Author Topic: Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners  (Read 38963 times)

JCMillerSr

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Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners
« on: August 31, 2015, 02:33:17 PM »
Being somewhat new to the Beaver family we are still learning and appreciating the wonderful aspects of our 1992 Beaver Marquis which we purchased last December.  We first began by checking everything out just to figure out what we had and whether it worked or not.  Then we began to try to fix the things (mostly minor) that were not working.  So far we have tried to stick to keeping everything as "original" as possible (except for the forward TV which I affectionately called "the brick").  Many, many hours have been spent tracking down the necessary parts and so far we have been more successful than I had hoped although there are still things on my honey do list that need to be fixed.  I would love to hear from other Vintage Beaver Owners, say 1987 to 1993, where we could share resources, remodeling ideas, troubleshooting tips, etc. on our coaches thinking that many of the components would be of a similar nature. For example, since the original TV in our coach died I choose to replace it with a new 36" flat screen model and in the process found a way to install it without having to modify any of the overhead cabinets (not a single screw in the beautiful oak cabinetry).  Anyone interested in sharing their experiences, ideas, dreams, complaints on these diamonds in the rough this is a place to start.

I will start by saying that our coach is a 1992 Beaver Marquis Florentine 40' (The twin to Iris and Wally's I was told).  Hopefully we can find many brothers and sisters of this unit within our membership to share information with.  Looking forward to hearing from each of you.  With enough interest perhaps we can start our own thread on the forum.

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Peter and Connie Bradish

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Re: Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2015, 02:52:07 PM »
We have a 1993 36 ft Savoy floor plan. Of which only about 8 coaches were ever made. We have a 250 converted to a 300 HP Cummins Engine on a Gillig chassis.
I set up the Beaver Motohome History website to share information primarily about our "classic" coaches. It has brochures and schematics. As I acquire information I add it.
https://sites.google.com/site/beavermotorhomehistory/home
We are the second owners of our coach as we bought the coach in January 1997.
My husband, Peter, is knowledgeable about our coach. So can answer more technical questions.
Also good contacts are Ken Carpenter of Beaver Coach Sales and Jeff Spear of Bend RV Repair. Both shops are on Boyd Acre Road in Bend, Oregon.
Connie Bradish

Dave Atherton

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Re: Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2015, 03:08:50 PM »
J C Miller, what kind of engine do you have in motorhome, think Wally has a Cat 3176
or maybe you have a Cummins 83 of which both engines are very good. We can assist
any problems or information. Dave Atherton Retired Cat Mechanic

JCMillerSr

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Re: Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2015, 03:16:34 PM »
We have a 1993 36 ft Savoy floor plan. Of which only about 8 coaches were ever made. We have a 250 converted to a 300 HP Cummins Engine on a Gillig chassis.
I set up the Beaver Motohome History website to share information primarily about our "classic" coaches. It has brochures and schematics. As I acquire information I add it.
https://sites.google.com/site/beavermotorhomehistory/home
We are the second owners of our coach as we bought the coach in January 1997.
My husband, Peter, is knowledgeable about our coach. So can answer more technical questions.
Also good contacts are Ken Carpenter of Beaver Coach Sales and Jeff Spear of Bend RV Repair. Both shops are on Boyd Acre Road in Bend, Oregon.
Connie Bradish

Thanks Connie.  I am very familiar with the Beaver Motorhome History website and have used it many, many times to find information on our coach.  Just recently I realized that my Service Manual was missing several pages and I was able to find them on this website.

I am not sure if we are the third or fourth owner of this coach.  We purchased it in January 2014 in Titusville, FL from a very nice gentlemen who incidentally has been one of the BAC Chapter past presidents (I believe you are familiar with gentleman as well).  We are also on the Gillig Chassis but with the 3176 Caterpillar 325 hp diesel.

Beaver Coach Sales parts department and I are now on a first name basis.  They have been most helpful in providing me with numerous items and/or giving me information on where to look.  I have not yet used Bend RV Repair but will add them to my list of sources for my next search.

Mandy Canales

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Re: Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2015, 04:03:25 PM »
Hi JC...Welcome to our vintage owners coaches.  Violet and I are owners of a 1990 Beaver Florentine coach which we bought in 1992.  You have the precursor engine to today's C-12, a real strong engine and kind of wish we also had one of equal power.  We have a 3208 Turbo Cat 300 with 236 K miles on it and runs like a Cat.  We are a little slow on the up grades but do catch up on the down side.  Hopefully we will run across you in our travels.  Enjoy the BAC as it is, my opinion, one of the best FMCA chapters; and great people willing to assist any time.
Mandy & Violet Canales
BAC charter members
Mandy Canales
90 Beaver Marquis 40'
Cat 3208
Charter Member
Apple Valley, CA
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Joe Lenhart

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Re: Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners
« Reply #5 on: September 01, 2015, 03:07:38 AM »
I guess you could say our coach would be vintage.  We own a 1991 36' Beaver Contessa that has I guess the odd ball Cat engine in it.  It has a 3116 Cat 250hp.  Still going strong down the the road and over the mountains with 134,000 miles.  We have owned it for about two and a half years and put 28,000 miles on it.  We live in the Midwest and sure don't see many Beaver coaches.  Nice to hear there are still some great vintage Beaver coaches on the road.

