Mike H

I contacted Tina Helbig, Applications Specialist via email tina.helbig@carlingtech.com and she helped me identify the proper switch I needed and suggested onlinecomponents.com as a source for it. You may need to send her photos of the switch and what it's used for to help her with her research. Mine was a momentary switch for the driver side front shade. The Carling part number should be a VLD1_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ . When you find the proper part number for your switch this may be another source for you:

Thanks Jon, I checked the West Marine web site and found it. Do you know what the complete Carling part number is for it?

I sure wish they were $7.95 ea again. It ended up costing me $40.38 to replace the momentary switch for my front shade. I did order two because the shipping was the same for 1 or 2. I had contacted one of the popular salvage yards and they wanted more for a switch than what I could buy a new one for, like double the cost. I had contacted Carling to determine what actual part number I should be looking for. I had to do that because there was no Carling p/n markings on the switch. Carling then directed me to the Onlinecomponents website. Having two switches also made it easier to replace the bad one. After lifting the full panel out of the console I could pull the connectors off the old switch one at a time and plug them onto one of the new switches, then remove the old switch and install the other new one and then swap the wires back over to the installed one. Sine all of the wires are white with no markings I didn't want the nightmare of trying to figure out where on the switch terminals they went. Call me lazy I guess. 🙂 Now I have a couple of switches that the light bulb has failed (water pump and Elec AquaHot switches). Anyone know of a source for them? If not them I may have to order replacement switches for those.

If you need one they do make a special tool for removing the actuator (switch cover)

Have you tried On Line Components? That's where I was able to find my Carling Switch replacement. https://www.onlinecomponents.com/en/ https://www.onlinecomponents.com/en/suppliers/carling-technologies-237/

Just to answer anyone's question about what's in the TYRON Band Emergency Road Kit here are some photos of the contents.

Awesome. Looks like it turned out great. Ours will be getting done the last week of May so I'm anxious to see how they're turn out. Thanks for posting the photos.

Looks like they did a good job. Just curious, did they sew a straight bar all the way across the center of it or did they make it more like the Monaco logo? The original one on mine had the full straight line. I don't know why they made it different. Maybe it was easier to sew it that way or may be was to keep it from puckering up or something. I didn't care one way or the other so I guess they just decided to duplicate the old one. I did have them make it about an inch larger though.

Glad to know. Now I won't be trying to fix something that's not broke and leave well enough alone 🙂 Looking forward to seeing your finished project.

Interesting and thanks for posting the photo Jon. I haven't given mine any thought. It's working but does seem to make a little 'groaning' noise and I was wondering if there was anything in the linkage that should be lightly lubricated. Is there a grease fitting on it or does it just require disassembling and 'repacking' it with grease. Maybe I should take the approach that it isn't broke so don't fix it! Huh? 😉

Jon, I can email you the digitized vector files I sent to her. I'll see if I can figure out how to send you a PM from here. Sure glad I'm not the only crazy person around LOL. I'm having to do the same thing. I don't want to leave out coach sitting at the upholstery shop for a week so I'll be driving it about 5 - 7 miles back to our storage facility that way. Hope I don't get pulled over for not wearing a seat belt 😉

Well, as long as there seems to be reupholstery work in the air I’ll pass along our project. We decided our 2005 seats and sofa were starting to show their age. I was having a difficult time trying to find material that would match the carpet etc in the coach. I had first contacted WADE RV in Tampa and then a local upholstery shop in Melbourne but really wanted a better color match. I also wanted to be sure that the material that was being put on was of good quality and going to hold up so I contacted Bradd and Hall. They told me to go with Ultraleather so I picked out a bunch of colors and they sent me samples to see what would best match what we had. Our capt chairs have a slightly darker color insert in them so we had to pick out two different colors (Doe and Pelican). I decided to go with A&E Upholstery in Melbourne and they told me how much material I needed to order which was 12 yds for our ‘J’ Sofa and 11 yds for both Capt chairs of the Doe color (23 yds total) and 2 yds of the Pelican color for the Capt chair inserts. That came out to 25 yds total at $85/yd ($2,125). The labor is going to be $3,145 and take a week to complete so that will be $5,250 for the complete project. This is just for info for anyone else looking at getting their seats or sofa done. I also wanted to have the Monaco logo embroidered back into the headrest of the two chairs. I was told it was going to be around $150 to just get the artwork created. Not wanting to go that route I got a copy of the Monaco logo off line and had it digitized and then contacted another shop locally about the embroidery work. They quoted me $15 each to embroidery the logos. The upholstery shop cut me two pieces of the Doe material and I dropped it off with STARGAZER EMBROIDERY in Cocoa, Florida. They now have the Monaco logo on file in case anyone wants to have it embroidered onto anything. The owner is Nancy Dahike and she can be reached at (321) 576-2793. The original logo was approx 3” but we decided to increase it to 4”. She said she can resize it larger or smaller and can be done in pretty much any color you want. She even made up a small patch with one of the material samples from B&H with several color samples for us to choose from. If you have a jacket, hat, shirt or whatever you can send it to her to have the embroidery work done. She does have some shirts and hats in stock that she could make up for you. Having the artwork digitized for the sewing machines seems to be a big deal for some strange reason but now it’s been done and she has it in file.

https://pdxrvwholesale.com/products/vip-sm209-sm210-smartwheel-controller-j12-plug-harness It was ridiculously priced at $39 but couldn't find it anywhere else. It appears they have other connectors as well. I could see where the connector on the other end of the cable assy had a hot pin but appeared ok so I reused it. You just need to splice the new cable assy into the old assy before it splits off.

