Vintage Beaver

[Joe Lenhart]

Just curious, anyone out driving an old Beaver motorhome from back in the early 90's or older.  I have a 1991 Beaver Contessa DP 36'.  I sort of feel like the Lone Ranger out here.  I am in Ohio and don't really see any Vintage Beavers ( motorhomes that is) around here.  I sort of wish there was a thread where owners of the vintage Beaver coaches could hang out.

Joe

[Gerald Farris]

Joe,
There are several active members of the club who are driving coaches from the same era as your coach, 1989 to 1993. In fact two club Board members are included in the group.

Gerald

[Keith Moffett Co-Admin]

Joe, FYI there is a 1990 Marquis on ebay right now.  There must be quite a few still out there since they were so well made.
Keith

[Wayne Tull]

Joe,

I understand, like most of the things that are broke or not working properly that others are posting we don't have. That said, what do you want to visit about.  My 93' build Marquis doesn't look like yours and doesn't appear to be like the one's after it either.  From the time line it seems to have been built when they were going bankrupt as well as being a first year model change.   I live in Iowa and in the four plus years of Beaver ownership have only seen three other Beavers.  Two passing through Iowa and one while in Colorado.  I currently have a leaking hydraulic fan motor that I have to fix or replace, am following the posts on roof coatings, repairing my splendide washer dryer and trying to finish some interior changes I started.

[Peter and Connie Bradish]

We have a 1993 classic Beaver. We LOVE our coach. She is a real treasure and built extremely well.
Please come to some of our rallies, you will meet some of us who have the classic (built by the original Beaver Motorcoach Company) Beavers. Also there is help (parts ,advice/service, etc) here on the BAC website and the Beaver Motorhome History website   https://sites.google.com/site/beavermotorhomehistory/home

We don't have a thread on the classic Beavers but one could be started on the BAC forum.

Welcome to BAC.

PS: We homebase out of Florida

[Joe Lenhart]

Thank you for all your replies.  I am guessing the farther away from the West Coast the less of the Vintage Beavers I will see or hear about.  Even when I was looking for mine I found most of the Beavers were out West.  The more I get into mine the more I appreciate just how well built this coach is.  We are doing some interior decorating right now.  My walls have a very tight weave heavy fabric almost carpet like on the walls.  I would like to clean the walls.  I am thinking about using a steam cleaner.  Has anyone used a steam cleaner on this type of wall covering?

Joe

[George H. Wall]

JOE, I have used steam on several leak stain areas on both the ceiling and walls of my coach, very sucessfully!!  Henry

[Keith Moffett Co-Admin]

Joe, do a search here for "Carols coach concoction".  This is the way we cleaned all of our.

Keith

[Joe Lenhart]

Thanks for the suggestions.  I think I am going to use the steam cleaner on most of the walls.  I also did a search and did find Carol's concoction.  I am going to use that on some tight areas I can't get the steamer into.

Joe

[Mandy Canales]

Joe...I'm glad you opened the thread on classic Beaver coaches.  We have a '90 Beaver Marquis and love it.  We bought it when it had 23K and now it reads 213+K so its been around the country a few times.  

[Mandy Canales]

Wayne...I had the same problem with the hydraulic fan motor back several years ago and first tried to put a rebuild kit in it but it didn't do the job.  The hydraulic mechanic said he would track a fan motor down and found one out of a hydraulic shop in North Carolina,  I went through Agri-Con Hydraulics here in Hesperia, CA (760-947-4417).  I ended up buying a WEBSTER 95014 motor for my 1990 Beaver Marquis..  I would think that most farm equipment that handles hydraulics could reference that number and help you out.  If not, give Agri-Con Hydraulics a call to see if they know where they ordered mine from in NC.  Good luck to you,  That '93 coach was one of the best Beaver Coach made, beautiful and strong.  That 3176 Cat engine was the precurser of the newer C series engines.

Mandy [size=14][/size]

[Mandy Canales]

As an aside Wally and Iris Schmidt's relative just purchased Fred and Claire Oehms 36 ft 91 Contessa so you may be able to contact them and chat with that new owner about the coaches.   There are several Beaver owners who live in Ohio and some may be near you

[Joe Lenhart]

Iris contacted me a while back before her relative went to look at the 91 Contessa.  I was glad to hear they bought it.  Nice to keep another classic Beaver on the road.

Joe

[Gerald Farris]

Joe,
One word of caution, your fabric wall coverings are glued to a wood backing, so be very cautious when using steam on the wall. Too much moisture into the wall can cause the under-laying wood to warp or cause the glue to fail.

Gerald

[Joe Lenhart]

Thanks for the advice Gerald. The steam cleaner does have a built in vacuum. I think I will try some area that is hidden and see just how wet the wall fabric is after use.  I sure don't want the glue to fail under the fabric on the walls or ceiling.    I want to clean the entire coach top to bottom and was just looking for a way to clean the ceiling and walls to get what I am sure is a lot of dust and grim out after all these years.

Joe