a4epilot

Contact Stone Vos, Chris T, for info regarding where to purchase and how to install. I was there this past spring. They replaced all my wiper slide seals among other repairs. Gary K

Thank you so much for posting this video! My 06 Windsor door is just about to fail as did this door. I've read prior postings but they were not clear so I've delayed taking corrective action. My first task today is to make the adjustment and save myself a lot of grief that is heading my way. Again, most appreciate you taking the time to post. Gary K

Ivan, Wow, I thought you simply replaced the standard pressure cap with the test cap. If I have it correctly now, you removed the entire neck that was welded into the hole in the tank and then into that tank hole you placed the rubber plug test cap? Very clever! Would never have thought of that. Were you able to remove the neck with everything in place except probably the sheet metal top of the AH? I don't think mine is leaking, YET. Want to lower the system pressure as much as possible to reduce the chances of springing a leak somewhere just as many of us did with the engine cooling system caps by going from 13 down to 7 PSI. Appreciate your time. Thanks. Gary K 06 Windsor

Ivan, Would you please send me a link or more information regarding the test cap you used to replace the standard pressure cap. I've been looking online and at NAPA. Can't find anything that will work, especially given the tight height clearance. Thanks. Gary K

Acrylic. If I remember correctly, Stone Vos recommendation? Gary K

Stone Vos IS "the only place" to go to be sure! Here's my first hand experience. About 8 years ago (maybe longer), I needed new slide toppers on my 2006 Windsor and decided on Stone Vos. I was in WA, they were in FL. I did the install with the help of a friend. Everything went as expected. This past summer I drove from Phoenix all the way to Stone Vos in FL just to have some work done on my coach including new window awnings. You can find my entire story on that visit with them in my list of previous posts. It's worth reading in order to fully understand who and what they are. While there, they inspected the toppers, now 8+ years old. They were still in a like new condition! The space age thread they had used was totally intact. Regular thread would have mostly desegregated by then just as had happened with the original toppers. Chris T is a regular on this site and even though it pains me to say it, he's a Marine & I'm Navy 😁, you can trust him completely with everything. Where do you ever find that in the RV business? If you research in detail, as I did, regarding other companies' quality of materials, workmanship and warranty compared to Stone Vos, I feel confident you'll find Stone Vos to be the only choice. It was for me and has been for many others on this forum. Gary K

I had an Aero Turbine stainless muffler installed many years and miles ago and it's still in good shape; happy. They have a good reputation. An experienced shop did the install. It was easy with no big problems, as I recall. They used a flexible pipe from the engine to muffler so no manufacturing needed. I watched. Discussion on iRV2. Gary K 06 Windsor

Good point. Thanks. Gary K Yes. I now have an externally mounted fuel filter/water separator. Removed the factory unit.

In recent years, the Onan is getting harder to keep running after starting when it hasn't run for a few days. It runs for only a few seconds and then stops. Apparently, there is enough fuel at the injector pump for it to start but that's all. Hard to start again and then quits. This cycle repeats about 3 times and then it stays running. To be clear, there is nothing wrong with the start sequence as it does start on the first attempt. The problem is fuel supply. It appears that the fuel siphons slowly back to the tank therefore the generator fuel pump must operate for an extended period to get the fuel back to the motor. A few years ago, I placed a check valve in the fuel supply line to the generator in an attempt to prevent this. It did seem to work for a while but then back to the same problem. Possibly, that check valve is leaking now. The only way not to have this happen is to run the fuel pump at least 3 minutes before attempting the first start. It helps but still the gen will usually quit once and then run OK after the second start. All second starts are hard and take a long time cranking to get the fuel back. I'm thinking there probably is a check valve in the fuel pump that is supposed to prevent this and has possibly failed and/or the fuel pump has become weak. Anyone had the same problem and found a fix? Thanks, Gary K 06' Windsor with 8 KW Onan

