Hello. Being the old classic RV kind of guy I am, I'm thinking of an old Class A purchase. We've been considering a 3-5 year old quality motorhome. Something big, for longer term travel and more dis...
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.
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40M","id":"message:3669105","revisionNum":1,"repliesCount":6,"author":{"__ref":"User:user:97797"},"depth":0,"hasGivenKudo":false,"board":{"__ref":"Forum:board:Motorhomesforum-board"},"conversation":{"__ref":"Conversation:conversation:3669105"},"readOnly":false,"editFrozen":false,"moderationData":{"__ref":"ModerationData:moderation_data:3669105"},"body@stripHtml({\"truncateLength\":200})":" Hello. Being the old classic RV kind of guy I am, I'm thinking of an old Class A purchase. We've been considering a 3-5 year old quality motorhome. Something big, for longer term travel and more dis...","body@stringLength":"1399","rawBody":"
Hello. Being the old classic RV kind of guy I am, I'm thinking of an old Class A purchase.
We've been considering a 3-5 year old quality motorhome. Something big, for longer term travel and more distant destinations. We have our little truck camper and a small fifthwheel for those other kinds of camping and for local stuff. In 2013, we had a 2013 Komfort TT and we're disappointed in the quality of build for new.
I just watched a YouTube video by an RV inspector lamenting the poor quality of many newer RVs. Partly due to corporate aquisition and reduction of quality for their bottom line, and partly due to fast and sloppy build due to work ethic, hurrying mentality, and pandemic era building concerns. She mentioned 2005 and older were built much better.
So - I went to a local RV dealer site and found an interesting older speciman. A 1997 (Monaco) Beaver Brandywine 40M with about 54,000 miles. According to JD Power it may be the 300HP or 330HP (I am assuming Cummins).
What has anybody to say about Beaver brand specifically (apparently purchased by Monaco around 1997), Monaco in general around this time (I understand they were pretty high quality), and the idea of buying and owning a big old ship like this, considering for the less costly original outlay, more can be spent on fuel costs than say a newer smaller, way more expensive outfit?
Hello. Being the old classic RV kind of guy I am, I'm thinking of an old Class A purchase.
We've been considering a 3-5 year old quality motorhome. Something big, for longer term travel and more distant destinations. We have our little truck camper and a small fifthwheel for those other kinds of camping and for local stuff. In 2013, we had a 2013 Komfort TT and we're disappointed in the quality of build for new.
I just watched a YouTube video by an RV inspector lamenting the poor quality of many newer RVs. Partly due to corporate aquisition and reduction of quality for their bottom line, and partly due to fast and sloppy build due to work ethic, hurrying mentality, and pandemic era building concerns. She mentioned 2005 and older were built much better.
So - I went to a local RV dealer site and found an interesting older speciman. A 1997 (Monaco) Beaver Brandywine 40M with about 54,000 miles. According to JD Power it may be the 300HP or 330HP (I am assuming Cummins).
What has anybody to say about Beaver brand specifically (apparently purchased by Monaco around 1997), Monaco in general around this time (I understand they were pretty high quality), and the idea of buying and owning a big old ship like this, considering for the less costly original outlay, more can be spent on fuel costs than say a newer smaller, way more expensive outfit?
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.
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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.
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