnosis, and this was for the coach part let alone the drive train.

Jerry you're my guitar buddy for sure but there are like 125 Barths for sale on this website alone. I can not imagine any Bluebird out there with assets which compare to at least 10 coaches advertised here, unless someone is going to give it to you and in that case that is obviously not a deal. I assume you are looking at a pre-1990, maybe a mid 1980. I wouldn't touch it, I would buy one of the many Regals on this website first.

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[This message has been edited by davebowers (edited March 27, 2005).]

My looking at Birds was limited to older ones, due to budgetary considerations. I found the older birds to be less complex than the newer ones.

Dave, your computer story would scare the heck out of me. And your picture of the Bird dash is also scary. All those switches on a horizontal panel are terribly vulnerable to spilled coffee or whatever. Spilled drinks in the cockpit are the bane of my existence at work. I have lobbied unsuccessfully to have pilots served their drinks in tippy cups or baby bottles.

"YES"

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Jay&Shelby 95 Barth Regency 34ft. 8.3 Cummins 300 hp.
Spartan K2 MM.