A point about having a spare trailer tire. When my tire failed, I did have a spare tire inside the trailer but it was not mounted. Roadside service guy had nothing on his truck to dismount and remount a tire. According to him and a few other people I've spoken with, appears that is the norm. So, now I carry a mounted spare cargo trailer tire. Gary K

I had Coach Net for years and they were OK. Then 2 years ago, I became interested in SafeRide Motor Club because it was being promoted by Escapees; I'm a long time member. I watched a promotional video and then called. It all sounded good and because it was now part of the Escapees benefits program I joined; Big Mistake! The first time I needed help was when an airbag rupture while I was parked, fortunately, in a small town in SE WA State. I could not move the coach. Of course, the first call I made was for roadside service. It would take me an hour to describe the total inefficiency and lack of any help; it was one of those nightmare never ends and only gets worse stories. They were always pleasant on the phone and repeatedly told me "Not to worry. We'll take of everything and get you back on the road."; NOT! There were no follow up calls, I always had to call them and go through a long menu to finally get someone who could lookup my case. Then I'd have to explain everything all over again and each time I'd get a different story as to what they would do and when. Meanwhile, winter had arrived early and it snowed. My holding tanks were just about full, I was dry camping. I had to hire a septic tank pumping company to come out to my remote location and pump my tanks. That was really fun because they had never done it before; need I say more? SafeRide NEVER found anyone to help me! All I got was a runaround for many days. It was getting cold and I was supposed to be long gone for the winter in AZ so I took matters into my own hands. Since this is prime wheat growing country, each small town has a large truck and implement dealer. Friends of mine in the area had a friendly connection with a company 12 miles away. After explaining my dire situation to the shop foreman, on his own time on a Sunday, he drove to my location to evaluate the situation. Since airbags are common in the farm trucks and large equipment, he said they could help. His inspection revealed that all the bags were in terrible shape and needed replacement. Next thing was to locate a replacement. That wasn't easy because Monaco had used different bags randomly so finding the correct one was a challenge. We decided to buy only one to be sure it was correct and then buy 7 more after the first was installed. The repair had to be made at my location and in the snow! The mechanic was incredible and had to really improvise to get it done. They had never worked on a motorhome before. Ordered more bags and drove to their shop to replace the remaining. SafeRide promised they would pay for the service call, not parts or labor, for the on site repair. After I was finally at the shop and the others were being replaced, I did as instructed by SafeRIde (SR). Previously, they told me at that time they would give a credit card number to the shop foreman so he could charge them for the call; about $120. That's exactly what I did. Of course, as before, I had to go through all the menu again; frustrating! When I finally got a live person and explained why I was calling, she told me they never did such a thing and I would have to submit a claim in writing! That was the final straw! Told them forget it, cancel my claim cancel my membership and I never want to hear their name again! So, off I go to AZ but the story doesn't end there. In northern AZ I had a trailer tire fail. (26 years fulltiming and had only needed roadside service once!) I call SR again expecting the worst but somewhat hopeful because it was only a blown tire. It was not to be. Another nightmare! SR totally blew it again! I was in a very dangerous situation. High speed heavy traffic 2 lane road with virtually no shoulder in the middle of the high desert. Every passing vehicle rocked the 40' coach. I was afraid of staying inside so waited in the heat outside at a safe distance. To make it worse, it was late in the day and I knew if I was stuck there after dark, someone was sure to hit me plus I'd be waiting outside all the time. After many calls to SR and no one showing up, I finally got them to give me the phone number of the business supposedly coming to help. When I contacted them, they told me they were waiting for SR to call back and pay for the call with a credit card because apparently they had no ties to them. I said I'll give you my credit card number now, please, just get out here. They said OK but unfortunately the service truck got tired of waiting for SR to call so he when out on another call. After an hour or so, they called and said he was on the way. He did arrive, fixed the tire and I was finally back on the road. Made an RV park just at dark. BTW, trailer tires were new only a few months earlier. I called Escapees and related my entire stories to the manager. She sounded interested and took notes. Told me she'd contact SafeRide. Many weeks went by and no one contacted me from Escapees or SafeRide. Then one day I did get a call from SafeRide headquarters in TX. The lady was nice, listened to my story and apologized. Offered to pay the $120 if I'd submit a paper claim. Told her I had spent way too much time with them and never wanted to hear their name again. I've followed the discussions here for years and always paid attention to roadside service postings. When looking for someone new, I did check with CoachNet but their rates had really gone up. I called Good Sam (not the greatest stories here about their service in the past) but since I now have their RV insurance and I liked the representatives answers to my many questions, decided to join. I've traveled about 8000 miles this summer without any problems so can't comment on their service. "That's my story and I'm sticking to it!" ;-) Gary K 06 40' Windsor