Peter and Connie Bradish

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Re: Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners
« Reply #6 on: September 01, 2015, 03:22:45 PM »
Yes, I know that 92 Marquis. You bought it from Dan O'Brien. We also homebase at TGO in Titusville.
Some trivia. Dan had an O on the back of his coach. Samuleson had an S. We had a B. In the right configuration going down the road or parking we had an interesting configuration of letters.
In fact as we have modified our Contessa, we have used photos of Dan's coach to upgrade some of our inside wood work. We now have refrigerator and ice maker front inserts like the Marquis. On our Contessa they were just flat pieces of wood. Now they are the pieces that are contoured and look more like our cabinet doors. We also added the floor to ceiling wood "panel" just inside the door on the Marquis. I now have wood handles on both sides of the stairs inside. Sure helps going up and down those stairs.
Glad you have found the Beaver Motorhome History site useful.
Enjoy your Beaver, we sure do.
Connie Bradish 8)

JCMillerSr

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Re: Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners
« Reply #7 on: September 01, 2015, 03:33:33 PM »
Connie,
You will be happy to know that the "O" is still alive and available just in case we all end up at a rally sometime in the future.  So far the only upgrade I have completed is the forward TV.  Everything else has been more repair and maintenance.  Once everything is working we will begin the never ending "wish list" although we continue to want to stick as close to original as possible since that is what attracted us to the Beaver brand in the first place.

So far it looks like there are only 5 Beaver owners that have acknowledged being in the "Vintage" era.  Hopefully this thread will stay active and we can find a way to share information about our rigs that will be helpful to everyone.  I know I need all the help I can get but that is another story according to my DW.

Keith Moffett

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Re: Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners
« Reply #8 on: September 01, 2015, 11:04:22 PM »
Jack
welcome to the club and family.  It takes a little time but you will be able to associate faces with names before long and then you begin to feel like a part of the family for sure.
We bought this coach at BCS two years ago and there were several 90ish Marquis on the lot aln others that qualify as vintage.  They are all gone so they are out there somewhere.  Perhaps during this winter season you will have better luck while most of us are on the forum more.
safe travels
Keith
2007 Patriot Thunder
45' C-13
2006 Explorer Ltd.
DW is Carol
Safe travels and
May God bless!

JCMillerSr

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Re: Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners
« Reply #9 on: September 02, 2015, 02:27:32 PM »
Thanks for the welcome Keith.  When we first started looking for our Beaver it seemed that everything for sale was either in Oregon, California or Washington State.  At one point I thought I was going to have to fly from Florida to California just before Christmas and drive an unknown coach back cross country.  This did not seem like a very good idea.  Luckily we were able to run across just what we were looking for within 100 miles of home and have been happily tinkering with it ever since.
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Peter and Connie Bradish

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Re: Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners
« Reply #10 on: September 02, 2015, 08:53:01 PM »
Don't know what area of Florida you are in but we have some wonderful places who do work on coaches in our area near Titusville.
We use Josams in Orlando for chassis work, brakes, shocks, airbags, steering. An Allison transmission repair facility is just down the street from Josams.
Coastal RV (Doug and Paul) in North Cocoa (321-636-2010) is really good for lots of small RV stuff (refrigerators, hot water heaters, toilets, plumbing, etc). They don't do major engine work.
For wood work (new cabinets, wood work inside coach) we use the Wood Shop of Brevard just off Clearlake Road in Cocoa (321-432-7262) http://www.woodshopofbrevard.com/Contact.aspx
We have a carpet guy (ask Dan). He comes to TGO and does work in your RV on site. Can't remember his name.
You have a Cat engine and we have a Cummins so can't help you with a Cat engine repair facility.
Keep in touch,
Connie Bradish
« Last Edit: September 02, 2015, 08:56:09 PM by Peter and Connie Bradish »

JCMillerSr

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Re: Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners
« Reply #11 on: September 02, 2015, 09:27:49 PM »
Connie,

Thanks for the info.  We are in The Villages, FL approximately 3 miles from Alliance Coach who I believe is one of the BAC sponsors.  There is a CAT service center in Ocala (30 minutes) that I plan to use when the time comes for general maintenance issues.  Perhaps sometime down the road we can discuss the process you went through in getting your RV repainted.  I mentioned the possibility of having that done when I was at Alliance the last time I had some work done and the ballpark price they gave me was more than I paid for the entire RV. :o Hopefully I can find someone a little more reasonable when/if the time comes.

Keith Moffett

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Re: Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners
« Reply #12 on: September 02, 2015, 09:42:30 PM »
JC just for a reference point, we just visited with owners of a 2000 Prevost.  A previous owner had had a big slide installed where none existed and they did a full body paint job.  The paint job alone was 35K.
Just wanted to make you feel better (hopefully) about the quote  on yours.  LOL
2007 Patriot Thunder
45' C-13
2006 Explorer Ltd.
DW is Carol
Safe travels and
May God bless!

JCMillerSr

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Re: Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners
« Reply #13 on: September 02, 2015, 10:08:37 PM »
JC just for a reference point, we just visited with owners of a 2000 Prevost.  A previous owner had had a big slide installed where none existed and they did a full body paint job.  The paint job alone was 35K.
Just wanted to make you feel better (hopefully) about the quote  on yours.  LOL

Keith,

My old paint job is looking better and better!   :o  Guess I better come out of retirement and learn to paint if we decide to go that route.

Peter and Connie Bradish

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Re: Looking for "Vintage" Beaver Owners
« Reply #14 on: September 03, 2015, 02:42:56 PM »
Nick Russell of the Gypsy Journal recommends Phoenix Commercial Paint, Inc. Just two miles north of Elkhardt, Indiana.
http://www.phoenixpaintinc.com/Pages/default.aspx
Apparently reasonable prices. You take your coach up there, live in a motel room while they paint it and then move back into the coach.

We had our coach painted by a local young man who had never painted an entire coach. He won't do an entire coach again. He bid the job low and while he made some money it was a lot more time and effort than he expected. Cost about $13,000 5 years ago.