BAC Forum
General Boards => General Discussion => Topic started by: JCMillerSr on August 31, 2015, 02:33:17 PM
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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.
Note to Moderators: If you feel this topic belongs in a more appropriate section of the forum please repost accordingly.
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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)
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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.
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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
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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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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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Here's a question for all you fellow classic Beaver owners. Does anyone know or remember seeing whether the standard window awnings for the 89 to 93 Beavers were a solid color or multicolored stripes. I know my main awning has been replaced at least once and is in pretty good condition however all of the window awnings are "tired". The fabric seems to be in fairly good shape but the thread used for the seams is basically dry rotting and thus I am looking at replacing the awnings and would like to keep things original if possible. All of the current awnings are a solid color.
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Our 1993 had solid dark blue canvas awnings except for the main awning which had a white panel with the Beaver logo on it between two dark blue panels. They are all Zip Dee awnings.
Good news. We went to the Zip Dee awning factory in Elk Grove Village, Illinois and hand the fabric replaced on all our awnings. And they have permission to use the Beaver logo so they were also able to replace the main awning canvas with the white panel with a Beaver logo.
http://awningsbyzipdee.com/2701/index.html
As the brochures don't have pictures with the awnings out, I don't know the color combinations. However, I have seen some of the older classics with stripped canvas on their awnings. Perhaps Mandy or Wally can be of more help.
Connie Bradish
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Our awnings are also a darker blue color except the main awning no longer has the Beaver logo. Talked with Zip Dee today and inquired about the beaver logo. They explained that they used to have someone that did the logo (air brushed) but no longer offer that feature. Thinking about going with the striped awnings just to add a little personality. From what I understand there was no set color scheme when the coaches were originally made. Owners were able to pick and choose to satisfy their own tastes.
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JC...Those coaches you are mentioning did have matching striped awnings. I believe the Bradishes had an awning made with the Beaver logo on it but did have to pay around $300.00 extra for that logo in the middle of the awning. Zip Dee still has the fabric called " classic" fabric for our older coaches. This year I needed to replace some pull down straps and they sent me the exact same color pattern as is on our coach. Since our coach had a mauve color scheme our coach had matching awnings all Around. Blue coaches had matching blue striped awnings and also the green colored coaches had matching colors. As far as I know those striped awnings are still available.
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We are so glad to see your topic. We have a 1992 Beaver Contessa Marquis New Orleans 40 ft diesel. We love and enjoy it very much. We too have agreed to keep our motor home as original as possible. Our interior is all done in black walnut and have the best counter top space.
Right now, Jim is trying to replace some of the paddle latches on the storage doors. We also need to caulk around all of our windows before winter.
We have experienced a few water leaks but Jim has been able to resolve them by r4eplacing some of the piping behind the shower and under the sink.
Safe travels and look forward to networking more with great ideas.
Jim & Sharon Tyler - Colorado
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Welcome Jim & Sharon to our little group.
One thing is for sure. You will never be bored or run out of things to do once you start looking for things to do around a motorhome (especially one that is 20+ years old). I also need to redo the caulking around my windows and everywhere else for that matter but lucky for us we live in Florida so I am waiting for the weather to cool off before tackling that project. I am about half way done with replacing all of the rubber window gaskets which appear to have shrunken up over the years leaving as much as a 1 inch gap. Did not find any leaks but better safe than sorry. If Jim has found a source for the paddle latches he should post this information here on the boards for others to benefit. I cannot tell you how many hours I have spent researching and trying to locate parts (original or replacement) but that is half the fun of refurbishing one of these beauties.
Good luck
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Noting references here to blue awnings, we still have our new-in-the-box one if any new member and/or "vintage" owner is interested. http://beaveramb.org/forum/index.php/topic,3502.msg32845.html#msg32845
-Joel and Lee
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I have a 1991 Contessa. I want to remove my window screens and clean them. Does anyone know the trick to removing the windows screens without bending them.
Joe
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Spring loaded at top of screen, just push up on screen frame and bottom will pop out.
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It is hard to believe that out of 600+ members of BAC we have only 6 "Vintage" Beavers. I know there have to be a few more out there so lets hear from you!
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I have to replace my muffler and tail pipe for my Onan 6300. I have the part number for the muffler but unable to find any part number for the tail pipe. Is a custom pipe going to be my only option?
Joe
1991 Contessa
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I have to replace my muffler and tail pipe for my Onan 6300. I have the part number for the muffler but unable to find any part number for the tail pipe. Is a custom pipe going to be my only option?
Joe
1991 Contessa
Joe,
That's one part I have not had to deal with, yet! You might have better luck getting an answer if you repost your question in another thread, such as "Sources for Suppliers, Parts, ......". Also, if you have not done so you might check with Onan to see if they can give you a lead.
