Chuck B 2004 Windsor

My Norcold lawsuit settlement check payment is due in the mail today.

Since Monaco is no longer in existence, you can forget about them.

What about the RV that has a factory installed residential frig?

The issue would be if the manufacturer's warranty would cover their frig if there was a problem while running on a modified sine wave inverter.

For the past 2 days, I have received a weekly digest every 15 minutes. Seems someone has a stuck send key.

I would not trust the quality of the Harbor Freight jacks on my coach. An ole saying goes, "you get what you pay for". Especially in your trust of them to hold the coach up while you are under it.

There is a orifice that is placed in the smaller hydraulic lines that feed the FDCA. It controls the speed the engine fan runs. When you start the engine cold in warmer outside temperatures, you need the engine fan to run at 400 rpm to keep the high side of the dash air conditioner freon pressure from getting to high. The Roadmaster plant in Elkhart ran out of the orifices. To keep from shutting down the chassis plant, Monaco chose to install a straight through adapter to keep the coach manufacturing assembly line moving. (Each chassis was built to a specific coach.) Since your 2004 Windsor has that problem, you need to check that the orifice is installed in your coach. Jim Walls, the then manager of tech support, informed me of the problem. Once I installed the orifice in my 2004 Windsor, the problem was solved. You can call him at Source Manufacturing 541-935-0308. Chuck B

Make sure your coach is on a level concrete floor. Dump the air bags down to the frame. Recheck the level of the coach. Make sure they use a sealer that does NOT DRY HARD. If not, the windshield will get a stress crack within a hundred miles. Let the coach sit for 24 hours before moving. That will allow the sealer to cure. Been there and experienced that.

I had a close friend die from in hailing black mold spores. It was a very painful death.

Black mold is a very serious problem. Just being in the room breathing the air around the mold can cause serious medical issues. Good luck in getting rid of it.

Beautiful job. I might note its easier said than done in a coach that has no slides.

The topic of charging house batteries keeps coming up. Every time one charges their house battery bank with shore power of generator power, the same set of rules apply. The charger needs to completely go through the bulk stage, the absorption stage, to the float stage. Depending on the condition, how old the battery is, and to the abuse one puts on the battery, it could take up to 4 hours to charge up the batteries to Float charge. If you do not charge the battery to float charge, you are lessening the battery to the endurance and keeping the charge. Follow the instruction that come with your inverter/charger. Chuck

Editor’s Note: The following RVBusiness Q&A features Mike Sokol, commonly regarded as “the nation’s number one authority of RV electricity.” Sokol, the author of several books on RV electricity, frequently writes on the subject at RVTravel, and ten months ago started the popular Facebook group RV Electricity, which has grown to about 6,000 members. He also conducts seminars at many of the popular RV shows and rallies. RVBusiness: Mike, tell us about your seminars and how you got started. Sokol: I got started with my first RV website called noshockzone.org about 10 years ago after a friend told me about getting shocked when he touched a band’s tour bus. I’ve been an electrical engineer for over 40 years and have had my master electricians license since 1978. I’ve worked in industrial power, military power, and projects of all sizes. And I’ve taught electrical safety in large industrial environments. Many RVers are interested in learning about their RVs electrical system and electrical safety. I started with my first RV seminar about two years ago, and think I have done about 12 seminars a year. Most are for RV owners, but I also have conducted RV technician electrical seminars, most recently at the PRVCA technician training in Hershey this past September. RVBusiness: What have you done lately? Sokol: I did a three-day master class seminar at the RVillage Rally in Florida a couple of weeks ago. The facility seated 300, and we were standing room only every day. People were lined up after the seminar to ask me questions. This was my third year of doing the RVillage rally, and clearly, there’s a need for RV electrical education. I have also conducted seminars at the Forest River Owners Group (FROG) Rally, Grand Design Rally, Airstream Rally, Enumclaw RV Show, Hershey RV Show, and earlier this year, the Boston RV and Camping Expo, which, like RVillage, was standing room only. RVBusiness: What are some of the most common questions you hear from RV owners at your seminars? Sokol: One of the questions I get all the time is, “How do I run two air conditioners off of one 30-amp power pedestal?” And, “Can I use those ‘Y’ cables to plug into the 30- and 20-amp outlets and get 50 amps?” Another frequent question is about hot-skin. “Why do I feel a shock when I touch my RV exterior or my steps?” That’s really, really common. Batteries are also a hot topic, and I hear questions like, “My batteries keep running down. Do I need a battery tender? Why is the water boiling out of my batteries? Should I switch to lithium batteries?” Questions about batteries seem to be increasing as interest and talk about boondocking grows. RVBusiness: Speaking of boondocking, how else has that changed the conversation at your seminars? Sokol: Questions about solar panels and generators are popping up more often. “How many solar panels does it take to run my air conditioner?” (Short answer, about an acre’s worth!) and “Can I wire two generators together to get enough power to operate two air conditioners?” RV dealers and manufacturers are not talking about this stuff, so they come to me on my Facebook page or at one of my seminars. I have an acronym for it —J.A.M. — which stands for “Just Ask Mike.” RVBusiness: What do you think RV OEMs and suppliers should be doing differently? Sokol: I think RV manufacturers are loading up way more electrical devices on a single wire than they should be. In your home, you expect to be able to operate the microwave and a hair-dryer at the same time, but in an RV that can lead to popping a breaker. OEMs also should think about replacing the stab-type receptacle connections with screw-on connections. The stab-type tends to vibrate loose as the RV bounces down the road, and then they don’t do well when you power up your space heater. Another thing I would like to see is OEMs providing full wiring schematics with each RV. Doing this would save hours of technician time at the dealership. As far as suppliers, I’d like to see all air conditioners incorporate “soft-start” technology, which would reduce the strain on the AC equipment and make it possible to operate more than one unit on a 30-amp power source. I’d like to see the use of more marine-grade hardware. And the industry should adopt 12-volt DC compressor refrigerators in place of propane or 120-volt AC residential models. I’m testing a Vitrifrigo 7 cubic-foot marine refrigerator with a Danfoss 12-volt compressor in my shop, and several other manufactures are beginning to offer 10 cubic-foot RV refrigerators with native 12-volt DC compressors that use much less electricity than a residential unit. I’m looking for a grant to fund a large scale study of this trend. RVBusiness: Where should campground owners focus their attention? Sokol: I feel sorry for campgrounds. I think they are under assault from power usage. I saw a 30-year-old photo of RVs in a campground taken from a high elevation and, by comparison, the same photo taken recently. Back then, you rarely saw air conditioners on the roof, now every RV has one, two, or three ACs. I know I’m going to be hated-on for saying this, but I think campgrounds should meter the electricity at each site. People waste power if it’s free. Another step campgrounds should take is to set up a yearly inspection and maintenance schedule of their power pedestals. Pay or train a qualified electrician to test, clean the components, and replace as needed. Put a tag on it and show the inspection date. I’ll bet their insurance company would welcome that.