From the time I first looked at that board in my 06' Windsor, I did not like the relays and believed they were too small, could heat up and damage not only the relays themselves but the surrounding circuit board. Sure enough, one night years later everything electrical in the coach when crazy. All the lights flashing rapidly, noises and so many other things happening I've forgotten. Immediately, I depower everything by disconnecting shore power and turning off both battery switches. There I was at night with a totally dead coach. Troubleshooting showed that a large area of the EMS board was fried and smelled just like you said. One of the relays was severely damaged as well. Thus, the reason for the failure. FORTUNATELY, because I never liked it from the beginning, I had purchased a spare board! After replacing the bad with the new, everything operated normally. I ordered another standby spare which I still have. Hopefully, to prevent the same thing from happening in the future, when installing the replacement board, I made a slight change to the ac connections. Instead of the power coming from an ac breaker then going through the small relay and out to the coach, I placed both wires on the same terminal of one side of relay so that the relay is not carrying any load. Each ac relay is simply a connection terminal where the incoming power from the ac circuit breakers is directly connected on the same side of the relay and then out to the coach. Doesn't matter which one of the relay's 2 terminals are used to join the 2 wires. I could have simply connected the coach circuits directly to their appropriate circuit breakers and eliminated the EMS board relays all together but decided to go the way I did in case at some point in the future I wanted to go back to the way it was originally wired. In that case all I would need to do is move one of the 2 ac wires on the same terminal of each relay to the other side of the relay so the power then again flowed through the relay. Of course, the way I am wired now, if the EMS circuitry decides the ac system is becoming overloaded and opens one of the relays, that will not shed anything. I'm always careful about overloading the shore power and never had the loadshedding capability of the EMS system come into play. Even if I do overload, a circuit breaker will trip just like it would without the EMS as is the case with all the coaches that were build for years without load shedding. No doubt there will be those who disagree and will respond. If that happens, then you will have additional opinions to consider and make an informed decision as to what you eventually decide. Gary K

