Scotty Hutto

Thomas, Sorry to be so late replying, but we’ve been driving several hundred miles per day since Friday (started in Atlanta, currently in northeastern Nebraska…) The short answer is “yes”, they can be combined. The 6-pin port next to the steering wheel is a J1708 data port. The 3-pin can bus under the driver-side panel is the J1939 data bus. On my coach that connects to the Aladdin Jr., but that system was optional on our coaches (2006 Dip). I used the +12v, ground, and the J1708 data lines from the 6-pin port and the three lines from the CAN bus in my J1939 connector. I now use a BlueFire with an iPad to monitor a variety of parameters. I do have some duplication between the Aladdin Jr and the BlueFire, but the BlueFire updates much more frequently is the J1939 bus. There is also a lot more data available on the J1939 (CAN) bus that is not displayed by the Aladdin Jr. and can be displayed via the BlueFire. Finally, the port in your front run bay is a different designation (J1587 - I think?). It will display data from your Bendix brake controller. On my coach that’s the only place I can get that data.

Old thread, but for those who may see it in the future, my fuel sender fuse is in the “Monaco 2” fuse box in the front run bay (FRB). It isn’t listed in the “big” panel in the FRB. Unfortunately, that wasn’t my problem, so the troubleshooting begins…

Those are your air dump valves for the rear air tank. The front air tank has a separate valve - usually (on my coach and some of my friend’s coaches, anyway) up in front to the left of the generator on the firewall.

There was a problem with the site (provider, not us) yesterday. It appears to have been corrected. Apologies for not posting something; I was driving until late last night …and yes, it happened to everyone!

The video shows the final location next to the fridge. I didn’t take any still photos, but will in the next few days.

MTR Fleet Services was recommended to me by both @pwhittle Paul Whittle and @vanwill52 Van Williams. They are extremely knowledgeable and very fair with pricing (current hourly rate as of 8/15/23 is $155/hr). They did a radiator replacement, CAC test and clean, water pump replacement, and stainless steel surge tank (Talin Vector tank) installation for me. The work was very professionally done and the pricing reasonable. Best part is they started when they said they would and finished a few days early! Recently, the owner, Jason, sold the business to FleetPride (hence the name change), but all of the same staff is still there. They can handle anything from oil change and lube up to an in-frame rebuild; virtually anything dealing with the chassis, engine, drivetrain, and generator. Great folks. Highly recommended and will be doing business with them again in the future.

So… at the FMCA rally this spring in Perry, Ga, my wife saw a Newmar Dutch Star that had a fancy pantry with push-to-open drawers. Being a man that has learned the meaning of “Happy Wife, Happy Life” over the last 40 years, I decided it would be cheaper to build a new pantry in our coach than purchase a new $600k coach that I can’t afford and wouldn’t be happy with anyway… With a lot of assistance and direction from Russell Porter, I (we) built a pantry for Debbie in our Diplomat. The drawer boxes were custom made by The Drawer Depot: https://drawerdepot.com/ The drawer slides came from Rockler: 20” Centerline Lifetime Series Touch to Open Drawer Slides https://www.rockler.com/ (Note: Showing website, but the local Rockler store had them in stock) Frame is 1” x 3” poplar, purchased from a local lumber store. Metal corner supports came from the same store. PS - I added LED lighting that cuts on when you open the pantry door. The almost $600k Dutch Star didn’t have that! 😜 71296148983__6F6C6F30-38C0-41CD-B401-CB41A9409368.mov

Chris, Amazingly I use that same fix for most cosmetic flaws on my coach. 🤪 maybe you taught it in one of your seminars?

I second Van’s comments.

I stand corrected. I modified my statement above to clarify, remove any attribution to you, and eliminate any confusion that it is my opinion and only my opinion. I find it very confusing that they would use very similar terms for two completely different devices, one recommended and one prohibited: battery isolator and isolator switch. An isolator switch IS a battery isolator, regardless of its intended purpose (i.e., maintenance), and based on that I "supposed" the issue was about solid state battery isolators, which have been proven to cause problems. I also suppose if they meant solid state battery isolators, they should have said exactly that. In the end, though, I totally agree with your final statement. Better to use an alternator known to be compatible with the system than to chance it and dispute semantics or discern what manufacturer meant when there are better (and typically less expensive) options.

I have four pantry baskets from a 2006 Diplomat 40DST available. Yours for the asking, (i.e., the baskets are free) but you pay shipping. 😉

Not Peter, but the short answer is yes, you can have a leak that only reveals itself under pressure. One of the frustrating things about my leak was that it would hold a vacuum. Once as long as overnight. But when pressurized with refrigerant, it would leak. I’m guessing that the vacuum actually closed the gap and sealed the leak.

I chased a leak in my dash air for almost 4 years. Three different AC shops, including one who has a reputation of being the best in the Atlanta (Smyrna) area. Heaven only knows (and I really don’t want to know) how much money has been spent… The leak was bad enough that I would lose a complete charge in 4-5 days, so it had to be fixed. Shops tried dyes and sniffers and could not find the leak. MTR/Fleetpride in Cumming, GA took a different approach. The evac’d the system and pressurized it with 300 psi dry nitrogen. Found the leak in about 10 minutes when a hose-end fitting blew apart. Apparently the leak was intermittent, which is what made it hard to find in the shop. As soon as I headed down the road and things started shaking, it would dump the charge. MTR repaired the leak with a new fitting crimped on the hose. It’s been a month and it still cools great! Maybe not long enough to know for sure, but I’m happy because I have dash air for the first time in years. PS - I now have a spare, almost new, completely operable Sanden 4288 compressor that one of the previous shops replaced.

