Fan Motor Brackets

[Rod Ogle]

 If you own a Beaver coach anywhere near the vintage of our 2004 Patriot Thunder, I suggest you check your fan motor bracket and the radiator shroud that it is bolted to.

 We purchased our “new to us” 2004 Beaver Patriot Thunder this last November.  Zero maintenance history was provided with the coach when we bought it at LazyDays RV in Tucson AZ.  Since then, I have been steadily working on making sure all required maintenance/services are up to date to establish a baseline.

  This last week, I took the coach to Peterson CAT here in Salem OR to have the valves adjusted.  While performing the work, the technician spotted a broken fan motor bracket, he also noticed that all the attachment points on the radiator shroud were either broken or cracked.  A disaster just waiting to happen!!

 When I picked up the coach from Peterson CAT, the tech made a point to show me the problem and gave me some sound advice on getting the repairs done SOON.  In my opinion, the Peterson CAT technician has saved me from a huge repair bill if the fan motor bracket broke loose which would certainly tear up the radiator and CAC.

  A few BAC members on this board, and other boards, have reported similar problems with the design of the fan motor bracket, and the huge expense of not finding the problem in time.  Ken at Beaver Coach Service department in Bend OR also reports he has seen several Beaver owners with failed fan motor brackets.

  I count myself as lucky, and thankful to a watchful technician at Peterson CAT. 

Rod & Donna Ogle
Salem OR
2004 Patriot Thunder
505 Hp C12

[Keith Moffett]

A note to the folks he works for could result in long term improvement for this fella.  I will be inspecting ours too.

[Mike Groves]

Rod,

Thanks for the heads up.  I am not sure how similar the design is on my 1999 Marquis, though certainly, its very different.  I'll try to examine it at the next opportunity.

I am curious, though, how out of spec your valves were.  Like you, my coach was purchased without a lot of maintenance history, and I have wondered about the valve adjustment, and whether it had been done in the 65,000 miles before I purchased it.  According to the schedule, the first owner (who had it up until 40,000 plus miles) should have had it done relatively quickly, at under 20,000 I believe - maybe less.  And after that point it should have been good for quite a ways past 65,000, 200,000 miles comes to mind, but don't remember right of, just know its supposed to be ok for some time.

I get the fuel economy (8.5 plus) that I expect given the average rate of speed I travel, and the jake brake seems to work just fine.  I am just not crazy about taking an engine that seems to be running well to a stranger and have them open the engine up. 

My question is, how many miles does your coach have on it, and what did the mechanic tell you about the valves being out of adjustment or not?  I've heard its quite common to pay $420 or so, only to find out that it was within spec.  Also, did they look the engine up first to determine whether/when it had that service?

Thanks for the heads up.

Mike

[Rod Ogle]

Mike

  As to the valve specs.  The technician said all the valve tolerances for our coach were VERY close to being exactly where they should be, although he made some small changes.  He thought the valves had the initial adjustment done some time in the past.  From what others have written, it is not uncommon to have the valves on a C12 to be very loose at the first adjustment.  We had 54K miles  on the clock when Peterson CAT did the work.

 Not knowing what had been done, or what had NOT be done, I felt the expense was worth it.  As it turns out the technician found a greater problem....so money well spent IMHO

 I do not know what year range used the same fan motor bracket as ours, perhaps some other with more information could chime in.

 Rod & Donna Ogle
 Salem, OR
 2004 Patriot Thunder
 505Hp C12

 

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

There were a number of posts  about a year ago regarding a fan bracket fail on a Monaco built Roadmaster chassis. I'm not aware of any problems with SMC/Magnum chassis units but can't be 100% there were none.
Steve