Ed and Gail’s first diesel pusher motorhome

There's always a little surprise when you find a good deal on a motorhome.

We found a Beaver Contessa with a large kitchen and enough storage space to almost contain the entire contents of our house. We made sure the manufacturer was still in business and there was lots of tread on the tires. The importing dealer we bought it from assured us that it had been winterized before it was brought up from California. Among other things it had a hot water heating system.

We bought it in the early spring and the temperatures were still below freezing. I got it home and discovered the heating system had not been winterized and everything was frozen. Fortunately there was no damage. I made some inquiries and found it would have cost over $10,000 to replace the system. The luxury coaches are loaded with this kind of stuff and replacement costs can be big if the parts are even available. You can't take it to your local truck dealer for repairs; you need to find a motorhome repair service--and they are not cheap. I had our coach in two or three times and each fix was over a thousand dollars. Just to get the oil changed was over $500. I should have tried to do it myself but there was too much I did not know.

In the pink

Here is an example: We left on our first long trip and I noticed a small amount of what looked like a pink mist all over the back of the coach. I figured it must be hydraulic or transmission fluid, so I lifted the engine cover and went over the engine from top to bottom. I could find nothing and we were at least 500 miles away from an RV dealer capable of fixing it. There was nothing showing up on my gauges and everything seemed to be working fine.

A few days later I discovered it was a small crack in the radiator overflow vessel. Wow--pink antifreeze. I had never seen that before. I released the pressure cap and the leak stopped. I was not having overheating problems.

At the first chance I found a NAPA store to get some antifreeze to top things up. I grabbed a gallon and took it to the counter. As the clerk was ringing it up, I commented on the pink color of my antifreeze and someone in the back said I couldn’t use what I was about to buy. Apparently if I put that in it would have reacted with the red stuff and turned to gel. They directed me to a place where I could get what I needed. I don't know what would have happened if that guy was not in the back of the shop.

When we get to Arizona I contacted the manufacturer and ordered the part. It was over $500 for a part that looked like it should be around $30. Oh well, I installed it myself and saved some money.