Earlier last month, I spent a week at Talin RV, Brooksville, FL having a lot of work done to my 40’ 2006 Monaco Windsor regarding slide-outs, awnings and the sealing of all outside joints after a full re-painting last year. In order to get there, I went 2000 miles out of my way because of their reputation for quality work and products! As a member of the Monaco owner’s aintenance forum for years, I’d read frequent, always positive postings, by members about Talin RV and Stone Vos as well as postings by the owner, Chris Throgmartin, a former Marine. ( If you can’t trust a Marine, who can you trust? -:) Chris has frequently helped our group by doing presentations at rally's and providing free inspections looking for trouble spots relative to slide-outs and common exterior water leak areas that are common to our brand. Chris has another related company operating out of the same location called, Stone Vos. They manufacture high quality slide-out toppers, window and patio awnings. Their fabric is the best available anywhere. The thread used is a product of NASA’s space program. They have a website (stonevos.com) that explains in detail why their products are the best. It’s worth reading. Eight years ago, they made 3 new slide-out toppers, sent them and I did the installation. They were inspected while I was there and there is no evidence of any deterioration. All the thread and seems are intact as well as the condition of the fabric. When making the appointment well ahead of time, I listed all the items I wanted repaired. They were: 1 bedroom slide-out not operating smoothly and binding frequently, a significant water leak with that same slide that I had tried to find and fix unsuccessfully for years, reseal all seams on the outside after the recent re-painting, check the roof condition, install Guardian Plates on 2 slides (I had installed them myself on the 3rd slide years ago after purchasing from Talin RV), make and install new window awnings, make and install new patio awning, make install a metal roller plate under 1 slide and replace all slide-out rubber seals (very difficult task). Upon arrival, we reviewed my list to confirm and add anything additional. The next morning they had a printed estimate that I signed so there would be no surprises at the end. Upon completion, I didn’t pay any more than the estimate. Chris had mentioned his tech, Dustin, many times in previous posts attesting to his professionalism, knowledge and best of all, his staying on a job until it is done correctly. After observing him up close for the week I was there, Chris did not exaggerate. Dustin and his assistant are perfectionists (like me). This is unheard of in the RV industry. Anyone who has ever had a dealer or repair facility do work on their RV understands this, I am sure. It was a first for me and I’ve been full-timing 26 years. Everyone there has the same attitude including the office staff. Their operation is small. It’s a family even though no one is actually related. I was invited to have lunch with them more than once. I’m a former U.S. Naval Aviator and it has always been my duty to give any Marine a ration as often as possible; it is so written. :-) I kept up the tradition with Chris when I was there. HOWEVER, don’t ever get in-between and sailor and Marine. We are brothers on the same team; Team USA. I have an unwavering respect for The Corps and I can state clearly that Chris’s values are still the same as when he was on active duty. He operates his business to the same standards. They are all honorable people, pleasant, work hard, do reliable and professional work for a reasonable price. I had absolutely no complaints and received excellent value for my money. They can be trusted and I easily would go 2000 miles, or more, out of my way again should I need their services in the future. I have no connection in any way to them. I am simply a satisfied customer. I took the time to write this because they earned it and because I want them to survive so when I might need what they do in the future, they still will be there and I won’t have to figure out where to go. My thanks to everyone at Talin RV and Stone Vos, and yes, even thanks to Chris. (Don’t tell any Navy guys I said that.) Gary K

On April 3 I posted the details of my install with all the specific information. If you can't find it, here is the URL

I did receive both units eventually. One came damaged, was returned and replaced; Amazon. Install was smooth without any problems. I had a forklift available. Both are Penguin II 15,000 BTU with new thermostat; CCC II. Installed new drain trays which came with the extra gasket required; ordered separately. Also, did the interior return air vent noise suppressor/air filter, ordered separately., and it made a noticeable difference. Wiring color coding was same as old units so did not have to make any adaptations. Worked the first time I turned it all on. MUCH better cooling! Departed PHX when it was about 100 degrees, went to Tampa with stops in TX and MS; hot and humid everywhere. Now on my way to WA. I'm delighted with the upgrade and have no complaints. Keeps up easily with the hot and humid weather. Never this good before. Gary K

Cummins endorsed additives are not their products. Diesel Fuel Supplement® +Cetane Boost & Diesel Kleen® +Cetane Boost are produced by Power Service Diesel Additives of Weatherford, TX. They have been around long before Cummins made their endorsement and are avaliable many places including Truck Stops and Walmart. The above is the best information I could find and in the end it really doesn't matter who makes it, as long as it works. I have to believe it does some good or Cummins wouldn't endorse as they have stayed away from such actions in the past. I've been using it since their endorsement a year or two ago, as I recall. There really is no practical way to know if it is worth the money and effort until maybe an engine tear down which I hope I never experience. I don't track my mileage that accurately because it makes no difference as I'm going to make the trips regardless plus there is no way I could possibly tell if the engine is producing more power. Considering the cost of the engine, the overall cost of maintaining and operating my coach, the additional possible protection is worth it, for me. Gary K

