Howdy Folks, We recently purchased our first Beaver after a couple gas Itascas and a diesel Allegro Bus. Bearver's an '01 Marquis with C-12 455, 45K miles. Got if from the Beaver store here in Bend. She's a beautiful old gal and is generally in good condition. Also purchased a 4 year, 50K additional mile warranty. Bought the MH in September, taken a couple of one week shakedown cruises and used the warranty twice already, once for a new alternator and again for a radiator fan control switch. My first question is rather general and meant to elicit, again, general responses based on owner's experience. Since buying the rig I have been lurking in the weeds reading as much as possible on these old coaches, including topics from various owners forums. I know that positive experiences are posted far less often than negative and so I do not want to presume that a few isolated problems are the norm. For example, I have not seen a topic headlined, "I sure like my leveling system and it always works great" But I have seen a few that bemoan an out of date malfunctioning leveling system. So, my question is this: When one purchases one of these grand older machines, should it be expected that systems and/or parts that are no longer available will routinely be an issue? Yesterday, I was at Beaver Sales and Service in Bend and in the shop is an '01 Marquis with break issues. The big issue is that the part on the Magnum chassis that must be replaced has not been made for years, is not available for purchase anywhere and must be fabricated specifically for this coach. Have many of you out there had a similar experience? Thank you very much.
