Need help 1995 Beaver

[Dennis Kitchens]

I have been helping a friend look for RV's. I found a 1995 37' beaver for a terrific price that he just cannot go wrong on. [In my opinion] only 55000 miles It has everything set up the way he wants. The problem is we don't know if it has an exhaust brake or some type of seperate brakeing system. It has an Allison 6 speed transmission Model HD 3060. Don't know if it has a [P] or [R] suffix or not or anything for that matter. So my question is what do they use to help slow it down on hills etc? He wants to tow a car with it and is concerned about riding the brakes to much. I say if it needed something else it would have been installed from the factory. Does this transmission alone do anything to help slow the coach down when needed.

The owners father is selling it for him and doesn't have a lot of knowledge about the coach. Plus it's about a 3 hour drive from here so I am looking for a warm fuzzy to get him to look at it. He has been searching for 6 months now. This one won't last long.

Thanks for any info.

[Gerald Farris]

Dennis,
You did not say what model the 1995 Beaver was. However since it is 37 feet, I will assume that it is a Patriot. If so it is on a Spartan chassis with a 300 HP 8.3 liter Cummins engine most likely. There were a few that had the 250 HP 8.3 liter engine, but not many. The coach should have a PAC brake exhaust brake with the control switch located on the control panel to the left of the driver.

The Spartan chassis was a good chassis for the time. It only has four air bags, so the ride and handling will not be as good as later model eight air bag coaches, however it is not bad. The first Beaver that I owned was a 36 foot 1993 Patriot, which was almost identical to the 1995 model. I had over 100,000 miles on it when I traded it for the Marquis that I now drive. It was a great coach, and the last trip that I took in it before trading it for the Marquis was to Alaska. It preformed great and I only traded to get a larger coach since I was a fulltimer.

Gerald  

[Dennis Kitchens]

Thanks Gerald, yes it is the Patriot. It's listed as haveing the 300 hp cat but I think that is wrong. Under the specifications section for that coach it shows a pac brake as an option so it may or may not have one. I think he is getting ready to go look at it. We may be having a new member soon.

Dennis

[Richard And Babs Ames]

It will be an exhaust brake and one may be added if it does not have one. Get the engine SN and build and check what would be required from a Cummins dealer.

[Phil N Barb Rodriguez]

A 1994 Patriot was my first Beaver. It was an "Alliance" edition. The 1994 and probably 1995 models were made during the Beaver to Safari transitiion, said the Beaver factory.

We put ~50k miles on it and enjoyed, mostly, our trip to Alaska in it. The air dryer failed in the open (exhaust) position. The brakes would not release. Good Sam road service left us stranded-wouldn't give us a tow because it was too far to Anchorage. It took several trips to the local hardware to get piping and fittings to plumb around the air dryer. Drove all the way back to Ca. with the air compresser banging away through the nondampening piping. Stuff breaks.

When you go take a look at the coach, raise the rear bed. If there is a PAC brake you will see it on the right side of the engine in the exhaust system close to the turbo.

I had my 8.3 souped up with a Banks system. Added lots of HP.

A tow brake on the toad highly recommended. In some states, required.....

[JimDyer]

I would advise you to get the coach number and engine serial number and call the Monaco support line. On my 98 the pre-sale info and Cat RV support line said no Jake, no Pac. At Monaco support I talked to a guy who dealt with Oregon Cat at the time and said that at the time, Beaver saved money by getting the cat distributor to supply and mount the Jake. This was done before the engine ever got near Beaver's hands.

Monaco was right. May save you a trip......my 90 Grand Marquis just had the air brakes, and while I loved the coach, I wouldn't go back.

[Dennis Kitchens]

Thanks for the information everyone. This has been very helpful. He received more pictures of the coach and it does infact have an exhaust brake. I do need to remind him about the brake for the toad though.

We are heading out this morning to go look at it. Going to be a long day but I feel good about this one. Thanks again.

Dennis

[Joel Ashley]

Hope you stayed dry out there, Dennis.  This Northwest sogfest lately isn't the best venue for checking out a motorhome, unless it's parked inside.

Joel

[Dennis Kitchens]

Hope you stayed dry out there, Dennis.  This Northwest sogfest lately isn't the best venue for checking out a motorhome, unless it's parked inside.

Joel

Did it ever rain yesterday. We could not have picked a worse day. It was outside with a cover over it but we were able to pull the cover back far enough to get a good look at the outside and were very surprised at how nice it looked. Inside was very nice, needs some TLC here an there, but overall real nice. We couldn't get the steps to work and they are looking into that. The guy we talked to did not know much about it as he is selling it for his daughter, who is going through a real messy divorce and she wasn't there to answer a few questions we had. We spent a lot of time, and dug into it pretty hard. The end result was,  left a deposit  and he will go back on Sunday to pick it up pending driving test.

Beavers just sort of sell themselves don't they.

Dennis

[Gerald Farris]

Dennis,
Be certain to recruit him as a BAC member. As you know there are great BAC rallies and social activates, aside from the fact that the BAC forum will save him much more time and money on repairs than the cost of the dues. The bottom line is that it is a great club to be a part of.

Gerald

[Dennis Kitchens]

Dennis,
Be certain to recruit him as a BAC member. As you know there are great BAC rallies and social activates, aside from the fact that the BAC forum will save him much more time and money on repairs than the cost of the dues. The bottom line is that it is a great club to be a part of.

Gerald

I have already been working on that. I will GET-ER-DONE  [grin]

Dennis

[Joel Ashley]

If at all possible, try to have a trusted or reputable mechanic, hopefully with some motor home experience, meet with you for the test drive.  An hour's worth of his time might save a lot of bucks and regrets later.  I realize that may be difficult someplace 3 hours distant, but there are fellows that do that sort of thing professionally, and there may be one in the motor home's locale.  You might check the FMCA Directory (January issue) for such a guy.

Joel