Cummins DOES endorse 2 fuel additives. Information on their website. Gary K

Last year at this time I had my 40' 2006 Windsor and 25' trailer also painted at Navarro Brothers in Mexico as mentioned by daleleahrv in above post. Did it in all one color, Las Vegas Gold. Removed all decals and logos. Same with the trailer. Looks great! Get lots of favorable comments. Folks like the clean look without all the graphics. Will never look out of date. They had it 2 months and did a fantastic job! I visited once and saw how they sanded everything down, removed all the thermal checking cracks. It's been a year and still looks great. Estimates in the USA were around 30k+. Navarro did it for 14k. I was so pleased I gave them another 1k. They have been there 45 years and have an excellent reputation. If you get serious, message me directly and I'll provide their USA cell numbers and give you a few tips about crossing the border and getting back. If you want to speak directly, I'll provide my cell number. Gary K

This new platform is far superior to the old Yahoo! I appreciate immensely all those caring people who keep our forum going. Thank you, thank you! It is this invaluable resource that keeps us on the road. I would be permanently parked a long time ago had not many of you taken the time to help me when I needed it. There probably are only a few dealers anywhere in the country that might have fixed my issues but it would have been impossible for me to drive there. The one huge downside of the Internet is that cowards can say anything and not be held accountable in person. They hide in a room somewhere and would never say such things to a person's face. It is the nature of a few and they will never change. Simply ignore them and focus on the majority who are an asset to humankind by adding to the quality of life. I appreciate all of you great folks out there! You are the ones I protected while I was in the Navy because you are worth it! The losers got a free ride like they always do. They'd never survive on their own. Gary K 06 Windsor

John, You can have it, no charge. Works normally. Biggest problem will be getting it to you unless you're in AZ. I'm about an hour drive south of PHX. The new units are scheduled to be delivered around the 23rd of this month but I see they have not shipped from Amazon yet. I will make the switch as soon as they arrive. Gary

A HUGE thank you to those who took the time to respond to my many questions regarding air conditioners! 👋 There is no way, other than through the help of this forum, that I ever could have learned so much and been able to be confident that I am making the correct decisions for my installation. Here is what I decided to do. 1) Replace both 2006 Penguins (1, 15,000 BTU & the other 13,500) with 2, 15,000 BTU Penguin II's. 2) Replace the drain trays and add the extra gasket needed to obtain clearance. 3) CCC II thermostat. 4) WackO Products DA100 Dometic RV A/C Silencer Kits Thanks again to all of you willing to share your experiences and knowledge on this subject! Always sends shivers up my spine to think where we'd all be without each other. Undoubtedly, there would be many coaches parked permanently. Gary K

Anyone replaced a Penguin air conditioning unit with the newer higher CFM Blizzard NXT? Gary K

Bob K, excellent information! Thanks. Checked out the Wacko Silencer. Perfect, just what I've been looking for as my present noise level is really irritating! Bet I'll get no arguments there. 😂 You also answered the the question about 15,000 BTU in bedroom. Did you notice any improvement in cooling in either the front or rear of the coach? Was it worth it? Hitechpete, thanks for your thoughts on re-gassing. I'm not a proponent of repairing old equipment (14 years) so will go with new for reliability, efficiency and noise level, but, thanks again.

Thanks again, George C! Great info; appreciate you taking the time to pass on your experience. Knowing this, no reason to back fit a new a/c with a board to accomodate my existing 5 button. I'll go with the CCC II as suggested by Bob N. Gary K Here's another A/C question: My front unit is 15,000 BTU and rear is 13,500. When outside temps get into the 90's, they can't keep up so thinking about going with 15,000 in the bedroom. Both are using the same ducting so some of the increase in cooling will get from the rear to front. Amperage load will go up but only slightly and should not be a problem. Anyone see a problem with this? Gary K

Thanks, George C! Good information. Will save me a lot of time not having to look all over to find those items. Thanks also to Bob Nodine for you comments. When you changed to the CCC II, did you have to run all new control wire? If so, how about a few words on how you did it? Not easy, I'm thinking. Gary K