Just a quick note about refrigerant gauges… maybe everyone already understands this, but I’ll repeat for the sake of clarity. Pressure is absolute, regardless of the gas. The big black numbers on the gauge always tell the pressure. The other numbers on the gauge (blue, red, etc.) are the corresponding *refrigerant* temperatures. Not the ambient temperature, the air coming off the condenser, or the air coming off the evaporator. They represent the actual temperature of the gas at that pressure. If you had perfect heat transfer, they would represent (and *do* approximate) the evaporator (low side) and condenser (high side) temps. Hope that helps. 😉 Scotty

I think the RV expert at the distributor had his wires crossed. The Alternator Application & Conditions of Use notes for the Leece-Neville AVI160J2008 alternator specifically state: 2.1.3 A fuse should be fitted to prevent reverse battery connection causing an alternator failure. Fuses should also be used to protect cables from damage due to system short circuits. It is sometimes useful for servicing to fit a battery isolation switch in line between alternator and battery. The ML-ACR is a type of battery isolation switch. There is no other mention in the document for this specific alternator of a battery isolator. If I had to guess, I’d say the statement from Prestolite mentioned above is in reference to solid state battery isolators.

Just for the record, we have a link to the Michelin video here on the site. 😁

I think Tom means a 3° delta T between the front and rear AC units. Not 3° from the outside temp. 😉 If both units are running (or all three if you are so lucky), their thermostats should be set within 3° of each other.

Reviving this old thread… Noticed this behavior from my front AC while camping (glamping?) this week. Read through the thread (again), and have a few comments… I agree with Dick @Ivylog that the short cycling is caused by the remote thermostat. When I checked mine, connections at the control box (in the return air plenum, accessible from inside the coach) were good. Cleaned them again for good measure. I decided to check my remote t-stat placement, and found that somehow in the last two years, the actual bulb of the t-stat had been shoved back into the wall, almost touching the exterior skin of the coach!I rectified that and the short cycling has stopped altogether. I will note that as one who in a previous life used to design HVAC units and later on, systems, short cycling does reduce the lifespan of the unit. So I’m not surprised to hear of folks having to replace dead units after they were short cycling. In the end, I do think Steven @Steven P replaced both units as a preventative/predictive measure. If I had been smart and listened to my friend, I would have done so too. Back when they could be had for about $1,100/unit. 🤦🏻‍♂️ They are literally twice that (or more) now. Guess I’ll just keep these 16-year-old units running as long as I can. They still cool (and heat) very well. FWIW… it’s not uncommon for heat pumps to run 25+ years in the southeast, with the average being just north of 22 years, according to a study I was involved in back in the 1990s. The hypothesis at the time was that they lasted longer than straight AC units because they were used year-round and didn’t sit unused through the winter. The same study showed the average life of a straight AC unit was closer to 16 years. (Sample size for the study was approximately 10,000 homes in MS, AL, GA, & FL) so, just like so many things in life, the old adage applies… “Use it or lose it!”

DOMETIC 3106486008 Remote Sensor Kit https://a.co/d/gFNR1qc

Welcome to the Atlanta-area chapter of Monacoers 🤣! Seriously, welcome and we hope you find some useful info here. Scotty

Yes, I moved the heater over to the right to make room for the pump, and removed the vanity panel around the Sani-con. I also replaced the 4” port with a 6” port to make dumping easier.

I don’t have any really good pics, but will post what I have and take more soon.

As it turned out, I had two separate but related issues. I replaced the diverter valve which corrected my fresh water tank overfilling, and also added added a backflow valve exterior to the Remco 55AquaJet-ARV (and removed the internal backflow device). That did not correct the periodic pulses of my pump, so I reached out to Remco Tech Support. After walking though troubleshooting with them (including sending a video of the pump cutting on every 20 seconds for about 1-2 sec), I sent it back for warranty replacement. The Tech explained that very rarely, the diaphragm in that pump gets damaged and will cause that behavior. The Tech explained that very rarely, the diaphragm in that pump gets damaged and will cause that behavior.The new pump solved that issue and all of my water system problems are now corrected. When replacing the pump, I added a mounting board (Trex composite decking) with closed cell foam backing to further quiet the pump. It is now fairly quiet and I have superior water pressure. 😉 IMG_5739.mov

I had similar damage on my 06 Dip after an “incident” with one of those pesky short bollards that you can’t see in your mirrors — maybe a little worse. 🙄 Looked and couldn’t locate a new one, so the body man removed that panel and straightened it. Had to paint it, too… Looks great.

Dave, 2006 Dip and not sure how that compares in terms of antenna location, but my experience was using the existing cable to pull new coax. On my coach, the antenna sits about a foot behind the front cap on the roof (just over in front of the passenger seat). My coax routes into the front cap, straight to the font, and across (between the TV and the windshield), then into the AV cabinet above the drivers seat. Mine wasn’t “secured” anywhere along the route. There was a bit of a snag passing through the aluminum roof supports at the roof/front cap junction. Hope that helps. scotty