My wife and I just purchased a one owner 1997 Marquis Opal 40 foot (Gillig chassis) C12 with the 4060. We live in Central Florida. The coach has been owned in Florida and maintained pretty well over the last 28 years and 130K miles, but there are some outstanding items that need attention. I have been using the forum to do some research and under the BAC technical library I have found a bunch of details. We are new to Beaver but not new to motorhomes, and I am pretty mechanically inclined, so we are trying to do most of the maintenance items ourselves. I just had new tires put on all around 295/75/22.5 Toyo M177s, the set that was installed dated back into the 2015/16 range. This coach was customized from the factory with a second fresh water and a second grey water tank. The previous owners would boondock at races and needed the additional capacity. This works good for us as we also boondock in Glamis a few weeks a year. Over the years the PO took shortcuts with wiring issues, so I am still working thru some of those things, like the steps are now on a dedicated switch instead of using the controller box, and the second fresh tank has a manual transfer pump switch to pump water to the front nose tank. Theres other 28yo wire modifications that need some addressing but nothing too crazy yet. We are looking to get some of the larger items out of the way and then we can start playing with upgrades and refreshing the coach. Thought I would list out my current work list and the details I have on it so far. Really glad there is such a great community that's active for these coaches. Thanks for what this community has created.
Refrigerator - This is my number one item right now. Currently has a Dometic RM 7832. The previous owners I think had to do some funny wiring to keep this alive but now the gas doesn't always work, the ice maker is disconnected, and they used wires form the ice maker to get the compressor to run on AC. The coils and other parts in the back are much too rusty for my taste so we will replace it with a new Dometic 4 door RM1350. The RM1350 requires a few inches more space than the older RM7832 (needs H 4", W 0", D 3") I think there is enough space in the cavity to accommodate this space. If anyone has done this before or has some insight on gotchas it would be appreciated.
Windows - most the windows have blown seals; we reached out to Suncoast Designers they quoted us $4500 for the 10 windows. We also reached out to RV Glass Experts for a quote, still waiting for that to come back. They are somewhat fogged, this is aesthetic but we would like to get it fixed.
Faucets - This had all Moen fixtures, I purchased new stems to repair the old leaky ones.
Instahot under the sink - This seems to work, the water line to it works and the water line going out of it to the filler neck seems to get warm with water, but when you push the handle on the filler it does nothing. I have never used a point of service instahot like this, its low priority, but needs to be addressed.
AC systems look have been replaced in the 2014-2016 time range along with the roof membrane.
Batteries - The coach has all 2023 batteries. The chassis battery was swapped to an 8D also. Needs a new genny battery, i tried to repair it but it's too far gone.
Airbags - These are still functioning and a new controller was installed from HWH in the 21-22 time range, the bags however are very chewed up looking and starting to break up, I need to still find the corss-refrence number from the Gillig part number to a Firestone number.
HWH hydraulics - the rams seem to function ok, they retract with no issues, so I don't think the seals have gone out yet, we had a Tiffin hat had issue and we had to have the cylinders repaired locally. I would like to source a replacement HWH control pad with the beaver logo on it if they still exist, I will try Beaver Coach Sales.
Backup camera - the original camera and crt monitor are still kind of working, the image is fuzzy and sometimes drops out. I am planning on replacing this with a newer system maybe wireless 4 cam system or just replace the old B/W camera with a newer color option and swap the CRT with an LCD display.
Dash radio - I will be changing this out to a 7" touch screen unit so we can have Waze running from our phones.
Couch - We have a teen who needs a sleeper sofa, so we are planning on replacing the very nice white couch with a jack-knife unit, my wife is still trying to pick something out that will fit thru the door.
Engine - I have purchased all new filters for the engine and trans, plan on doing a filter and fluid change so we have a base line, I probably will send off a sample to Blackstone just to have a reference point, kind of hard to build a case around health without history. So far it seems to start no issues, drives great and shifts very smooth (only after the trans warms up, otherwise a 2-1 down shift is very hard, after a few min of driving this goes away. There are no visible leaks, but there is an exhaust leak sound at highway speeds you can hear from outside. The remote starter in the box in the back does not work so I need to trace that down too.
Brakes seems to work well, there are no maintenance records on the brakes, so I will need to inspect them. There are some axle seals in the book of receipts we received. I was planning on inspecting these when I do the air springs.
Overall, the paint is a 6-7, still very shiny but it has some of the electrolysis issues in small spots, and there are some burnt clear coat spots that will get attention over the next year, this is cosmetic right now and we are building a new cover for the bus.
We are very excited to own our first Beaver and so far, are very pleased.