General Boards > General Discussion
History of the Beaver Brand?
Bill Sprague:
I noticed that this is a "sticky" or "pinned" and has not been updated at all.
At the 30th reunion rally in Harrisburg, Mandy Canales gave a talk about the brand history. I recorded it and it is watchable on line. I apologize for the quality. The lighting was not great nor were the acoustics in the room conducive to great color, but the story is well told.
As of April, 2015 about 300 have watched it, or at least started to watch it.
https://vimeo.com/75646929
There is also a large collection of historic information provided by Connie and Peter Bradish here: https://sites.google.com/site/beavermotorhomehistory/home
Peter and Connie Bradish:
The Wikipedia page was not created by me, Connie Bradish. One of the children of a BAC member created the page. Don't remember the names.
My website is called Beaver Motorhome History. I am posting as much information as I can find.
Mat Perlot's obit states that he sold the company in 2001 to Monaco. We were actually at the factory in Bend scanning brochures when the Monaco people came in and took over. Looking back in my list of campsites we were at the factory between April 25 and April 28, 2000. I am unsure of the exact date of acquisition by Monaco.
Solitaire was the brain child of Mat Perlot (owner & founder of Safari Motorcoaches Inc.). Solitaries were made in 2000 and 2001 models by SMC. Remember that models actually start coming out the year before their model year. Example while our Beaver is a 1993 model it was made in June of 1992.
Connie B.
Bill Sprague:
It is obvious I forget things. I saw this thread and read the first page. Connie posted and I realized that not only is it up to three pages, but I posted the same update for the video link last December! Didn't intentionally mean to be redundant.
Robert S Sedlacek:
August 91 the Beaver Company had a rally celebrating 25 years at Mt Bachelor. They had several early models on display, starting with a pickup topper, slide in camper, trailer, class C and finally the gas and diesel Class A. I believe the first diesel was built on a Gillig chassis around 82 or 83 with a 8.2 Detroit engine. 1985 was the first Marquis, a wide body and it was then that the 3208 cat became an option.
Dick and Izzy Ellis:
I have found this info very interesting. Izzy and me are restoring a 1991 Contessa 38' with a 3208. We are now just about finished the inside and will start on the outside next year. We have all the service manuals as well as the factory brouchers. If any of this is of interest to anyone let me know. We where lucky to find this coach 3 years ago with 71,000 miles on it, it now has 95,000. There was very little changes to the inside, the tv was moved back to the bar and a electric fireplace put where the tv was. I will be following all history related articles as I have become posesed with restoring this to as original as possible.
Thanks to all of you for your input on the history.
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