windsorbill06

Ben, @96 EVO here's my take on your PDQ coach. Someone will prove me wrong, I know. @Bill R and I have very similar coaches. Same year, color scheme, and when we compare placement of different electronics, nearly identical. The only difference I can figure is the center of the coach (kitchen and bathroom) is reversed. He has the PDQ. I have a PEQ. I think the 'D' means the private toilet in on the drivers side. My 'E' has the toilet on the passenger side. What the E stands for, IDK. Maybe "Entrance"? But monaco wasn't consistent over all models and years. Seems like the only thing they were consistent on was the # of slides and corresponding "D, T, or Q. (double, triple, or Quad)

My neighbor just bought a new 2023 Tiffin in september. Hasn't used it 1 time for camping. It's been in shop since mid October, and still no end in sight. Up till now, he would joke and say only tools he carried is a credit card. He's starting to rethink that strategy.

Rob, My transmission fill from the back of the coach doesn't have a dipstick. Just a label/tag with "Transdyne". But if I open the floor compartment in the bedroom, there is a dipstick there. That being said, I prefer to use the keypad to check the level.

I found this work pretty well for my bedroom sconces. Still plastic, but seems to be holding up. I've seen them in both gold or black finish push button. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008OAFBO8/?coliid=I1RE2X22FCZJ7S&colid=3KUASJ0BUDMPD&psc=1&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it_im

Any chance you bumped the rear engine compartment remote start button?

@Bill R That drip channel was OEM on my coach. I'm 99% sure my leak was coming from the outside of door at the bottom, where the shoe wraps around the outside painted surface. It was poorly caulked/sealed using black pure silicone.

For the "inside" of the motorhome? Normally you will caulk the outside only. If you have water running down the inside, I'd start by checking to be sure the outside weep holes are not plugged up.

@Bill R Ivan'door was made by PTL, I believe. Ours, monaco made in-house. I'm not sure what structural differences there are. The PTL came with weep holes. Easy enough to add to ours, however.

Well, I guess I'm not alone! This door problem reminds me of the slide bottoms rotting out. Maybe not as expensive if ignored, but sure would be a PITA. Monaco used black silicone to seal the aluminum door sweep to the painted outside surface. Tiny, thin bead that was pretty much useless. Looks good when new, but didn't seal much. @Bill R, did you use anything special when you resealed? @Ivan K Thanks Ivan. I will be drilling a couple holes in bottom. Hopefully won't be needed if I get it sealed up nicely. @diplomat don Got it!

I was doing some PM on my entrance door latch/lock and I took the bottom aluminum door shoe off. (have to drill out 5 rivets on bottom of door) When I took that off, quite a bit of rust fell down. I see where the door frame is steel and pretty rusty. Obviously, water is getting in, collecting on the inside of the bottom aluminum shoe and causing the damage. I'm sure it's from the way Monaco sealed the outside painted door panel to the aluminum shoe that's on the bottom of the door. (I don't think the leak is from higher up on the door and dripping down--no water staining, no rust) I'm sanding, cleaning the rusty metal then a couple good coats of primer, then, reassemble and adding a good sealant. Left unchecked, I could see where this could become an expensive problem. I'm tempted to drill small holes in the bottom of the aluminum door shoe to allow any water to escape in the future. Anyone else run into this?

@Steven P got me to finally get after this project after having those flood lights in my amazon 'shopping' for nearly a year. With free priming shipping, Amazon was just slightly less than Summit, after I added shipping to my address. Overall, a pretty simple project but really a good improvement to night driving visibility. As @Steven P mentioned, I didn't see a DOT stamp on the old fog lights. The new ones are easily adjusted up, down or you can swing them after they are installed. However, at least on my coach, it's not a 'plug and play' swap out. The originally bracket holding the old fog lights is just screwed to the reinforcement plate at an angle and just looks installed 'half hearted' by the original installer. This picture happens to be on the drivers side, looking in from extended generator slide. I could not just bolt the new fog lights onto that bracket as the angle wouldn't allow to adjust. I made up an angled board using a 2x4, cut and ran through my table saw and jointer. Then primed and painted it black and glued/screwed it to the original backing that is fiberglassed to the inside of the front cap. This allowed the new light to be mounted and easily adjusted within it's limits. This new (completed) picture was taken on the passenger side. The bolts that came with the new fog light aren't long enough, so I had a few laying around, otherwise HD or lowes. I needed to use extra nuts and washer to have the fog light mounted well below the angle bracket in picture so the lights were centered in the fog light housing of the front cap. I took the old plug off the old light and reinstalled it on the new light, then crimped and sealed the connection. The new lights are polarity sensitive, so verify it's working correctly before you connect everything.

Mike, You will be a great asset to this forum. I'm surprised you haven't been here for years. There is a member on this forum (it's not Mike) that is also a member over on IRV2. He has helped me many times and is very knowledgeable. He became a IRV2 moderator for a very brief period of time, then back to a regular member. I honestly don't know what happened. Maybe one day around the campfire we will hear the whole story.

I think your biggest challenge is to intercept the circuits downstream of the main panel. I guess I don't understand how you're going to do that. I don't even know if they are in the basement or not. I could be wrong, but I think one circuit that is not inverter fed is in the ceiling. If you can't find it in the basement, a sub panel up by the main breaker box is an easy alternative, then run 2 circuits from inverter to it. The romex behind the main box is long enough to easily switch. It hasn't been mentioned, but I'd consider upgrading the inverter to PSW since your in the basement doing all this work. I was originally going to do that during Covid (2020-2021) but the magnums were backordered indefinitely.

