Body Shop in Central FL

[Jerry Emert]

Beaver headlights strike again!  I side swiped a wooden guard rail in a camp ground coming in late, after dark, last week.  Didn't even see it!  Did some damage to side panels and the battery door.  Pretty much separated the innards of the panel, insulation, latch hardware ect... from the actual door.  My insurance company will not be happy with me.  I have done the "fix" to my headlights but they are still so dim that I can't see much after dark.  So enough explanation.  Anyone have a recommendation for an outstanding RV body shop in and around Orlando area?  I have used Eagle's Pride in Titusville before but I want to make sure to get the best to rebuild the cargo door on the battery bay.  Thanks as always!
Jerry

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Jerry,
Check the Service Providers list in the Suppliers Comments and Kudos board.
According to it, Bill Sprague had good results at Creative Coach in Lakeland and Larry Dedrick had similar results at Classic Coach Works in Ormond Beach.

Re your headlights; what voltage are you getting at the headlights? If it's not very close to battery voltage there is something amiss.

Steve

[Jerry Emert]

Thanks Steve, I haven't checked it yet.  I had full bright lights on and barely saw the road.  I'll check tomorrow at the relay and again at the actual light if I can get up there.

[Bill Sprague]

Jerry,

For me it was some rocks at Joshua Tree NP.  It was about 10 years ago.  I drove all the way to Florida trying to decide what to do.  Creative Coach was excellent and worked with Progressive Insurance. 

Their website says they are still owned by the same family. 

[Dan Murphy]

Jerry

Our Contessa is over in Lakeland right now to repair some damage done in Calif. when we hit a deer. I don't have any results yet but our insurance adjuster is working very well with Creative Coach and I was impressed with the coaches I saw at the facility and the work that was being done. There were several Prevost coaches a couple Beavers and some other high end coaches on the lot and in the building.Everybody was busy.
We did about $23000 worth of damage to our coach and he really couldn't give me a firm timeline but we have a small home down here to stay in so we were not in a rush.That could be a problem if you live in your coach.
The manager of the facility is Lester Burgess and he once worked for the Beaver factory in Bend Oregon.

Creative Coach--888-234-3439 ask for Lester
They  are 1 mile off I-4 at exit 38 on Highway 33

Good luck
Dan

[LaMonte Monnell]

Alliance Coach in Wildwood had my RV in for a slide issue and someone there scratched a 3 ft long gouge down to bare metal along the side attach rail. They did repair it after I came unglued about it.

You can't even tell it was repaired and repainted. They have some good body shop people.

[Jerry Emert]

Thanks Bill, Dan and Lamonte.  I think I will try Creative Coach.

[Steve Huber Co-Admin]

Jerry,
Check the voltage on TB1-4 (Low beam) and TB!-5 (High beam)  with headlights on before crawling under the front cap. If voltage is low on both, you probably have a wiring problem. If only low on 1, probably the associated relay. If voltage is close to battery voltage, probably a bad connection between TB and headlights.
Steve

[Jerry Emert]

Steve, high beams are dim also.  when I installed the relays a year ago there was 12.7 volts on the low and high beam terminals.  I will check there first before I try to squeeze my butt up in the cap.
Thanks again.

[Bill Sprague]

Our Contessa is over in Lakeland right now.....We did about $23000 worth of damage to our coach .......

Ouch!  That is over twice our bill and I hit boulders on both sides.  It is a long story. 

I have to relate a story we frequently laugh about.

We lived in our Beaver during the three weeks we were at Creative Coach.  Other motorhomes came and went.  One day a new customer showed up.  The entire back cap was smashed, but it was still driveable.  As they were backing into their assigned spot, the "co-pilot" was outside providing direction to the "pilot".  The co-pilot loudly commanded a full stop, opened the door and started lecturing the pilot with, "Put on your damned oxygen.  If you'd been wearing it when you were supposed to you wouldn't have smashed up the back end".   He set the brake, got his oxygen bottle and finished the parking.   It was that day that I decided to be wary of all other Class A diesel motorhome drivers.  Most are older, may have bad eyesight, slow reflexes, bad hearing and may need a little oxygen to function!

[LaMonte Monnell]

That sure was a funny, but not so funny story to share Bill.

I guess I will have to keep more distance from the bigger Class "A"'s now.

Thanks for the laugh!