Antifreeze - 2007 - ELC or DEAC?

[Ray Kaminsky]

We bought a 2007 Beaver Contessa used last year.  We cannot find any documentation whether Extended Life Coolant (ELC) with a lifespan of 6 years or Diesel Engine Antifreeze Coolant (DEAC) with a 3 year lifespan was used for our coach.  Did Beaver systematically use one or the other??  The DEAC would overdue for a change.

[Gerald Farris]

Ray,
The easy answer to your question is that if the coolant is light reddish in color, it is ELC. If it is green it is DEAC.

You may want to have a sample of your coolant analyzed at your local Cat dealer before you change it or add the ELC extender, depending on what kind of coolant you are running. Since some coaches are stored so much, the coolant will last longer than the published change intervals.

Gerald  

[Edward Buker]

Ray and Gerald,

Just on the remote chance that you come up with an odd color like purple.... Cat Deac for diesels with an additive precharge was purple which is what I used in my last coach. I would hope by 2007 that Beaver coaches had ELC. If it is red as Gerald pointed out you are in luck. This is some color dye information vs some of the known antifreeze types.

http://www.webacorp.com/ADDITIVECOLORCODE.pdf

Later Ed

[Tim Westman]

Ray,

My 2009 Contessa was delivered with DEAC.  I suppose that is not a definitive answer but it may be an indication.  The previous owner may have already changed to ELC in your coach as I plan to do soon.

Tim

[Don and Kathy DuCharme]

Ray,

Our 07 Contessa was delivered with DEAC, and I have not changed it yet.  I have it checked each year at a Cat Club rally and it remains within specs. We have about 36,000 miles on the coach.

Don

[LEAH DRAPER]

I was told by Loren at Bend Beaver Coach that the reason that Beaver/Monaco used DEAC was that if additional antifreeze were needed while traveling that DEAC was more accessible than ELC  might be.  Good/reasonable answer you decide.  My thoughts, somewhat of a cop-out.  But what ever, I changed it to ELC when the "marine" hoses that were used by Monaco rather than high quality coolant hoses should have been used, began to leak and deteriate after one year!

[Gerald Farris]

Leah,
In my opinion Loren was echoing the company (Monaco) line, which is not necessarily the wrong thing to do. However the real reason that Monaco did not use ELC is money. ELC cost more, so it would drive up their cost without increasing the coach's reliability. Cat approves either type of coolant so they opted for the least expensive route.

Monaco did the same thing with transmission fluid. As long as Allison approved Dexron III on new installations, they used it instead of Transynd, because of lower cost. Monaco only went to Transynd because Allison was dropping approval for Dexron III on new installs.

Gerald      

[LEAH DRAPER]

Well Gerald that makes a lot of sense, I thought of that too, but wasn't saying it...

[Ken Sair]

Our 2007 Beaver Contess now has 56,000 miles on it. It came with the DEAC. I monitor the SCA's and all is good. A few months ago I had the coolant tested (SOS by Caterpillar $18). The coolant tested good with 'no action recommended'. I will continue to SOS test yearly and change it when the test says to change it.

Ken Sair 2007 Contessa

[Robert Wilson]

Please tell me were do you pull samples from ? And how do you pull the samples ? Thanks