My grandmother found these when cleaning some stuff up at her house. I've heard of the Barth Rangers, but I haven't seen another hat like this. Does anyone else have a hat, or a patch, like this? I plan to place the hat front and center on the dash of my Regal, not sure what I'll do with the patch yet. Maybe I'll turn it into a magnet or something.

I was looking in my Barth file and found some newsletters from the previous owner dated around 1986. Apparently, the Barth Rangers was the Barth owners club. THey had all sorts of functions and get togethers. They were somehow part of the FMCA or a subsidiary. They appeared quite active from the contents of the newsletters....

The Rangers are now pretty much inactive.

The website (http://www.barthrangers.org/) is defunct.

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
The Rangers are now pretty much inactive.

The website (http://www.barthrangers.org/) is defunct.

They are trying to make a comeback. I've offered them bandwidth and help in setting up a web presence on our site, but they have declined our help.

The Rangers were a big part of Barth and was the premier Barth Group to join. With Barth going out of biz, and Dave starting Barthmobile a few years later, Barthmobile became the 500lb gorilla in the room.

It wasn't that Dave was starting a competing venture, it was more along the lines of the Rangers not embracing technology fast enough. Dave started this because Barth had no web presence - he had no idea that the Rangers were even out there. He was just looking for like minded members and he was trying to foster a meeting area online of Barth owners.

For a little bit, Barthmobile and the Rangers got along well but there seemed to be an underlying issue between the groups. Not that Barthmobile had anything to do with it, it was just that the hierarchy at the Rangers kind of felt threatened by the popularity of this site.

Things came to a boil and the 2 groups stopped sending each other Christmas/Hanukkah cards. This was shortly after the 2 groups had a joint GTG in, "I think", 2003.

We'll keep making overtures with the Rangers and hope that our two groups can come to an understanding. If you want more info on the Rangers I invite anyone who is still a member to post their contact info on our site so that others can give em a try. As always, I look forward to ANY overtures from them and hope that we can start exchanging cards again.

Me? I wasn't a part of the dispute and I have no problems with anyone from the Rangers. I would welcome them back here at anytime and would help them out if I could. When Dave left, it was his stated desire to turn the site over to someone who wouldn't be in a position to give the Rangers a reason to not come back here.

I was never a part of the Rangers, but I inherited a bunch of their newsletters that came in my 97 Monarch. I sent them along to the eventual new owner, Tonka.

What I gathered is the Rangers were/are more a typical "Club" with officers, meetings, a Grand Pubah, Sub Pubahs, and of course, dues for membership. Barthmobile has no dues and only reluctant Pubahs based on popularity. You can see where the early days of Barthmobile would have been like Linux in the computer world, it scared the beejesus out of them! Interesting what group survived, yet predictable too.

Wish we could just get along As always we both have a lot to offer and combined would be better for both of us.

Mary Ray for President of the USA!

Anne and I have been members for ever since we have had the Barth. We have been to one of the rallies and really enjoyed it. Everyone there was extremely nice and accommodating in the Florida ralley.
As I understand,Dave hosted a rally in his town and the President thought he had charged too much for the rally. When we went, the rally was at an outdoor resort with water and electric, with a trip to NASA and an outdoor activity. The breakfast and dinners were catered or restaurants were included. I think the price was about $250 for 4 days for 2 people, which I did not think was that bad.

The Barth Rangers are also a club division of FMCA.
I,for, wish we could band together and work this problem out among both clubs.
Ray and Anne

Hello fellow Barthmobile members.
I'm the (relatively) new president (or is it 'Grand Poobah'?)of the Barth Rangers and one of my first communications with my membership was a set of objectives which included a "let's bury the hatchet with Barthmobile" line item. Neither Bill NY or I were involved with the dispute and it's time to move on. I expressed my intentions to pursue this and get back on Bathmobile in the last Barth Rangers newsletter, and received no objections and several supportive responses. But, before I got around to it, I received a very nice phone call from Bill NY this week inviting 'us' back. We had an extended, very pleasant conversation...so I had to get that round TUIT quickly, which brings us nearly up to date.

I've read many, but surely not all, the Rangers-related items on the site. A few comments after viewing some of them...
The Barth Rangers are definitely still "in business". We issue two newsletters and normally have two rallies a year. As opposed to Barthmobile, we really are a social organization with a touch of technical content, rather than the other way around. We were owners' club sponsored and supported by Barth and later an FMCA International Chapter with the common thread of Barth ownership. We love having new members, join up but please note that because we are an FMCA chapter, you must be a member of FMCA in order to join. Also, because of our by-laws, you must own a Barth in order to join. If later on you sell your Barth (theoretical question, because who would ever want to?) you are welcome to stay.

We have had a number of Barthmobile members who attended our rallies and have been members ever since. Others have (apparently) been less than thrilled and never heard from again. Two of my other objectives are to increase the membership and to find out why folks attend and never come back. I know we can't appeal to everybody, but we can do better than we have been.

I have read that our rallies are too expensive for many owners, but I spend more for the first two hour's worth travel for diesel fuel than I do for most rally fees...last few have been $25.00 or less.

If you are interested in joining the Barth Rangers or want more information, please email me at hankwadley@hotmail.com and include the word "Barth" somewhere in the subject to keep my spam filters from catching you!

Hank Wadley

Please note: I don't 'live' on the internet and normally only sign on around twice a week, so please don't be upset if you don't get an immediate response.

My thanks to Bill NY for his kind invitation and his help!

Hank,

Thanks for the post and glad whatever hatchets there were are now beyond reach of a top-line metal detector.

Unless I miss my guess our leader (Bill_NY) is already working on some kind of a link or other portal where we can collectively solve the problems of Barthdom and have fun doing it. If you haven't seen it already there is a great collection of Barthfolk here.

In the meantime Thanks for the kind words,

Lou

Bill NY and Hank, I appreciate the dialogue and time that was put into this. I hope things go forward and we both expand resources thru the partnership from this day forward. Ray and Anne

Seems at this point there should be no more reference to differences or disputes or hatchets. We are all Barth peeps & we can learn a lot from each other. Period!!

Hank,
I appreciate you getting in touch with Bill & look forward to further posts.
Tere

HOOO RAYYYYYYY.......Betty & Carl

This is great news. It doesn't make any sense to not have a link between Barth Rangers and Barthmobile. It isn't like there are lots of places for a Barth lover to find like minded folks.

I first learned about Barth Rangers from the previous owners of my Barth.

Sure hope Dave is still lurking.....No one will be more pleased than him!