1997 (Monaco) Beaver Brandywine 40M

I don't have any direct experience with Monacos or Beavers, but have the same understanding of the quality during that time period as you do.  I do however, have experience with owning an older, yet high quality coach.  The few pieces of advice I would offer are:

• Parts and information: Obviously, with it encroaching on 30 years old, some parts, mostly electronics, will be hard(er) to find.  Records, schematics, etc., may be hard to come across as well, complicating troubleshooting, etc., when something goes wrong
• Repairs:  Getting to this age, certain parts will just start to wear out, and they can be the expensive ones, either in cost or labor (air bags, hydraulic hoses, etc.)
• Labor: Given the above points, someone will need to work on it.  If it is well taken care of and you keep after things as they break, it won't get too bad too often, but just prepare yourself.  It will either be your time or your money.

All of that aside, I think owning an older, high-quality coach is a great thing.  A well cared for one, to boot, sure makes it cool.

Thank you SuperBus, that's very thoughtful advice.

As it turns out, the referred to unit has been sold. Probably just as well - it's 40' long! And like you said, going on 30 years old.

We also looked at the cheapest Class A on RVTrader.com nationwide, right here in our own backyard - a 1979 Winnebago Elandan II 27RT. 45 years old! Oh yeah, we researched the heck out of both! What a lot of fun that was, but I think we got it out of our systems. That unit was so cool! And not in terrible shape. Of course it needed EVERYTHING examined at least, and I already kind of tried that route wth a '70 Travco. I just need to control our sickness. And finish my current 1999 Forrest River Salem very fifthwheel. A short one but with kind of amazing space!

You see, I did a resto-mod on an 8' camper, a 1968 Travel Queen. We did a 1964 Roadrunner canned ham. And like I said, if I finish that fifthwheel, and fix up the old Dodge Ram, well, we'll be spending enough money on that.

Thanks again. Cheers!

(Boy, I sure hate this new forum site. Haven't been back here much at all in years and this new forum format wasn't a pleasant surprise at all). Cheers all!

You know, going for an older RV like that Beaver Brandywine can be a smart move. They're usually built to last, so you might score a tough one while saving some dough for those awesome adventures on the road.

Older Beaver RVs, especially when under Monaco, had a solid rep for quality. A '97 model with low mileage sounds promising. With the savings upfront, you can splurge on fuel for those epic trips.

I thought I would add a recent service cost in this post as a good example of what one can expect with older coaches.  I've read a lot of similar posts but often the real costs aren't shared.  I try and do all work myself (I can control the quality of the parts used and know the work was done right) but sometimes I just don't have the time to do it.  Case in point, my drive axle brakes were ready to be replaced.  We had a trip coming up and I wasn't able to get in the barn to do the work (something about working full time and having kids...).  Hence, I took it to a trusted shop for the work.  In the course of the inspection it was also discovered that there was a bad ball joint, a bad inversion valve, a bad delivery valve, and a leaking pressure switch.  Just labor was quoted over $7,000.   This example was a bit extreme due to the amount of labor it takes to access some of the bad parts, but its worth mentioning as it is in the realm of possibilities.  The handful of other times I have had to have someone else do the work it seems I can never get out of the shop for under $2,000 in labor, plus parts which can get expensive on these heavy chassis.

Enjoy that new truck!