The biggest problems with dash gauges are the connections on the back of the gauge are loose. The ground wires on the back of the gauges are daisy chained from gauge to gauge ending up on a ground buss bar on the firewall. Loosen up all the screws holding the ground wires to the buss. Spray them with WD 40 and tighten the screws up. Clean up the back side of the buss bar with fine sand paper. Gain access to the back side of the gauges and tighten up all the nuts. Hopefully that will solve your problem. Chuck B

Year and model coach?

One needs to remember that 2003 was a transition year for the Windsor. There were 2 different types of chassis. Chuck B 2004 Windsor

Here is what it looks like on a 2004 Windsor. Chuck B 2004 Windsor Radiator crack area - Shortcut.lnk

Most of Bill D's recommendations applied to the ground bar on the fire wall where all the dash gauge connections terminated. Bill recommended loosing all the screws, spraying them with WD 40, and retighten them. Bill also recommended cleaning all the grounds on the battery cables including the cable end that attached to the chassis frame. Since the ground wire connections to the dash gauges are daisy chained, I recommend visiting them once a year to tighten them up. The wires bounce up and down due to road vibration causing them to come loose. All the connections down stream become compromised. I use the NAPA NCP-2 battery corrosion preventative spray on all the ground connections except for the gauge ground connections on the firewall. I also use it on the diesel gauge connections on top of the fuel tank. Chuck B 2004 Windsor

You would need to add the extra's if you do a lot of dry camping. Otherwise, spring for a residential frig. Shore power and generator power will keep it up and running. While traveling, at rest stops run the generator to keep it cooling. Chuck B, 2004 Windsor

Find the Aladdin main controller. On some coaches it is located behind the dash gauges. On the side of the controller are RCA video out jacks. Purchase a TFT 4 inch 12 vdc monitor that has RCA video in jacks. Run a video cord with RCA jacks on both ends between the units for a screen with the Aladdin display on it. The joy stick will toggle all the information on the TFT screen. Send me your email address and I will send you a picture of my application on my 2004 Windsor. jbee99807@gmail.com Chuck B

Ivan, There are millions of "THEY'S" in the world. If you are unlucky enough to get a "THEY" that does not know what they are doing, they can cause a lot of damage to your coach. There are several posts to the yahoo group about member's misfortunes. Better to be safe than sorry plus the added expense. Chuck B, 2004 Windsor

The removal is not the problem, its reassembling the drive shaft, the universal joints, etc the same way it came out. Make sure they mark All the assembly so that it goes back in the same way. Since the drive shaft comes apart with the splines, just one notch off will put the whole assembly out of phase. Chuck B, 2004 Windsor

You disagree about what? I support the new group monacoers.org. There are probably a lot of members of the old group who have no idea about what is happening. When they have a problem with their coach, they will try to post the problem on the old group only to have the post bounce back to them. Some will pursue to find the new group, others will not. IMO, keep in mind that the majority of the old group members are seasoned citizens who are disappearing monthly. Its going to be interesting to see who are left in a year or two. Chuck B, 2004 Windsor Click on the following button to find that you can select to have all posts sent to your email address. Chuck B

You disagree about what? I support the new group monacoers.org. There are probably a lot of members of the old group who have no idea about what is happening. When they have a problem with their coach, they will try to post the problem on the old group only to have the post bounce back to them. Some will pursue to find the new group, others will not. IMO, keep in mind that the majority of the old group members are seasoned citizens who are disappearing monthly. Its going to be interesting to see who are left in a year or two. Chuck B, 2004 Windsor

It all depends on which flavor you like. Members thought enough about the group to fund the monacoers.org group. You get nothing for nothing, Santa Clause is dead. I give out a big thanks to them. Change is always going to be experienced in the future. If you do not like change, you will be left in the past. Chuck B 2004 Windsor