Jack
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James Taylor...I noticed in your post that you indicated that you had a 1992 Contessa Marquis, etc. Contessa Marquis are two different coaches. You have either a Contessa or a Marquis coach. If you wanted any information for your coach you'd need to say one or the other to get the correct information. This message is to help you determine which coach you really have. Hope to see you at a rally in the future and see what BAC has to offer you and introduce you to a whole new world of friends, fun and fellowship. Safe travels and welcome to this great club.
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We are proud owers of a 1992 38' Contessa. This is our first camper and we are loving it. I have been very inpressed how well these coaches are made I will include some pictures of our coach soon. 138,000 miles oak interior 300 hp Cat
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Welcome Jed. Looking forward to seeing pictures soon.
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You may not reach all Vintage Coach owners by the forum. You could contact the Beaver Tales Editor and maybe get some space in the BT to get in touch with other members.
Mike
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Joe & Barbara Magie
San Marcos, Ca
We bought our 1992 Beaver Marquis 40' about 2 months ago. It's pretty much in original condition and if you can believe it, 25 years old and it only has 49,780 miles on it. We are the 3rd owner ... as you can tell by the mileage, the first two didn't use it very much (but they both took extraodinarily good care of it). The only damage on it was some sun damage to the clear-coat on the white near the top at the front and the back. We just got that fixed at Pacific RV Paint in Garden Grove, Ca. Believe me, if anyone out there needs any fiberglass or paint work done, Jerry (he owns Pacific RV Paint) is the best... He does great work and treats your coach like it's his own. We stumbled onto him about 10 years ago when we had to do some fiberglass repairs on our first motorhome and have been coming back to him ever since.
Our hobby is bluegrass festivals and we are getting ready to take off on our first trip in our new "OLD" coach..... We are both really excited as this is our first Class A diesle-pusher. I am attaching a picture of our coach as it was when we got it. As soon as I get a picture of it after Jerry got through with it, I will post that also.
Joe & Barb Magie
:) The world without Bluegrass would "Bf" ;)
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Joe and Barbara Magey...Welcome to the family. Violet and I own a 1990 Beaver Marquis with 240 K miles on it and when we bought it it had 23 K on it. We bought it when it was 2 years old and have a very solid coach. It doesn't have as many horses as those beautiful newer ones but it goes down the mountain just as fast. Also, Wally and Iris Schmidt have a '92 Marquis the same color as yours is and they could tell you who owned the coach prior to you buying it. They may also have your missing page for your back up lights, etc.
Again, welcome to the group and if you can get to the Western Area Rally in Indio starting January 3 we'd love to have you there. There will be about 35 Beaver coaches doing security there for the week.
Mandy and Violet Canales
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Joe
I have seen this coach for sale and love it. I do have a 1992 Beaver Baronet. My wife and I want to up grade to a 1992 or 1993 Beaver Marquis, with the Florentine or Regent floor plans. I keep my eye out and hope to see some come up on the market.
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Jack,
We recently bought a 1992 40' Beaver Marquis. In getting some paint & running light repair, the back-up lights stopped working. When the mechanic started trying to track down the problem using the schematics in my Beaver Service Manual, he found one of the pages referencing the backup light connections (E-0029, sheet 4 of 5) was missing. I saw that you have a 1992 Beaver Marquis and was wondering if you might have your original manual with that missing page in tact. If so, I would really appreciate getting a copy, as it may help the mechanic fix my problem.
Thanks ahead of time for any help you can give me,
Joe Magie
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Mandy,
Thanks for the welcome. We are really excited about trying out our new "OLD" coach for the first time. Unfortunately, we will be on our spring bluegrass trip during January, so we won't be able to do your rally. All of our travel is pretty much bluegrass festival related. We spend Jan-March along the Colorado river attending festivals in California and Arizona. Then from June-October we do festivals in Oregon, Washington, Idaho then back east to Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Texas. I don't know what you think of bluegrass music.. ( I guess it's not for everyone )... but you'll never ever meet a nicer brand of people anywhere. We stumbled onto our first festival in 2006 by accident and I guess got bit by the "Bluegrass Bug", because we fell in love with it and have been going to festivals ever since. Thanks for the information about your friend that has a 1992 Beaver Marquis. I will see if I can find them in the member directory and send them a message.
Thanks again,
Joe, Barb & Chloe
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Mandy,
I tried searching the member list for Wally and Iris Schmidt and couldn't find them listed. Do you have a way to get ahold of them so I could ask if they had that manual page??? I would appreciate it.
Thanks, Joe
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They are listed in the pdf alphabetical Member Directory off the Private BAC Members Only board. You just have to go through a couple links.
Don't know what list you were looking at that you couldn't find them.
Joel
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Joe,
I have the schematics and have sent you a PM so check your mailbox. Hope this will help.
Jack
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:)Thanks to everyone that responded to my cry for help. I really appreciate everyones willingness to help out a fellow "Beaver-Pusher". I can see where this site will be a great support group for folks driving older coaches and am glad I found it. Thanks again, Joe, Barb & Chloe.
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Joe,
I have scanned the sheet that you need but the file is too big to attach here. If you will PM me your email address I will forward it to you.
Jack