Do you have a MSW inverter? My dad smoked 2 electric blanket controllers before he realized those 2 don't play well together.

my 06, as best I can remember, the inverter ran the fridge ice maker, microwave, a couple outlets in the kitchen and bathroom and the front/rear TV's. If you wanted to run an electric blanket, you'd have to run it to the bathroom, but with the MSW inverter, you'd probably ruin it before it got warm

Is your inverter the original magnum MSW? Mine made my microwave hum like crazy. Seemed like it got worse as everything got older. I replaced the inverter, but went a totally different direction. As you know, you power goes from your ATS to the breaker panel in rear closet, then back down to the inverter. There it splits off and goes to 2 circuits (microwave and a few outlets--breakers on inverter). If your going to run all the plugs from the inverter, your going to need to run 2 circuits (maybe 3) back from the inverter to the panel to pick up those other outlet circuits and then deal with how to power the microwave---you may need to set a junction box in the basement.. You might consider setting a sub panel just for the inverter fed outlets in the rear closet. Lots of ways to do it. We just got back from a boondocking trip. Ran the microwave or the convection oven between 30-90 minutes each day on inverter power alone--we didn't start generator for 4 days. I don't think we could do without the micro/convection connected to the inverter, but that's us.

Funny. I don't have the problem down here. Actually add buckets of water inside coach to help increase humidity during most of summer. We did have real issues however inside the house. During early summer and early fall, instead of running HVAC, we run full house evap coolers. I would have doors swell up enough to bind. Wiffy didn't like that! Ended up planing down the doors on the hinge side (don't do it on the strike side), just a little and had to re-mortise the hinges, then stain and seal. It's alot of work and our doors are 8' solid wood and very heavy.

I've used this on headlights of several of our cars, bikes, quads, and rzr's. I would think it would work on tail lights as well. https://www.amazon.com/CERAKOTE-Ceramic-Headlight-Restoration-Kit/dp/B084RQKLV8/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=262WJX5VUB6JF&keywords=headlight+restorer+kit&qid=1697894402&sprefix=headlight%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1 If the tail lights are frosting up because of moisture getting inside the housing, you'll likely have to replace the entire fixture.

The sound comes from this annunciator under your dash. Low air, parking brake, and jacks, whatever, all sound from here. Sometimes really hard to find it in the bundle/mass of wiring.

I'd also check your pressure cap rating. My coach came with a 16#, as I recall. Many have dropped it down to 9, or even 7.

The only different fix that I'm familiar with, was an article that Bob Nodine wrote up using the same wire harness, and a relay. I had replaced my nason switch 3 times, every couple of years. Finally did the 'Nodine fix' about 8 years ago and it's been fine ever since. I see the article in the downloads section

According to mike's web site, it is available for your coach. I'm not sure if mine was one of the first or not. It's been several years and pre-covid. https://www.monacowatts.com/products.htm But I did get to see how each component improved the ride, vs putting them all on at once. FWIW, Mike was able to put cross bracing on the front of his coach. He would have to elaborate, but I don't think he modified anything. I don't know of any other coach that can do that.

I'm a little late, but I did the blue ox true center long before the watts was marketed. I liked it, especially with the adjustable centering feature. But coach still wandered somewhat. So I tried the rear X bars from Mike Hughes (monacowatts). That was a great improvement from the wandering, but I could still feel it with semi's or strong xwinds. Then my Blue Ox solenoid failed and I couldn't adjust it on the go. Took it off and found all kinds or corrosion inside the 'weather sealed' box. Called blue ox, 'discontinued', they told me and no parts available. So I took entire thing off and left it on garage shelf. Took coach on a trip and I was surprised that the rear X bars kept it steady without the true center. Still a little wandering but no different than with the true center. Next I installed the rear watts link. WOW! That was a noticeable improvement. So I inquired about the front Watts, but was told they don't make a front watts with an 'air only' leveling coach. So decided to live with what I had and drove quite a bit. Then about a year later, at Quartzsite pre-covid, Mike Hughes was there and we talked about the front watts. He climbed under my coach and said he had something that would work. Great! We installed it right there. It brought the handling and lack of wondering to a new level. Ride home was wonderful. 25 knot gusty x/winds and trucks were not noticeable. That was several years ago. If someone was considering this, I do it in steps like I did, and see where your 'acceptable' level is.

Interesting that they had you replace the display panel as well. I guess I haven't heard of those failing. Was that done at same time the EMS board was replaced, or later on?

Jim, I'd trust your Victron but they do need to be calibrated periodically. Takes about 5 minutes. I did mine the other day, first time in 5 years. https://www.google.com/search?q=how+often+do+you+calibrate+a+victron+bmv+712&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS854US854&oq=&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCQgAEEUYOxjCAzIJCAAQRRg7GMIDMgkIARBFGDsYwgMyCQgCEEUYOxjCAzIJCAMQRRg7GMIDMgkIBBBFGDsYwgMyCQgFEEUYOxjCAzIJCAYQRRg7GMIDMgkIBxBFGDsYwgPSAQkxOTE3ajBqMTWoAgiwAgE&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#kpvalbx=_cF8lZebbGP7LkPIP-eGK0Ao_51