The Barth Rangers are a small group of long time Barth owners who periodically get together and have rallies. They are starting their own website www.barthrangers.org. I had purchased Barthrangers.com sometime ago to hold it for them if they ever decided to develop their own site. I will automatically forward Barthrangers.com at no cost to them so that if someone looks for Barthrangers.com it will go to Barthrangers.org.

The Barth Rangers have always been very welcome here at Barthmobile.com. I know that many are members and many more drop by. Of all of the officers of that group I think all but two are members and Andy Anthony was the very first person next to me to register. In fact, Andy joined on Jan 1, 2001 the very day the website started. However, they have decided to go it on their own.

Because of the large following of this site and our continuing mission to share all things Barth we will periodically share Barth Ranger rally info and such that we become aware of. You can also get Barth Ranger registration info just by asking. If you have a Barth CD, a copy of the Barth Ranger registration form is there in the PDF files.

Unfortunately the blog part of the Barth Rangers website is only available to members only. Therefore, the average Barth owner will not be able to take advantage of the knowledge of these long time owners without paying the initiation fee which I think is approaching $100 and $30+ a year.

Lee Merriman the President of the Barth Rangers has a great abundance of physical data and material. It is my understanding that he has the build files for all coaches built from at least 1990 and perhaps a few years before. He also has many parts, like Barth insignias, etc. etc. If this is important to you it may be worth the $100 to get this data, if he is willing to share it..

Just one final note, I have had a few inquiries over the years as to why I would have started this website if there was already a Barth organization such as the Barth Rangers. Just so all will know the story, I did not know there was a such thing as the Barth Rangers when I started this site. We have many new members so many of you don't know that this site was originally put together by my 16 year old "genius" neighbor girl as a fun thing and when we got our first 10 registrations in the first week we were astonished. So no we did not plan on competing with anyone when we started this in November and December of 2000

Dave, your site has had an astonishing success, and has provided an invaluable service to Barthites, Barthonians, or perhaps Barthers.

I applaud you for your devotion to this site and your determination to make it the best.

And I admire your support of the Rangers. I am glad to hear that the members of the Rangers are supporting your site, albeit silently.

"and when we got our first 10 registrations in the first week we were astonished."

As you should be. For folks to begin finding your site so quickly is truly amazing. Has that then-16 year old become a technology professional today?

Hey Garry,

I made a promise to myself sometime ago not to ever reply to one of your posts with out first saying..."nice coach, Garry, really nice coach"

Now that that's out of the way. hehe

I never take much credit for the success of this website. I don't even change my own oil. And, I learned a long time ago that if I am on the phone will Bill H, I have to be careful what subject to bring up because he will max out my mechanical intellect in about a second. All you folks who have been a fountain of valuable info on (every) possible subject. Are the ones who have created value.

quote:

Has that then-16 year old become a technology professional today?

Rachel is a senior (on a full ride, of course) at Adelphi College in New York. My daughter, (best friends since toddlers) is the same age and she is a senior at the University of Minnesota.

Reading about the ten registrations in the first week leads me to relate a friends experience. He,along with a group of deer hunting friends, launched a site called Awesome Antlers. They had a few shirts etc. made up to sell on the site. After firing up the site for test purposes they had an order for a shirt within seven minutes from a complete stranger. Never underestimate the power of the internet!!

"The Barth Rangers have always been very welcome here at Barthmobile.com.....

I'm curious: are they letting their viewers know about "our" Barthmobile.com website??

quote:

I'm curious: are they letting their viewers know about "our" Barthmobile.com website??

This is a situation where we choose to conduct our business so that "all" Barth owners, Barth lovers, or just plain interested people have a place to go regardless of what others choose to do.

I hope that there will never be a time that anyone can say that we didn't do our utmost in providing the best and most complete info to Barth folk.

I just never saw a benefit of accumulating knowledge or stuff if it can't be assimilated to benefit others. Just doesn't make sense to me.

The real answer is Gunner that the leadership of the Barth Rangers, would be quite happy if we just shut this site down, even after almost 6 years.

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The real answer is Gunner that the leadership of the Barth Rangers, would be quite happy if we just shut this site down, even after almost 6 years.

I don't understand the Rangers's provincial attitude. But then I do not care.

Dave, your open site embodies the spirit of the internet, and demonstrates your devotion to informing and helping any Barthite or wannabe!

Which is a good time to re-mention the need to help Dave out on expenses for this site. Remember, he has resisted the urge to place advertising on the site. If most users contribute a small amount, it would help pay for the hosting costs of a site like this.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Bowers:
The real answer is ... that the leadership of the Barth Rangers, would be quite happy if we just shut this site down...

