backtrail

Reymore, Thanks for the heads up, it was surely an undeserved result of what sounds like a well care for and maintained coach. You have succeeded in putting me on high alert or maybe better put a very concerned C12 operator. Last year we purchased a 2000 Beaver with a Cat C12 and a Allison 4060 with 37,000 miles on it. Since then I have been completing a maintenance update of the rig, mostly with the motor, trans, brakes, and all the systems service that over the years had been ignored. One of the services was to have the valves adjusted, which I believe is part of a required 30,000 mile major service. When we bought our Beaver I had Cat pull the records of work done, nothing recorded, but there was two recalls that had not been addressed. But of course since the warranty period had passed we couldn't get it done, one of the recalls had to do with the Turbo. I was wondering did Cat explain what they found to be the foreign objects? One of the first things I tried to do was to bring myself up to speed as to the C12, the Jake and the Allison how they worked and procedure for operating. I have been reading all the material I could find on this site, the Beaver Ambassador Club, http://beaveramb.org/ and the Cat RV owners web site, http://www.catrvclub.org/ But it sounds to me that you already had that knowledge, so what can I do to prevent this? I had the Allison programing checked and it is set to down shift into 5th and I am aware of keeping the rpm in it limits, but is there any type of preventive steps I can take or should I just start praying, a lot. Also any further thoughts or info would be appreciated by me and the rest of the C12 owners out here. On a side note, during our search for the right rig, we came across the same model Beaver with a rebuilt C12 with 49000 miles on the rig, the motor had 2500 miles on it. The main thing is that I do remember is the following; Cat stated the reason for the blown motor was the result of a foreign object entering the Turbo, in this case it was water entering the air intake, the result was the number 3 piston sucked a valve or close to it, (I am not sure of the details). The owner claimed it was because the previous owner power washed the rig and forced water into the air intake and when bringing the coach home it blew. The cost was around $35K. I wasn't sold on the story so we passed on the purchase. But when I read your story it hit closer to home. I do hope your days on the road will be much smoother in the future. Thanks again for sharing, I appreciate it. Regards, Bill Backtrail 2000 Beaver Patriot Thunder C12, Allison 4060 Cool, California