I lost all functions in the steering wheel of my '05 Exec when I was leaving Carlsbad, NM and drove all the way back to Florida without Cruise, Wipers, Horn or the ability to flash my lights. The headlight switch on the dash still worked though and I could use it to 'flash' if I needed to. I discovered that hitting the wipers once will turn the headlights on and they pulled enough current to melt the connection to the VIP Control Module. When I replaced it I upgraded to a heavier gauge wired connector that you can find on line and it has worked fine since.

I had to do the same when we returned from our trip out west last year. Fortunately I had the help from the expert who had replaced it previously. We had to remove the small cabinet under the cooktop also in order to be able to get in there. You need to be sure you put in the same length hose as to short, OR to long, will cause you problems. It's very stiff 1-1/2" or 1-1/4" Spa hose that has to be glued in place and the hose is about 3 ft long.

The headlights on my '05 Exec are from a 2002 - 2005 Dodge Ram pickup and the tail lights are from a Lincoln Navigator. I have thought about getting a set of projection headlights as there are some aftermarket ones available but have been concerned about compatibility issues.

I just sent you a PM.

Paul, What condition are your Valvac mirrors in? Could you post a photo of what you have? If they are the same as my 3-stack mirrors then I may be interested to have for a spare. Having a truck hit one of my mirrors has always been a concern of mine. My guess is that he never even slowed down either.

Bob, I have been using RV Trip Wizard for several years and in my opinion it is the best service available and worth every penny for the annual subscription. It is now incorporated with RV Life and is continually being improved with new features. They offer a free trial of it to try. You can also Google it and find quite a few YouTube Videos about how to use it. After you establish your route it will identify every campground available, park or whatever, that you set as your desired criteria. You can then pull up reviews, costs, photos, their website, etc. for which campground you may be interested in. It will even show elevation changes along your route, which may be handy if you're heading over the Continental Divide with an air mattress 🙂 . Also, based on your fuel tank size and MPG it will let you know when you'll be needing to stop for fuel so you can be prepared ahead of time. I honestly don't know how I could plan a trip without it. With it now being incorporated with the RV Life app you can track yourself on your phone, or tablet, in real time just like with a GPS. I'm certainly not recommending you not having a good RV GPS though.

What I notice with the rear camera is that it's hard to see things in bright sunlight due to glare, and maybe the exposure control for the camera. On overcast days it works quite well. Some sort of sun shade may be a great improvement.

Very informative video. Many thanks for posting it Darren. As he says, the door should have an access to the adjuster nuts. This almost wants me to go out and drill holes in the top and bottom of the door and seal them up with rubber plugs. Either that or get rid of the screen door but I don't think I want to go that far. If this ever happens to me at least I now know what I'll have to deal with.

If you have a Glendinning hose reel there aren't many easy options. I had about 15 ft of my hose that had aged and gotten brittle from exposure. I called them to see about replacing the hose and they will only sell you a complete spool assembly ($132 as of today). At the time I didn't want to deal with the hassle of tearing out the old one so I just cut the bad section off and re-terminated it with the original end fitting they had on it. It appears they have some sort of proprietary hose connection inside of the spool, or it takes maybe a special tool to terminate it there. Splicing in a new hose at that point, or anywhere in between, makes for a very cumbersome ordeal winding the hose back up. I have never had a problem of not having enough hose to reach and campground connection but I do carry extra hose with me, just in case.

RV Trip Wizard is now part of RV Life and you can get it all bundled together. I take photos of every campsite we've stayed at, annotate them with the name and date, and upload them to a digital photo frame we have in our coach just for that and also upload them to Campground Reviews. Seeing some of those old photos brings up memories of the places we've been ................... sometimes I even get surprised 🙂 .

There's a book you can buy called Big Rig Best Bets that lists the really nice campgrounds/resorts around the US. https://www.big-rigs-rv.com/Home.html I've found our campsites using RV Trip Wizard. It lets you filter out what you want for a campsite and you can even pull up photos and reviews for them. It's web based and costs like #39/yr but in my opinion well worth every penny, and then some.

Theo, We travel the same way although I really need to make use of the Harvest Host membership we have had for 3 years now (need to replace all 8 of our house batteries first). Here is a list of 20 of the nicest campgrounds we have stayed at. They all have nice paved and landscaped sites. We have stayed at many other campgrounds with level FHU sites that were very nice, mostly KOA's. I think 5 nights is the most we have ever stayed at any campsite as we have been mostly on the move traveling to see as many magnificent sights our wonderful country has to offer. In the 2-1/2 years we have been traveling we have yet to make use of ANY of the campground amenities. Here is a list of some of my favorite campgrounds we have visited over the years (not in any particular order): 1. Dakotah Meadows RV Park, Prior Lake, MN. 2. Oasis RV Resort, Amarillo, TX. 3. Wanderlust Crossing RV Park, Weatherford, OK. 4. Coastal Georgia RV Resort, Brunswick, GA. 5. Belle Parc RV Resort, Brooksville, FL. 6. Two Rivers Landing RV Resort, Sevierville, TN. 7. Tanglewood Park Campground, Clemmons, NC. 8. Compass RV Park, St. Augustine, FL. 9. Bluewater Key RV Resort, Key west, FL. 10. Denver West/Central City KOA, Central City, CO. 11. Portal RV Resort and Campground, Moab, UT. 12. WillowWind RV Park, Hurricane, UT. 13. Wahweap RV and Campground, Page, AZ. 14. Grand Canyon Railway RV Park, Williams, AZ. 15. Casino del Sol, Tucson, AZ. 16. Alsatian Resort & Golf Club, Castroville, TX. (my #1 favorite) 17. Elite Resorts at Citrus Valley, Clermont, FL. 18. River Ranch RV Resort, Lake Wales, FL. 19. Manchester KOA, Manchester, TN. 20. Rockahock Campground, Lanexa, VA.