Check out the last paragraph on there DISCLAMER page. Because of there statement on the DISCLAMER page that the disclaimer is the property of there club I won't reprint it.

http://www.barthrangers.org/BarthRangersDisclamer.htm

I would hope that the membership of both groups could get along. There should be common goals between the groups... sharing of resources and knowledge should be encouraged.

It's a shame that something as simple as the love of Barth's could turn into a charged event. We wonder how come two people/groups/religions/political parties/etc... can't get along in society when a simple RV website can't co-exist with a long standing (ORIGINAL BARTH RANGERS ORGANIZED June 1967) Barth club.

To quote someone "Why can't we all just get along?"

Dave has taken the first step. Would someone from the other camp send a link back to this site as a sign of shared respect for the Barth's we all love. You can attract more bees with honey then with vinegar and this might even help swell your ranks a little bit too.

Ps. Good luck with your site.

Bill N.Y.

BTW: Spelling mistakes are done on purpose and for a reason, thus are not mistakes at all.

I read that earlier today, It's a shame the disclaimer was pointed, rude (immature, actually), and pretty much unnecessary.

I go to a lot of tech-oriented websites, and I've never seen one that disclaims material on another.

However, the disclaimer wording does imply that it DOES accept liability for info obtained there.

I have not been a member here as long as most. But it appears to me that Dave has always been supportive and cordial toward the ...any other groups (I don't want to be tagged as one who has violated any one else's rights by simply allegedly reading their disclaimer, should there be one).

But if I had read such disclaimer, I am sure that I would have found it to be the strangest web site disclaimer ever written. I have never heard of any site disclaiming responsibility for other web sites, absolutely accepting full responsibility for it's own content and I hope to never read one, should one exist.

There are more point$ to be made on thi$ topic, but I re$train myself.

Here is my take on the disclaimer:

Someone "wishes" they were an attorney.

Seems to me, with a total production run of what, less than 500 Barths TOTAL, that exclusivity is inherit in the community, and asking for beaucoup bucks to be even MORE exclusive is simply foolish.

I think Dave is a class act to be so forthcoming about the existence of a "competing" *like that word?* site, while it seems that site is not so generous.

Their attitude speaks volumes.

I won't bother.

I would rather contribute to this site of my own free will than be asked to pay country club dues to someone playing CYA games.

One correction Windsor, I estimation the there were 9,000-10,000 Barths made.

I do not feel bad about a "competing" site. If there was another Barth entitiy of any type which provided what is provided here and did it better. I would defer to that entity in a second.

The main thing that saddens me is that there is someone over there that knows exactly how many coaches were made. The fact that someone has this info and isn't willing to share that with the maximum number of Barth owners troubles me. Or at least, I don't have the capability to understand attitude.

There is one thing that only we have here that is without a doubt the most valuable asset and website could have and that's people like you all.

quote:

Originally posted by Dave Bowers:
I will automatically forward Barthrangers.com at no cost to them so that if someone looks for Barthrangers.com it will go to Barthrangers.org.

It seems that BarthRangers.com is now being bounced back to BarthMobile.com ...



Well, you tried... That olive tree looked better when it was standing.

Bill N.Y.

"I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member."
-Groucho Marx

This situation with the Rangers is something that tries my souls in ways that most will never know.

The leadership of the Rangers hate me and hate this site.

I put on a Barthmobile.com Rally in 2003 in which the Rangers asked to and participated where we had 30 coachs from all over the US. Many, if not most of the participants will tell you it was the best rally they have ever been to. I spent almost a year preparing for that rally. Since then this website has grown with over 1000 members and well over 20,000 pages of searchable data for Barths. And still to this day if you cantact a member of the leadership they will not have a good thing to say about this site or me.

I have a number of times made outreaches to them. I have been told that virtually every new member in the last five years heard of the Rangers on this site. I still send out their registration for as well as it is on every Barth CD.

Then they start this website and I can not view the forum there, or the member list or even pictures of their coaches.

Billy Joe Shaver wrote in his "Light a Candle" song,

"These devils I have done took me
Cause inside Im a good hearted man"

So for me to not forward folks to the other site can be blamed on the devils that done took me, because inside, "I'm a good hearted man"

I hope

Some have tried to console me over this by saying they are jealous, "I stole their thunder" and so on and so on. I understand that but, hey......so what? I only want to know what is best for the Barth owner....period.